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.
