Cohost is shutting down at the end of 2024

[bugholder's epiphany]

Okay, the Stripe thing is probably what confused me about all of this the most. I don't think that Stripe has had any recent policy changes (though I could be wrong about this). Besides, was using another payment processor not an option?

Back during May, Stripe suddenly updated a section on prohibited and restricted businesses on their policies. Specifically, they banned tipping (which was literally essential to the thing they were going to implement) and anything involving content related to tipping, as well as banning access to exclusive content.

As the staff themselves put it here:

we’re also unsure if the restrictions on subscriptions for exclusive content would apply just to us, or to every single user accepting subscriptions on the platform. the former would create an existential risk where Stripe could wholesale revoke our ability to accept money on behalf of users, which would put everyone at risk; the latter creates undue burden for users accepting subscriptions.

regardless of if we could work around these restrictions, the fact that they were suddenly added with immediate effect tells us that we would not be safe launching with Stripe support. the risk to ourselves and to users that depend on eggbux for all or some of their income would be too high.

The biggest problem was that the tools and functionality they had prepared were developed using Stripe's products that, with any other payment processor, they would've had to build out themselves. Cohost's team was like... three, four people, who were already having to work on a lot of other things for the website, and at that point had been 100% focused on working on the shit developed around Stripe.

No matter what, they would've had to start over from scratch thanks to Stripe. And given the state of payment processors these days where they'll implement policy changes that'll absolutely screw you over without warning... Yeah.

[xixxii]

everybody say hi to techcrunch!

“As of today, none of us are being paid for our labor,” the company shared in a post on its staff account, possibly an attempt to dispel rumors that staff salaries had eaten up the funds.

somehow this thread is the source linked for "rumors". does melonland have really good seo or something? lol.

for the record, techcrunch, it is not a "rumor" that staff salaries ate up the funds it is a fact explicitly stated by cohost staff themselves in their financial updates.
H1 2023 Financial Update:

to recap, we have three major expense categories: payroll, hosting/operations infrastructure, legal and professional services. our total expenses are roughly $46k per month.

as we do every year, we increased our pay inline with an inflation rate of 8.4%, effective February 15. this means pay is now $94,616 for all employees. our total payroll expenses (including taxes, health insurance, etc) are approximately $36k per month.

cohost's income has actually been sufficient to cover non-payroll costs for months.

[Bede]

somehow this thread is the source linked for "rumors". does melonland have really good seo or something? lol.

Pfft, hi Techcrunch! It's super funny that our silly little forum is being cited. There are tons of other posts made by tons of other people, but I guess our indie web forum is the best to cite? xD

for the record, techcrunch, it is not a "rumor" that staff salaries ate up the funds it is a fact explicitly stated by cohost staff themselves in their financial updates.

Exactly! Well said.

Back during May, Stripe suddenly updated a section on prohibited and restricted businesses on their policies. Specifically, they banned tipping (which was literally essential to the thing they were going to implement) and anything involving content related to tipping, as well as banning access to exclusive content.

Oh, gotcha, gotcha. Thank you for explaining! God, I hate the way that payment processors more or less rule the internet... See lots of payment processors and banks banning NSFW stuff for reasons why NSFW stuff keeps getting banned off social media.

Is Pillowfort open for registrations yet? I have like a shit ton of invite codes built up. I'll drop ten now, but if none of these work, DM me and I'll send you one. Or a few. Ask for a few, for your mates, if you want.

Thank you for the codes! Finally got around to making a Pillowfort thanks to you.

[wygolvillage]

I never used Cohost but when I learned that there were like 4 staff members total- who handle the technical stuff, the moderation and everything else- this news became very unsurprising. It's just not a sustainable workload for that small of a devteam.

[armaina]

Okay, the Stripe thing is probably what confused me about all of this the most. I don't think that Stripe has had any recent policy changes (though I could be wrong about this). Besides, was using another payment processor not an option?

You are correct, there wasn't any actual policy changes that would have prevented them from doing this because it was never permitted in the first place. They just put such poor amount of research into setting up the Patreon-like service that they didn't even know they were doomed from the start.

Also, they don't need another payment processor, they need a bank. That is the only way they can do the proposed process of collecting  money and redistributing it, without accidentally committing a money laundering.
https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3kur74isiyd2d
This thread from Rahaeli (co-founder of Dreamwidth and former trust and safety manager of Livejournal) goes into how what CoHost wanted to do with Stripe was never going to work, long before the TOS wording change.

For added context, this is the setup Patreon has to use in order to create an entity that collects payments then re-distributes it back out to others.
https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024774831-How-payment-processing-works-on-Patreon

After I had learned they were planning on using Stripe for their backend for their site I knew the project was going to fail.

[Capybara]

I couldn't really vibe with Cohost due to general anxiety and the staff's iffy decisions with money, but I'm still sad about it closing even if I saw it coming. It had a cozy Tumblr-esque layout, nice color palette, good post editor (I'm going to go through the css crimes to archive stuff I thought was cool), I also liked how you couldn't see follower count on people's pages. It's frustrating how so many of these alternative sites all have better features than The Big 5, but they're either not active, not enough people want to jump ship, or money and staffing issues gets in the way and they die.

[boyrotting]

Honestly, I'm not surprised. It was a really cool site and I'm sad to see it go but this was inevitable. I was on there a few years ago and it was quite clear that it wasn't going to last long. I don't remember too much about it so I can't really talk much about it.

[GoonyBaloney]

the beginning of cohost's end is actually what pushed me to register here. i know the site had its issues, but it was still nice to have a decentralized space that didn't emphasize numbers or popularity or what-have-you. i supported the site monetarily because i believed in what it could be, and while yeah, it sucks it didn't last long, i think it's successful in that it shows an open space like cohost can exist and be successful in some way.

websites are temporary. eggbug is forever.

 

100% I think a social media that emphasizes more on the quality of the post and user than metrics and numbers to people is a good idea and cohost was proof a space like that could foster a really great community of creatives and people in general.

I understand the reasons why it was unprofitable to run, but I'll still miss how friendly the community was in general and the amount of resources they provided. It was one of the few bright spots left of the internet for me. I don't think any current website could provide something like that for me, not even Bluesky.

God, I hate the way that payment processors more or less rule the internet... See lots of payment processors and banks banning NSFW stuff for reasons why NSFW stuff keeps getting banned off social media.

yeeeepp... extremely frustrating to see how more common it's becoming.

[Bede]

You are correct, there wasn't any actual policy changes that would have prevented them from doing this because it was never permitted in the first place. They just put such poor amount of research into setting up the Patreon-like service that they didn't even know they were doomed from the start.

Ahh, I see! Thank you very much for your detailed response! Gosh, they really were careless... and trying to blame it all on Stripe when they were the ones who didn't do enough research in the first place? Jeez. It's so sad that such a great idea happened to come to people who (in the nicest way possible) weren't competent enough to see it out.

[drakonic]

One of the most unfortunate parts to me is that Cohost can't be open sourced and live on in some form. All the development work that was done for Cohost is pretty much gone and locked away. Because the source code was used as collateral for the loan from their funder.

[bugholder's epiphany]

One of the most unfortunate parts to me is that Cohost can't be open sourced and live on in some form. All the development work that was done for Cohost is pretty much gone and locked away. Because the source code was used as collateral for the loan from their funder.

What drives me insane about this is that someone made a well thought out suggestion to the funder as an attempt to try and keep Cohost alive. He completely ignored the suggestion because the title was originally "A Modest Proposal". Didn't even read it, never even gave it a thought, just dismissed it entirely because of the name of the proposal.

So uh, the funder is not my most favorite person in the world.

[Capybara]

What drives me insane about this is that someone made a well thought out suggestion to the funder as an attempt to try and keep Cohost alive. He completely ignored the suggestion because the title was originally "A Modest Proposal". Didn't even read it, never even gave it a thought, just dismissed it entirely because of the name of the proposal.

So uh, the funder is not my most favorite person in the world.

Holy crap, what an obtuse response. That made me lose a ton of respect :/

[xixxii]

@bugholder's epiphany  to be fair (...for a certain degree of fair), they could also just be lying about being the funder, which is what i've always assumed! i don't think they've ever provided any kind of proof, shared any new information, answered any questions with anything more concrete than "maybe" or "it's a secret", or had any confirmation or interaction from staff. as a liar, it'd be in their best interest to avoid engaging with actual material suggestions since they make it much harder to keep up the lie! "suddenly i can't read, logging off forever now bye!!!" is not a response i typically associate with people telling the truth about a subject, at any rate 

i mean, maybe they're telling the truth and the funder is indeed kind of a jerk; also very possible. just have seen people saying in various places that this random person is Definitely For Sure the funder of cohost even though that's not actually something we know for sure

[bugholder's epiphany]

@bugholder's epiphany  to be fair (...for a certain degree of fair), they could also just be lying about being the funder, which is what i've always assumed! i don't think they've ever provided any kind of proof, shared any new information, answered any questions with anything more concrete than "maybe" or "it's a secret", or had any confirmation or interaction from staff. as a liar, it'd be in their best interest to avoid engaging with actual material suggestions since they make it much harder to keep up the lie! "suddenly i can't read, logging off forever now bye!!!" is not a response i typically associate with people telling the truth about a subject, at any rate 

i mean, maybe they're telling the truth and the funder is indeed kind of a jerk; also very possible. just have seen people saying in various places that this random person is Definitely For Sure the funder of cohost even though that's not actually something we know for sure

Unfortunately, I believe one of the staff members did confirm that it was the funder. They reposted one of the messages from the founder with the confirmation that yes, it is the fonder, sadly.

Holy crap, what an obtuse response. That made me lose a ton of respect :/

Yeah it's.
Certainly a response to have. I hope they reconsider and actually read it but, it's like, bruh, not a W they think it is.

[xixxii]

Unfortunately, I believe one of the staff members did confirm that it was the funder. They reposted one of the messages from the founder with the confirmation that yes, it is the fonder, sadly.

oh, i hadn't seen that! i stand corrected! thanks for the link. the mysterious funder is indeed kind of a jerk and also has Weird Liar Vibes hahahaha.