Stealing the "link roundup" format from Jae, Shel and Dante and probably others I forget.
I want to try to make this a regular thing. I don't expect the frequency to be consistent or anything, but still.
Cohost memoriams
As I write this, it has been almost two weeks since cohost went read-only. I still have many feelings about it. I do feel slightly less sad about it after having gone to the Bay Area wake, though.
I could link to a dozen cohost eulogies and retrospectives. I liked Shel's one, and anything from Dante's roundup was also good. But here are a couple that, I think, are neat.
The dissolution of a community is not value-neutral. I love my friends on Cohost’s staff and am glad that they get to move on to better-paying jobs where they will not be subjected to hideous amounts of stress daily. However, it upsets me when I think that the unique, joyous culture Cohost nurtured around porn might disappear when the site goes offline at the end of the year. It’s my dear, desperate hope that something about the experiences I’ve shared here will be useful to future porn community-builders.
i know i'm not the only one, i've seen a few artists who never posted online going on cohost and posted their art for the first time online. . i'm confident we're gonna see artists, writers, whathaveyou in the coming years who will point to cohost as where they started out.
Cohost meant a lot to a lot of people. To me, it meant this. A place I could see my friends art and not be bogged down with a lot of outside pressures. I don't know that I'll get that elsewhere online and it's honestly ok if I don't. I'm glad it existed. And if the closure results in tons of house shows (read: blogs and RSS renaissance) so be it.
sometimes it doesn't matter. sometimes it's good. for the better. moving on and into a better frame of mind. a different space. a better space.
sometimes it's just sad.
the people are the same, but the air is different. the imperceptible change in the intangible unreality makes everything feel slightly off. hairs raised just a bit. on edge. restless.
we'll probably be okay.
but i'll still miss it.
You have to be kind and empathetic and you have to love. God, you have to love something. Be a pervert, if you have to, I certainly am. You have to find joy no matter how dire the circumstances because otherwise this world will break you. It is such a beautiful feeling to love and be loved, and there is no way to achieve that through force, no matter how many people delude themselves otherwise.
Maybe the cohost spirit is not about the website, or eggbug, or the CSS crimes, or the memes, or the lack of metrics.
Maybe the cohost spirit is simply about learning who you are, being true to yourself, and - most importantly, this is the part you should not skip - caring for others who are trying to do the same, so that you, them, all of us, can be a little more free to be ourselves.
Be not afraid to care. You could mean the world to someone else.
Cool stuff I've seen or read
Ticky made some lovely 88x31 buttons to advertise that your website has an RSS feed. They're great.
I am going to rotate content warnings around like an object, cast upon in different lights, and examine their various implementations, justifications, and effects on online spaces in particular. I hope to locate a balanced dialectic on content warning best practices.
Excellent article from Shel about content warnings. Like other folks, I realized, after the fact, that cohost's implementation of that feature was smart and man, going back to Mastodon feels archaic in comparison.
CSS crimes were one of these "features" that made cohost special in my heart. I hope other websites are implemented in a way that we might see this practice pop-up elsewhere, but in an age where customization and expression is limited on the Web, CSS crimes always felt like a breath of fresh air and a fantastic avenue for creativity.
This is a wonderful collection of some of the best crimes that…Read more
