the end of cohost

Just got an email saying my cohost data is ready to download. That was nice of them to preemptively do that.

I only posted a few times, and then just sorta drifted away to just discord and fedi. I never really vibed with the cohost interface... or maybe it was the culture? I don't mean that in a negative way... I think having never lived in tumblr, the design was just too much for me to absorb and appreciate.

There was also a lot of other stuff going on in my life during the arc from the Musk purchase of Xitter to the shutdown of cohost. A span of time where most of my posting was decidedly short form (or just selfies). Longer form stuff generally turned into private journals I either wasn't ready or wasn't inclined to turn into a public post.

So of course after all of that, I end up building and hosting my own blog. I think this is how I want it - to own my own posts and presentation. Blogs don't have to be social, or at least the social features don't have to be on-board. If folks want to chat about a blog, they can ping me on fedi, or discord, or anywhere else. While I have fond-adjacent memories of tons of posting on LJ with friends... it also feels like something that I can't go back to.

Both because the internet has changed, and because I've changed.

Living online used to be my cozy spot - my refuge from all the layers of malaise. Now... I just want it to be a tool. For connecting with others, for working on projects, for navigating the world when it isn't practical to navigate it physically.

Not my home.