welp it was a nice try but I guess the internet really isn't built to have anything complex last

tbh I've been thinking about it and honestly social media just does not appear to be profitable at all. just consider the biggest examples, dig even the slightest bit down and you quickly notice that their actual business is either:

• selling space of dubious value to advertisers, or
• exorbitant privacy breaches

sometimes both. ...usually both

people like having a place to chat with random other people and stuff but in the world of economics (ANY economics, not just capitalism) what value is there in that to begin with. so if we want to avoid those top two monetization schemes (because they're awful) we have to go to crowdfunding the promise that we're A Thing that people want instead and well, I can look at tumblr and reddit being on constant fire, there's always a great example of how much of a gap you need to clear from twitter chasing away nearly all its advertisers. we only start getting successful in that model when we shift away from social media. closest is the content creator sites with individual subscriptions and even there there's caveats; youtube was a loss leader for google for ages before they even tried that (I THINK it's profitable on its own merits now? I forget), twitch seems to be in a never-ending state of constant blunders, patreon definitely gets worse and worse every time I am forced to hear about it, and I don't know anything about places like onlyfans lol

even if these work out you do still need constant growth because social media sites tend to not delete things so the storage amounts and related costs just keep going up and up and up but you're probably not getting a proportionate increase in revenue

there's probably a lot of people here older than me (I'm 31) but I am old enough to remember the BBS era of the internet. tons of smaller communities just doing their own shit. that's definitely cheaper because you're not keeping as much data and vbulletin is still in business so I guess it's still working to a degree but the smaller communities meant they were doomed to become niche when bigger sites came along and promised even bigger Numbers

idk where I'm going with this

Well, today is a sad day for cohost :(

Unfortunately this is the only social media I use(d) under the chaclopop name, so I won't be found active in many other places for now. I don't know if I'll migrate to another platform to post my artwork unless it's to build my own website, either (that means I'm not planning on going to bluesky or Cara, for reasons) In that case, I have no links, I'm sorry.

The most I'm willing to do is put my Discord down in the comments if requested.

But I would like to thank the cohost staff for all their work, ever since I joined here a year ago I've had nothing but a positive experience. This site removed all the pressure and stress that a person would get from other platforms, like always being told how much engagement you're getting (yeah, seeing how many likes/reposts every post has can be a little draining) and being overwhelmed with as much content as possible. This site was very straightforward and I admire that. The community was small, but I enjoyed putting my stuff out here more than other places and that's why I kept coming back. So thank you, cohost, for showing me that I can still enjoy using social media if it's done right. I'll be sad it's gone but I'll be happier that I could be here.

Cohost shutting down is unfortunate, but I'm glad I spent my time with the site. It has helped re-enforce us to think that we shouldn't just pile up our interests on one or a few corporate websites, but rather make our own communities for others to seek and find, what the internet truly was from the start that social media tried to erase.

Unfortunately it also gave us a grave reminder of our reality: nothing is truly free. It costs money to run websites and keep data, so if you aren't going the easy route and just advertising, and if the alternatives aren't enough to make a profit (subscriptions, merch), then it's not gonna last. Stripe being shitty suddenly also didn't help with something that was planned for years. Really wish all that time with "Web 3" could have been spent to solve issues like this and not shitty crypto and digital scams.

As sad as Cohost shutting down is, I do want people to look forward rather than being all doom and gloom. Cohost was proof that a community of people wanting an alternative to the big social media sites with no invasive algorithm is out there. It's how to maintain it is what we gotta figure out.

I don't know have it in me to wax poetic or eulogize but know that this was the safest, happiest place I've found on the internet.

If you're looking for me:

discord: @mildoo
priv twitter: @mmildoo
bluesky (squatting): @mildoo
tumblr: @mil-doo