Hey all, I'm an artist. I'm really excited about Cohost, and I'd like to tell you why.
There's something about the metric-measuring of social media that I think causes art and expression to become somewhat... stifled. Instead of making what they want, artists are encouraged to make what's popular. What gets shares, what gets likes, what gets followers. That's not a bad thing per se, but I don't know if it's always a healthy thing either. I think those numbers tend to drive creators a little crazy. When you post something that doesn't get attention, it feels like you got a bad grade. When you post something that does get attention, it feels like you did something right for once. That shouldn't be what art is about; art shouldn't be something you can win or lose at. Art should encourage expression.
I draw some admittedly very niche stuff. Over time, after over a decade posting art online, I've realized that finding my audience - finding the people that are really into my work, the people who find meaning and connection in it - give me the most satisfaction and fulfillment as an artist. I think I read someone else say something like "Having 100 followers who really care about your work is better than having 10,000 followers who don't." And that's true as hell. Art in the age of social media should not be about reaching as many people as possible. It should be able reaching your people.
So, that brings me back to Cohost. Cohost is great in the sense that it has eliminated metrics and algorithms that prioritize some things, and hide others. Nothing is shown to you unless you want to see, which is very nice. But that comes with a tradeoff. Now you have a little bit of responsibility, you have power. If you like some creative content on Cohost, well, there's a pretty strong chance that someone who follows you will also like it. You can help connect a creator and their work to the people who will enjoy it the most, and you can only do that by sharing.
But, what's most important to me overall, Cohost presents a unique metric that social media has never really tried before, in the sense that the only measurable metric is also the most meaningful one: comments! We can really, truly, replace meaningless numbers with real human connections - even short and fleeting ones - and show in a meaningful way how a piece of art makes us feel. That's really cool. I don't know if you know this yet, but one comment of someone saying "I really like this!" is worth more to me than 100 shares.
So, please write a comment. It doesn't have to be complicated or deep. Hell, I'm a porn artist - I just want to know that my art made you feel something. But if you want to make the most of Cohost, comment on that post.
(and you should, too)
i really like this post- it identifies quite a few of the design decisions that went into our metrics-lite (or metrics-free) approach to social media. one thing of note, i think, is that we never want to discourage prosocial interaction; a lot of times, websites accidentally discourage these behaviors with various design patterns, dark and otherwise. i just wanted to note a bit of the philosophy that underlies our comment system:
we believe that comments and rehosts serve different social purposes.
- comments are largely between you and the OP; when you comment on a post, it is only visible within that comment section.
- it won't get served to your followers in their feed (because it's not for them!)
- it isn't recorded on your profile anywhere, and you can't go looking for a list of another user's comments (we think this encourages bad behavior)
- comments on shares with added commentary preserve the version of the post that you commented on, because context is important
- OP can lock comments at their discretion
- sharing a post and adding commentary to it, as i'm doing here, is a different mode of interaction: one that intentionally brings my followers into the conversation.
- because commenting and sharing are different behaviors, it is up to you to decide how to engage with a particular post; you get to actively choose whatever mode of engagement you want to, uh, engage in.
- all of this, in the end, goes right back to our core belief of opting in, not out
anyway. tl;dr there is no real downside to commenting on a post; you won't spam your followers unwittingly, no one can search through an archive of your comments to harass you, and context is preserved when viewing any given comment. also, like, c'mon, it's just really nice to give and receive compliments or constructive commentary!
final note: we're planning on a lot more sharing options to be shipped as soon as we can get to them- features like locking a post to prevent rehosts, a private list of likes, notification collapsing, nicer comment nesting etc. we realize that we're not feature complete yet! in addition, when we ship tipping and subscriptions, we plan to include some private metrics so artists and creators can run their businesses more effectively on cohost.
anyway, thanks for using cohost, and please don't be scared to comment 
I'm a lot better about sharing art I like here, but admittedly I need to get MUCH better at commenting :')
I used to do it a lot more in my early internet days!!! But the structure and behaviors have changed so much over time that I've definitely fallen victim to sort of "forgetting" how to exercise that muscle, and getting nervous at the prospect of doing so ;w; I can even pinpoint a specific fear of visibility that the state of social media has built in me;;;;;; fear that acting I say/do is being watched and could come back to haunt me (and not in a constructive "mind your manners" sort of consciousness way xP)
I do want to get over that fear!! And start interacting more as a whole person vs solely an artist putting stuff out to be viewed. I want to be more and more casual n chill and interactive about it all!! Art was always more fun that way for me!
