toms passions @tomspassions - Tumblr Blog

17 December - a rescue plan

Some good news, I’ve been talking to two developers now, just had a meeting with the guys behind an existing large (millions of users) site similar to Tumblr, with a vibrant and open-minded community, and more importantly, it has open-minded owners who believe in free speech. They think we can get something done here to rescue the whole community.

I’m not allowed to reveal the site name yet. One of the reasons is they don’t want a “land grab” where people take the names of current popular Tumblr users over there (cyber squatting). So they are looking at ways for existing Tumblr users to keep the same names on the new site.

More info over the days to come.

The plan is, broadly:

1. By 9 December, announcement of the new site and how to secure your username there

2. By 10 December, an online tool for bloggers to copy their existing content to the new site automatically, with the same tags and captions.

3. Bloggers will need to copy their content across between 10 and 17 December if they want to use the automatic tool.

4. My understanding is that after 17 December there will be no public access to any “flagged” posts on Tumblr, but the original poster will still be able to see the flagged post (for a short time at least). Therefore, the original poster may still be able to manually download a post to their own PC or phone, after 17 December, and manually upload it to the other site. But if you have lots of posts that will take a long time, it will be better to use the automatic tool before 17 December.

Please understand that these dates are approximate and may change for technical or other reasons.

There may be a few rough edges or not so perfect looking site design at first. Everyone is doing their best, the main goal here is to help as many people as possible preserve access to their content, in the short space of time Tumblr has allowed us, and preserve as much as possible of the Tumblr community spirit somewhere new.

The new site will cater for photo, GIF, text and html posts. It will not offer video and audio posts, due to cost reasons - maybe in future, but for now you will need to preserve video and audio content yourself in some other place.

If your Tumblr blog has a mixture of original content and reblogs, or all reblogs, all of that can be copied over to the new site. Reblogs will become “your” original content if nobody else posted them yet, otherwise they will be shown as reblogs. The devs are looking at ways to preserve attribution of reblogs back to the original Tumblr poster, if that person also moves to the new site.

Important: your Likes cannot be copied from Tumblr to the new site. You will have to go find the same posts again on the new site, and like them afresh.

(Similarly, existing reblog comments, asks, messages and other user interaction on Tumblr cannot be copied to the new site - that’s just too much to do, in the short time available.)

If you want to preserve any of your existing Liked posts on Tumblr, you will need to either: (1) download the post to your own PC, or: (2A) reblog it now to your own Tumblr blog, and then (2B) use the automatic tool, before 17 December, to move your whole Tumblr blog across to the new site.

If you have Liked a lot of posts here on Tumblr, the Gridllr.com webapp should be able to help you do steps 1 and 2A quickly, I mean download or reblog.

(Someone complained to me today about the appearance of Gridllr on a phone. It’s best to use Gridllr on a PC, Mac or Tablet with a large screen.)

If you have liked a post here on Tumblr and the original poster decides to delete it, or even to delete their entire blog, some time before 17 December then that post will be permanently lost. So if you want to be sure to preserve any of your Liked posts, you should best download or repost as soon as possible.

Obviously, you will lose access, after 17 December, to all past posts you have liked, if Tumblr has flagged them as NSFW. Again, the steps (1), or (2A) and (2B) covered above will be the only way to hold on to these posts.

peachy-12

REBLOGS ALREADY BEING FLAGGED!!!

catchymemes

Tumblr on December 17th...

acidgifer

So true 😑

maderr

Thanks for Nothing, Jeff D’Onofrio and Tumblr

Dear Jeff D’Onofrio,

I would like to discuss your recent announcement, and just how tone deaf, ignorant, and harmful it is. Livejournal did this exact same thing to us once, and it’s deeply upsetting that instead of learning from their mistakes, the harmful things they did and perpetuated, you are instead repeating them whole cloth.

First you say this:

Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture… we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

The you go on to say this:

We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).

And then this:

We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance

And finally this:

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community.

You cannot have a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community when you just told the majority of that community they’re not welcome.

Which is what you did. A lot of are, shockingly, adults. We do grown-up things. This website was a rare one in which we could combine all our myriad interests in ADULT ways. A lot of us are professionals who posted our works here, be it writing, illustration or other. You are telling us, basically, that we’re little better than sex traffickers and our content has to go right out the door with theirs.

That’s not fostering ‘a safe place for expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community’.

That’s purity culture. It’s your website and obviously you can do what you want, but don’t claim to give a shit about people when you’re literally telling us that we’re not welcome because of our interests.

It is not the internet’s job to serve as secondary parents. If underage people are looking at things they shouldn’t, it is their parents problem and responsibility. Not yours. Not mine.

And it’s exhausting, hurtful, and distressing that time and time again this sort of things happens. Fanfiction.net. Livejournal. I could compose a list that would reach to the moon. We do not deserve to be treated this way just because we write about or draw graphic sex. The sex is not the problem. It’s never been the problem.

The problem is that it’s largely women and queer people enjoying those things.

So thank you for being one more person and company who thinks that women and queer people are no better than sex traffickers and pedophiles. Thank you for stabbing us in the back like so many others. Thank you for reminding us that the world thinks we’re garbage, and we’re not allowed to simply enjoy things the way cis men and straight people are. That we’re only allowed to enjoy them behind the heavy gates of ‘adult’ sites.

Cis men are not constantly told to go to adult sites to enjoy the things they find sexy and attractive. Straight people are not told to stop posting pictures and videos and movies and books and more about people fucking. Cis men and straight people are never lumped in with pedophiles and sex traffickers in yet another 'what about the children’ attack of puritanical thinking. They are never told to just go to adult sites because there are plenty of those. They are never asked to leave simply for existing and likes all the same things that everybody else likes.

This change is not going to fix the problems you’re reassuring everyone you care about. It’s just going to hurt the people who thought they were safe, and have learned yet again that we’re not.

Sincerely, Megan Derr CEO Less Than Three Press Author of Queer Romance Queer Woman

thethirddeadlysin

Here we have bishops, priests, and deacons, a Censorship Board, vigilant librarians, confraternities and sodalities, Duce Maria, Legions of Mary, Knights of this Christian order and Knights of that one, all surrounding the sinner’s free will in an embattled circle.

― Sean O'Casey

Freedom assassins!