about the tumblr 'purge'

[dickinsons]

It might be too soon to say this, but at the moment I don't think Tumblr is gonna be as abandoned as it could have been. Many people are sticking around. I haven't posted anything in a few days, I think, but I haven't deleted my account either... And you know what? I don't really get why we have been so passive to all the shit we've had to see on Tumblr.

Don't get me wrong, I think everyone who has used Tumblr for a few years (I joined Tumblr on 2011) has had many great experiences there and met amazing people. Of course we have. But there were many times when the features we liked were changed in a way we didn't like, or the site maybe was literally broken for hours, etc. And for months now we've had to deal with pornbots reblogging all posts and adding their fucking links there, literally making it impossible for you to check the actual comments that people reblog posts with because 99% of them were pornbots. Then the app was deleted from app stores because people were using Tumblr to spread child pornography, and only then they decide todo something about it? Which, fair, at least they are doing something now, but it's such a bad move the post staff published that was supposed to be an example of what is permitted to be published under the new policy was FLAGGED. Oh, the irony.

My point is, I don't know what has to happen for people to really leave the site entirely. I like DW, I think I'm gonna stick around for a while, but I can't speak for everyone.

Comments

[rush_keating]

I've seen a sort of passivity from a lot of people who are still on there because they haven't personally been affected by the flagging. I think there would have to be a critical mass of people who are affected by it (both directly as in their own work getting flagged) and indirectly (such as a favorite artist leaving) to cause any major change.

[dickinsons]

Yeah, that makes sense to me! I also understand that people won't leave if there isn't any platform that seems to be good enough, since dreamwidth is probably weird for people who were never on LJ and pillowfort is still very new.

[rush_keating]

For what it's worth, this graph of mastodon user growth shows a marked difference between before the "purge" and after.

https://mastodon.social/@usercount/101264763416898876

[dickinsons]

Oh wow, it does show a difference. I've tried mastodon but I got frustrated when I didn't understand what I was doing lol. But I'll give it another try I think.

[quietrae]

It could just be me, but I'm...really not convinced Pillowfort is gonna take off at all. It feels like people are pinning all their hopes on it because it's the most like Tumblr out of all available options right now, so I understand the hype, but I don't really trust them to know what they're doing.
I kind of think Tumblr will be limping along for at least another year or two before fandom abandons it entirely, porn ban or no.

[dickinsons]

For the time being, I agree with you on Pillowort. I've heard it's really slow because it isn't prepared for this amount of people joining because of the Tumblr purge, and I don't think the hype for it will last.
Maybe when fandom finally decides to settle for another option and when Tumblr keeps doing more shit like this (which I don't doubt they will), in a few years, as you say, people will abandon it.

[rosalinecapulet]

I think most of the people who are staying on tumblr are doing it because it's what everyone is used to? It's been the reigning fandom site for so long that most of its users probably don't know anything else, so they're staying out of habit.

And then there's the matter of Pillowfort. I like what they're trying to do, but I probably won't be making an account until they make them free. Not because $5 is an outrageous amount, but because removing the paywall will indicate that they've got things under control enough that they don't need it (if that makes sense lol). Because right now, the main impression I get from PF is that they're not prepared to handle this mass exodus and will probably need more time, but they might be promising if they can pull it together.

For now, I'll probably stay on tumblr for as long as I have an account and bounce between it, dw, dA, and ao3 (and, less frequently, twitter and discord)

[dickinsons]

Yeah, we're used to Tumblr, and I think for many people it's the only site they have known for fandom (or at least the main one) as you say.

I agree with you about Pillowfort, I've heard that right now it's slow and not prepared for the amount of people that want it to be Tumblr's alternative, so in any case I'll wait and see. Maybe it fails at being that, I don't know. As I said in another comment, I don't see it improving fast enough for the hype to last.