Hi! I'm Vel and this sideblog is on hiatus for the foreseeable future.
If you want to catch me, I'm still haunting my mainblog:
vel | she/her | 30ish | main blog, for fandom stuff please follow @velvetmayhem
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH

Origami Around
NASA
Mike Driver
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
Not today Justin
Game of Thrones Daily
art blog(derogatory)
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

Love Begins

izzy's playlists!
Sweet Seals For You, Always
🪼

if i look back, i am lost
Peter Solarz
wallacepolsom

★

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Stranger Things
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States

seen from Romania
seen from Canada
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from Czechia

seen from Romania
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@velvetmayhem
Hi! I'm Vel and this sideblog is on hiatus for the foreseeable future.
If you want to catch me, I'm still haunting my mainblog:
vel | she/her | 30ish | main blog, for fandom stuff please follow @velvetmayhem
Folks, backup your Tumblrs, for real this time
To be clear, I don't have any news about any impending doom. But I've heard a bit more about what's going on with staff after the layoff of last week, and there are even less people than I thought still working here.
I don't think even the current staff know what's going to happen, but honestly, I don't see how the high ups could even pretend to intend to keep this place open while virtually unstaffed.
And of course, if the most despicable thing happens, you can find me at @[email protected] from any fediverse platform 🤷
for reference, OP is a former employee of Tumblr who tries to keep up to date with tumblr’s inner workings. please back your blogs up.
In your blog settings you have the ability to initiate a blog export, and this will generate a backup for your blog.
Fair warning though, if you've been on the platform for a long time this archive is likely to be quite hefty in file size. This blog I have had for 5 years with 22k posts, and the export from tumblr came to be 48GB. My previous blog I made in 2011 and has 95k posts, so needless to say I did not use tumblr's built in export to back that one up.
If you want more control over exactly what you back up from your blog, I recommend that you use tumblr-utils instead. It allows you to backup specific tags, post types, and to ignore posts that you did not create (reblogs where you've added a comment count as a post you created, to be clear).
To use it:
download and install python 2.7
download tumblr-utils
create an application on tumblr to get an api key
extract the tumblr-utils zip and open the tumblr_backup.py file in notepad
search for "API" and paste in your OAuth consumer key
then go back to the folder where you extracted tumblr-utils and choose open folder in terminal / command prompt, or type cmd.exe in the address bar while inside the folder
now in the window that opens it should show the current path, and you can type "py -2 .\tumblr_backup.py [your options] [your blog name]" and hit enter. Example:
Backing up just my original posts from this blog with this command came to 632MB rather than 48GB, and also gave me the option to save my posts in JSON format which will be useful for converting my posts to a new format for self hosting.
On that note I'm currently looking into figuring out a simple (and ideally free) way of self hosting a static site blog that utilises activitypub, and also converting my old posts to re-host on said blog.
This post series by maho.dev on implementing activitypub with any static site is my primary source of guidance atm if you also want to try figure that out yourself, as well as having an explanation for why you'd even want to do this if you don't already know
but if tumblr goes down before I get things sorted and write up a post about it then i'll be reporting back on it via my bsky, mastodon, and toyhouse accounts
if you dont have an account on any of these I'll also be sharing an update via my personal site's RSS feed, link of which includes an explanation of what RSS is and some feed readers you can use, I highly recommend checking it out as getting a feed reader is going to be the best way you can stay connected with people if they scatter across the internet!
tldr: download tumblr-utils to backup your blog more efficiently, introduce yourself to RSS and get a feed reader to stay connected with people, consider saving mine so you can find out how to self host your blog later if tumblr goes down
Ao3 does not need an algorithm, you're just lazy
Ao3 does not need a 1-5 star rating system, you just want to bring down authors writing for FREE
Ao3 does not need automatic censorship, it is an archive, therefore anything can be posted
Writing or reading about something illegal does not mean the author nor the reader condones it, if that were true, you could never read a story involving anything negative
Purity culture is ruining fan culture and you all are fucking annoying
Write it shitty, write it scared, write it without a clue but don't you be so spineless and have an AI write fanfic for you.
@ people using ai to "create" art/edits of eddie: he would fucking despise u
fanfiction is so awesome. some of the most brilliant writers youve ever met are writing the most crazy porn youve ever seen. does that not move you
Do you ever miss a character from a show but not like in the way that you want to rewatch the whole show because theres so much stuff going on and thats not what youre looking for but you miss your boy
hate when I wanna talk to a person but I don’t really have anything to say. but I yearn for the connection. can’t just message someone like, hi I have nothing in particular to say but you’re fun and cool and I would like to have a conversation
if a character means enough to me i will truly never stop thinking about them. i just retire them into a little back room in my brain and periodically bring them out to stare at them under a little light
all of your imaginations are now running down your face
with the tour approaching rapidly and the reveal of Papa V around the corner, I had to pick up and finish this Terzo edit that sat in my wip folder for over 6 months
it also kinda works as a companion piece for my Frater Imperator from last year 😌
[photomanip, 30-35 h, 40 layers]
ok, because i just saw a terrible take, i feel compelled to say that there is no "fic market" to "oversaturate" in fandom. good gravy.
i need everyone reading this post to remember that writing is not "content." writing is art. you don't look at a painting of an ocean and say "eh, it's overdone." you look at it and think its beautiful, because it is, and y'all better start treating writing the same fucking way before you lose your favorite authors for good.
Art is not something to be capitalized on. Stop treating it like it is.
ILU @impishtubist for these tags
He's so insanely hot here, I can't even—like, the shoulders, the jacket, the HEIGHT, the way he moves?? If I were Chrissy, I’d have jumped on his back, glued myself to his shoulder, and not even Satan himself could pry me off
If any one of my posts is to break containment, make it this one.
Before January 2025, download your favorite fics, especially those with smut or queer content.
If Project 2025 goes into effect (which it very likely will now that we have three red branches of government in the US), they may attempt to restrict the use/sharing of media on sites like ao3.
This particularly applies to fics with smut or any type of queer content, because the official Project 2025 document states, "Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance... has no claim to First Amendment protection... Pornography should be outlawed."
Now, I don't expect ao3 to disappear or go anywhere without a fight, but it's best to be on the safe side these days.
To download your favorite fics:
Go to archiveofourown.org and open the fic you want to download.
At the top right corner, to the right of the 'subscribe' button, is a button that says 'download'. Click it.
A drop-down menu will give you the option to choose the format of your download. Choose your preferred format (.epub and .pdf are my personal favorites -- .epub lets you open a fic in the apple books app and .pdf is compatible with like every device and program out there).
When you click the button for your preferred format, a pop-up window appears confirming your choices. The title of the document will default to the title of the fic, so be aware of that and consider changing conspicuous titles to something ignorable, especially if you share the computer.
You're done! Now do this with all your favorite fics!
Stay safe out there, your favorite characters are rooting for you <3
Get your cds, your dvds, all your old media storage. Hoard that data. Grab some linux ISOs, pull a copy of tor for multiple OS's, set up a vpn account. Delete old accounts, and maaaaybe make a TAILS disk.
any trans person reading this I love you
any woman reading this I love you
any poc minority reading this I love you
any queer person reading this I love you
take one, pass it on
a hug
a hand to hold
a cottage in the woods with no phone reception
a beer
a guttural scream in a field somewhere
“everything will be okay”
a snack
a comfort read/comfort movie
uninterrupted sleep
whatever your heart desires (you deserve it)