Hello, World!

Violet Kurtz

With my preferred social media platform shutting down, I am not particularly a fan of the idea of finding a new social media to replace it. What made cohost so great, or at least have so much potential, was that it actively abhored the "traditional" profit and Big Numbers-based design of other platforms. Not having numbers of likes on posts or follower counts or even being able to easily see who my mutuals are was freeing. It became more about the interactions with other people, and that made it feel like social media.

Cohost was far from perfect. To my understanding, the collapse of the platform was down to three core problems.

  1. One of the two programmers caught COVID which developed into Long COVID. This put an incredible strain and damper on site development and the mental states of all staff members.
  2. In part because of the stalled development, cohost lost momentum in gaining users. Their funding model fundamentally relied on a large number of users, a small portion of which would be willing to shell out money each month to support the website's continued existence.
  3. The lack of sustainable funding meant cohost could not hire additional staff, particularly moderation staff. This led to irritatingly lax moderation allowing bad actors, particularly a good number of racists and other bigots, to start harassing people. Ultimately, users began leaving the site in protest.

It's truly tragic, because the core idea I believe was sound and good. It just failed to get to where it needed to be in time.

Anyways, I am not fully certain what I will be putting on this blog. Perhaps monthly updates towards my video projects, namely my YouTube "Let's Plays"? Perhaps occasional musings on technology, programming, and other topics that catch my interest? We will see where it goes as we move forward! And move forward we shall.

One idea that just popped into my head is perhaps opening some line of communication with me so people can send questions, thoughts, etc. and I can respond to them publicly here if desired.

Until next time, thanks to all of you who are joining me here!