#blue hellsite

[ineffectualdemon]

This feels like someone knocking on my door and saying "Welcome to the neighbourhood!" even though I've lived here for over 15 years

[bapydemonprincess]

[keydekyie]

I wasn't even doing anything I was just reading a post!

[red-umbrella-811]

You know I want you to reblog this so I get more answers

[hacked-wtsdz]

I’m sorry but tumblr’s uniqueness and value ONLY comes from reblogging. Like, apart from Twitter, where the creations aren’t as variable, the rest of it: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok is mostly focused on personal creation. On individuality. But tumblr is created to be shared, to reblog, that’s the only way you can use this site really. Tumblr is more about community than individuality, and that is a good thing.

[gothiccharmschool]

:: sees multiple posts about a clown, is confused :: :: refreshes Tumblr dashboard ::

JESUS WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT.

@staff - did no one bring up that a lot of people have a mild-to-serious phobia of clowns?

HOW THE FUCK DO I GET RID OF IT I DON'T WANT IT IN THE CORNER OF MY SCREEN AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGHHAFOIUJHFERHJANOLKDEJf'OPWJFE

[copperbadge]

If you could buy Tumblr, would you?

Hm, an interesting thought!

If I were capable of buying Tumblr this would imply one of two things: either Tumblr is so devalued and has become so cheap to maintain that a single man living in downtown Chicago with two cats to feed could afford to buy it and keep it, or I have somehow come into enough wealth that I am capable of squandering millions on the Hellsite.

(Or I'm running the most incredible con, which is actually the most flattering option.)

If we're talking a situation where Tumblr would cost me roughly the price of a third cat to purchase and maintain, sure. Buy it, keep it like a pet. This is a bit of an unrealistic vision of things, because under what circumstances would this possibly happen, but as long as we're in unreality, let's pretend I could also simply add and remove features at will. That's some fun shit. Sure, I would.

The more realistic option (for a given value) is that I have mysteriously come into a massive sum of money and could afford to purchase Tumblr. In this scenario, I could likely afford to operate it at a loss only for so long, but I don't actually know how much Tumblr costs on a yearly basis to keep it operational. Most of the problems with most social media, however, come from the fact that they don't just have to break even, they have to turn a profit to continue to function, or they have to have regular infusions of venture capital. A thorny issue.

Ideally what I would do once Tumblr was purchased, and presuming all the other share/stakeholders and investors were paid off, was immediately convert it to a nonprofit. What you can do with nonprofit cash is a lot smaller than what you can do with for-profit levels of investment, but turning Tumblr into a nonprofit has the immediate advantage of no longer having to make money. Tumblr can actually run at a "loss" if it's a public service, because it's all donation-supported anyway. I could think of half a dozen immediate easy targets for major gift fundraising for "Tumblr 503", and I would immediately begin planning both an annual campaign (that's what you see Wikipedia and AO3 doing each year) and a capital campaign to create an endowment to protect the org from future depredation.

Depending on funding I would also be willing to create an arm of the Tumblr Foundation that could start separate initiatives like legal protection for activists on the platform, AI that is better at recognizing illegal content so we don't have huge buildings of poor traumatized motherfuckers doing that moderation work, and such things. This isn't at all uncommon -- the nonprofit I work for now is a medical nonprofit, but even as small as we are, we have numerous different initiatives, from political lobbying to pharma outreach to a helpline for the newly diagnosed to a yearly conference for doctors in the field to funding for young researchers.

Would it work? Dunno. Possibly not, I'm not experienced in backend management of a massive website. But I know people who are, and if the money was there I'd take a stab at it. Worst case scenario, we just take it private again and sucker a couple of billionaires out of their money a second time. Promise if the nonprofit doesn't work and we sell Tumblr to the highest bidder, everyone on the site when we do gets a cut.

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Do you want an extra hour in the ball pit? This week, for the first time, V and Emily are joined by a VERY SPECIAL GUEST, @thelaurenshippen of the podcast @dashboarddiaries! They discuss the convention to end all conventions, the first (and only) DashCon. From its birth on the blue hellsite to its death in a Chicagoland hotel, DashCon was truly a lesson for the ages that just because sometimes fandom can pull off amazing and inspirational feats, sometimes it… cannot. Lauren brings her expertise in all things Tumblr to TWIFH with humor and grace. Did you go to DashCon? WOULD you go to a DashCon?

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

[tiltedsyllogism]

Here I am, trapped under a cat and thus unable to go to bed and scrolling tumblr on my phone, and I just saw this ad:

and I

I am just

I am so perplexed here

Is this a prank? Is it someone trying to launch a website who doesn’t know how to spell? Is this an attempt to replicate the aesthetic and linguistic infelicities of generative AI, which is one of my great fears but which I know is already becoming a thing? Is it a psyop intended to damage my confidence in my own capacity to interpret images, because I’m sorry but what the fuck is going on in this picture? why is the entire internet circa 2024 trying to hurt me personally

[sybilius]

Anyone else getting follows from blogs with a strange text name and one (1) reblog that makes no sense?

[ineffectualdemon]

I made a shitty badge for those of us who are the crusty old dumpster gremlins of this site

[autumngracy]

Maybe this is silly but I think tumblr is the kind of unique, fandom oriented space where it could genuinely keep itself running without profit if it just held occasional donation drives like AO3.

Name what amount they need to actually keep everything going for a certain amount of time and show how much of it they've received so far, instead of coming up with dumb gimmicks nobody asked for (badges, blaze, socks, keychains, etc.) to try to entice people to throw money at them.

[notasapleasure]

tumblr I'm confused, did this guy save us from the blue screens or cause them?

[keydekyie]

In light of recent events, as well as the revelations regarding Tumblr's plans to sell user data, I want to remind everyone that you can find me on multiple other socials via my 🌳 Linktree 🌳

If you want to reliably keep up with The Moth and the Bear or the rest of my work, please follow me elsewhere. I'm probably not going anywhere, because I'm stubborn as hell, but I just don't know anymore, and I don't want anyone to get left behind.

This whole thing really frustrates me because Tumblr has always been my biggest and most engaged audience, and my favorite platform in general, and other socials still feel like throwing my art into a mostly empty, uncaring void. I've just always failed to gain any traction in other places.

But idk, we'll just have to see.

[wageronancap]

I think I got shadowbanned, I can't see my own posts on my dashboard all of a sudden