Cohost to shut down at end of 2024

What Cohost Was & Why Some Liked It

• Described as a small, non-enshittified social network with a pleasant UI and strong moderation norms.
• Users liked: chronological feed; no global “firehose”; no like/repost/follow counts; long-form post culture; HTML/CSS posts enabling creative layouts; cohesive repost/comment threading.
• For some, it felt less “cramped” and less cesspool-like than Twitter/X, Facebook, or even Mastodon.
• Others bounced off it: small network, not compelling enough vs. existing apps, unclear why to use it over alternatives.

Centralization vs Federation

• Some saw lack of federation and account portability as a deal-breaker, making shutdown inevitable and offramp painful.
• Counterargument: federation wouldn’t fix revenue, would add large engineering and moderation burdens, and complicate culture control.
• Decentralized services are seen as messy (defederation, instance politics, migration), which turns some users off.

Costs, Salaries, and Sustainability

• Many surprised at ~$41k/month in expenses for a small userbase; discussion concludes most of it is payroll and benefits for four under-market-rate employees.
• Debate over whether $90k-ish pay is “high” or simply necessary to live and build a serious product.
• Thread repeatedly contrasts real labor costs (dev, admin, moderation) vs users’ focus on cheap VPS hosting.

Funding, Shutdown Mechanics, and Stripe

• Cohost’s codebase is collateral on a loan, blocking open-sourcing; speculation that lender may just delete it or sell it.
• Stripe reportedly killed a key tipping/subscription feature that didn’t gate exclusive content, hurting revenue.
• Some are baffled by loan terms; others frame this as a typical venture-debt/financing risk.

Ethical Social Media & Business Models

• “Ethical” is variously defined as: no surveillance capitalism, no ad-driven outrage optimization, user-serving features.
• Skeptics argue “ethical social media” is either a niche hobby or a money pit; without profit, it can’t scale to mainstream.
• Others counter that profit motive is harmful and that large-scale social media should resemble a public utility, possibly publicly funded.

Broader Implications & Emotional Reactions

• Cohost’s failure raises worries about long-term viability of Bluesky, Tumblr, Mastodon/Fediverse, etc., once investor money ends.
• Some see Mastodon/fediverse growth as modest and possibly a “dead end”; others note it “works” for niche communities.
• Multiple commenters are saddened; users describe losing a supportive community and creative space, with no guarantee of a comparable replacement.