When the Musk buyout of Twitter happened, this site immediately became one of the most talked-about candidates for a furry community refuge, alongside Tumblr, FA and maybe Mastodon. I'm seeing a lot of people I follow making an account, if not entirely jumping ship yet. While I'm excited to see more people to talk to here, I'm maybe a bit concerned about the shift in reason why people are joining.
Since then, I've started seeing some noise about how this site isn't good for artists because it intentionally makes sharing/virality difficult and heavily de-emphasizes numbers. For them this is frustrating, since they use social platforms to get eyes on their work and gain new patrons/commissioners. The ability to know how their posts are doing numbers-wise and to ride the engagement wave is important to, you know, have an income. This has generated a lot of resentment which is being expressed... Twitter style.
But for me, I think this represents a significant disconnect with my own motivation for being here. While not having any idea about like/follower counts feels weird, I kind of want to get used to that? It's at least very clearly the point, and Cohost's goals of having a small, intimate space instead of a firehose of Content definitely aligns with what I want in the site. I appreciate that this was meant to be a different kind of community platform, whereas a the Exodus has definitely driven some people who mostly want Twitter but not run by an asshole billionaire. (That's not to look down my nose at their motivations; they have legitimate wants and needs. I'm just observing that those are different than mine.)
In all, I suspect this is probably a moot point. Cohost's owners seem pretty intent on their vision, and if that doesn't fit the need of the artist community those folks will just go elsewhere, which will be fine. This doesn't have to be the only space I'm active in, and I highly doubt it will be. There's value in a model that gives a broader view of the community beyond my immediate circle - it's actually something I appreciate about Twitter. And hey, sometimes I want to dunk my head in a content fountain. Just maybe not here.
