1.
I have been trying to figure out how to write this and I don't think I'll ever figure out a coherent structure before this site shuts down. So I'll just put down sections and paragraphs. I have a friend showing up in 45 minutes to pick me up in her car so I'll probably just keep writing and then post whatever I got before she arrives.

2.
I saw a good post circulating around here saying to keep an eye on where everyone says they're going and what they plan on doing cause you never know what they may create together. I think that's a good idea. I don't particularly like Bluesky but it is cool seeing clusters of Cohost folks showing up there. It's like okay here are the people who embody Cohost values, who likely have thought deliberately about what they want social media to be, who are aware of the dangers of clout chasing and mass harassment. Also been seeing folks move to the fediverse, and Cohost has made it less intimidating to follow them there. Since Cohost is a slightly more technical website than your basic Twitter or Tumblr, it can be kind of like training wheels for the fediverse.

I was recently rereading Samuel Delaney's Times Square Red, Times Square Blue and mulling over the ideas about social spaces and city life. When I first read the book I thought to myself, man I'm sad I never got to live in the vanished "Times Square Blue" of porn theaters and sexual encounters and queerness lived in public. After finishing the book I found myself thinking about it almost on a daily basis, and it influenced the way I dressed, the way I walked, the way I held myself around strangers. I found myself talking to people on the street more, approaching public spaces with a more expansive set of expectations, and a few weeks later I had a very Times-Square-Blue sexual encounter. Times Square Blue is a vanished place and time, but also it's something you can build a little bit of around you right now. I'm hoping the same is true of Cohost. (On second reading I decided to actually look at the introduction and was pleased to see Delaney saying the same thing I figured out on my own.)

3.
I also think of the person at the beginning of the documentary Queercore: How Punk A Revolution who said that the best way to start a punk scene in your city is to pretend it already exists and then people start coming to it.

Gotta go for now! More later!