good post 👍🏻

yeah something im trying to get better at is evolving past my "lurker" stage. for a long time yeah likes were what you mentioned - a way for me to bookmark and come back to, especially as someone who likes to Ponder things before i truly interact with it. but another part of it was when i was younger growing up in a sheltered conservative environment, i always had this latent anxiety of anything i post or re-post could be found out by my parents, so i just trained myself to only reblog the haha funny stuff that wasn't too abrasive. there's still an inkling of that, bc at this point yeah if you know my handle online you could find ways to link it back to Real Me or vice versa if you looked closely enough, but im finally at my 'who give a shit' stage and it's been so freeing. esp since i plan on starting my transition this year it is essential for me to grow beyond caring about what other people think of me and start living for myself.

additionally, "show me you exist so i can remember that i exist too" goes hard

we gotta put the "social" back in social media

On cohost nothing makes this more clear than seeing people post that they've disabled notifications for likes! And it's true, too...I don't post often (or well), and when I do post, and the little notifications egg lights up, and I click through, and it's "<someone> liked your post", the instinctive reaction is very much a "oh that's nice I guess". Not nearly as strong as when you see a repost or (best of all, for me) a comment.

I don't love reposting something just because I liked it; a repost is beyond "I liked this" and a step into "I think the three people who follow me will also like this". So the obvious takeaway is "comment more". That almost turns the problem around, though, because when a comment doesn't get any replies it can feel...not even "unappreciated", but more like "oh, am I annoying that person, am I being a reply guy?" But someone has to post a comment that doesn't get a reply, or the chain becomes infinite (and, on cohost, skinny!)

idk I need to get out of my head a bit I think

I'm trying to get into the habit of commenting more, but I tend to overthink it and the idea of "writing a Good comment" makes me want to not even try when I'm tired. Need to write more mediocre comments...

I used to comment more, but always felt a self doubt about becoming a "reply guy" and could feel that curbing the desire to comment. Even if I thought the comment was fine, "well that's what a reply guy would think to..."

BUT the real thing that probably slowed me down the most is other people getting weird about it. I specifically remember an interaction where someone drew a nice ass and I commented as such. Like an hour later I got a DM: "you know they've drawn sonic barefoot, right?"

Which is such a baffling way to initiate an inquisition that I'll never forget how some people are fuckin cops who will comb through comments to find evidence of imagined misconduct.

This is a long way to say: you're absolutely right. And people are gonna get weird about it, but we can't let the threat of people being weird about it shut down the whole system. Sometimes you just gotta say "nice post"

Because you did in fact, make a nice post

thank you for posting this it sums up everything I have always thought as someone who puts their art out onto the internet for the past 10 years. It honestly feels so disheartening putting my art on instagram or tiktok and I’ve only recently felt excited to post it onto Cohost where theres actual engagement !

thank you for putting it into words <3
i love having a conversation with people + i'm a very talkative person, so i've always tried to say how i feel on things (on tumblr it was talking in the tags, here and sheezy i like to comment directly since the format allows for it in a less awkward way) but i did notice that other people interact with things in a way that's super different from me O_o
in a very simple comparison, i've always just shared posts i like (+ on here usually comment as well) (more of a direct action sort of thing?) but i noticed other people would usually just like em or like AND share, not the other way around! (excessively neutral) (just an observation) (thought it was interesting though 🤔)

i really like the commenting systems that cohost and sheezy have though, it makes me feel connected :-) i wish ppl would utilize them more often because i wanna chat with people!!

it is a Process to work through various mental blocks about commenting but I am Getting Better.

People have no idea how much something as simple as "I read this and had an emotion" can do for someone like a writer. I imagine it must be similar for visual artists and musicians as well.

A long time ago this very webbed sight supported swiping up on the Cher button to quick-share on touchscreens (it was advertised "for mobile" but it in fact worked on any device with special support for touch input)

I noticed a dramatic drop in shares on my Good Posts after that was removed

thanks for the reminder. will do better!

Yay let’s comment more.

This is how I've always treated the like button! I was so anxious about commenting and posting in general it was my only way to "interact" without putting myself too out of my comfort zone! I tend to always like things i'm moderately interested in now and comment/repost if it's art or something from a mutual

I love commenting and I worry I do it "too much" but I think I am only worried because I am KEENLY aware that a lot of people are still trying to undo the horrible status affects The Algo has done upon them for the last (5ish?) years.

Also this post has made it click for me that cohost feels like my teenage years on Deviantart and that's probably why I'm having so much fun. I WILL COMMENT ON EVERYTHING. I WILL MAKE CONNECTIONS!! [holding out my hand to everyone] Let's comment together.

remember when twitter used to call them favorites

yep, @chirasul that's a good post and some food for thought about interacting with posts…

Wow! I like this (^O^★)

👍!!

fucking mood. I know this is a stupid bandaid, but I really wish comments drove algo rhythmic content shoveling n shit. at least then its, "damn you really talk a lot here, have more," which would have the double plus of people not wanting to talk about something they hate, cuz then more is thrown at them. That or it'd be even funnier.

yeah i disabled likes in my notifications broadly for these reasons

Good post. Using cohost has made me rethink my approach on comments too, and I can confirm the adjustment of behavior has worked and even been taken offsite. Before, I'd think a like was a good-enough way to send a tacit agreement, but I've felt more and more inclined to write comments.

I'm also relearning the value of not responding endlessly to comments. Some conversations can and should just end naturally. I also came around to the notion that comments don't have their own like counters; it's, honestly, for the better. Because it encourages, well, more comments, but also thinking about what to say.

never thought of that in a philosophical level

here we are, existing, then.

that's nice. :)

thanks for making this post! time to rewire this ol gourd of mine

I like this :3

wow we like this

but for real, yes. we're trying to wean ourselves off of years of depression and other bad brain stuffs (nothing like neurodiversity and social anxiety mixing up too, amweright) that made us introducing ourselves to algorithmic sites with the like button as our main communication tool extra fun, and it's... it's going! we're still an absolute "like" machine, but commenting is getting easier! not easy yet, but easier! it's an underused muscle that's yelling at us for using it again, but we need that training. also seeing comments on stuff we do is a good experience

The fact that you went through and replied to everything is a hell of a feat

I accept your challenge- after reading this post, I continued catching up on ~a day of chosts and I commented on nearly half of them, I lost track of how many comments I made x)
this will be my last for the moment, but it feels very nice to try to socialize with every post I see as if it was a meme or something being posted by a friend in our server ^^

thank you for the post, moments like this is the reason why I've been loving cohost while literally struggling with any other major social media

good post. i'm trying to be better about remembering that i can actually drop my thoughts about a thing in the comments rather than keeping it all to myself lol

also the dissonance between "i love getting comments it's the best thing to ever happen to me" vs. "but what if they don't appreciate my comment when i do it to them" is real even though ik it's silly

years of being a lurker have broken my brain

me reading this knowing my brain won't let me rebug it unless i also like it:
no but really, i agree, and i wish we could stop having The Algorithm rule the web

im very guilty of only ever liking/favouriting things, its high time that i fixed that, need to slurp some confidence juice, make it HAPPEN

Absolutely and I already know this ... I really should leave more comments.

these nuts <3

I'm hyped with the comment culture here, least as far as I can tell that it exists... it feels more like real interactions with other people and not just Their Content.

This was a really insightful post, thanks for sharing!

excellent post! i’m still more of a lurker, but cohost has made me more comfortable with comments—comments here feel both lower stakes and higher value, and i love that

Commenting my approval since the algorithm-brain made me hit the little heart. Dag nabbit!

ty for this post. i’m trying my best to adjust to leaving comments more and more ^.^

I'm nervous about making little comments, maybe I should be less so...
maybe we should bring back F1rst P0st!

thanks

I often feel like my input is unwelcome, i am trying to move past that

honestly, I think more than it being "lesser", twitter in particular taught us that comments are bad. the "ratio" concept is the rate of replies to likes, and the more replies there are in that ratio, the more the twitter post is supposedly being shredded for being bad. so we get this impression that commenting is not a "lesser, good" thing to do, but an actively negative thing by default

which is nonsense. and backwards. but it's hard to unlearn

I'm bad at commenting on things because I also get caught up in that weird headspace of "but I don't have anything to say other than 'I liked this, good job'" -and I don't know why I'm like this, because I certainly don't pass weird value judgements on comments I receive - I've never once felt slighted because someone didn't write an entire paragraph about why they liked something I drew.

People love to shit on Mastodon (maybe rightfully so), but for me it felt (at least for a while there, anyway) so refreshing to be on a site where people actually wanted to have real conversations online again. I'm hoping this site can be that way for me, too! Just... gotta get better at that whole commenting thing😵‍💫

meow ^_^
slowly getting batter at commenting more... i think

I love how painless cohost makes commenting on stuff. Like, I don't have to worry I'm cluttering my feed or spamming my friends, I can just comment! I can carry on whole conversations guilt-free!

anyways, this post genuinely helped me understand what I want to do on cohost better, so thank you for that. also it really makes me want cohost to give Likes some sort of utility, like list-making or whatever. At least on Twitter, when I Like something, I know I may help that person reach more eyes in the algorithm. Here, it really does feel useless for both parties.

sort fo reminds me of how twitter changed "favourites" into "likes" back in the day. i feel like that might've had something to do with The Algorithm? pretty sure i started "liking" stuff a lot more than i'd been "favoriting" up til then.

For me the like button is the easy way of saying I like this without having to put any effort into thinking what to say. But a like is just a number at the end of the day while words have a name and a face attached to them which reminds you that there's a person on the other side of the screen.

real shit !!! something ive felt Hard, having been on tumblr for like 15 years. no one talks to each other anymore... social media no longer social

thank you for this, tbh Im very shy majority of the time and quite an anxious thinker, but Ill try to remember this if I ever hesitate-

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who uses likes in this way 🤭

Comments mean so much to me vs likes.
Even just a heart emoji is good.

THANK YOU for puttin' this into words for me or2

I want it all, LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, AND IF YOU HAVEN'T GIVE MY ART A FOLLOW 😭

I want to know if people are just like "oh I viewed it that's enough" or whatever now.

i came here to post this

I'm learning so much on this site. Thank you for giving such a clear explanation, and also pointing out the necessary tools.
I also have to say I enjoy commenting on this site much more than on others. I'm not well-versed in digital etiquette, and oftentimes disagree with it's rules, but here I feel more free to just write out what I think without the fear of being ridiculed or misconstrued.

As someone actually publishing things now, yes, even a simple "nice" feels far more meaningful than likes would, even if they still mean something at this stage I'm in.
But even as just part of the audience I've always felt the comment section of anything was part of the experience and watching it die in just about everything has been an issue. Whether it's specifics pointed out to enhance things or just having fun in there it was nice.
But yes, I need to remind myself to do my part more often, think I've slacked there...

Also
Skimming briefly through the comment, damn. I didn't quite need more evidence that Twitter was a disaster at large (much as I like seeing more) but folks sure provided it. It's like shit was made for disengagement.

Idk, I don't really use likes much at all on social media because I never saw the point of them much beyond the "see your likes" feature some platforms have. so like, yeah, bookmarks.

I don't think its the case that people see likes as the greater interaction honestly, because, well, obviously reblogging/retweeting means you're putting it on your page, that's more you. and commenting is more effort so its obviously more. I think what's happened is that the scope of the internet ballooned massively over the last 10 years and the broader culture failed to cope with the onboarding of massive amounts of people, so it just broke internet culture overall.

nodding vigorously while reading
Earlier I had to stop myself from ranting at someone on Threads about how Actually the world would be better off if public Likes went away entirely. Bc damn, the internet kinda used to be like that and it was so much more fun and open. Likes used to not mean anything, but now people (including myself) obsess over them and they cause so much comparison culture and anxiety. And so many people's response to this (like the guy I decided not to rant at) is some form of "get over it/skill issue" and they say ppl like me just have "fragile egos" and it's just super frustrating to have people gloss over it like that. It's not "nothing." The way Likes have changed has changed the internet for the worse and it matters.

🫡

as somebody who Makes Things and Posts Them, even if you don't think it's worth it to post a simple comment, i still love the fact that it touched you that much :D