{"id":11545,"date":"2022-08-03T15:11:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T15:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/03\/these-css-crimes-turn-social-media-posts-into-games\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T15:11:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T15:11:06","slug":"these-css-crimes-turn-social-media-posts-into-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/03\/these-css-crimes-turn-social-media-posts-into-games\/","title":{"rendered":"These \u2018CSS crimes\u2019 turn social media posts into games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/3\/23288689\/cohost-social-media-css-games<\/a>
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you build something on the internet, people will find ways to creatively break it. This is exactly what happened with cohost, a new social media platform that allows posts with CSS<\/a>. Digging through the #interactables hashtag on cohost reveals a bounty of clickable, CSS-enabled experiments that go far beyond GIFs \u2014 there\u2019s a WarioWare<\/em> mug-catching game<\/a>, an interactive Habbo tribute<\/a>, magnetic fridge poetry<\/a>, this absolutely bananas cog machine<\/a>, and even a \u201cplayable\u201d Game Boy Color<\/a> (which was, at one point, used for a \u201cGIF plays Pok\u00e9mon<\/em><\/a>\u201d event). Yes, there\u2019s also Doom<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cohost team embraced the madness. It was the beginning of a creative avalanche that simply isn\u2019t possible on other social media sites \u2014 a phenomenon that the cohost community has since dubbed \u201cCSS crimes.\u201d <\/p>\n

While major social media giants cling to uniformity and standardized posts, cohost throws all of this corporate banality out the window. My first encounter with this nascent platform was like stumbling across a bygone era of computing \u2014 one where websites were unchecked reflections of personal expression<\/a> and delightfully weird, often awkward vibes<\/a>. Most importantly, cohost has cultivated a thriving demoscene<\/a> full of artists, designers, creative coders, and ambitious shitposters ready to push the envelope of computer art.<\/p>\n

At first glance, cohost is a simple blogging website. Posts (coposts or, half-jokingly, \u201cchosts\u201d) have no character limit, and there\u2019s an option to make multiple pages for different themes or projects. You can make a collaboratively co-owned page that multiple people can use, like for crowdfunds or podcasts. It\u2019s like meeting the awkward offspring of Tumblr, Twitter, and a hint of Reddit. From a sensory design standpoint, the site\u2019s plum and off-white accents and quasi-retro logo evoke a sense of familiarity and nostalgia (there are drop-down menus!) that conjure personal memories of old-timey diner flatware and Hugh Hefner\u2019s robe<\/a> \u2014 a perfectly off-kilter palette that sets a curiously intimate mood. It\u2019s clear that this isn\u2019t a regular \u201cmodern\u201d platform. It\u2019s not an ecosystem or a product. Cohost is a webpage<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cohost is a humble operation co-founded by Colin Bayer and Jae Kaplan, who both have professional backgrounds in software engineering and tech startups. \u201cSometime in 2019 I was grousing online about how Patreon was getting away with highway robbery, and how I wish I had the money to build a not-for-profit competitor to it, because the economics seemed like a slam dunk,\u201d Bayer recalls. He and Kaplan eventually quit their jobs and put together a pitch for one of Bayer\u2019s friends, who offered a generous loan for their idea. And so, cohost was born. <\/p>\n

When cohost first rolled out to a trusted group of friends in February 2022, posting with CSS was largely considered an exploit, and the team didn\u2019t really address it. Full-fledged CSS crimes didn\u2019t take off until cohost started early-access registration in June. \u201c[Users] very quickly began to test the limits of what we had allowed to work in the post composer,\u201d says designer Aidan Grealish, who joined Bayer and Kaplan in 2020 and created the site\u2019s mascot, eggbug. \u201cI think one of the very first experiments was eggbug playground<\/a>, a little interactable that \u2014 and I mean this with all the love in the world, it\u2019s a genuine compliment \u2014 could probably be made on day one of a web design class,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Despite taking a page from past incarnations of personal web aesthetics, the cohost team is wary of treading familiar ground. For starters, the site doesn\u2019t use algorithms or promote \u201ctrends,\u201d and the team has pledged to never run ads or sell data<\/a> and is staunchly against cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens<\/a> (NFTs). Bayer and Kaplan are also quick to push back against the tendency to remember web 1.0 \u2014 the rose-colored days of GeoCities, IRC, and DIY web hosting \u2014 as an idealized playground without problems. <\/p>\n

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