#pillowfort is a ghost town

[tfrarepairing]

RARE PAIRING FEST 2023!

GREETINGS GENTLEBEINGS!! AFTER THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF OUR PREVIOUS EVENTS, THE TRANSFORMERS RARE PAIRING COMMUNITY IS PLEASED TO PRESENT:

RARE PAIRING FEST 2023!!

Rare Pairing Fest is a now-annual event we host, with the goal of getting more of our favorite Transformers rare pair content out into the universe! Like many other fandom prompt fests, this is going to be a “we give the prompt, you bring the pairing” fest. Create more of what you (or you two closest friends, lol) want to see in the universe!

This year’s event will run from October 15-28, 2023! There will be 28 prompts (two for each day) with seasonal themes. This year, to spice it up, we’ll also have a bonus “sub-theme” for each week that you can work in if you like.  Not doing so won’t affect whether or not you get participation banners, it’s just a fun extra challenge. 

The prompt list is broken down by day, and posted below. You create your work and then post to Twitter, Tumblr, Dreamwidth and/or Pillowfort on the correct day. All participants will get a participation graphic, and anyone who makes a fill for all 14 days will get a special prize! There are no minimums or maximums for this event and ALL content types are accepted (including photos & hand crafts!) Also, all ratings are accepted, but please tag appropriately! And don’t forget the #2023TFRarePairingFest tag! ALSO, if you’re participating in another event (Inktober, LLFest, etc) please feel free to double dip your pieces! (No one has enough time in the day to create two or three or more pieces and Mod eerian will never expect you to! OCtober is the only event this doesn’t apply to, alas, since TF Rare Pairing only deals in canon characters.) 

Now, the prompts:

Week One Bonus Theme: Minibots

October 15: The Matrix // Underworld

October 16:  Hurricane // Nothing But Blue Skies

October 17:  Trust // Failure

October 18:  I Want to Know What Love Is // Falling Away From Me

October 19:  Dancing // On the Couch/Sofa

October 20:  Afterlife // No Time Like the Present

October 21:  Worth Saving Me // Broken Wings

Week Two Bonus Theme: Praxian Crystal

October 22:  Crisp Fall Air // Summer’s Last Heat

October 23:  A Day in Town // A Night in the Country

October 24:  Insects // Animal

October 25:  Stuffed Toys // Tables and Chairs

October 26:  Break Up, Make Up // For All Eternity

October 27:  Ghost Town // Raining Life

October 28: End of the Road // Starting for Home

(Prompt graphic by hours_gone_by)

[copperbadge]

Have we found a tumblr replacement yet? Apparently the latest “live” shenanigans were the thing that it took to break me. I’m not trying to stir shit, I’m just mostly here for you and a couple other blogs, so I’m going wherever you go.

I wish, but unfortunately not so far. I mean, I've talked a little about how I'd like to find one but there aren't really any viable ones right now, and there may not be a fandom mass-migration for years still. I'm more likely to follow the crowd than blaze a trail in this case, so it may be some time. For now my only real tactic is to simply not engage with staff or support at Tumblr in any way, and accept the changes as gradual steps towards the site's demise with as much serenity as I can muster.

I've already accidentally opened Tumblr Live twice while trying to navigate the app, which I'm sure is intentional, given I've now suddenly opened Tumblr Live twice since its inception instead of Zero. Relatedly, I would love to see them redirect that passion into making the "Mute Notifications" button actually work, but mine is not to reason why.

Anyway. There are options available, like obviously there are other social media platforms, but none have quite the combination of "easy to use" and "has a lot of people on it" and "Offers the same functionality" (photo and video hosting, an app, etc) even with an "ease of use" and "functionality" that are as crap as Tumblr's.

For example, Dreamwidth is great, but it's a Livejournal code fork so it's a very different format from Tumblr, more labor-intensive to make and share posts (no reblog function, image embedding can get a bit complicated, etc). CoHost is new and very promising but a bit of a ghost town right now -- I'm there and I've had a bunch of people find me there but still exponentially less than are on Tumblr. Pillowfort I still need to re-investigate; I'm there as well but it's been a while since I looked in, and I was struggling with the functionality previously. I had a look at Mastodon, but as positive as decentralized servers could be for the future of social media, I actively dislike the idea, and it also seems difficult to set up and complex to maintain. Discord is....there, and a lot of fandom stuff has shifted there, but its structure is very different and it's also decentralized, and also I hate it passionately and refuse to use it, so that's a no-go for me, though I suspect it's where fandom might end up.

If you're struggling with accessing tumblr directly, you might consider feeding the blogs you follow to an RSS reader -- I know people who do that and find it pretty functional, because then if they want to comment they can just pop open the specific post and deal with it directly. I don't know how much you know about RSS and I don't have the energy to fully explain it right now, but NetVibes is a pretty decent free RSS reader and it's what I use for certain blogs outside of Tumblr.

In any case, if I do find a place, or if I see the migration beginning, I'll sound the alarm :) In the meantime I'm still reading through my tumblr, stashing away posts to save off when I leave, even if that'll be a while.

[fedoraspooky]

I've been on the lookout for decent platform to jump ship to from Tumblr and so far the most interesting ones I found are Co-host and Unvale. First one is a general blogging platform and second is super art/writing centered platform for developing and showcasing characters/stories, so you might find that interesting! Hope that helps :P

I actually made an account on Cohost a little while back, I'm fedoraspooky there as well! https://cohost.org/fedoraspooky

I'm basically fedoraspooky everywhere except on twitter (trilbyspectre there) and youtube/twitch (phantomspooky on those), if you're not sure if I'm on a site just look up fedoraspooky and chances are you'll find me. :B ; I've been trying to find a backup for tumblr for quite some time because of all the past scares of the site running out of money, etc.

Never thought I'd have to deal with them doing this... But that's what I get for being naive I guess.

That said I hope cohost gets less quiet if more people jump on there following this mess. Pillowfort's also been super quiet outside of groups and stuff... DX

This all just sucks so much, tumblr's been the coziest place for ages and the only place i've been likely to get any kind of replies or people actually seeing my stuff/talking to me, everywhere else I've joined feels like a ghost town... I mean Instagram is close, but they're also pulling their own AI bs. I hate that I have to essentially BURY myself if I don't want my shit being packaged up sold off by people who don't own the rights to it while I'm struggling to even make enough for rent.

[wulvercazz]

Could please reupload you NnoiNell ghost kinktober art on pillowfort I think about it everyday

Hi anon! Ohh there really is so much I ought to uploadddd 😩 I'll bump up the Halloween Town AU high on the list💕

As a lil updated reminder to myself on stuff I've been meaning to post;

Zookeeper AU

Halloween Town AU

2021 Movie Kinktober

Cat Pro Quo fic art

[sylphidine]

I metaphorically screamed my lungs out on social media platforms and got not a single reply.

Is there an actual reason for me to keep my Twitter or my Bluesky accounts?

I originally made my Twitter fandom account to follow a good friend who'd left Tumblr, but now we're both active on Discord.

Then I kept it to follow fandom artists and their developing AUs and OCverses, but the ones I most faithfully follow on Twitter also have Tumblr accounts or are members of mutual Discord servers.

I had already deleted my professional Twitter account when I got tired of the hate spewed by the Elongated Muskrat. I created a Bluesky account but have not found the fandom traction there, so if I keep it, it will become a professional account.

I don't need another Pillowfort situation, where I'm wandering around a ghost town.

So, Tumblr mutuals who also post on Twitter, please do not take it personally if I deactivate there. I'm staying put here, where I have the deepest roots.

[hasufin]

Where is home?

I'm just... I'm tired, okay?

We all left LiveJournal when they got bought out by homophobic Russians.

We left Facebook when it became nothing more than a vehicle for fascists to advertise to Karens.

We left Twitter when a rich boy got his fee-fees hurt and decided to make it a platform for Nazis.

And I'm tired of moving platforms, and losing contact with people, because we keep getting fucking bigot infestations. I don't really know what to do. I know if I say I won't leave Tumblr I'll apparently be transphobic, but I just don't want to move my presence again. Especially because there's no other platform in which I could post this: BlueSky and Fediverse are both too short form. I haven't properly figured out how to do anything on Pillowfort (nor is anyone there, that I can tell). Dreamwidth is a ghost town. I certainly don't want to try hosting my own platform. That's how it was in the 90s and not only is it harder now, there's a reason we stopped doing it back then.

And isn't this their goal? To drive us out, to force us into little foxholes where we hide from roving gangs of fascists and bigots, and can't do anything?

Maybe it's time for them to run away.

[thebluestbluewords]

blue’s contact links:

With all the news going around today, I’ll be pinning this post for a bit in case folks would like to connect and shout about dcom nonsense with me on other sites!

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBluestBluebird

Personal/Fic Discord:

Dreamwidth:   https://thebluestbluewords.dreamwidth.org/

(I’ve seen a lot of talk about migrating to dw as a tumblr-alternative, and for me personally it holds the most potential as a site that lets me do some of what I like without the downsides of say, the former bird site or discord)

pillowfort to come:

(I tried pillowfort back in……2017? It was a bit of a ghost town back then but I’m hoping it’s grown since I last gave it a shot)

[crunchworldsupreme]

Did you move your blog somewhere else crunch?

Sort of!

I'm hesitant to call it official for now, but I've made a Pillowfort account under the same name. I'm not happy with the way tumblr has been operating. I'll spare us all the rant here, but you get it. WordPress' priorities have been made very clear.

I will still use this account, but I've decided that Proper New Crunch StuffTM will go on Pillowfort for now. My interests aren't in brand loyalty, but in using the platform that it makes the most sense to use.

Right now it's unclear what that is, but tumblr ain't it.

Unfortunately! Pillowfort is a ghost town 😂 I want to change that, which is part of why I'm doing this. Even if it doesn't end up being The Thing for me, I'd like to see it grow. It's good for everyone if we have options other than mainstream social media.

Right now though, you're not missing much. I've not been up to anything postworthy lately (tired 😖) but when that changes I'll let you know!

[fuqer]

im still mad about cohost and don't want to go back but so many other sites are basically ghost towns. what im saying is join pillowfort so i dont have to deal with the mess that is cohost

[noonmutter]

I remember seeing someone recently claiming pillowfort was a "non functional ghost town," so I figured I'd reblog this one

Love the site, it looks more polished now than before. I do have a question though. How will you ensure minors don't see nsfw content? Like, would there be a way to shield minors from that content? I'd like to not rely on people having ages in their bio like on twitter nor do I want to deal with people lying about their age.

Hi there! Thanks for your question. To ensure the safety of everyone on Pillowfort, we have developed extensive content and privacy controls. Here is what we currently offer: NSFW Filtering - Easily mark a post as NSFW and it will be automatically filtered so only users who choose to see NSFW can see it. Note: The ability to view NSFW content is set to ‘off’ as the default with every new account. Users must turn on the ‘View NSFW posts’ toggle from the Filters & Blacklist setting located in the sidebar. If a user is under the age of 18, they will not be able to toggle the view NSFW content to “on.” 

Extensive Content Control -  Pillowfort allows users to have control over how others interact with their content.  For each post someone makes they get to decide who can view and engage with it, if and how it can be shared, and more. Any changes made to their content, including if a post is edited, will be retroactively applied. 

User-created Communities - Create community spaces separate from curated personal blogs. User Communities can be marked as NSFW, allowing them to be filtered.

Blacklisting & Remote Blocking - Pillowfort has a built-in blacklisting feature without the need for additional extensions or customizations. When someone is blocked, they are prevented from seeing content from the person who blocked them on their home feed or in Communities. It also removes the ability to be contacted by the user who is blocked through private messages and comments. 

Concealed Mode - Users can limit their account’s accessibility to untrusted users in Settings. This mode makes it where a user’s profile and content can only be accessed by users who follow each other or have initiated contact with.

We are always looking for feedback on what we can improve.

[getvalentined]

So apparently nothing I post shows up in tag searches anymore, meaning that regardless of tag choices the only people who see what I post are the ones already following me.

Because, y’know, losing 90% of my audience when I had to jump blogs wasn’t enough, right? Of course it wasn’t. Let’s just cut off any chance I have of utilizing the extended reach provided with the tag system for my artwork, it’s not like anyone out there might want to see it.

I guess that explains why my post about making a Jak and Daxter discord got one response in spite of the fandom seeming pretty alive on tumblr these days. Explains a lot of things, really. Unfortunately there’s no way to fix it on my end, and when I ran into this issue on my old blog I was told that the problem couldn’t be replicated by anyone at the helpdesk (even tho all you have to do is check my blog...and then check the tags on any post) and it was left unresolved.

Why do I fucking bother.

[rynpie]

[lillotte17]

Debating whether or not I think it’s worth it to offer commissions for September. I’ve actually gotten a fair few new followers recently, but my activity hasn’t changed much, and, at the risk of sounding like a Pissy Content Creator on Main, the ratio of likes to reblogs on my stuff has literally been something like...4/1. Which is INSANE. My most popular post on this site ever (which ended up being art and not a shitpost, surprising everyone, but especially me) has nearly 800 likes and less than 200 reblogs. And I’m?????

Look, I will be the first one to admit (loudly and with a great deal of bitterness) that the tiddy ban had a lot of creators jumping ship. But this kind of thing?? This is on the user base, and it’s killing off what few content creators we have left. Tumblr isn’t an art gallery or a library, it is a social media website (in theory). What’s the point of even having a blog on here if you don’t want to interact with anyone else? And I don’t mean jumping into someone’s inbox to rant at them, bc I’m too shy for that shit 95% of the time myself, but like... If I read something I like? I’m gonna share it. If I see a pretty piece of art? I’M GONNA SHARE IT. This site is a platform for SHARING MEDIA. *throws hands up*

*cough* Sorry, got a little off track there. My initial point was actually that, the last time I bothered putting up my commission post, it got less than 20 notes, and most of them were (you guessed it) likes. Which means that almost no one saw it. And, for me personally, it’s not the biggest deal because I do have a 9-5 job, but it is emotionally draining and disheartening to put yourself out there and be answered with...silence. I mean, if I thought I could actually make a living off commissions, I would be ALL OVER THAT. But that’s not feasible. I’d like to be able to keep my freelance stuff as a hobby, but it’s looking more and more like that’s not going to happen either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[juniperpomegranate]

Pillowfort is more tumblr-like--you can post images easily and reblog/like things. That said, though, I think that one will work best if you already have active friends there--I joined years ago and my tiny fandom corners have been ghost towns.

Also Pillowfort is struggling financially; if they see an influx of paying users they might pull out of it, but right now they're looking at six months before they might have to shut down.

Dreamwidth is my preferred platform, but the switch from tumblr to Dreamwidth is not easy unless you've used old-style blogging platforms like Livejournal before--it's an LJ clone. They are working on updating the look and coding of the site but the code they're working with is like 20+ years old, so it's not sleek like modern internet platforms.

That said, I love it, but just like any other platform, you have to work at finding people to talk to, especially if your fandom friends haven't migrated there with you.

There are two spaces where it seems to really liven up--the Snowflake Challenge and the Sunshine Challenge, held in January and July, respectively. If you're wondering what Dreamwidth looks like when it's really active, that's the best time to swing by and look; otherwise it might seem kind of empty unless you subscribe to a bunch of people.

Dreamwidth is also a lot like tumblr in that you will find a lot of people to follow who don't necessarily show interest in everything you do--a lot of my circle is because we share a fandom, but there are people in my circle who don't share a fandom with me at all, and others who are fannish about stuff that I love but am not overtly fannish about. It's a big messy mix and it's honestly pretty great?

(Come to the dark side, we have cookies! And a customizable create entries page that is still in beta but will be going site-wide in the next several months.)

With this whole Thing, it seems like tumblr might really be sinking this time. I'm not planning on leaving before the lights go out, but the other sites that people talk about most often seem to be pillowfort and dreamwidth. What's the difference between them? If slash when worse comes to worst, is there one I should pick over the other?

[thegeminidraws]

hello, I’m alive!

Or, more accurately: I’m alive elsewhere 😅

Since the tumblrpocalypse, I’ve been absent from the blue hellscape - but that hasn’t stopped me from making art!  Now that I have my other accounts all up and running, I’ve come to post some updates!

First, I have a pillowfort!  This is where I’m currently most active in posting art~

Second, I started a patreon page!  This one is all about Hybrid - the $1 tier gets you access to concept art/sketches that aren’t posted on my social media accounts, as well as polls, requests, a discord invite and other Hybrid goodies.

I also have a Toyhouse for the Hybrid cast (still under construction), and of course I still have my twitter.

A complete list of all my active accounts are under the readmore (it’s easy cause they’re all the same username lol)

I currently have commissions open - feel free to DM me on any site for more info.  Thank you everyone for your support!  💖

links:

Pillowfort: https://www.pillowfort.io/ragethegemini

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ragethegemini

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ragethegemini

DA: https://www.deviantart.com/ragethegemini

FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ragethegemini/

Toyhouse: https://toyhou.se/ragethegemini

writerblr (Hybrid WIP page): https://ragethewriter.tumblr.com/hybrid

Ko-fi: http://ko-fi.com/ragethegemini

[b0nebat]

Alright I thought I'd break the news here so, it's not official but I may (or may not be, I do have a lotta stuff her I'm still attached to) nuking my account what with the recent stuff that's been going on (my friend's account was hacked by a porn bot lmao and I kinda don't wanna risk getting hacked myself here)

I know I scared a few folks too cus I said I wasn't particularly fond of twitter either and have had thoughts of ditching that site too but for real don't worry I'm not disappearing off the net altogether I just feel art sites are really limited (I've been suggested newgrounds a few times but honestly, I just don't particularly find the site appealing to say the least lmao)

I do have things like an instagram (it's also b0nebat) I update every now n' then btw

But yeah I just want a neat site that's not deviantart cus using it feels childish and not artstation cus it feels too mature