tl;dr They have decided to do this as a means to make things safer for minors and the like. I'm fine with it even though it might be an inconvenience to some content creators, but they can and have posted sfw versions of their nsfw in the past. I'm sure that people will figure it out. Stop freaking out. A more wordy version below the cut.
So, I know that I’ll be cracking jokes about this and the like on my blog, but I want it to be clear that I support the choice staff is making about this. I understand that a lot of people use tumblr for porn and posting their nsfw photography and art. In my time on the internet I’ve seen artists come up with solution after solution for making it known that they make adult content so that they can be found. Creative cuts, censor bars, etc etc will be an easy thing for people to add onto their existing content with a way for people to locate them on other platforms.
Fiscally, tumblr isn’t the best source of exposure or income generation for any artist or content creator, and I’m sure that anyone who is concerned about losing their gifs and art base will be able to migrate and reach out to other artists that have been posting things multi-platform all along.
I appreciate the transparency of the goal of this from @staff with them citing that they don’t want people to feel as though they can not speak about sex or sexuality as well as the fact that they have acknowledged that this is an imperfect fix to a very real problem. I know that I personally would much rather have my blog wrongly deactivated for a few days knowing that I am not going to need to deal with scanning each and every single one of my followers to report and block an insufferable tide of porn bots messaging me about hot singles in my area.
I am only slightly tentative about anything being labeled adult content as a former youtube that has dealt with my identity being labeled adult content just for talking about sexual preference. That said, if anything changes we’ll figure it out when the chips fall. In the meantime, back your shit up. If you’re an adult content creator you still have time to have things function smoothly for a couple more weeks. Start reaching out to one another so that you can move to a different community with those particular bits of content.
Lord knows if I was fifteen or sixteen again with the absolute pile of fuck I’ve dealt with from bots and adult blogs on this site I would have noped out in an instant. Not everyone is comfortable with the same things as others and I’d rather take the stance of making things more accessible than going with the “suck it up buttercup” mentality.
It’s a smart move and it fosters a slightly safer internet community while allowing for better protection for users that are minors. It also helps protect adults using the site that might have found themselves in the awkward situation of needing to explain to a minor that they shouldn’t be posting nudes of themselves online for many many reasons. I know that I’ve seen more than one nude minor unwillingly on this site with no warning since the current safe search is...flawed to say the very least.
I am part of and run a group that doesn’t allow nudity and explicit sexual material in our chat. It’s our choice to run our business that way the same way that it’s staff’s choice here. No one is entitled to say and show whatever they want on a privately owned platform. If the staff want to do this that’s their choice the same way it’s your choice on whether or not you are comfortable remaining here if you lose access to explicit material.
(But Brutus! It’s going to get rid of nude educational videos like self-examinations for breast cancer!) That’s not certain yet. Staff already mentioned that they will have exceptions regarding adult content. If we want to have these things green-lit then move as a community so that staff knows that that’s something that we support having so that they can ensure that their bot is trained to overlook educational/medically relevant content.
Will there be growing pains? Yes. Is everyone going to be happy with these changes? No. Was it ever possible to make everyone happy with any change? No. Is tumblr the end all be all of adult content and now everything is in shambles? No. If you want to go look at porn go look at porn somewhere else. It’s not hard.
Moving along, I’m totally prepared to start arguing about whether or not those horrible pre-frosted sugar cookies from grocery stores are tasty or not. (They aren’t.) Go on. Fight me on that and not whether or not kids should be exposed to porn bots and the like.
