i'm not happy about the internet eroding into the same three corporations over again but also i had a bad feeling about the cohost attitude from the get go (especially their [indirect] aggressiveness against dreamwidth [and other social media in an attempt to pull the ladder up]) that i don't particularly feel bad that their hubris has caught up to them. sure you can make something nice and inviting but this feels like the $9 CHIP all over again. wishful thinking over proper financial competency
the CHIP had all marks of a successful hardware product. excellent (hardware, product and graphic) design, major advantages over the same raspberry foundation hardware of the same time, and mass appeal with the pico-8 collaboration. but the $9 pricepoint was a pie in the sky that was losing them money with every single board. they expected to make up the loss overcharging for the pocketCHIP DIP but most people bought a bare CHIP instead, bankrupting them
i don't wanna shit on every single person for whom which cohost was a good thing. you can enjoy things whether or not the vibes are rancid and that's not on you, i think. as long as you're not perpetuating hate like people who still give money to joke rowlings
