The Spooky Door

In addition to writing Tradewinds and the Book of Hondo, I’ve also been designing Winamp skins for over 8 years, as well as sundry memes, comics, and social commentary. You can also find me at https://shadesmaclean.deviantart.com

[thespookydoor]

Going On Hiatus

First they came for teh pr0n, and I did not speak out— Because I was not big into teh pr0n. Then they came for the sex educators, and I did not speak out— Because I took my liberal Western education for granted. Then they came for the LBGTQ commnunity, and I did not speak out— Because I was a hetero cis male. After that, they came for any and all art that celebrated the beauty of the human form, and I did not speak out— Because I was so sure all of this would blow over and be restored after the fact. Then they came for other independent creators like me— and there was no one left to speak for me. -Martin Niemöller (paraphrased to fit the state of the internet these days) Sadly, it doesn't matter whether we're talking about the rise of the Nazi regime, or the current rising tide of censorship and unintended consequences washing over the internet these days, it is always the same sad process of elimination, and it always feeds on the same complacent silence. Sorry not sorry for jumping the Godwin's Law shark here, but fumblr as it a crossroads right now, and this month is going to decide its fate for years to come. I've decided the 12/17 Day of Silence probably wonn't be enough, so I'm going on hiatus for the rest of the month. Fumblr, and their masters at Verizon, need to feel all of our absence, and long enough and hard enough to give them pause about the precipice they now stand at. Unless I start hearing about apologies and reparations in the meantime, I doubt I'll be back, as I won't play ball with any site that doesn't acknowledge freedom of speech and expression among its core values. If any of my stuff gets deleted in Fumblr's site-wide carpet-bombing, I won't bother restoring it; its wreckage will remain here as their shame, not mine. Anyone who's followed this blog for very long will know where to find me, but to share with the rest of the class, I go by "shadesmaclean" on twitter and deviantart, and I think I'm going to poke my head in the door over at wattpad. To all who've followed The Spooky DOor for any length of time, I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see you elsewhere out there.

[duelingdestiny]

December 17th Day of Silence

I had an idea that on the 17th of December when they implement these new ‘guidelines’ if everyone who is against them just doesn’t post they’ll see how many people they will lose from this site if they continue to censor us. 

So please reblog this, spread it to the far corners of the earth at 7AM PST let’s all for 24 hours not post one damn thing to this hellsite and show them how much they stand to lose if they continue on this track. 

This is akin to book burning. People have the right to create content. People have BEEN creating this content for years! 

It terrifies me, but it feels like our entire society is heading towards one of those pristine distopias where everyone is exactly the same because what is freedom of expression?

So please PLEASE consider doing this. They need a wake up call. They need to know that what they’re doing is not only alright, but one step closer to what reminds me of Nazi tactics. 

You can deny this, but when posts about LGBTQIA+ are being flagged as inappropriate content, that’s already a step in the wrong direction. And don’t even get me started on the female presenting nipples. 

Reblog, share on all the media and let’s give them a glimpse of their future without the people who made this site as popular as it is today. 

[magicalmilly]

I feel like there’s some political shit going on with this whole 12/17 thing too. I know it’s mainly because of Apple. But like, think about it. 

While there is a notorious rightwing part of this site, this place is mainly left af. Like, anywhere from slightly leaning left to holy shit smokes. This place has such a high concentration of left and of Gen Z/Millenial. And, you know what, it’s stayed that way the whole time. 

Facebook went from cool and hip to being the place where your grandparents meet and you only have your account to make sure that you can message Grandma instead of them having your phone number. 

Twitter went from being primarily for youngins to being pretty much the news. 

Tumblr is what is left. 

And, pray tell, do the millionaires and billionaires really like large concentrations of thinktanks between young left-leaning millennials and gen z’ers? NO.

Facebook went to the older generations. Younger people (myself included) instead went to create tag group Facebook, where younger, left-leaning people could get together and talk shit without any input from the racist uncle no one fucking likes. You know what’s been happening, those groups have been zucced. That’s fucked over by Zuckerberg, for those who don’t know. And when that happens, the group and all of the archives of it are gone, forever. With zero warning. 

Twitter has been overwhelmed with news and insanity. And while they’ve actually gotten rid of a few rich racists (miracles, we know), it’s still such a hodgepodge that there isn’t really anywhere safe. I don’t use the service frequently enough to weigh in, but I know that there’s definitely been account deleted that SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN.

And now, Tumblr. By doing this, by having their bot flag LGBT materials, by having it flag legitimate concerns and issues… they’re purposefully kicking us out. They’re breaking up the clamor. 

This was a place where we talked honestly and earnestly about how we felt about things. With more than 140 characters to do it in (or whatever the hell it’s at now). Instead of brief ideas, we were able to have nuanced discussions. Share plans. Get deep into things. And they don’t like that. Not only were we talking, the younger people getting into the website were talking. They were learning from these posts instead of what their family taught them. 

They were learning about sexuality and gender politics and expression and international viewpoints. And that’s scary to old groups. And this website got shit done in relation to them. It inspired people to do more, to stand up, to reach out. 

It let girls talk to each other freely about things that were considered taboo about their bodies. It let trans individuals have a community online that they couldn’t have physically. It let lgbt people learn about their identities and not feel alone and not feel forced to conform to what they saw around them, as there was more to see in the world. 

And. So. 

That is why they leaned into this 12/17 nonsense. Why Apple is cool with it. Why Verizon is cool with it. As someone else said in another post, Yahoo! just wanted the userbase numbers, they didn’t care what we did. Verizon knows what we are. And it doesn’t like that one bit.

Thank you for listening to my soapbox.

[thexdragonxbecomesxme]

There wasn’t even an image attached to this post, which is why writers need to be concerned too.

[manontheinternet]

Let’s learn more, then…

Tumblr is taking a functional website and making it Even More Functional.

[werewolf-cuddles]

Honestly, I’m really worried about tumblr’s current decline. Safe Mode is permanently enabled, even if you have it set to disabled, blogs are getting deleted without notice, this past week has been kinda nuts.

I really don’t want this website to go away. There isn’t another site that would serve as a sufficient replacement.

[actualdisasterbi]

Casual reminder to all of those who think the current freak out is just about not being able to find porn anymore:

I recently went through a cancer scare - like a several scans, going to Susan G. Komen center and seeing a lot of pink in my future kind of scare.   I did what any millennial did when they got scared by something like that - I came to Tumblr to find other people who may have found themselves in my shoes at some point.

Literally every form of search relating to “breast cancer” came up empty because tumblr’s filters thought I might inadvertently be exposed to pornography in my quest to figure out what the fuck was going on with my body. 

It’s not just about porn, and y’all know it.  Anyone who has been on the internet for more than five minutes, who saw the downfall of livejournal or the purging of ff.net, can attest to that.

Things are going to get real bad, real fast.

[thecatbureau]

Tumblr on December 17th

Just call them t. umblr

[raibells]

Regarding the recent Tumblr Purge

I’m sorry that so many of you are losing your blogs, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that you can no longer search “ns*fw” content, or at least anything tagged as such.

I would like to simply suggest possible names for this chapter in the website’s scrambled history.

Pornibition

No Nut Ever

Nsft (not safe for tumblr)

Abstinence on Main

Forbidden Apple (or at least BY Apple)

icup

D.A.B (Dont Abstain, Boys)

Mishacolypse (We’re due for another)

Y.E.E.T (Yes, Everyone Eats tAss)

Feel free to add more suggestions

[maswartz]

[nova-udunie]

A word of advice

So, I thought I would share my two cents about the tumblr purge, as someone who’s blog got nuked.*

*disclaimer, I am not/was not posting anything illegal, just some regular porn once a week, properly tagged and warned for and for now I intend to keep the new blog completely safe for work

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who sent me well wishes and advice since I’ve been back! You’re all sweethearts and I really appreciate your help!

Still, there are some things I want to tell you that you might not want to hear, but you should hear:

1. seeing the ‘account terminated’ page for the first time is what I imagine being kicked in the balls is like. There was no email, no warning, nothing. I had tumblr open at work, and by the time I got home it was just… not there.

2. I did write to support immediately upon realizing what happened. That was monday, the 19th, six days ago, and I haven’t heard back anything since. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, tumblr/staff made absolutely no public communications since the 18th. 

3. I’m aware of that post going around that you should write to staff politely and you should get your blog back in a few days, and I would like to remind everyone that that post is from 2016. It is not recent.

4. In all the articles I’ve read, there was one example of a twitter user who claimed to have been reinstated after sending a ticket, but I think that was already going around by the time I was nuked and so, I’m not even sure if that had to do with the current purge, or was a result of something previous (I think it was a n*s*f*w artist, so they might have been dogpiled by antis, I’m not sure)

5. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but other than that one person I haven’t heard from anyone who actually got their blog back since monday?

6. This will sound like I want to strike fear into the hearts of the good people of tumblr, but let this be a wake up call for all of us: do not feel safe. I’ve felt safe. I’ve curated a dash for myself that made me believe that tumblr was a pleasant, accepting, safe place for all creators, and I’ve been wrong. Now that I signed up again and actually took the time to read the ToS and shit here’s the reality:

16. Termination

Either party may terminate this Agreement at any time by notifying the other party. Tumblr may terminate or suspend your access to or ability to use any and all Services immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason or no reason, including but not limited to if you breach any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement. In particular, Tumblr may immediately terminate or suspend Accounts that have been flagged for repeat copyright infringement.

Yes, you’ve read that right, tumblr can terminate your account FOR ANY REASON OR NO REASON. And do you know what that also means? Tumblr is in no way obliged to reinstate your blog since there are no criteria for termination. None. Nada. If there needs to be no reason to get terminated, you can’t actually claim to have been wrongfully terminated. So yeah, I’ve sent in my ticket, I’ve explained the situation, but there’s literally no incentive/commitment on tumblr’s part of give it back.

8. Back up your blog and keep your eyes open for alternatives. Don’t let this be the only social media where you keep up with online friends. Exchange email, twitter, discord, whatever. Look into new platforms. 

The first thing I did with this new blog was put my other social media contacts in the sidebar. 

I’ve had a pillowfort account for a while now, but I never really used it before this (and they’ve been down for a day now anyway) but I’m sure as hell going to keep up with it after this. It might be in beta, it might be buggy, but I never want to see that ‘account terminated’ page again and feel like I’ve been cut off from all of you guys.

[telesilla]

This Vagabond Fandom Life

The first thing you have to understand is that no one wants us. No one has ever wanted us. And by us I don’t mean fans in general, but creative Fandom, if you will. Transformative fandom–writers and artists and gif makers and vidders and podcasters and podficcers and the community that supports them.

Don’t be fooled by the occasional mainstream media article that uses mostly respectful language or the academic study that talks about transgressive fannish behavior like it’s admirable.  People reading those news articles laugh at us and you don’t exactly see universities creating Fandom Studies departments. 

Nor do we have the buying power we like to think we do. Think about it. We wouldn’t have to transform media to suit ourselves if that media already existed. If Marvel gave a damn about Fandom money vs fandom money, they’d be the ones posting the explicit Cap/Iron Man pics. They’ll take our money, but it’s not as important as small-f fandom money because there’s nowhere near as much of it. 

So that leaves ue as exactly what we are: extreme niche hobbyists. And you know what? We’re not even nice, easy, safe, niche hobbyists like knitters or…idk, curling fans. We like trangressive sex a whole lot, we tread a very fine legal line in a time when intellectual property laws are a big fucking deal, we’re hard to advertise to, and, to make things worse, we have a nasty habit of dragging our platform admins into our petty, internecine Fandom Drama.

(seriously it’s like if the dude who runs the Giants SB Nation site went running to the SB Nation admins saying that the dude who runs the Dodgers site is a pedophile just because he implied Madison Bumgarner might be a little racist.)

But Telesilla, you say. Are we really bound to your fate? Destined to spend our fannish lives like you have, migrating from one site after another, always losing people and history along the way? This is so depressing! There has to be an answer!

Well, once upon a time I thought the answer was “by fans for fans” and wow, have I been burned by that one. Our greatest triumph is routinely attacked by its own users and our best functioning social media platform doesn’t have the bells and whistles corporate sites can offer. And AO3 and Dreamwidth are the success stories. Ask me about JournalFen. (on second thought, don’t. I don’t have the energy to explain without overusing the word “robust” and talking about ice weasels.)

I’m enough of a Old Time Internet Person to still think doing it ourselves is the best answer we have, but it takes a special kind of person to dedicate themselves to  serving a notoriously fractious internet community that has no money and wants you to cater to their every whim. It takes an even more special kind of person to do it long term. Fandom history shows us that those people don’t come along often. (personal history shows me that I am, alas, not one of them.)

Until they do, we’ll just lurch from corporate platform that doesn’t really want us to corporate platform that doesn’t really want us. Because that’s the bottom line–we’re an extreme niche hobby and there’s no real money to be made off us. Under late capitalism…well, I don’t want to be that Fandom Old, but really, what did we expect?

[fatphobiabusters]

Just a reminder that Tumblr is owned by Verizon. 

this is the chain of ownership: Verizon -> Verizon’s subdivision “Oath” -> Yahoo -> Tumblr

And it has been reported that it is Verizon who is giving the orders for this Purge. 

Just so you all know.

- Mod Guillermo

[maswartz]

The Tumblr Purge was nothing more than the staff punishing us for their mistakes.

We reported the child porn and bots for years but they only paid attention when Apple pulled the app. Now they’re going overboard while the bots remain intact.

[thespectacularspider-girl]

Nice Try Tumblr

You ain’t hiding this shit.  

[lucidlucy]

so they say dec 17 but are already deleting artist blogs. heads up, darlings.

[bloominginprocess]

Why I support keeping adult content on tumblr

The only reason they’re doing it is because child porn was found on the website and Apple gave them a big no no by removing the app form the store. It hasn’t been available since November 17. Tumblr freaked and started purging regular NSFW blogs that ARE NOT child porn. I feel especially bad for those who maintain their blogs in a neat and orderly fashion by tagging everything properly.

I do not agree with child porn but at this rate I’d say Instagram, Kik, and Snapchat need to go too. I do not see any of these sites making anymore effort to rid itself of porn bots or child porn at all.

A lot of people who have put a lot of time into their blog (not even just NSFW blogs) have lost all of their work. Many digital artists, photographers have lost their stuff and if they haven’t they’re now going to have to “moderate” the art they produce out of fear of being purged like the others. Art is art. So this is ridiculous to me.

They’re not even accomplishing their goal at this point. Maybe a lot of people into child porn will leave but I assure you if they really want to they will find a way to make it available to others on this hellsite somewhere. It’s too deep and vast and that’s the way it is with any social media. They’re going to lose a bigger demographic of their artists and art enthusiasts that they’ve pissed off. Hello, reddit!!!

Lastly, IT FEELS LIKE TUMBLR IS SHAMING EVERYONE. Not just child porn users. But it feels like they’re shaming women for having tiddies or men having ass. Whatever your thing is. Tiddies? SLUT!!! Booty? WHORE!!! It also seems to be shaming anyone for having any normal human attractiveness to any of this whether sexually or in an art appreciating way. We’re all adults here and for those that are not maybe they should develop a new system for them when they sign up so they automatically cannot see any sexually explicit content until 18 y/o and that’s all I gotta say about it, welcome to my ted talk.

Oh and I’ve still had porn bots following me like they always do, so tumblr your method isn’t working.

Oh oh oh AND to clarify I do not use tumblr for porn, I’m just making a case for all the artists out there and women who feel they’re being shamed because ya girl doesn’t mind seeing the occasional aesthetic woman with some beautiful tiddies and glowing skin standing in a field of daisies having a happy lil cup of tea ☕️