Tumblr's Internet Legacy

Whatever Tumblr’s political legacy turns out to be, I will always value it for the UI and how it encouraged more people to blog.<p>When you logged into the Tumblr dashboard, you were presented with several options to post - link post, image post, text post, etc. Other blogging platforms presented you with this huge text box to fill - with the implicit expectation that you should write a huge post. Tumblr was the first that really encouraged sharing this cool new thing you found, or to quickly write down a random thought.<p>It invited a lot of people to blog, including myself, and I personally consider tumblr as a huge part of the history and legacy of blogs.

What is this mainstream media garbage about tumblr being racist. I used to post gothic poetry on that website many years ago and it would blow up with hundreds, no thousands, of engagements, even though I literally didn&#x27;t know anyone who used the platform. It&#x27;s a shame what happened to Tumblr. We live under an oppressive authoritarian regime that systematically bans, blacklists, decimates, and destroys literally anywhere on the Internet where the working class has fun.

Was a Tumblr ever seen as a spiritual successor to earlier internet also-rans like Xanga, Livejournal, and MySpace? Platforms that unlike Facebook were much more user-customizable, even if it often made things much more garish.

&gt; Because of the site’s design, conversation happened in a nesting-doll structure—to comment on anything, users had to reblog the original post onto their own page and make their additions beneath it.<p>&gt; Tumblr was often criticized for its purity culture—conversations could go nuclear as soon as someone was deemed “problematic,” or once their “fav” had been declared “canceled.”<p>The first paragraph caused the second one. That’s not a conversation, that’s broadcasting to your narrow group of like-minded followers.<p>Fatal UI decision ultimately, and it was probably done because comments were considered toxic.<p>But nothing was ever as toxic as challenging some of the crazy ideas on there (one I remember getting tangled up in was “feminism means men can hit women”) and having that person’s personal army come after you.<p>So RIP Tumblr, you sucked and made the world a worse place.

&gt; Tumblr was often criticized for its purity culture—conversations could go nuclear as soon as someone was deemed “problematic,”<p>I remember reading about a user called Vade (since inactive) while catching up on internet drama. They successfully weaponized that tendency to frightening effect and IIRC had the power to summarily deplatform challengers within their various fandoms.<p>As a 4channer I’m not quite sure how cliques form and authority&#x2F;status is brokered on tumblr, but it was a big thing at the time.

FWIW I&#x27;d much prefer Tumblr to still be a thing than WordPress!<p>I appreciate the achievement that is WordPress, but hate it in oh so many ways!<p>Tumblr has everything most people needed, and should have been the blog engine of choice for the masses!<p>But yet somehow WordPress rules the world. Probably because of the ability for 3rd parties to make money from Plugins!<p>That and hacked WP sites a big thing for spammers, I guess?<p>I really hope Tumblr survives!

Implying that tumblr is over.<p>The golden age continues.

Interesting article. I followed some links and ended up on a tumblr list of problematic people and their transgressions and it was.. interesting. There were a couple examples of rude behavior but for the most part I found that they ended up being strong endorsements of the person being discussed? Which I suppose is a credit to whomever curated the lists. They provided enough direct links that I could go see the condemned persons words and make up my own mind, even if their own take was verrry stereotypical tumblr. If anyone ends up seeing the same list it was the entry on Dan Savage in particular that I felt this way about.

Poor Tumblr. I still love you for what you were.<p>Try getting support since they were bought by Matt. My gf&#x27;s account was banned by some AI stupidity and it is as hopeless as trying to get back into a locked out Gmail. Lights on, nobody&#x27;s home. Someone needs to realize that these decisions have real consequences - most of the people my gf talked to and relied on for mental support were only known through Tumblr and now she has no way to contact them.

On the rare occasions that I&#x27;ve looked there --- usually because of finding technical content, which is definitely a tiny minority on Tumblr --- I noticed the clear political bias the majority of other content there has. It&#x27;s certainly one of the weirder places and somewhat a left-wing echochamber.

Tumblr&#x27;s legacy: that website that used to have some really fantastic porn