I was impressed with what the team managed to achieve on a technical level, but the lack of any discernible business model always felt a bit odd.
Cohost lost contact with their main funder and may shut down soon
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I was impressed with what the team managed to achieve on a technical level, but the lack of any discernible business model always felt a bit odd.
I haven't heard of co-host. I went on their website but didn't see any obvious place that describes what they do.
It's a fresh social media site that's kinda like Tumblr + LiveJournal, making a point to remove most of the "popularity contest" number stuff from the social media equation. It's a very good place to read interesting posts from smart queers, nerds, and furries.
It's pretty much the least evil social media thinger that's been invented so far.
It's pretty much the least evil social media thinger that's been invented so far.
Aw that sucks. The only social media site where the general interface itself and the vibes don't feel actively hostile to the senses
But yeah, this is what happens when people with a conscience start one of these. I'm guessing they can't get 400k/yr from patreon or whatever other plans they have
But yeah, this is what happens when people with a conscience start one of these. I'm guessing they can't get 400k/yr from patreon or whatever other plans they have
This was where I was hoping I'd be able to post on social media for the foreseeable future so this news is not welcome
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Most of their expenses come from paying full-time salaries to four people. They could conceivably run the site as a side project in their spare time, but they don't want to get other jobs.
I was thinking in terms of them trying to be a social media platform. One of the Twitter replacements, like Bluesky. That said, I take your point.
Not to be too blunt about this, but if the only way you can pay your team is a constant influx of investor capital then you're going to have to get another job sooner or later.
Part of what's ruined the net is the notion that every platform has to be massive and overarching. Things worked better when platforms served communities and demographics.
cohost was always a more indie kind of thing so they would always be on the smaller scale and, well, have trouble with funding
sucks that they are going through this... month plus of no contact is pretty scary
sucks that they are going through this... month plus of no contact is pretty scary
I agree completely. I'm guilty of the notion in this case for sure. Cohost came to my attention lumped in with other alternatives that are trying to hit scale, so I have been applying that comparison ever since.
Always liked the idea of cohost and the different stuff they were trying there. In a better world it would have taken off and become a bigger place.
I wonder what happened with their funder. It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened to a small group like this.
I wonder what happened with their funder. It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened to a small group like this.
its a cute site. i hope they can find a way to pull through without some shitty thing taking over
i love tea, where can i get some
Oh, that sucks. I used to be on Cohost pretty frequently when it first started up and even made a thread about it here. But I just fell off after about a year.
bummer, need an account to read :(
Seemed like a cool idea, but it just never grew beyond this one little corner of the indie games social scene, and honestly their various ethical commitments always seemed like it would be nearly impossible to bring it or any other project of its scale to sustainability. Especially if you're insisting on paying competitive tech salaries to all four of your worker-owners, a only to lose half a year of one of their productivity to disability, and that one happens to be the one working on the key monetization feature
Also, yeah, saw this too, and it sounded rough. Obviously a lot of rumor and whispers, but sure lines up with the self-admitted "rancid vibes" in the post
Also, yeah, saw this too, and it sounded rough. Obviously a lot of rumor and whispers, but sure lines up with the self-admitted "rancid vibes" in the post
I honestly liked that fact that the site was less populated but I also use Dreamwidth and was looking for something with a similar vibe. I don't think a social media site has to necessarily be large in order to be enjoyable. I am curious about the other instances of this because with the rise of things like Bluesky and the Fediverse, it seems as if something will be missing without Cohost chuggin' along.
Edit: Nvm, I can check your next post!
oh, I think Gita doesn't allow their bsky posts to be shared directly (which is an option on bsky)
I added a bit of context for some of it, but if you go on bsky you can find their posts from yesterday
i cannot agree more. after quitting twitter, and i was quite the addict, i jumped on mastodon and there was a short period where i was trying to promote it like it should be as big as twitter. once i found a community i liked, i realized smaller is a feature for me and it brings back a lot of the early web days that i miss so damn much
This sucks but at the same time, I think more people visit cohost because of the community there and not because of the owners. It's unfortunate that this took place though. Makes me wonder if there's even more that went down. At any rate, I'd rather not have to deal with the loss of the site despite knowing this. I don't even think I know the @/s of all the people working on it and I've been there for quite a bit.
I miss the old web too! I think that's why I had my heart set on Cohost because it seems so cozy. I'll admit though that I'm a bit rusty when it comes to navigating and finding people, both on Fedi and on Cohost. ( I'm also kind of shy and not that interesting so I don't post very much on either )
the solution has always been and will always be each of us having their own self owned blogs with an RSS feed
it's easy i promise!
it's easy i promise!
So, it's a legit social media company is what you're saying? lol
There's no good free rss readers anymore though! Free ones are all one device only which doesn't work anymore.
Cohost was always for a very niche community. They didn't seem interested in growing beyond the indie gaming/artist circle with a portion of those group's LGBT/furry community.
Nothing wrong with that of course, though I remember they were very resistant to new users after the Musk Twitter thing.
Nothing wrong with that of course, though I remember they were very resistant to new users after the Musk Twitter thing.
yes but that means you're not creating accounts in yet another service to share data across platforms :) it's a feature!!
but it would be cool if you could host your own subscriptions file and have the apps sync with that individually, which.... this has to be possible 🤔 doesn't seem very hard 🤔
There's certainly notes app that just sotre yoru notes as files that you can sync with google drive so its probably possible. I've never investigated it though.
I know people were touting it as a Twitter alternative, but to be honest I don't think it ever was that. It seems more Tumblr-ish to me.
It is actually pretty cool though.
Which, as lunarworks replied, is fine. I love Mastodon and posting here, so I certainly get the allure and need for smaller places.
In the case of cohost, reading further into their statement yesterday, they wanted to be like a Patreon competitor, and the social media network aspect was more of a means to an end? I don't quite get that, but maybe it makes sense somehow. 🤷♂️
I've lightly followed the drama with this social media site, but it seemed to always be started from this space of petty grievance. "We're a software company that hates the software industry," well, ok. It's hard to build a community solely around grievance and have it be self-sustainable, because eventually the grievance comes for you, and if your business model or anti-business model is built off of donations it's hard to float that for long with that mentality.
I wish I'd had a better experience with Cohost but my experience was heavily coloured by joining right before they tried to enshrine protections for certain types of CSAM into the site rules last year (which they thankfully walked back after the userbase went "The fuck are you doing?") and then asking for my account to be deleted which took them several months to do.
If it goes away that'd suck for the communities that've found a home there though.
If it goes away that'd suck for the communities that've found a home there though.
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New update. They've managed to secure enough new subscribers and funding offers to keep the lights on for another six months.
This is good news, but I can't help but wonder how sustainable it all is.
Pillowfort (another blog-centric site like tumblr/cohost) recently had a similar funding issue; the money raised from their 2018 Kickstarter campaign for running the site/paying staff ran out by 2020 and they struggled to break even afterwards (by the founder's own accounts; the site doesn't host ads, sell user data, or have shareholders/VC investors). They had to run a $25K fundraiser by last year's end to keep the site online, which (fortunately for them) was successful.
To say nothing about Pebble (formerly T2), the Twitter successor that tried to prioritize a safer environment, but ultimately wasn't so lucky in the end.