but my phone was dead and I was away from my PC

so instead of learning i reverse engineered the learning platform i was using. just webdev with ADHD things

I heard someone bitching on bird site that Cohost was becoming an echo chamber of LGBTQ+ nerds who don't want anyone who doesn't share their opinions, and you know what? I genuinely don't see that as a bad thing.

One of the biggest problems of the "public square" type sites is the idea that any opinions at all should be allowed to be spoken, no matter how divisive or uncomfortable. "Free speech" advocates are always screaming about how, if you aren't allowing them into your discussions, you're creating "safe spaces" and "echo chambers" where only one set of opinions is allowed, shutting down what they call "free thinking".

I'd argue heavily that, while the echo chamber effect can be real, that discussions often evolve much more productively when they aren't allowed to be completely derailed by hostile actors trying to shove in unrelated/irrelevant opinions.

Smaller, curated spaces are very good for allowing discussions to take on depth and meaning. It's been called the "Coffee Shop Effect", after the Vienna coffee shops that 18th and 19th (and some early 20th) century philosophers and intellectuals used to gather in to exchange discourse - Essentially, by catering only to a certain type of intellectual, they allowed discussions to reach new heights freely. Of course there were still vast differences of opinions, sometimes even heated ones, but semi-controlled environments helped make those discussions more valuable and rewarding for everyone involved.

I feel like this is definitely a direction Cohost should move in - we don't need Nazis and right-wing bullshit spamming up our discussions and derailing everyone. We can have perfectly salient and interesting conversations without needing the worst elements on the other side to butt in every ten seconds.

Cohost is going to be a great platform for longer-form discussions and top-level organizing of ideas and movements if we all choose to use it that way. I know right now everyone's excited because of shitposting and effortpost CSS kind of things, but we do need to recognize that this is an actual useful space to come together and make ideas actually heard, without being overwhelmed.