Cohost, a new social media site

November 29, 2022 1:57 PM

Cohost.org is a new, in-development blogging platform that pledges: no ads, no tracking, your home feed is a chronological timeline of posts by the people you follow, with "clear and effective moderation done by humans." It's open to signups and it's built by a not-for-profit worker-owned software company. It's currently not that easy to browse unless you're logged in; here are some sample tags: food, autism, long post. Previously.
posted by brainwane (27 comments total)

What's the status of their extremely strange TOS these days?
posted by sagc at 2:02 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Cohost was also discussed in a thread about Twitter a few weeks ago. Some concerns about its terms of service came up; Cohost has addressed them in a few posts and Terms of Use changes (1, 2, 3).
posted by brainwane at 2:02 PM on November 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

I signed up for Cohost about a month ago, and so far, it's my favorite of the Twitter alternatives (even though it's more like a mix between Twitter and Tumblr). I like its vibe.

da share z0ne is on Cohost as well; hopefully other popular Twitter accounts will follow.
posted by May Kasahara at 2:09 PM on November 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

I am enjoying cohost so much right now! (I'm at JDHarper there too) I am following a bunch of people who I used to follow on Twitter, and then expanded that to people who's names I kept seeing reposted or in mu bookmarked tag feed. The culture right now is pretty exciting. It's like a chill version of a social network, without a lot of the dark patterns you get when someone is trying to monetize you. Reminds me of the internet of ten to fifteen years ago.

And they are making some deliberate changes from sites like Twitter that are designed to remove some of the toxicity. For example: You can't see who someone else is following. You can't see how many favorites a post got. You can make up your own content warnings if you feel like a post might be unpleasant for someone else. They aren't trying to funnel you into an app that can steal your data.

And, like May Kasahara says, there is a lot of Tumblr in the DNA too. Longer posts, tags, pictures, reblogging with room for your own commentary. People are doing some fun CSS tricks (which I think is part of what reminds me of the old internet, people just playing with the form a little more than Facebook/Twitter allow you to do).

It is small enough that following tags is fun and possible and not colonized by spammers and ads and influencers (so far), and having a "bookmarked tabs" feed separate from the main people you follow is a really good design choice IMO.

I'm rambling at this point but Cohost is the first really exciting social media type website that I've encountered in ages and I think it's definitely worth taking a look around.
posted by JDHarper at 2:48 PM on November 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

Cohost has rss feeds now, though they are still in a preview stage.
posted by Gary at 2:52 PM on November 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

OK I made a login see me there in a few days after the signup waiting period (did they get that one from us?!)
posted by latkes at 3:17 PM on November 29, 2022

I've only posted once (Andor spoiler warning) but I like the idea of a micro-blogging site that feels a little more like an actual blog than Twitter. I've already read enough interesting stuff there that I'm willing to keep checking back and probably post more if topics come to mind.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:24 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you're looking for a social media thing that's pretty cool, you could try Pronoiac's unofficial Metafilter-themed server that some of us are gathering on!
posted by JHarris at 3:25 PM on November 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

see me there in a few days

I was just given access today about two weeks after signing up, so don't hold your breath. I'm here.
posted by backseatpilot at 3:48 PM on November 29, 2022

It’s an interesting concept, and if I had the brain space for another social media site I’d be using it! I do hope they change the name, though - it makes me think of an ISP, not a collaborative event.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:49 PM on November 29, 2022

I signed up for it a while back. I like it, though there aren't a lot of people there yet so I haven't really used it much. I'm bondcliff over there as well.
posted by bondcliff at 4:02 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Signed up. Not really that much happening, apparently. Doesn't seem like one of the 3 employees is a designer…
posted by signal at 5:29 PM on November 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

I signed up with Cohost a little while back when I saw the Waypoint crew going over there, as well as a couple other accounts I follow, like the aforementioned share z0ne. It does seem like a cross between Blogger and Twitter, with maybe some Patreon and Ko-Fi-esque features planned at some nebulous future date. No idea if it has legs, but I kind of like it and hope it stays around for a bit.

Same username there as here.
posted by rodlymight at 5:41 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm intrigued, much as I love Tumblr. But then I tried Ello too...and Mastodon...guess I'll go take a look. God knows even pre-Musk Twitter had some problems.
posted by emjaybee at 5:46 PM on November 29, 2022

Look how many websites let you embed Winamp in a post?
posted by JDHarper at 6:32 PM on November 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

I kind of like the feel of it, it feels more straightforward and with less potential for drama than Mastodon for someone who doesn't use the social aspects of social media. I use Twitter like an RSS reader to see what informed people are saying. Right now there doesn't seem much of this on cohost, but let's see how it goes. I hope it does well, so I don't have to spend brain cells figuring out Mastodon.
posted by tavegyl at 7:42 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I saw the Waypoint crew going over there

Ooh thanks for the reminder to look them up on Cohost. Love to get on a site early enough to snag first-name usernames!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:09 AM on November 30, 2022

Why is this getting so little attention compared to the new post about "Post?" I cannot with these new things, wake me when one "wins" please...
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:11 AM on November 30, 2022

Why is this getting so little attention compared to the new post about "Post?"

Less controversy, likely? Read many of the comments in that post Post and it's pretty obvious why there's more of them.
posted by May Kasahara at 7:45 AM on November 30, 2022

I framed and structured this thread to be about Cohost. The thread about Post is framed to be about Post but also Elon Musk, Twitter, and, implicitly, Twitter alternatives in general.
posted by brainwane at 8:28 AM on November 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm going to give Cohost a try, not least because I'm interested in TTRPG things and I've noticed some people in that community are posting on Cohost for things that are too long for Mastodon. For me it's not "instead of" but "in addition to".
posted by gentlyepigrams at 1:44 PM on November 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Like any social network, cohost is only as fun as the people you interact with. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for making cohost fun:

• Follow lots of people! If you see that someone makes one interesting post, go ahead and follow them. This is much lower traffic site, you won't get overwhelmed (and if someone is too noisy you can always unfollow or mute them).
• If you feel comfortable doing it once you get posting rights, make a post and tag it #welcome to cohost (as they suggest on their homepage). Some folks watch that, you might make a friend.
• Bookmark tags you find interesting. There is a separate tab for bookmarked tags that lists all the posts with tags you follow. (This can be a source of people to follow too!)
• Similarly, if you post stuff, try to add at least a couple of tags, so that people who follow those tags see it
• Comment on people's posts! If you want. People are mostly pretty friendly, and it's nice to know that someone has read what you wrote and cared enough to say something.
• This post has some people recommending other people to follow, and I picked up a couple of interesting people here

Note: Currently the little heart button just gives the post author a notification that says you liked it. There are plans to give you a list of your faved posts but it isn't implemented yet. (This is still just a 3 person operation at the moment, and they work normal business hours. The last couple weeks have been focused on stability and speed more than new features, so bear that in mind--it's all a work in progress!)

And finally, here are some interesting recent posts I found

• @bruno, Bruno Dias, the narrative designer for Fallen London, has been doing a series of posts on the history of the metagame of Magic: The Gathering. As someone who missed the dawn of Magic as a kid, this has been fascinating reading.
• @xyzzy posted a youtube video of 80's Japan commercials (which was already interesting) then explained that it was compilation of scams, with detailed notes!
• @cathoderaydude writes about the NHL's new practice of digitally adding ads onto the existing printed ads (and how that doesn't work)
• @mcc writes about how Ryan Gosling wrote the Baseline scene in Blade Runner 2049 and the poem that his lines came from and why it's even more striking than you might think at first.

posted by JDHarper at 3:55 PM on November 30, 2022 [6 favorites]

This looks like it has promise. But, where are screenshots showing what you see when you are logged in? I don't want to create an account just to say five minutes in, "Nope. Not my bag."

JDHarper's links do a great job of what you see when you are reading, but what about composing?

And, with a name like cohost, Google was not much of a friend bringing many other screenshots.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:28 PM on November 30, 2022

I said a lot about Mastodon in the Post post (post post post), and I am active on mefi.social, but I made a Cohost account too. I'm rodneylives there.
posted by JHarris at 9:57 PM on November 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Cohost's stance on cryptocurrency is refreshing, and correct.

it is our corporate policy that cryptocurrency is a scam being perpetrated by the finance industry — in particular, but not limited to, venture capitalists — on everyone else on earth…
posted by rodlymight at 7:19 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Why is this getting so little attention compared to the new post about “Post?”

Less controversy, likely? Read many of the comments in that post Post and it's pretty obvious why there's more of them.

As with Twitter, a certain kind of success is fueled when the people you hate also want to show up and be heard.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:26 PM on December 5, 2022

The promotional reach of a thing is the sum of all of the reasons it's notable. Post is well-funded and is founded by a billionaire, that's a pretty substantial hook right there. It's also connected with the Washington Post, that's huge, but it's probably the billionaire effect. Cohost doesn't have those advantages. Media gravity is one of those many subtle influences that having a big ol' pile of cash can exert.
posted by JHarris at 3:28 AM on December 6, 2022