hi everyone, we wanted to provide some details on read-only mode, data exports, and how to keep track of what’s going on with us.
read-only mode
cohost will enter read-only mode tomorrow, October 1, at some time in the morning UTC-4 (US Eastern Time). it will be october 1 everywhere in the world when this occurs, so don’t stress too much about the timing; if your clock reads September 30 then you can still post.
in read-only mode, cohost will look and function about the same as it does now. the dashboard, profiles, tag feeds, bookmarked tag feed, search, comments, and pretty much everything else will still function. you will not be able to make new posts, edit or delete existing posts, like posts, follow, unfollow, block, or silence users, edit your profile, or do any other action that would involve changing cohost. due to a bug, account deletions may not be available until after we have processed all data exports.
read-only mode is not a different website; it uses the read-only permission we’ve had in place since the beginning as a moderation tool. it’s still the same cohost, you just can’t post on it.
data exports
we will begin processing data exports after the site goes read-only. all users will receive a data export. you do not need to request one. we expect the process to take a few days, potentially longer if issues arise. if there are any serious delays, we will post on this account (more details on that below).
you will receive an e-mail once your export is available to download. exports will be available for download through the end of the year.
unfortunately, the generator to make a browsable/rehostable version of your data will not be ready in time for read-only mode, and we do not want to delay data exports for it to be ready. we will be open sourcing the tool we use to make this export this week; this includes the open source post renderer. we assume other users will also create tools that are able to act on your export.
to be completely clear: the data export you receive will not include a browsable version of your posts, but will include all the data you’d need to make one.
the find your friends page will be in your data export, although it is admittedly pretty barebones (just an unstyled html file and a data file that you can do whatever with). it includes a list of all pages you followed along with their main URL and any additional information they included in their contact card. we recommend that all users make sure this information is up to date today. if you do not want this information to be in any public archives, make sure you set your contact card links to “logged-in users only”; the exports will include these links but any public archive will not.
open sourcing cohost
we have not yet made any decisions regarding if we will or will not be open sourcing cohost after the site shuts down. we intend to open source individual components (such as the post renderer, as mentioned above). we will post any changes to our plans here.
keeping track of updates
we will not make @staff read-only so that we have a centralized place to post any updates through shutdown. we recommend you add @staff to your RSS reader if you have one (you should be able to just add https://cohost.org/staff to any reader made in the last 20-odd years). we will also crosspost updates to the fediverse at @cohost@mastodon.social and bluesky at @staff.cohost.org. we will not be using these pages for anything else.
thank you for having used cohost
the outpouring of support over the last few weeks is beyond anything we could have expected. we’ve had more than a few ugly cries over some of the tributes we’ve seen.
when we launched cohost, we never could have expected the sort of impact it would have on so many people. 227k users (the final count) is small compared to most social media, but still a huge group.
thank you for being here. thank you for having used cohost.
be well, and safe travels. we’ll see you around. 
thank you thank you thank you. i'm wishing for the best futures for all of you

Thank you for eggbug. This site was a nice respite from the toxicity of other social media sites. Im gonna miss this place a lot.
