Hard to believe Tumblr lasted this long even. They killed like 3/4 of their content (and audience) when they decided to not have any porn like 4 years ago. Everybody left. An early example of enshitification.
They… Still have SO MUCH PORN.
You can’t search for it directly, you have to search tangential items and then follow other people who post stuff you like.
It’s a rabbit hole but it’s there.
No website (that I’ve ever found) has quite managed to replicate how tumblr works in terms of discovery, customization, community, and organization, so some people prefer to put in the work for the sake of using a format they prefer.
I mean there’s Pixelfed which is similar, the communities could just migrate to that.
I feel like it’s a different format and use case?
Pixelfed feels more like Instagram, which is with real profiles with names attached sharing photo updates about their lives with friends and family
Tumblr feels like it’s more for niche communities and semi-anonymous posting. Although I personally haven’t used it as much so I might be off there
Nah you’re on the mark, it was more like the older Internet where you were just a username and didn’t have your entire identity attached to your account. And yeah, for better or worse Tumblr was known to have a very insular community with weird interests and trends. That’s how we got Goncharov.
Two other things about Tumblr that no other site has managed to capture are longer format posts and being able to reblog multi-user conversations. Everything else prevents you from making longer posts outside of screenshotting a notes app.
Word from insiders communicating openly about it was that it wasn’t going to happen for the same reasons behind this soft end of life: there wasn’t profit in it and they needed to find profitability.
Word was that the project to federate was internally put in a “too hard let’s try later” basket. Of course none of that was made public. But this life support status is really just the other shoe from the broken federation promise.
Interestingly, I suspect there’s a conversation to be had around how difficult it is to federate with the fediverse and AP, whether from the ground up or as an add on. I’ve seen conversations about how it really is difficult work. If it were easier, maybe things like tumblr would have done it earlier and the fediverse and it’s various platforms would be richer and more successful.
like tumblr would have done it earlier and the fediverse and it’s various platforms would be richer and more successful.
Meh, it’s harder for a for-profit company but not hard for the DIY people. I’m cool with that, it’s rich enough and getting richer.
It was so good. Even without considering the porn I mean
Tumblr has been “on life support” for years now, if it’s gonna croak then I’ll believe it when I see it.
After quotes and anecdotes about love, loss, mountain climbing, and learning on the journey, the memo notes that nobody will be let go and that team members can make a ranked list of their top three preferred assignments elsewhere inside Automattic.
Other companies would’ve used the opportunity to fire most of the team. Kudos to Automattic.
