By now, most of you may have heard that @staff released an announcement stating that all NSFW content will be deleted from tumblr. This is copied from their Adult Content article:
Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts.
Examples of exceptions that are still permitted are exposed female-presenting nipples in connection with breastfeeding, birth or after-birth moments, and health-related situations, such as post-mastectomy or gender confirmation surgery. Written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, and nudity found in art, such as sculptures and illustrations, are also stuff that can be freely posted on Tumblr.
Personally, I feel like this is just an excuse to be as lazy as possible when trying to purge pornbots, and it’s failing as spectacularly as everyone expected. Let’s take a look at, oh I don’t know, @wilwheaton for a moment.
Here’s a post that depicted no nudity, no real-life human genitals, no female-presenting nipples, no content that depicted a sex act, yet it was flagged explicit. It did not, in any way, show anything that was considered to be “adult content” that was defined by @staff, and yet it was still flagged. Can you guess why?
Here’s another, though I imagine an argument could be made of one--ONE--of the photos shown, but that’s not the point. The point is that it still fit the guidelines, and was flagged. I wonder why.
And here’s another. Still fit the guidelines. Still flagged.
But it doesn’t stop there. A friend of mine had their entire account terminated because of a sweater. A sweater. Not a woman wearing a sweater and showing a female-presenting nipple, not a sweater hanging off of a very erect cock... a sweater. I’d post the picture in question, but I’m too afraid of this post getting flagged because of it.
Which leads me to the heart of the matter in which I’m writing: the future of DGS.
First, I must apologize for the time that I’ve been away. My mental state has been in decline for the past two years, and all of my attempts to right myself have not been working; if anything, all I’ve done is slow or stop the descent, but nothing has been lifting me back up in any manageable fashion. I have tried my best to stay silent about what happened that caused this shift, out of respect. I don’t want an explanation of the events be turned into a retribution of sorts, because even if that was something I wanted, it wouldn’t change anything.
The fact is that, because of what happened, I’ve lost a sense of joy in creating this readthru. Whenever I see references to Homestuck, I don’t laugh anymore. When the music comes up when my phone is on random in the car, I skip the track. The spoilers only stopped coming in when I stopped posting, and yet I can’t get the final spoiler out of my head. No one’s active in the Discord channel that I can see, and I honestly don’t know if anyone still uses the other channels.Â
It feels... lonely. And that, in turn, produces a feedback loop in my head, which spirals me even further down into some really dark places. That’s why my breather became a break, then a pause, then a hiatus. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to come back. I felt like a failure, to all of you, and to myself.
So, where do we go from here?
Once I post this, I’m making a full export of DGS from tumblr. I would recommend you all do the same, and instructions can be found at this link. I flag my blogs for containing explicit content as a safety precaution, partly to keep my parents from finding it, but also to allow myself to use profanity and post NSFW content, so my days are numbered. I’ve already noticed that some of my posts are getting removed, so I need to back up everything I have before I lose it all. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before I try to login one day and my entire account has been terminated, and I can’t trust @staff to restore my account without losing something in the process.
My next step will be to find those who have already left tumblr, and research their platform of choice. Most users have been shifting to twitter, instagram, and Discord, but I’m hopeful that more blogging sites will rise as new homes for fandoms and creators. Others have already started their exodus, searching for alternative sites, leaving contact information, saying farewells, and closing their accounts. It’s heartbreaking.
As for me, there are a few places you’ll be able to find me. Follow me on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/kaminaduck for my weekly-ish show, Eat The Pixels. I’m going to revive my YouTube channel soon, with some playthrus of some of my favorite games, and you can find me there at https://www.youtube.com/KaminaDuck. I have a twitter account, if that’s easiest for you, and you can find me at https://twitter.com/KaminaDuck. I also still have Discord, and I’m usually available when I’m not at work or in rehearsal. You can find me at KaminaDuck#4975. And when I find a new site--either if I move to a place like Pillowfort or if I build my own Wordpress--I’ll be sure to spread the word on twitter and Discord.
But this will be the last post for Duck Gets Stuck on tumblr.
“I know it’s hard, guys, but I think it’s for the best. And this doesn’t *have* to be goodbye forever. Maybe one day, when the time is right, I’ll come back to see you again. But... it *is* goodbye. For now, at least.”
There’s really no other way to sign off except for what I would always say at the end of every livestream. It’s always been a play off of the last panel in Homestuck, because that was one of the first things I saw when it was over.
As always, and until we meet again, thanks for reading.
