look at me, having a vagueposting take on the site social issue of the now. look at me, the tragic clown who cannot do as she says and succumbs to her own Posting Urges. i am perfect and special in all other ways, but in this alone i beg of you: do not be like me, simply walk away
if you're a follower of mine who doesn't keep up with this kind of thing, A. good for you! i am glad you know peace and B. here's a primer: every few months, a fellow choster that exists within one of cohost's ostensibly larger circles concerned with social issues makes a post about the cohost meta, about how there is an issue with cohost as a whole that's worth reflecting on (the site is a majority white people, the place could be better for disabled users, the Cohost Global Feed being a mistake, etc etc.), and some interesting discussion happens - but because of cohost's nature as a site where you primarily end up just seeing new stuff from people you already follow, a lot of folks (including others within this loose and nebulous circle of Social Issues Cohost) end up posting about the current discussion without a lot of the previous context because they're only in the know to a point, and like a game boy jpeg devolving into a blood ocean eventually the shape of the original discourse becomes barely recognizable behind a wall of missed context and the passage of tims. a handful of people get really frustrated, a couple people become super incensed, and like half the posters adjacent to this circle watching the Cohost Meta Discourse go down begin posting about the nature of posting itself (hi!), forming the Cohost Meta Meta and usually marking the end stage of the current discourse incarnation.
and now we know folks offsite are posting about the chosting, too - and folks don't like it.
now, warning, this is entirely the property of speculation, but like... i imagine a good deal of the reason they're bitter about this is because a lot of cohost users in and around this circle are all too familiar with being compiled and turned into an object of fascination to watch from afar? this circle of cohost, i figure, has a good smattering of people who have had to deal with - or know people who had to deal with - lolcow forums and their less organized ilk. people are burned on being the subject of speculation, fascination and derision by people they do not know and will never meet.
but also i don't understand the framing that This is Cohost, that This is Site Culture. because, like... sure, this bunch is mostly comprised of earlychosters and folks who got big proportional to the site through word-of-post (and the folks that follow them), but the thing about cohost is that ultimately everyone ends up... kind of building their own circles? because of this i naturally can't speak for everyone, but like... when Discourse is happening within the Zone Of Site Where This Stuff Usually Crops Up usually the other three quarters of what i'm seeing is people who have Zero Clue, or at least Aren't Seeing Enough Of It All To Care. to post on how discourse about the site that spoils after enough internet telephone and eventually grows cohost meta meta mold is The Cohost Culture is to miss the forest for the trees, because like. you don't have to be in the know for any of this. none of this is stuff you Have to see, that you Have to know or talk about, because this is just one circle you can stay at arm's length from if you want. you are ultimately only seeing the Cohost you choose to see and participating in the Cohost you choose to participate in, and whether that be discoursehost or socialissueshost or techhost or tabletophost or writinghost or kinkyfurrypornhost or radiohost or fungushost or jewhost or localhost or gundamhost or yurihost or whateverhost comes down to who and what you end up building the site out to be. Cohost is not a site where fifty people loudly shout about Cohost at each other for a week straight then return to their coffins to sleep for another few months until it's time to shout about Cohost at each other for another week
no sharing or replying or commenting on this. don't write a vague response to this either, and i'd rather not be posted about for this post. this is just a personal bugbear i wanted to exorcise from my brainhole