...well dang!

These guys were revolutionizing social media.

You won't see any signs of closure if you visit the site, but if you try to sign-up... well it's just not possible anymore.

I never got active with my accounts there, I'd registered a couple - empty account exports downloaded fine at the end of the line, but I did partake in other people's content a bit. The community was active, and the articles I stumbled upon there were captivating. Lots of engineers there.

I think I ran into this place for the first time via a Tom Scott newsletter. Uncertain.

Now, however, the site is done.

It doesn't seem like it'll go down, though.

As per the final notice in their timeline: January 1, 2025: we will set cohost.org to redirect to the wayback machine1 to prevent link rot. this is something we will be paying for out of pocket since ASSC will no longer be an operating concern, but it’s max $100 per year total so it’s fine.

So far it's not redirecting: The official site is actually still there.

Maybe the redirection implies something different than I think it does, maybe it's possible to actually use the Wayback archive whilst still retaining the usual website DNS, and so not have it appear as if resources are being redirected at all?

Either that or they're behind schedule.

I don't mind. It's nice if the site lives a little longer still.

The only thing that bugged me a bit with cohost! was people's tendency to not adhere to proper sentence structure, and keep sentences lowercase and without punctuation. All too often. Even in the very title of the site! It's a quirk I'll mourn though in its afterlife.

RIP cohost!

^ I don't mean to add exclamation to that, and make it seem more intense or joyous than it needs to be - the friggin' exclamation mark's just already in the friggin' title! But seriously, regardless of format, you will be missed.

The lowercase trend certainly might've been time-relevant, but maybe the concept of co-hosting was ahead of its time. It was fun while it lasted.

Thank you for the service y'all.

UPD: As of 13/1/2025 it actually does redirect! It's on the Wayback now.

In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were personally interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded everything else. All the personalized websites are hidden among a pile of commercial pages. Google isn't great at finding them, its focus is on finding answers to technical questions, and it works well; but finding things you didn't know you wanted to know, which was the real joy of web surfing, no longer happens. In addition, many pages today are created using bloated scripts that add slick cosmetic features in order to mask the lack of content available on them. Those pages contribute to the blandness of today's web.

The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet. In addition, Wiby helps vintage computers to continue browsing the web, as pages indexed are more suitable for their performance.

That's taken straight from their about page, I lack the energy to write up something about it myself tonight. :)

But check it out! It sure brings me back. To the days when the Net was free, a creative free-speech decree, and not so under attack...

They've got some nice buttons if you wish to link to them too.

Also. <- Just like the old days!

There's one more thing you can emulate via browser now. :) Pretty cool.

I've never actually made anything with VB in my life, as far as I can recall, but I definitely recognize the name. Now seems as good a time as any to get properly introduced... go check it out if you're feelin' nostalgic!

Or intrigued, by iconic languages of the PC programming heyday way way back in the day day (this particular version - the final - came out 1998).

Thanks to Tom's newsletter.

I seem to not be getting a move on with my dues today... so I'll write this instead.

I recently discovered QNTM, via this article. I'd planned to just bookmark the page and move on, yet I lingered there for a while. I was curious about the person behind the text, so I read the about me page.

It didn't reveal much, so I read the about the site page.

That revealed more, but just made me more curious, so I kept reading pages, and now I've wasted a substantial part of my day! Also seemingly changed my style of writing - albeit temporarily - as to somewhat mimic the fascinating and intriguing character that is or is behind QNTM.

I assumed QNTM is neither abbreviation nor acronym, but rather a short-form variant of Quantum, without vowels. Though this seems to be mentioned nowhere on the site. Maybe it's just a random combination of letters. Maybe it sounded good. Maybe the mystery's intentional.

Now that I say it's neither abbreviation nor acronym though I wonder if my understanding of neither the word abbreviation nor acronym are correct.
It seems what I consider an acronym is actually more so initialism - where the individual letters of the acronym form the initial letters of each word the acronym abbreviates.

Does an acronym abbreviate btw? Shouldn't it acronymate instead? Wouldn't an abbreviated version be the abbreviation, and wouldn't that then just be a part of a longer word, not a combination of multiple?

Does any of this really matter? Back to QNTM:

I think one of the reasons I ended up spending a fair share of time on this particular site also has to do with the content, and how it actually is CONTENT. There's substance in everything. Every page is both layered with learning and strong opinion, and it's refreshing, I think because:

1. Most content online these days is made with an intention to sell, or market, more so than to actually... be thorough.
2. Most content online these days takes care not to offend, and cater to a specific group, since it's written with ^ intention.
3. Most content creators - popular ones at least - are fueled by greed or ego, and so their content comes across petty, or overly appealing, in an effort to make readers like it, or appreciate them.
4. Most content online is either unsubstantial and short, or unnecessarily long, but rarely both. Both chockful of information, and easy to read - QNTM does not ramble.
5. As I'm writing these bullet points I realize I actually don't hold any of the points above true to any particular chunk of online content at all, and am just making an effort to somehow differentiate the QNTM content from other content, so it makes sense to me why it had me captivated so long, even though it doesn't in fact seem to be that specially written, and DOES largely consist of rambles after all. Especially the design rant.

Oh how we've progressed since that was written though.

All of it rings true, yet I'm slightly offended by the (validated, but still) bashing of Flash. I'm glad we have Ruffle to preserve it. I am also honestly glad I'm not seeing it used in menus or interfaces on mainstream sites any more, because it really WAS impractical, but also very cool...

I look back on the time more with an appreciation for the nostalgia than with a recollection of the aggravation a lot of those finnicky; frustrating interfaces did ensue.

So what about QNTM?

It's an old site. I don't know much about the creator. He made the site from scratch, he knows how to code, he knows a lot about a lot of other things too, he admits he's not the greatest designer, but still upholds various ethical standpoints in regard to how a functional design should ideally be - which I respect, has made some fun stuff like Absurdle and HATETRIS, writes in a clear and concise way, has a site that loads blazingly fast, is image-free and easy on the eyes, yet contains more content than you'd assume at a first glance.

It's actually a bit flawed on the navigation front isn't it? No proper sitemap or other comprehensive list of pages and projects. Yet that does add to the sense of mystery, and your willingness to explore further, and find that which is not instantly easily findable...

I think I might be redesigning my comment sections a bit with the QNTM ones in mind too. They're simple and practical. Nothing unnecessary. Discussion's there for those who wish to discuss; the discussions that do occur are useful ones as such.

I like this site... that is all. And this is how I discovered QNTM.

Mozilla are revolutionizing the browser piracy game again!

I think I'll be swapping my default browser back to Mozilla. Last time I moved from them they were getting unbearably slow, and Chrome was so much faster, but that was on my old computer. Should be no issue now.

More info here.

Basically: They've created sandboxes for individual sites when it comes to cookies! No more tracking between sites.

Better for security, and so much better for privacy.

Hope Google follows suit too.

Hmm.