I've been putting off writing my Goodbye Chost for a week now, but there's not really any more time to procrastinate (read: type through the tears).

I don't think there's a lot that I can say that isn't going to be on your feed already, Cohost was a special place. It was a welcoming place. Cohost was a place that, for one reason or another, inspired people to be nice to each other.

Cohost was posters' rehab, where the folks coming in from other sites weaned ourselves off of numbers, pulled back from takes, and (most of us) put down the sword. Every site I've been on for the past decade has been a nightmare pit of violence. Sometimes it's justified, sometimes you're just the main character: but violence is always happening.

Years back I was Twitter's main character. I wrote a blog for work (if you know where I worked, no you don't) where I dared to say that games are better when folks seek inspiration from outside games. People went ballistic. Threads about this post went viral, and a few people wrote into my work trying to get me fired. It was shocking, it was traumatizing, and that's what Twitter has been for a decade. I lived by the sword, I died by the sword.

I stopped using Twitter as much after that, and each time I posted something that got more than 2 likes my stress levels skyrocketed.

When I joined Cohost I came in with the same energy as the Golden Bachelor (before the bad stuff). This was my last shot at love posting and if it didn't work out I was just going to live out my days on a goat farm or something. Cohost was warm. Folks here were excited to talk, curious about what other people were doing, and as I said at the top: People on Cohost Were Nice.

I'm sad to be losing Cohost, but my time here has made me a happier person. I have a healthier relationship with social media. I met strangers on the internet who didn't turn out to be chuds for the first time in years. I'm so glad Cohost Happened.

Thank you to everyone who made this site what it is/was. Thank you to the effortposters. Thank you to the artists, to the commenters, to all of the people I've spent time here with. Thank you to the people making massive posts about synths and to the people untagged shitchosting.

Thank you Eggbug, and most importantly thank you @staff. I'm sure it's difficult going through this but I hope one day y'all will look back with clarity and be proud that the the thing you made was too beautiful for this dogshit earth. You deserve flowers.

Where I'll be Tomorrow

I'm not sure how often I'll be posting from here on out (the goat farm does sound kind of nice), but here are the links (they'll also be in the sidebar so you can get them if you follow me):

Bluesky (currently where I'm posting most)
Mastodon (currently where I'm posting less)
I started a Bearblog that I also procrastinated on and will probably setup with a custom domain but that's here