It was announced yesterday that Tumblr, under its new-ish ownership, is going to completely ban adult content (as arbitrarily decided by its poorly supported AI flagger-bot). Ā The community has collectively lost its shit about this and most of those I know are planning to abandon the platform. Ā Given the thirstiness of the circles Iāve socialized in on the site, that shouldnāt be that surprising, but, even though the ban shouldnāt directly impact my posting or even substantially change my browsing (itās nice for porn, but thatās not been a thing I actively use it for that often), I feel obligated to join in the protest/abandonment of the platform that accompanies the action. Ā For one thing, most of the people I know and have normally followed are fleeing or reducing their presence. Ā For another, the injustice of their targeting of āfemale-presenting nipplesā while still failing to actually address content related to nazism/white nationalism is as intolerable an act of censorship as it is a lazy one. Ā Beyond that, the freedom to express and expose our most vulnerable selves was what made Tumblr special. Ā Sure, fully adult content wasnāt necessarily required, but the general sex positivity of it was frankly vital to my growing comfort with my sexuality. Ā Considering the extent to which I still struggle with that at times, I canāt help but loathe this active destruction of what was a safe and optimistic sort of space for developing that comfort and for each of us to find our own weird subset of those we consider āour people.ā
Iāve been resistant to diversifying into other social media formats, as I donāt really want to interact with a lot more of it than I have to, but I think Iāll have to be joining the bandwagon here, backing up my blogās content, and jumping ship for someplace else.
Itās been a weird, hilarious, beautiful 7 years since I started here in September of 2011. Ā Iāve met so many great people through this site, many of whom Iāve become friends with offline, as well. Ā Enough that Iām reluctant to surrender it, even knowing that the statement should be made, however small and insignificant it may be, that this latest act of censorship by Tumblrās leadership is utterly unacceptable. Ā May their stock crash in value and their CEO lose all credibility as a business leader.
[written 12/16/2018]
I wanted to give the above a little time to simmer to see if that remained how I felt and what the apparent action of the community would be.Ā Iāve launched several other social media accounts under this name, including a Wordpress migration of this blog as it is today.Ā For now Iāll just be going inactive here, deleting the app from my phone, etc., because there doesnāt seem to be a way to shutter my page without just deleting it all.Ā Their model for monetizing Tumblr is traffic-based for ad revenue, so absence should sufficiently make my point.
Iām sorry to see a less free internet, but I suspect Iāll find the best of you in other, more open venues.
3926 posts, 3138 followers, 7 years and 3 months of variously lurking, chatting, thirsting, laughing, crying, and raging our way through our history of personal, cultural, and political triumphs and travails.
Tumblr hasnāt been what it was when I started for a long time, so this is just the most substantial and most seemingly final of many goodbyes, but still itās a sad moment.Ā Iāve drastically expanded my social circles here, and Iām sure part of me will miss it for a long time.
Thank you all for making this a fun, welcoming space for so long.Ā Farewell, denizens of Tumblr, fabulous deviants that you are.
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