cohost
Since cohost is being shut down and lots of people are sharing their impressions, I thought I would add on to that as well.
So far, I noticed mostly super interconnected, early bird power users sharing their love for it, but even as someone that only used it a couple months and was late to the party, I liked it there. Ultimately, I requested to get the account deleted around beginning of this year (?) because I didn’t use it much and I always like to get rid of stuff I don’t use, but I still hoped it would stick around just in case I would wanna use it again in the future.
Usually, when I deleted my socials in the past, it was because of wasting too much time on it, disagreeing with the direction it’s headed, or being fed up with the user base and their actions. None of that was the case with cohost for me, and that deserves a lot of praise.
I entered that site completely unconnected. No one I knew used it. It’s tough to get going with that circumstance, especially when arriving late and the cliques have already formed - but surprisingly, the people didn’t seem closed off to me at all. On other sites with millions of users, you’re lucky at this point to get any eyeballs on your posts at all. You get a notification and it’s either an asshole or a porn bot.
Meanwhile on cohost, people seemed to love interacting, even with total strangers. Even the most casual posts got likes and comments. People were commenting compliments left and right. People actually welcomed you when you made an introduction post. When you talked about something you’re working on, random strangers commented how cool that is and that they’re looking forward to seeing more from it soon. When you needed help, people who followed that tag you posted under actually got invested in helping you. I remember I had a technical issue with something and a complete stranger got really in depth about a possible solution, then offered to look more into it when they’re back home at their computer. It made me super comfortable admitting mistakes, asking for explanations or admitting I don’t know something, because there was no fear of being embarassed or shamed for not knowing.
So many devs of things I liked to use or admired were there, freely sharing resources and insights they shared nowhere else. The gap between them as a highly regarded, skilled, popular person and me didn’t seem to exist at all; there wasn’t this insecurity about interacting or not. I don’t have a Twitter and E-Mail can be very formal, if people share theirs at all. Cohost was such a good place to access people who are otherwise very hard to get a hold of.
In general, people were comfortable with being silly and experimental. They weren’t afraid to just throw out a half finished project, a fail or some bloopers. People had fun with tech again, whether it was their OS or some niche software or CSS crimes. It felt like the online equivalent of a maker space where people were not forced to act professional or like they spend 100% of the time writing very serious, sophisticated code of world changing software; not having to mask for a potential employer coming across it, like Twitter.
I think cohost made me once again realize that offering users a (more or less) customizable space and letting users in on feature development helps create a good atmosphere. People felt invested to contribute cool guides, mini games, art and more. They wanted to see it grow and succeed. They created more stuff on top of the service; I remember a tweet-like post thing going around, for example. All that drew users to the platform and to connect with each other not mainly over petty squabbles and drama, but creation and shared goals.
It also showed me that maybe niche, more secluded social spaces like it are better.
Forums were (and are) good. People who still use Facebook tell me they do it for specific, medium to small sized FB groups. Big, public Discord servers are very toxic, so people tend to be in a smaller number of servers now that are for them and their friends only. People retreat to Group DMs, “finsta”s, locked X side accounts that only a few trusted people have access to. More and more people wander off to indie web sites, or Libera Chat on IRC, or things like tilde.town to bond on.
And I think cohost mainly attracting a specific type of crowd was totally fine and helped the vibe, even if it didn’t help the financials or wasn’t a fit for all.
I truly think the experiment of developing social media for the masses with infinite growth has failed. Within them, only the small and secluded areas were enjoyed or even bearable. I am not talking about political echo chambers, I simply point out the fact that frequenting a small Discord server for a game, and a separate forum for being a car enjoyer, while being in another space for webdev - and bonding with people over these topics - is far better than mixing it all into one. It’s one puzzle piece of why the old internet felt better. It’s far better to get people to create spaces for their friends and their hobbies and interests again, fostering a small to medium sized crowd with something that suits the needs and audience, than put it all in the hands of companies and VCs that can decide to throw away features on a whim or delete your entire content while harvesting your data.
Competing with the big ones is over. I hope many more people seize the opportunity and create more small, dedicated spaces so we can thrive again online. As more and more third places in real life die, it’s needed more than ever to create accessible third places online that cater to specific crowds.
Published 28 Sep, 2024, edited 7Â months, 2Â weeks ago