appreciation

29 Jan, 2025

Got reminded again today that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

It’s been sad to see that the Cohost people haven’t integrated much into the community on here. Yes, Bear is primarily a tool, but it can also be a community if you check out the feed. People are responding to each others’ posts, sending emails, writing guestbook entries, linking to each other in blog rolls and post rolls… it’s cool. I get at least 2 emails each post and I like it. I love to see people writing their own posts in response to mine.

It’s sad that so little of the Cohost migrants seem to participate in that. They stay in the bubble, only linking to whoever they knew at Cohost and that’s it. They desperately seem to want community and interaction, but then reject this. They click on the Discover feed once, and describe it as deranged SEO metablogging. I look at the Discover section and I see loss, joy, people starting a new chapter by moving, trying out new hobbies, rating their favorite albums movies and books, writing essays about politics or fandom, sharing their favorite recipes and their new tech setups, presenting their Linux solutions and self-hosting, posting their fan translations, talking about their feelings as an adoptee, … it’s endless. I feel bad for the people who pour their heart out on here just for this to be the takeaway.

I’ve felt more quiet lately, more withdrawn, low-energy; but this is a great reminder that there’s something personally valuable to me here. I love to see you all on the feed and I want you to get the recognition you deserve. I hope I can make more of an effort to email people about their posts - I’ve barely done so, but I should do it more instead of silently upvoting.