TBH, I’m not freaking out too much about this guideline change, for the reasons following:
Tumblr as a whole really loves to freak out en-masse whenever…. anything happens, really. Sometimes it’s hilarious when it comes to bugs in the system, but in this case I think the paranoia is over-stated. The tragedy I see is that good honest folks who create content with consenting adults engaging in N//S/F//W (hang on, couple more /’s for good measure: ////) will lose their platform. Possibly, the lack of wanker content will hurt the site’s viewership so much that they go the way of vine but… that remains to be seen.
Speaking personally, just as myself here, I don’t use tumblr for saucy content. Like at all. Doesn’t catch my interest, doesn’t cater to me. My dashboard is all memes, dogs, fandom content, fluff, and angst. So I can’t imagine my tumblr experience would change much.
I’ve experimented with separating myself from tumblr, and it turns out I can still live a good life through IRL human interaction and small discord group chats (mostly the latter). So if my tumblr gets Thanos’d out of nowhere… I could live with that.
This isn’t really meant to be Relatable Content™ so much as just, a statement on how I’m seeing this.
And that being said – if anyone wants to save or backup content from this blog, for any reason, in case I get Thanos’d, you’re welcome to.
I feel like I should clarify – I still fully expect this new policy to be handled with utter overwhelming pants-on-head incompetence… Tumblr has proven thoroughly that they don’t have the human moderation power to handle this site in its normal state. I have no doubt this whole process will be handled by whatever non-proprietary, open-source, porn-detecting ML algorithm tumblr found, which is definitely not up to the task of moderating millions of blogs of content. I expect the porn bots are going to still run rampant. I expect endless innocuous posts getting flagged and hidden. I expect normal bloggers getting axed left and right, possibly including me. Tumblr DOESNT have the moderation manpower to do this right. They’re responding with a reckless big hammer because the heat is on them now.
The stance im choosing to take of “not worrying” is more from the perspective that tumblr, as a site, doesn’t deserve my worry, heartache, or stress. Messages don’t send half the time. Posts don’t end up in tags. Xkit provided the only basic functionality to this site. The management of harassment, bots, and random blog deletions has been one big black box, in which you throw a request to the void and maybe… possibly… days later you’ll get a disembodied answer back. Typically not.
I still have loved running this blog and engaging with fandom content on tumblr, for the most part. That’s a large part of why I don’t want to jump ship. I value the good I’ve found here. But I’m unsurprised at the bad, from both users and tumblr alike. So it doesn’t deserve my stress. I’m just gonna sit here, sinking slowly.
In response to the NSFW ban being enacted by Tumblr Staff, on December 17th 2018 I propose that we all log off of our Tumblr accounts for 24 hours.
The lack of respect and communication between staff and users is stark. Users have been begging staff to delete the porn bot outbreak, which has plagued the website for well over a year. The porn bots oftentimes send people asks and messages, trying to get them to go to a website full of viruses. They also spam advertisements on others posts.
Users have also begged that Tumblr ban neo-nazis, child porn, and pedophiles, all which run rampant on the site. The site/app got so bad that it was taken off the app store.
However, instead of answering the users, Tumblr has instead taken the liberty to ban all NSFW content, regardless of age. But users have already run into issues of their SFW content being marked as sensitive and being flagged as NSFW, not allowing them to share their work.
Not only does this discriminate again content creators, but it also discriminates against sex workers. Disgustingly, the ban will be enacted on December 17 which is also International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
This ban is disgusting, and while I (and plenty of others) welcome porn bots and child porn being banned, the Tumblr filtration system is broken. It tags artistic work’s nipples as NSFW (when it is art), it tags SFW art as NSFW (when it is not), and does not stop the porn bots, neo-nazis and dozens of other issues.
This ban is discriminatory. This ban is ineffective. This ban is unacceptable.
To protest, log off of your Tumblr account for the entirety of November 17th. Log off at 12 am EST or 9PM PST and stay off for 24 hours. Don’t post. Don’t log on. Don’t even visit the website. Don’t give them that sweet ad revenue.
Tumblr’s stock has already taken a hard hit. Let’s make it tank. Maybe then they will listen to the users.
Like. I’m a firm believer that porn online shouldn’t be within kids reach (those “are you 18” checkboxes for life) but. Like. Ok first of all, just ban cp? It’s not hard? Cp is what got you into this mess just ban it. Second of all, you could increase the age of sign-up from 13 to 18. Third of all, you could do what deviantart does and just. Require birthdays at sign-up. If your blog is flagged as nsfw, you can’t interact with minors. You want to follow an nsfw blog? Prove you’re an adult. You’re an adult but don’t want to see nsfw content? Safe search (that actually works).
It’s not hard to make a functioning website, but staff doesn’t seem to want to do that.
“lol the only people mad about the tumblr announcement just want porn lol”
Yeah, no.
Tumblr blocked the tag “chronic pain” in this mess for no reason
They’re flagging commonly used tags by queer people, sex educators, and artists who make their fucking LIVING on tumblr
They’re gonna take down genuine sex workers because they didn’t curb
the problem with spamming porn bots YEARS ago when tumblr users REPORTED
OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND *OVER* that it was a problem
Tumblr
IGNORED the bots, IGNORED the problems, and honestly treated it like
NOTHING until their app was taken off a store due to it.
They’re
fucking over a shit-ton of REAL PEOPLE who rely on tumblr for community
and/or income because they ignored users’ complaints about shitty porn
bots for YEARS until it had financial consequences
I can no longer even talk about chronic pain without the post being blocked from searches
I have drawn one or two nude pieces on my art tumblr which is 99% safe
for work but now I’m worried the blog will be taken down entirely
because Tumblr won’t bother differentiating between spam and REAL PEOPLE
just trying to live their goddamn lives
And god forbid I want to
talk about bisexuality or sex or kink in just… MY LIFE. As a
normal-ass human being who just wants to TALK ABOUT HUMAN THINGS
No, their solution to nuke a problem they’ve ignored for years is to take us all down at once
So maybe don’t laugh about “oh no not my pornz” because 1. plenty of
that ~porn~ is made by actual humans making their living and 2. WAY MORE
than “just porn” is being targeted
This along with Facebook
continuously upholding white supremacy by letting nazi shit fly by while
they ban people for speaking out against their oppressors and it’s
basically like we’re running out of truly free places to just… BE
From someone who’s survived MySpace, livejournal, deviantart, and fanfiction.nets’ content purges and bad policy updates, here’s some advice on how to get through tumblr’s recent bullshit:
– don’t knee jerk delete. I know it’s tempting to peace out immediately but hang on and do the other steps first. Out right ghosting and erasing everything is how fandoms die.
– archive everything on your blog you want to keep
– tell your followers how they can archive and keep your work too. A lot of fic and art were only saved from ff.net and lj because other people saved it first. If you’re cool with other people saving your work for them to personally keep, let them know this. You can absolutely discourage reposting but I really do highly recommend you allow people to personally save fic and art they like and are worried will disappear forever. Digital Dark Ages are a real thing.
– tell people where you’re jumping ship to. Give links. Keep that info up, even if you’ve left the site.
– go through who you follow and find out where else you can follow them. Save their work if they’ll allow it. It’s tedious as hell but if you want to keep up with people on here clicking on their page to check in is the best way to do it.
– support places like ao3. This is exactly why ao3 asks for donations a few times a year. They are a 100% anti-purging, judgement free, ad free non profit run by an elected board and protected by lawyers. Places like ao3 literally save fandom so please continue to support them and other similar archives. This is exactly why ao3 is so important.
Also, go read the source policies and official Tumblr statements in addition to user analyses and reactions. It’s important to keep abreast of developments over time; staying informed is your power in this situation. Memes and reaction posts are funny and are a useful way to vent / provide commentary, but some of them create an inaccurate picture of what’s happening and should not be taken as evidence on their own of what developments have happened.
Discount Deity of Death 