I don’t know how many of you know me and don’t know about cohost. It was a very cool site. Like, imagine tumblr, but you can do anything that HTML + CSS allows (which is a lot, you can make entire games with just that), and also it’s filled with queers, furries, writers, and folx of various combinations of the above. I recommended it to a lot of writers! I made pages for super secret projects to use once those launch!
But alas, things cost money, and even though they had an absolutely bananas % of users who were paying for premium and a bare-bones staff, this is its last month alive. It’s gotten a lot of people feeling things and starting to pack up to, once again, become digital nomads in search of a new home.
Cohost was nice, since I could post very silly/weird rants about hyper-specific things that I knew chosties would like, but perhaps not the faceless people who read this blog. There was also the feeling that this site had to be more “professional” and cohost was more casual and “personal.”
This has gotten me thinking about stuff more, about what it means to have a digital “home,” the layers of separation we need to make between our “worksona” and our true selves. And, you know what? Fuck it. Let’s be weirder here. I’ve already had the pride flags in the footer for forever. I’m not writing stories for the sake of “professionalism” or that aren’t weird and queer. They’re weird! And queer! And quite a few are furry!
I have weird opinions on tech, some of which I am making everyone else’s problem (see: secret project). I went to a college where people got into honest to god fistfights over Mac vs PC! I still own my Zune! And you will take my wired earbuds from my cold, dead hands.
So, yes, I am going to be more open here. I’m going to be more weird, and more opinionated, and people will just have to deal with that. That’s how my stories are, and it’s a little silly to put on a veneer of false palatability for the masses when that’s not the work that I make.
So, for this site update:
- There is a button/banner box in the sidebar now
- I made a button for this website, which is now in the footer
- I added a “Cool Sites” page to the main nav, to point to friends/works I like/tools I think you should know about
The Cool Sites page will be a constant work in progress, as I add stuff and rearrange it. So check back from time to time, I just might have a new favorite thing!
Cohost was great, is still great, and I’ve seen it help people out a lot. It introduced me to some great writers and artists, who I’ve given my money to. It was the birthplace of Buttonhook, which is a cool concept that, sadly, did not get off the ground. I still have the piece I would have published in the second issue, so let me dig that up and share it with y’all.
The Internet doesn’t have to be made up of audiences and businesses. It’s a way for people to connect, form communities, and find kinship in the dark. I want to cultivate a space where people can be nice! And I wish that you, dear reader, can do the same. Cohost taught me a lot of things and made me a better person and a better citizen of the net. I hope that you can find such a home, too, and that it may last long and always filled with such light.
-Chase J
