Dot Social

Dot Social’s Mike McCue talks to PJ Vogt, host of the Search Engine podcast. PJ is also a co-founder of the Forkiverse, a Mastodon instance launched with the Hard Fork team as an experiment in community and a concrete way to show how a decentralized social network can work. 

The conversation is a timely reminder that the internet is still something we can — and should — build together. 

Highlights include:

01:50 The Forkiverse origin story

06:37 “The best way to talk about this is to try it”

14:30 Reactions to The Forkiverse

19:52 Social media as IRL social gathering

22:13 RSS podcasting: strengths and how fediverse helps with hard parts

25:08 Thinking about further integrations

27:52 Great promises of the fediverse

30:04 Slowing down and trying new things

33:04 Next steps for The Forkiverse

36:20 PJ’s answer to the “media apocalypse”

39:22 How PJ got discovered 

42:10 Search Engine’s amazing sound design

45:00 The quality of media now

46:46 Reasons for creators to join the fediverse

Mentioned in this episode:

The Forkiverse social network

“How do we survive the media apocalypse” podcast episodes

“The Chairs Are Where the People Go” book

🔎 You can find PJ @pj@theforkiverse.com 

✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

As Mastodon celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2026, the open source platform’s new Executive Director, Felix Hlatky, is focused on what it’ll take to make the next 10 years even more impactful. 

That vision includes an overhaul in version 5.0, a new feature called Collections, and continuing its critical role at the heart of the fediverse. 

Highlights of the conversation include:

00:56 What Felix is most excited about right now

02:11 Felix’s Mastodon history

04:16 Mastodon’s growth and organizational change

08:10 Getting set up for success

10:27 Collections — a major new feature

15:18 Lesson to learn from Bluesky

17:05 Weaponization, privacy, nuances around collections

19:35 Making social media more manageable 

21:00 Groups 

23:44 Power of building at the protocol level 

25:40 Collaborations across platforms and protocols 

27:27 Bridging technologies and standards work

31:15 Mastodon’s backend infrastructure

33:56 Funding and the EU

37:27 Governments use of Mastodon

40:05 The Forkiverse 

45:05 Podcasts in the fediverse

47:14 Custom feeds on Surf, ex dotsocial.surf.social

49:58 Vibrant creator communities on the social web

51:20 Mastodon 5.0, FASPS

53:59 Entering a new era

Mentioned in this episode:

dotsocial.surf.social

The Forkiverse

🔎 You can find Felix at @felix@mastodon.social

✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

What do TikTok, Mark Cuban and Bluesky have in common? Skylight.

When the future of TikTok was thrown into question in January 19, 2025, Skylight CEO Tori White and her co-founder/CTO Reed Harmeyer saw a moment and seized on it. 

But they took a new approach, one that puts creators in charge of their content, their audience relationships, and their reach. Giving creators all of the control and fun, and none of the uncertainty, fuels Tori’s mission. 

Today, Skylight is a great example of the open social at work, bringing videos from across the AT protocol community into a single experience people can enjoy.

The conversation includes:

• Skylight’s origin story

• Making the case to creators to join the social web

• Benefits of ecosystem collaboration, like live-streaming and feeds

• Social web tipping point

• Monetization models 

• What’s next for Skylight 

• Financial sustainability, decentralizing resources

Mentioned in this episode:

Skylight Social

Repurpose.io

Creator Bill of Rights

🔎 You can find Tori at @buildwithtori https://www.buildwithtori.com/

✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social. 

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

AltStore co-founders Riley Testut and Shane Gill are the perfect example of necessity being the mother of invention. When Apple denied the launch of their retro video game app, Delta, in 2016, they realized that indie app developers needed another solution — one that could bring apps to communities without Apple dictating the rules and taking a cut. 

Founded in 2019, AltStore is that solution. The creators of the first decentralized app store share their journey, including what an open app store means for developers and how they’re investing in the fediverse.

The conversation includes:

1:11 Genesis of AltStore

3:00 Getting Delta in Apple’s App Store

5:34 The Fortnite factor

8:10 The value of an alternative app store

12:04 The difference between putting an app in AltStore v App Store 

14:41 Indie market for apps

18:03 Ecosystem safety

21:30 Is AI increasing the total number of apps out there?

22:45 Vibe coding and paths for app distribution

24:42 Fediverse and eureka moment

32:26 People-powered discovery — a broader movement 

34:29 Building communities around apps

36:44 Patreon integration, supporting developers directly 

38:38 Curating apps and source collections

40:07 Solutions for in-app payments

43:27 Pieces of the next generation ecosystem  

45:56 Decentralizing app innovation

46:32 Relationship with Apple now

51:23 What’s on the horizon for AltStore

54:21 How to experience AltStore

Referenced:

Explore AltStore: https://explore.alt.store/

Riley + Shane’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/cw/rileyshane

🔎 You can find Riley and Shane at https://altstore.io/. 

✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.

🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/

Disclosure: Dot Social host Mike McCue serves on the board of AltStore.

Social networks were built on short posts designed for speed and scale. But what if the next era of the web was built for something deeper?
Two of the social web’s “longformers” are working on this. John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost, and Matthias Pfefferle, the developer behind the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress, are at the forefront of integrating social features with blogs, newsletters, essays — anything that doesn’t fit in a box of 500 characters or less. 
In this episode of Dot Social, the trio talks about rediscovering the magic of the blogosphere; why formatting, identity, and interoperability are tricky problems to solve; and where writing belongs in the next chapter of the internet.
Highlights include:
Importance to writers and bloggers
Models for discovery 
Core principles around bringing long-form to the social web
Lessons from Web 2.0, email
Rough edges and need for collaboration
Mentioned or related to this episode:
Julian Lam of Node BB
“Digital Sovereignty Is the New Influencer Status, with Citation Needed's Molly White”
“Steps Forward in Long-form Text”
🔎 You can find John at  https://john.onolan.org/ and Matthias at https://pfefferle.dev/
✚ You can connect with Mike McCue at @mmccue.bsky.social.
🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new beta from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/