Cohost

Cohost was a multimedia micro-blogging platform with social networking features operated by anti software club. It first launched to the public on June 28, 2022,Credits. Cohost.org. Retrieved Oct 23, 2023. (Archived 2023-02-02) at which point fans from a variety of fandoms began to migrate from Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Tumblr. On September 9, 2024, it was announced that the site would be closing at the end of the year. https://cohost.org/staff/post/7611443-cohost-to-shut-down
== History ==
=== Cohost So White ===
=== Final Days of Cohost ===
In the days leading up to Cohost becoming read-only, users commemorated the site via sharing reflections on the site's culture and farewell messages, as well as organizing a handful of memorial meetups, including in Bostonpervocracy (14 Sept 2022). https://cohost.org/pervocracy/post/7720893-boston-area-cohost-m and Philadelphiashel (Sept 24 2024). https://cohost.org/shel/post/7715123-philadelphia-cohos Archived 09-22-24..
==== Retrospectives and Reflections ====
In an essay entitled "Cohost Eulogy and Retrospective", user Shel Raphen praised the site's culture, remarking that the userbase created and enthusiastically supported a surprising number of deep dives into niche topics, which she contrasted with abrasive and superficial discourse common on social media:
Many users shared this preference for Cohost over other social media sites, including @love, who wrote@love. https://cohost.org/love/post/7623790-aw-man Archived 10-02-2024.:
@pervocracy also contrasted Cohost and other social media (namely Twitter), writing@pervocracy. https://cohost.org/pervocracy/post/7898253-thank-you-so-much-to. Archived 10-02-2024.:
Shel Raphen also observed the creative and diverse ways users commemorated the site: 
==Fan Use==
===Fandoms Active on Cohost===
*Disco Elysium
*Friends at the Table - Cast members of Friends at the Table were included among Cohost's alpha testers and the full cast is active on the platform, inspiring numerous fans of the podcast to create accounts on Cohost immediately following its public launch.
*Furry Fandom: The site is popular among furry artists and those interested in furry art more broadly, with an active furry tag.
=== CSS Crimes ===
Cohost allowing custom CSS enabled fan creators to make interactive posts emulating the styles of their favorite games, such as Balatrohttps://cohost.org/amypercent/post/5304033-balatro-simulator, Mysthttps://cohost.org/isyourguy/post/42992-the-stoneship-age, and Disco Elysiumhttps://cohost.org/fish/post/237372-disco-elysium. 
At the final XOXO fest in August 2024, staff made a presentation that included some of these fannish creations.https://cohost.org/staff/post/7463450-our-slides-from-xoxo
==Controversies==
===Rahaeli TOS Controversy===
In November 2022, fan and Dreamwidth co-founder rahaeli posted a viral Twitter thread strongly critiquing Cohost's Terms of Service and warning users away from the website until such time as the TOS had been radically changed.@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). Okay, people keep asking "but what even does that MEAN (it means "we have no idea what we're doing") so let's do this: why Cohost's Terms of Service are terrible and abusive and you should not agree to them unless they are radically changed (Tweet). (Archived 2022-12-08)
Rahaeli's critiques of the TOS, which she described as abusive and coercive,@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). (But even then, the judgement of a business that goes live with this flaming dumpster fire of a ToS is incompatible with the nice marketing things they're saying and the legally binding one is the abusive and coercive one) (Tweet). included its binding arbitration clause:
Clauses prohibiting misinformation:
Several clauses that made no sense in context and/or were impossible to comply with:
Multiple clauses prohibiting almost all fanworks:
As well as clauses prohibiting any kind of commercial use@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). Are you an author? Do you sell the physical proceeds of a hobby, such as cross-stitch or knitting? Do you link to your Etsy, or hell, an eBay auction, from time to time? Perfume decant circles? Mention that book you just published? This clause prevents all of those. (Tweet). or requiring users to pay Cohost's taxes for that use,@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). Okay, look. Some of these terms have been fixable with small tweaks. This? This clause says that if you have ever made any paid content available on the site, and someone paid you for it, Cohost can legally come after you for EVERY BIT OF TAX *THEY* PAID ON THAT MONEY. (Tweet) prohibiting anyone from linking to any Cohost post ever,@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). I am being glib here but this clause really does make it a ToS violation to link to any Cohost post, period. Or even vaguely discuss it! That's "disclosing" it! Again: they want this clause there to protect the content people make paid DLC. (Tweet) and restricting the names or usernames that users may choose to represent themselves (about which rahaeli made reference to the Nymwars).@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). 5. 🚩 "(ii) register only once using a single username" Probably the least egregious red flag from all this, but it prevents people from having, say, a main blog and a fandom blog. (Tweet)@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). 🚩 "(b) register under the name of another person;" Sloppy drafting: this is written so vaguely it implies any Jane Smith past the first is technically in violation, because that's "the name of another person". It needs a "that is not also your own", and then-- & --we get into the tough question of "what is a name and what counts as *your* name, which is. Well. We had a whole fight in 2009 about it, look up the nymwars. (Tweets).@rahaeli (Nov 5, 2022). 🚩🚩🚩 "(d) choose a username for the purposes of deceiving or misleading our users and/or us as to your true identity" This clause literally prevents pseudonyms. I cannot, by this TOS, register as "rahaeli" as that is not my "true identity" (see also: nymwars). (Tweet)
=== Staff Irresponsibility Controversy ===
Many users have critiqued the staff behind Cohost for their alleged financial and general irresponsibility.
Cohost staff wrote the following regarding the reason for Cohost's financial failure:Rahaeli alleged that this was never going to work, in a thread on Bluesky. It read, in part:Many people also expressed that they were not surprised by Cohost's shutdown, due to staff seeming financially irresponsible. A thread on the Melonland forum, titled "Cohost is shutting down at the end of 2024"https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=3355.0, shows multiple different sentiments.
Some negatively referenced the H1 2023 financial update, where it was mentioned that each staff member received a salary of $94,000 a year.https://cohost.org/staff/post/1690393-h1-2023-financial-upOthers argued that it was good for the staff to prioritize paying themselves and their employees.Many users, generally, reported a lack of sympathy for staff, and a feeling of the shutdown being inevitable.
== Web Rings of Former Users ==
In the wake of Cohost's closure, many users created web rings and other lists to keep in touch with like-minded people.
* Cohost Highway
==References==
Category:Social Networking
Category:Microblogs