i'm glad staff found their guy and are going to continue to be solvent for the next half year. i worry quite a bit about how much work they're saddling onto two programmers and one (1) moderator, though. burnout hits like a truck and it doesn't have a lot of appreciation for things like "deadlines"
their concept for a sort of permanent digital "artist's alley" is pretty novel and i think would in fact help significantly - i know that i'd personally really benefit from a feature like that and plan on using it quite a bit when/if it launches. but all the novel ideas in the world don't really get around the flesh-and-blood problem of needing human people to build and implement them.
there's been a lot of digital ink spilled recently trying to sort through the site's financials and development history, and a hefty majority of it applies a pretty uncharitable lens, concluding that Overwhelming Incompetence or even outright Manipulation and Malice are to blame, and i think that's more than a bit silly.
cohost presents itself as the Fourth Website, attempting to box in a ring ten times its size - but that's not really reflective of reality. its the pet project of four (?) friends who wanted to build what is essentially the hole-in-the-wall bar to tumblr/twitter's chain restaurants. largely i think they succeeded in doing that, but similar to that style of business the margins are tight and everyone is working themselves to the bone to keep the lights on.
i don't agree whatsoever with the supposition that staff has Given Up on the website - in fact, the criticism i have to level here is due to the exact opposite problem. i think they care immensely about cohost, and i think they're deeply aware of just how important their little website is to a great many people, especially in the wake of so many digital displacements recently.
its a symptom of that great deal of care that i think is ultimately going to be the make-or-break point of the website as a whole: is the workload reasonable?
committing to not one, but now two major projects (eggbux and the artist's alley), on top of maintaining and continuing to develop the main website, is a colossal commitment for two people - and that's before factoring in, like, life. i have a lot of admiration for how steadfast they hold to their founding beliefs under all of this strain, but i think there needs to be a very serious internal conversation about what is realistic to achieve in the timeframe they have with their resources.
i don't think that dismissing temporary measures out of hand in favor of taking on More Work is a sustainable practice, and i hope very sincerely that staff reconsiders some sort of fundraiser or similar stop-gap to, if nothing else, extend their deadlines.