h

i'll be keeping an eye on the comments to answer questions as they come up

folks have previously mentioned user-made banner ads and i think that would be a good thing. i would rather prefer ads made by other people that link to cool shit rather than Coca-Cola giving me an ad for their Drink for the thousandth time.

Is there anything that we as users can do to help? Or is it kind of just a sit and wait kind of deal?

thank you for the frank update <3 we're rooting for you

well, fingers crossed! here's hoping your mysterious benefactor is doing okay, at the very least.

thank you for the update! wishing you the best. thank you all for your hard work making this place wonderful.

h

i am rooting for you!!!

thanks for the update, and thanks for making this cool website, I hope it will live for a long time!

i'm not panicking yet or saying goodbye to the site—but i would like to say thank you for all you've done to make such a nice website, despite all the difficulties

As always, this transparency is greatly appreciated. Whatever else happens, you've made something that has given lots of people happiness. We're pulling for you.

I have Cohost Plus and would be fine looking at banner ads here, especially for things made by other users. Basically, if you have a "opt into ads" toggle for Cohost Plus, I would turn that on.

thank you for the transparency, i sincerely hope things work out somehow.

I'm solidly in the basket of "I think it's more ethical for this site to continue running than not, if people are indeed offering to volunteer," as I have little to no doubt it would be an informed consent to volunteer [unethically]. But I've also never been in charge of anything and it sounds like there's probably legal ramifications I am unaware of. Still! Site, very good! My life? Significantly better with site! I find this to be very ethical.

"at current estimates, we will run out of money in early April"

... as in this April?

I adore cohost and hope it all pans out, but I do appreciate how honest you're being about this.

i know its a drop in the bucket, but i get a lot out of having this place, so im bumping my sub up a bit. cheering for yall, regardless.

rooting for you! I love this website, thank you for all your hard work making it! hoping for the best but whatever happens I hope y’all can take the time you need for yourselves amidst all this. thanks for the transparency

thank y'all so much for making cohost <3 whatever happens, this is a fun website and i have greatly appreciated my time here! if the website must come to an end, then so be it. nothing lasts forever, and the time spent here and bonds and community forged are all valuable in themselves!

I'm not envious of the position you guys are in, and I want to echo the sentiment others have shared and thank you for your work making this site what it is. Hoping for success for y'all

Come hell or high water, you've made the internet a little bit better. That doesn't count for nothing.
Thank you for having us.

I'll keep my sub running as long as I am able, and as long as it helps.

i like this website ;_; hopefully things can be resolved.. best of luck

finding an external board of directors

iirc from the one (1) business class I took that may not be the case and you can wear more than one hat

hey good luck and i love you cohost

voicing support for user generated ads. tumblr blaze has been really good for my business and i'd love to spend on an equivalent here. im also in support of the idea of volunteer work (not that i personally would, i don't know shit from dick about code) but as people have said, as long as it's informed i don't see how it's unethical. i hope the big backer returns and agrees to it

good luck! personally i think open source would be the best of these options and don't understand your opposition to it, but i can always block ads like on any other site so hey

honestly, the fact that plan B and C rely on regaining contact with your funder, which is basically the entire problem that prevents plan A to begin with, is really not filling me with confidence. this is incredibly scary. that said, im keeping my subscription up just in case. maybe it'll help? idk. i just really hope it all works out in the end.

thank you for making the internet fun to use again.

i also really like the "user ads" idea, but if that's a no go then how about kickstarting eggbux or something...? a kickstarter for the funding to get eggbux done.
could be a form of promotion as well, drawing in people who want a new patreon type site.

Damn...

I've been a cohost plus user for over six months or so now, and while things may not seem the best right now I'll stay on as long as I possibly can. I'm open to the idea of cohost user ADs! Wishing the best.

Edit: Also thanks for being clear on NOT selling our data and going as far as clearing data by request.

Will data export tools be made available to users in any situation besides the most dire? Or will that functionality only be accessible if the site were to shut down entirely?

I'm not a Math Witch by any stretch of the imagination, but if I understand those numbers correctly, if you got like... ~$35k a month from cohost+ subscriptions alone, you'd be okay? and you're getting around $10-12k from that right now?

is that number anywhere that can be queried by a URL or something because if there was a colorful little dynamic Break Even Cohost+ progress bar we could share and fill up collectively I would not shut up about it

Surprised nobody's mentioned this: a one-time fundraiser to get Eggbux developed seems like just the ticket to me. It wouldn't have to become a monthly thing like a certain other website. I suppose I'm not as Kickstarter allergic as others, but we know the product in question is more than halfway to the finish line and can presumably be finished by the year's end. I think people quickly seeing that ROI would mean only good things for Cohost.

Thank you for confirming if things do go south you won’t just abruptly shut things off and prevent people from saying goodbye/finding their friends elsewhere/losing their data: me getting really into vidme and having it pulled under my feet really did make me panic, so that’s mainly why i’ve vented about that possibility a lot.

Not too surprised about the financial points today, but honesty is really key and I’m glad you guys went and gave a much needed heads up instead of a situation where you would go “oh shit we’re outta money NOW” and have it be like blindsiding the userbase. I apologize if i’ve come off heated in the past; i do all that out of concern! Losing friends when vidme shuttered sucked, honestly.

oh, here's a really simple easy to implement suggestion: put a text somewhere that says something like "subscribe to cohost+ to keep this site afloat" or something like that.
there's space in the top bar, for example. i know you have strong ideals but please advertise yourselves a little bit on your own site!
i wonder if most users even know cohost+ exists or how vital it is for the site.
(or maybe something like this is already a thing and i just don't see it because i have cohost+? if so i apologize for being stupid)

thank you for the transparency, and thank you for the website. both mean a lot.

Oof :( hoping you are able to work something out to keep the site afloat

thanks for the update, I'm looking forward to a future with cohost and EggBux

What counts as an active user for MAU purposes, is it reading posts / logging in or a more significant engagement?

it's hard to get an idea from just those-who-show-up-and-talk-about-it, but I really hope that (failing funder contacting) you can secure a crowdfunding route that doesn't eat into assets and ownership. The culture here is wonderful, genuinely the best social media site I've been on.

idk quite how to say it but i’m sorry y’all (staff) are navigating this really stressful uncertainty, grateful for your thoughtfulness and creating a rare website culture that values thoughtful interactions in turn and i’m wishing that the vibes take a turn for the less rancid as quickly as possible for all your sakes

didnt blender go open source from having the community crowdfun the money to purchase the development loan so it escapes use as collateral?

thank you for always being honest. this sucks to hear but i'm glad there are lots of options BESIDES cohost shutting down, at least. re: the cohost not being everyone's full-time jobs anymore option, i am so willing to wait longer between updates if it means the site sticks around (while simultaneously sympathizing with The Horror Of Job Hunting, Oh God)

Damn, good luck. That's a very short timeline but you've got a tremendous amount of goodwill from your users here, which hopefully can translate into some means of keeping the lights on.

best of luck! so that randomizer lasts longer than a few months

Is there anything that could reasonably be spun off as "small work", to be done in a contract or hourly basis with willing and capable people likely from our community? Things likely to have been done by volunteers in an open-source operation, but people on a trust (and HR/legal/NDA) basis with the team.

I'm thinking like, documentation, testing and test-case writing, report writing, issue triage and issue-tracker moderation, some aspects of site moderation, API documentation and design, frontend feature stuff, and other things that, while not Core Deliverables or Revenue Machines like Eggbux or the proposed user-ads (adbugs? eggvertisements?), are certainly appreciated and necessary work to be done.

(I'm on the outside here though, I don't exactly know how the operation is in Eggbug House, I could easily be completely off the mark here of course)

Hwoof, that's bitter medicine, but I'm glad things don't seem to be like- apocalyptically dire, I do hope The Founder turns out to be okay.

I would also wholly be in support for user generated ads. I think it'd be cool to see stuff people are workin' on, and know that it helps keep the lights on!!

I have no solutions or ideas or anything, but thanks for writing this post and being so frank about options and possibilities. I know it must have been hard. I think people would think a lot differently about the services they used on the internet if they had any idea what the associated costs and labor looked like.

i’ve already upped my sub from 4x to 10x but apropos of nothing, i hope all is well with your friend.

i think

• ads made by the users is great and should exist asap (with tags for nsfw/sfw as people mentioned), also do as Pixel Cats End and have a "your ad could be here! ads are made by users!" info as an ad itself or text near the ad banner to maximise ppl being aware they can purchase ad space. everyone on PCE is aware they can buy ad space and many do even just for fun.
• you could consider a kickstarter or whatever crowdfunding to get by in the current situation.

Here to also voice my support for user-generated ads. I would be delighted to see stuff from other users here promoting their artwork and projects and even just silly stuff. Heck, I'd absolutely be down for coming up with my own here!

Really hoping things turn out well through this, this has been an excellent site and has been an incredible and refreshing part of my life. Thanks for this site, and also thanks for always being so transparent with the goings on.

Thakns for the honesty. I much prefer a financial update that's honest and scary to no financial update

[if cohost shuts down] the links would remain operational for at least several months since the cost for hosting a static copy of this data is negligible.

I understand that this is not the problem you'd prefer to be solving, but: In a worst-worst-worst case scenario, I would be willing to indefinitely pay "negligible" (a dollar a year or whatever? my existing AWS static site has cost me two cents over the last eight years, but perhaps it would be more were it not fronted by Cloudflare) to have the posts I have already made on Cohost statically hosted on the tombstone site. Is this a solution you'd consider? Although I do have the ability to host static exports of my Cohost posts myself, some of my Cohost posts have been linked at their original URLs in divers places offsite.

(I am fine going without an answer to this question until we get closer to it becoming, uh… relevant.)

hear me out. Advertising. Not targeted, not using cookies, but a small portion of the blank space (say below the sidebar on the left) could be opened to advertising to raise short-term income and is then turned off when things stabilise.

Sending all my love to the team, and hoping for the best. No matter which way it breaks, it was a wonderful ride.

Personally if you guys have a donation link at the top like Wikipedia or AO3 I would send as much money as possible

I really hope that things work out for the best. thanks for making the world's first good social media website.

will buying assc merch also help fund cohost? i want egg bug shorts,

Thanks for making Cohost!

Well damn that's pretty scary on many counts but I imagine it's only more scary for yall.

Best of luck, and hang in there. This place is really good and I hope it keeps going.

y'all i love this site, i love y'alls team, i'm pickin up another cohost plus sub as soon as i'm able. i've always planned on moving all my tip and donation pipelines to eggbux once it arrives. no rush, but eggbux must arrive! :3

I wish I had any real solutions I could provide, but I can at least also voice my thanks for this transparency (and another +1 for user ads). This all has to be monumentally stressful and doubly so to stick to your sense of ethics like this, but I think you've also built the best platform on the internet currently. So please be proud of that at the very least. ❤️

i really like this site & i hope y'all can get the funding you need to keep running it (and have less stress, too...)

upped my subcription to 20x.

And count me in the list of "would love to somehow contribute volunteer code/technical work if it ever comes down to it", like, genuinely. Cohost's tech stack sounds very similar to what i've been working on for the past 6 years so I feel like I wouldn't have much trouble getting up to speed even as an outsider. y'all know where to reach me lol

I don't have steady income so I can't actually subscribe but if there's ever a way to send singular small dollar donations to help Cohost continue, I'd jump at that opportunity whenever I have a few extra bucks laying around.

I really want this place to survive and thrive. It's the only social media site I've felt at home with and it's the place I'd like to put down roots in with regards to where I regularly post my art some day. I also would really prefer that y'all are the ones who maintain ownership of it as you're the ones who have made it the kind of inviting place where I KNOW the devs actually give a damn about making ethical choices regarding the site and user data. If ownership were to switch hands I fear it would only be a matter of time before it would be Cohost in name only.

I'm really rooting for y'all. Thank you for everything you do and I wish you luck ❤️

Thanks so much for all that you do and the transparency here. No matter how things shake out you built something really special here that resonates with people (myself included). Will wait for the next update, hoping for the best 🤞

I don't check in here nearly as often as I should. If it comes to the volunteer work / open source option, I would be very interested in contributing. I think it's good and important that this site exists.

I want to say I support the user made ads option others are mentioning, I would love that and personally would pay for at least one.

thanks for making cohost! i really respect how much you seem to try to stick to your principles

Appreciate the full transparency as always. Also, I've upped my subscription from 3x to 5x.

I know you're already getting a lot of this but I just want to voice my support again for user-created ads. I understand that pivoting the dev time to that is a tough call but I think it could be a fun feature after eggbux.

Honestly, even starting off with just a banner image at the end of the patch notes post could be a start. That way, there's less programming load. Basically just like "Today's patch notes were sponsored by example_user" with a means for them to advertise their work. Each set of patch notes could give a shoutout to a different person who paid.

Or even if it wasn't in the patch notes, it could just be a regular post from @staff or @eggbug. Those pages arguably still have "visibility", especially given the little window at the bottom of the page that suggests eggbug as a page to follow.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you and the funder.

If things don’t go the way we want, it’s been a distinct pleasure to fritter away my time here with you and everyone else.

I don't chost or interact here a whole lot, but this place is like, the only good social media that I've used. I contribute a nonzero amount of money to cohost, and I think a lot of that is because I've enjoyed being here, and I think a lot of people need cohost that aren't just myself. I wish I had a more informed perspective or any advice, but like, you've made the proof that there is some good stuff in the big bullshit bubble that is social media. I haven't really thought of it in this way much, but to be honest what you've done is astounding. I hope you can keep making cohost, but I'm not truly owed anything.

Okay, so maybe this is an actual take: I think user-made and user-funded ads (both, not or) would be a great way to help keep the site going. I missed user-made banner signature era, or at least wasn't very aware of it while it was going on, and it honestly sounds fun and...(dare I say it?) artsy?

Also, if people volunteer to do some work for the site, fully knowing there's no money coming their way for doing so, I think that's a valid thing to consider. Like, you've made something good enough that some people would rather offer their own time and energy to help maintain/improve it than see it shut down. That speaks volumes to me. This is a fucking non-open-source social media site that has a beloved mascot and is funded by donations, and people really like it! Who else can say that?

Best of luck to all of you, regardless of what happens next.

Cohost's problems remind me of what happened to Autostraddle, but not entirely in a bad way. Autostraddle is a longstanding lesbian+ community site with a devoted fanbase, donation-dependent finances, and a founder and employees who spent years trying very hard (though often failing) to do right by their writers and readers, even though that meant passing up the easy money and spending more money on things like actually paying their writers.

After years of emergency fundraisers, burning out numerous staffers, and various attempts at alternate revenue streams, they kinda screwed over a bunch of writers and then sold to a queer businessperson with an incredibly dubious business model (building a media and lifestyle brand from a single chest binder product). A lot of people felt betrayed after all that had happened, tore them a new one about the new owner and their weird business plans, and stopped subscribing (myself included). I personally wouldn't be surprised if the new house of cards collapses soon, too. Please don't sell, if you do, to someone like that.

The "not entirely in a bad way" part is that you've been much more open and, I think, much clearer-eyed about the problems and long-shot risks of your business model, including your dependency on a single funder with an unclear runway. While this post is very short notice to find a viable alternative, your funder disappearing for a month is a very unusual event and hoping they'd show up again is a valid component of a strategy that includes having existing money coming in and the skills to try other things. I also respect the hell out of you for having a transparent exit plan in case you do have to shut down, and one that sticks to the principles that brought this little bugswarm together.

Because of all that, I wouldn't look askance at one emergency fundraiser with the goal of getting a minimal eggbux system online. I also gladly cosign the user-submitted banner ad idea, which I think would be really fun given how seriously our community takes nothing. And I think having a monthly revenue goal meter as a constant UI element (without going Wikipedia-level) makes a lot of sense right now to incentivize subscriptions. I like how soma.fm handles theirs.

Finally, hey, you're doing really good by us, so thank you.

thank you for making cohost. i hope the team are holding up okay and your friend/funder is also alright!

Best of luck, all of you. I'm sticking here till the end.

oh, also - +1 to user-made ads, but also, +1 to a specific eggbux fundraiser, a little eggbux fundraising progress bar somewhere on the site

just tagging in here, love yall, this site rules

could similar promissory notes be issued to interested users as a round of fundraising with the IP rights of eggbug as collateral, if eggbug isn't already part of past funding agreements?

+1 for the user made ads!!!!

i'm also not against the idea of you guys selling this project if it comes to it but just, don't sell it to someone like Elon pls 🙇🏽‍♂️

in any case, thank you so much for your work!!! and thank you for giving us the chance to be part of this site c:

best of luck and I wish you well. either way, thank you so much for making this site. I’ve had a wonderful time here and hold extreme gratitude towards this place. I hope things turn out in your favor

so so so appreciative of your candor here and i'm very interested in many of the ideas the chosters in the comments have put forth for sustainability..... very willing to pitch in for whatever will work, wishing you all the best

this website needs to continue existing its too good

best of luck fellas

I hope your anonymous funder resumes contact. Like others here, I wouldn't mind user ads. I'm fairly new here, so it'd make it easier for me to find cool stuff. I also second adding a way to donate/pay without subscription! I'm not great at remembering things so I avoid recurring payments whereever I can. It's a bit silly, but I'd rather pay for a year, let it run out, and then renew it manually.

you should straight up have a tip jar

Whatever happens, I'll be there till the end. Cohost is such a breathe of fresh air and I don't regret ever paying for it to support what it stands for. Best of luck to the team and wishing you can make it to another year!

Jae and other staff, I'm so sorry you're in this position. That sounds extremely stressful. I hope things turn out okay.

albania finance

Fff. This is a rough situation to be in, but good luck y'all. I know there's lots of people who have your backs as much as we can.

Bought a subscription! I know it's not much, but it's more than I did for fuckin' tumblr.

As always I deeply appreciate the transparency. But this is a really bad sign, especially with such short notice. The alternative options people are talking about in the comments here ARE compelling and I really hope that it works out, but I’m doubtful at this point that they can be implemented and effective before the ~3 week deadline.

The last financial update that had Bad News was extremely concerning and many of the same suggestions were being discussed then. I worry that the lack of evident progress over the last year or so (although it was for understandable reasons and likely unavoidable) might have doomed cohost’s chances at persisting long term.

The completed eggbux system or fully implemented user generated ads could have been enough to extend cohost’s lifespan. Unfortunately the tipping’s had all the aforementioned problems, and I feel as though user ads would require a much larger commitment of development time and resources. At this point I think it’s much too late to change course and devote everything to ads. On the other hand, I’m doubtful the tips (which by default have no transaction fee, unless plans have changed) would be able to make up the difference.

I think that if cohost survives at this point it’s going to have to be a big fundraiser getting money from the users. Either that or the mystery donor reappears and produces a round of emergency funding.

If I were in charge I’d say the number one priority should be getting that fundraiser up as soon as humanly possible. After that, assuming the site is still solvent? IMO, ads are likely to be the most profitable, but eggbux is what’s already been worked on and needs to progress to completion for user confidence to stay high.

After posting this comment I’m gonna toss another Plus subscription onto the pile, like many others. I really love cohost and want it to stick around.

Sorry about the pessimistic comment. I’m really hoping everything pulls through, despite my doubts. Thank you staff. I wish you all the best and hope for many more years of Cohost.

Thank you for making cohost, the only good website left on the internet

hoping that everything will be alright! i do like this site and i'd love it to stay, even if it has a 50% chance of staying or not.

regardless of what happens you've built a well designed website that clearly had a lot of care put into it (for reference, i think i've only ever encountered like 3 Actual Bugs and even then they were usually not even annoying ones). and of course the community and staff is great, i feel like everyone here is very nice and genuine and the transparency from staff is something i wish other sites had (learn from this @dragoneer :3).

i hope you can at least try to feel good, even if that's hard to do, for the next few week regardless of the outcome of everything.

what is the likelihood that eggbux gets deployed within the next 3 weeks?

Good luck.

I'd pay for cohost+ if I had a sustainable income, but unfortunately, all I can do now is wish you the best of luck.

What if official bootleg cohost merch?
Like people who aren't staff make and sell cohost/eggbugg branded merch, share with you some of the money.
In exchange, you promess not to pull a nintendo on them and maybe add a page with a link to their shops.
You get new stream of incomes, artists get new sales, people get eggbuggs goodies.

here's maybe a question with a short answer: is it be better for cohost to subscribe monthly or yearly?

also how does it work when increasing a yearly sub, does it temporarily add the difference as monthly subscription on top of the pre-paid yearly amount, until the yearly sub expires and then bill the new yearly amount?

I've used tumblr blaze and I'd gladly use cohost ads, if you make it an option.

I'm throwing a subscription onto the pile as I've been meaning to for a while, hopefully me and everyone doing the same can buy a slightly longer runway for finishing features, running a kickstarter or something, etc. I hope everything pans out, I do love this place even though I don't check it every day.

thanks for making cohost it is the first website i've had fun spending time on in a long time. if you open up any shorter-term funding to get to a point where you can launch eggbux i'd be interested in contributing. hope it all works out (and also that your friend is okay independent of the funding thing)

Whatever ends up happening, I'm glad this site exists, thanks for creating this beautiful space. And I agree with what's been thrown out there, user-made-ads, I would not mind to see those. Thank you for being this open and transparent, I hope things work out, I'm sticking around to see it all.

I’m gonna be real with you chief, I waited 4 months for my application to be accepted, and I was told that the process should've taken a week or two instead of 4 months. It was even tougher knowing that cohost looks down on applicants who ask for their application process to be expedited, even though with me again, the process took a lot longer than what I was told was the normal wait time. I don't know if this happened to anyone else as perhaps whoever I was assigned to accidentally forgot about me somewhere, so I can't say this impacted the momentum of cohost, but I can say that this significantly reduced my desire to return to cohost ever since other platforms have started to pop up. Are there any measures that cohost is taking to try to mitigate instances of this happening in the future?

I'm still hoping for the best, but if not thank you for making Cohost. I'm so burnt out on corporate platforms that don't give a fuck about users at all, reading ASSC's mission statement was a breath of fresh air. I want devs to get paid a living wage to make something I want to use and moderate it like human beings. I'm glad I was here, I'm glad I got to experience it, and I'm glad you tried it.

And I will always treasure eggbug.