Hello! Glad you could make it from [insert latest exodus], and I hope you enjoy your stay. When I came here from Twitter, I came to a lot of great welcome posts, so I've gathered some tips to keep in mind as you adjust to the new website.
- You probably can't post right now, and that's a good thing.
Please be patient as staff approves all new accounts! This is the system that staff has had for a while, and having a staff that manually approves every account is extremely helpful to have. Depending on how big a recent exodus was, it can take multiple days -- I had to wait over a week, but I can personally say it was worth the wait.
- Chill out, be weird.
I have not met a single normal person on this entire website. If you're from any other social media, you're probably familiar with the feeling of being in the rat race. Don't feel pressured to play the numbers game, or to play the popularity contest, or to post at all. Post whatever you want, when you want. I assure you that you can post a several page essay in a chost about your super specific hyperfixation and that there will be people here that love it.
We don't believe in numbers here. Any number above 1 is a several. You don't have to worry about followers or likes or views anymore.
- Tag your posts.
Please tag your posts properly! Every post has a nice little section where you can put as many tags as you want, so please take advantage of this. Cohost has no algorithms and very few visibility features (by design), so tags are one of the main ways that people will see your post. All you have to do is type in the tag in the #add tags section, and press Enter (or comma) to add it. You do not need to add a # before the tag, since it's added automatically.
It's also VERY important to tag anything that might be sensitive for others (e.g. discourse), since there's options to muffle and silence posts based on tags. Which brings me to my next point...
- Please mark sensitive and 18+ content.
This is a very easy thing to do! If your post contains content for people above the age of 18, then you can click the little checkbox at the top that says your post is 18+. If you have any doubt about your post being for everyone, whether it's controversial, fetish content, a common trigger, or anything else, you can always press the ⚠️ button at the bottom which will allow you to add a content warning. It'll add another row, where you can add content warnings like tags.
When adding content warnings, please be CLEAR and unambiguous. If you're putting a content warning to protect people, then it should not be a place to joke around. Posts will often reach outside their target audience, and I've seen people be confused about specific CWs using terminology from a fandom they're not part of. Minors and people that exist outside your community do exist on this website, so always keep that in mind.
If you're worried about CWs giving your posts less attention, don't be! Everyone's settings tab allows them to automatically display posts with specific CWs and/or 18+ markings. I also have the feeling that people like pressing buttons on this website, anyway...
- Use your Following tab.
Cohost added an update where your following tab on the left gives you a unique timeline! Be sure to Pin the people whose content you don't want to miss, since burying will happen often on Cohost, which has a timeline that's exclusively chronological.
- Support the staff.
The staff for Cohost is VERY small but very dedicated, so please give them your support! You can do this buy either paying them directly through Cohost Plus, or just by sending them kind messages. They are consistently transparent with weekly updates, and continue to work hard to make the best website possible, designed for people and not for money.
- Be civil and kind.
And lastly, just be nice to people!! Cohost is not immune to having random site-wide arguments, but from what I've seen, they're a lot less frequent than other websites. There is no algorithm pushing you towards people you hate, and there is no design that encourages arguments. Remember that if you are given the opportunity to stoke a fire, you also have the opportunity to let that fire burn out. If you decide you don't want to continue following anyone for any reason, you can always unfollow, and they will not know.
Comments and rechosts are the most visible things on this platform. You are always allowed to bring people up and support them.
- also did you know you can embed html in any chost??
i know! cohost lets you embed html and css and even animated svgs!! my pfp is an animated svg!! it'll block certain things like iframes and javascript embeds, but WOW the things that people have made on this platform, if you ever see people start putting out rainbow and squiggly text a--
