Writer and reader of horror, fantasy, and smut. My wife proposed with a sword. I like to draw sometimes as well, and post pics of myself when I'm feeling good. For identification purposes I'm 29 years old, transfem, and queer/sapphic.
I post stuff and nobody comments. Do I bother pouring more time/effort over here or not?
The whole point I joined Cohost was to have better quality conversations with friends and other people who discover my work, but across all my posts about stuff, maybe 1-2 comments total since I joined, excluding the shitpost about the big-buttoned telephone.
I'm building the mesa in the image from scratch, and some beautiful homes too in HO Scale.
I see this!
One issue might be the entirely non-algorithmic nature of the TL here? If you post something once, it's visible at exactly that point in time on everyone's TLs, so there's much more reason to boost your content once, twice, or even multiple times.
More aggressive tagging might also help, especially with communities and interests that don't seem to be as widespread on here, such as mainline railways? If you want more exposure for your post, it's always OK to put it (unless it's, like, inflammatory or genuinely spammy, hypothetically?) in "#The Cohost Global Feed", and there's now various "#The Cohost Local Feed (place)" tags, for content of a local nature.
That, and I think it probably just takes a certain critical mass of active followers to really get engagement ~happening~, as seems typical for social media platforms.
I'm not sure how helpful any of this is, but!!
Yeah! This IS helpful. Thank you! I mean, also the fact that you responded at all is a step in the right direction. Anytime I post something I want people to start conversations, I'm not just doing it to show off or scream into the void haha.
I'd imagine a lot of that is people being hesitant to comment on things where they don't have total confidence in whatever they might be saying? Given that most of Cohost's userbase comes from Twitter and Mastodon, well, that's a lot of people who've gotten used to some of the most merciless "assume bad faith" out there to the point that it has a chilling effect even on totally benign conversation.
…I find that explicitly inviting replies tends to help, too! The default assumption on whether to reply to things or not (and not just on here) seems to lean a bit more in the direction of "don't @ me", even if only slightly, so.
That's VERY true. the sort of digital CPTSD that twitter gave us all, is something to always keep in mind. What a hellsite that was, I'm glad I'm officially gone from there.
I'll see about including invitations to reply in future posts, because I'd love to start some great modelmaking conversations on here.
Also Cohost is a very specific brand of deep-cut nerdery I'd expect would enjoy the things I post, and I'd like to see more about what people think, especially since this is a kinder, gentler site with good people.
And sometimes, "cPTSD" isn't even hyperbolic. ☠️
But yeah, there's absolutely people who'd be interested in your posts! Heck, I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate just seeing any deep dive kind of stuff that isn't about tech or media — like, it's all good stuff, but there needs to be variety!
Yeah, friends of mine have had their lives actively threatened on Twitter, so I could only imagine how much emotional damage that causes both short and long term. I'm just thankful my opinions on model trains aren't THAT dire.
I'd love to see more variety on CoHost in general. There's a LOT of "inside baseball" computer programming stuff that's not in my wheelhouse at all, so I welcome more interesting and unusual hobbies/interests on here.
Even just the arcane, brutal group dynamics on there (and, in different ways, Mastodon) can achieve that kind of damage — let alone when things reach the Literal Death Threats level of horror.
But yeah, definitely. This is a website that could work really, really well for so many kinds of subject matter, and it's… … …well, it's got a ton of unrealised potential yet!
i wish there were some papers or articles or something on that sort digital cptsd because it's something i want to look into more. i'm someone who was lucky enough to avoid basically all controversy on twitter because i had a pretty small account and i still feel like being on that hellsite for so long has damaged my brain permanently.
I certainly read your posts, and I like that it reminds me that I should be doing something with my model trains.
Ideally, what would you like to build? I'm always happy to inspire/bounce ideas off of!
I still have an idea for a simple shelf layout, focusing more on the electronics and operations part. Scenery would be quite abstract with white 3d printed buildings, feeling a bit like a training level of a computer game.
Things got put on hold though, because a big electronics project of mine popped up again. In about two weeks that will be finished and then I have the time to start exploring other things again.
Sounds remarkably cool! Once that project is complete, tag me in the modeling stuff!
What's the other project you're working on?
A badge for a conference. Can't tell much more for another 2 weeks, but after that I'll post something about it on cohost.
As always, glad to have ya aboard! Also it was a delight meeting you yesterday.
i don't know that you'll ever get tons of "engagement" on cohost, but on the other hand, this post did lead to me seeing your absolutely gorgeous model train work. followed! and commented! please continue doing the thing, your efforts are appreciated!
I REALLY appreciate this. It's not really the classical "engagement" I'm craving, as IG/Twitter have kind of forced me to unlearn wanting that kind of Pavlovian response to "number go up" and instead, I just want comments like this, so I can start a fun conversations and (re)introduce people to modelmaking.
I'll admit, I'm on the other side of the world, so I'm frequently not in the ideal spot to see posts until after they've expended relevancy, so personally I generally take the stance of just liking things and moving on, unless I have something significant to add. That said I did see this and did want to let you know that you're not howling to the void, I love seeing your posts when I do see them.
Oh yeah! I've always been curious about the times people are awake around the globe influencing what gets seen where and when. I remember back on other forum sites that'd have the "US shift" the "Euro Shift" and the "Oceania shift"
i absolutely want to get into model train collecting/building, just don't have the money atm :<
Surprisingly, depending on what you want, you might not need much money at all to get started in the hobby. I could probably point you in the right direction to have a target to save up for, or if it's not too expensive, just buy once you have a few extra dollars.
What kind of trains do you like?
i don't know much of the terminology or anything, but those long-haul freight trains are my absolute favorite. also those massive steam locomotives are awesome too!!
Thank goodness my partner shared this. I don't know anything about model trains and don't have the space to start but these sorts of hobbies. I'm pretty thrilled to see the kind of landscape you're building. :)
I don't see a lot of comments either and often wonder if I'm getting any interaction. Although to be fair... I have been so busy that I haven't been posting as much as I should. Hang in there!
Thanks Ange, I really appreciate this. That's the fun of the videos I'm making, all the fun of the layout captured on video, and you don't need more than a screen to enjoy modeling too. I just did a bunch of scenery yesterday, and more to come soon.
Just seeing this and JAZZED about it. My grandfather had an enormous model railroad at home + my grandma wrote and published a book about it, so I feel super connected to the craft. Really amped to follow ya on YouTube as well ^_^
Oh, that's marvelous! What's the book your Grandma made about the model railroad? Now I'm curious to see it!
It's called "My Grandpa Plays With Trains". Definitely a children's book but I still open it to look at the photos from the train room from time to time (and if you do look at it, yes that is actually a small me and my actual grandfather in the photos ^_^).
