The Era of Blogging Here
Hi, I'm Robin Problem. A trans non-binary 3D artist, animator, and streamer. If you are following me here, there is a good chance you heard about me from a little site called Cohost. If not, you may be asking yourself: "What's Cohost?" Well...
Put simply, Cohost was the first and only social media site that I ever enjoyed. Made by a team of four, it eschewed many of the things we traditionally associate with social media. There were no follower counts or follower lists, no "numbers" (i.e. number of likes and shares a post received). There wasn't a little flashy sign showing you were mutuals with someone. There were no ads, no sponsored posts, no algorithm driven feed. Posts were long form. They allowed for inline-css and HTML. It really felt more like personal blogging, with a feed you could really curate of your own to keep up with the people and things important to you. It was extremely unique in that way. I joined mid 2022, and in a very short time I made genuine connections with folks as the best way to interact was comments and asks. I was able to share my art with others and receive constructive feedback and new ideas . And amazingly, much of the userbase was queer, especially trans. It was safe and cozy.
Jump forward to September 9th, 2024. We received news from staff that Cohost was shutting down due to its unstable financial situation. People began scrambling to find alternatives. "Follow me on Twitter/Bluesky/Mastodon /Tumblr! Join my discord server!" So many options with people moving in all sorts of directions. And yet, I did not want to follow any of those. Cohost was cozy, it allowed me to breathe in ways that other sites didn't. I had already begun moving more and more offline over the summer of 2024 and could feel how much healthier it was becoming for me. I had come to accept that I did not want to move anywhere else, and I had come to terms with Cohost ending. But one thing still bothered me... Where would I share my art? Then... people started talking about blogging.
And so here we are. I am going to try to maintain a personal blog. I will share art and personal life updates I am comfortable with. It is a way for me to still have that distance from the internet that I have been building while continuing to share with others. I am learning all of this on the fly, I am typically pretty bad at longer form writing. But I am going to try nonetheless. It feels like what is healthiest for me right now.