Inquisitive Raven

Tumblr has recently made several changes that have alienated their established users, but that's not what this post is about. Here are some things you should know as a newcomer to Cohost.

• is Eggbug. They are a mascot and friend.
• There is no "for you" page. The intended mode of discovery is to bookmark some tags, or follow some people and see who they interact with.
• A chost is a post, on Cohost.
• Reblogs are called rebugs, or shares. But you will not be made fun of if you call them reblogs.
• You can't see other rebugs of a post. This may change in the future.
• If you rebug a post and add tags, the page you rebugged it from will not see your tags in the notification. You can write a comment instead.
• You can't notify someone by mentioning them. No simple workarounds here, I'm afraid. If you really want your mutual to see something, you can send them the link on another platform.
• Always put alt text on your images. This is the only command in this post.
• If you edit a post, all rebugs of it will reflect the edit. This may be what you'd intuitively expect if you're not coming here from Tumblr, but that's who this post is for.
• Sideblogs are simply other pages associated with your account. Unlike Tumblr, all pages can comment, send asks, and follow other pages.
• There's no chat on Cohost, and it's not something they're interested in adding. If you want to chat with someone, exchange contact information for another platform. If you don't want everyone to see it, you can set profile links to only be visible to pages you follow, or use a private page to really keep it private.
• You can write HTML in your posts. If you don't know what this means, don't worry about it. Enjoy the CSS crimes.
  (If you are not yet reassured, you can learn what this means.)
• Always put alt text on your images.

Tumblr has announced major changes that have made many people anxious about its future, but that's still not what this post is about. Let's talk about tags, one of the more mystifying features of Cohost.

When are tags visible?

On Tumblr, only the tags of the reblog you're looking at are visible, but on Cohost, tags on all posts with content are visible on all rebugs. As on Tumblr, the tags of the rebug you're looking at are also visible.

When are posts with tags visible?

On a page's tag feed, you will see all posts tagged as such by that page. If you rebug a post tagged #tags without tagging it, it will not be in your #tags feed.

On a global tag feed, you will see posts with that tag that were tagged as such by the OP. If you make your own post, it will show up in all relevant tag feeds. Rebugs of posts from other pages will only show up in the feeds of tags that the OP also used. This is to reduce the risk of rebugs exposing posts to a much wider audience than the OP wanted.

Are tags case-sensitive?

Not in practice, but it's a little more complicated than that. The first use of a tag on Cohost determines the case of that tag forever, which is why, for example, the #SpOnGeBoB tag is the way it is. If Cohost suggests a tag when you're typing, that's the case you get it in, like it or not.

How do I use tags?

Like on Tumblr, their intended use is discovery, but they're also used for additional commentary. As I said in the previous post, the page you rebug a post from will not see your tags unless they specifically see your rebug, so you can't have a conversation in the tags the same way you can on Tumblr. Be aware that any tag you use, even from a private page, may show up in tag searches, so don't write anything too private in a tag.