Addictions always originate in unhappiness, even if hidden.
They are emotional anesthetics; they numb pain. The first question — always — is not “Why the addiction?” but “Why the pain?” The answer, ever the same, is scrawled with crude eloquence on the wall of my patient Anna’s room at the Portland Hotel in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: “Any place I went to, I wasn’t wanted. And that bites large.”
Some good news, I’ve been talking to two developers now and got them working together, we just had a meeting with the guys behind an existing large (millions of users) site similar to Tumblr, with a vibrant and open-minded community, and more importantly, it has open-minded owners who believe in free speech. They think we can get something done here to rescue the whole community.
I’m not allowed to reveal the site name yet. I can tell you it’s mainstream, open to everyone, open-minded and welcoming. (It’s not WordPress or any site owned by Facebook or Twitter. It’s not Pillowfort, that’s in closed beta. It’s not Ello, that’s mainly for artists. It’s not kinkspace or fetlife, those are too specialist. It’s not jux, that seems to be closed. It’s not Soup, that seems still in development and too small.)
One of the reasons for delaying the announcement for next few days is they don’t want a “land grab” where people take the names of current popular Tumblr users over there (cyber squatting). So they are looking at ways for existing Tumblr users to keep the same names on the new site.
More info over the days to come.
The plan is, broadly:
1. By December 9th, announcement of the new site and how to secure your username there
2. By December 10th, an online tool for bloggers to copy their existing content to the new site automatically, with the same tags and captions.
3. Bloggers will need to copy their content across between December 10th and December 17th if they want to use the automatic tool.
4. My understanding is that after December 17th there will be no public access to any “flagged” posts on Tumblr, but the original poster will still be able to see the flagged post (for a short time at least). Therefore, the original poster may still be able to manually download a post to their own PC or phone, after December 17th, and manually upload it to the other site. But if you have lots of posts that will take a long time, it will be better to use the automatic tool before December 17th.
Please understand that these dates are approximate and may change for technical or other reasons.
There may be a few rough edges or not so perfect looking site design on the transfer tool. Everyone is doing their best. The main goal here is to help as many people as possible preserve access to their content, in the short space of time Tumblr has allowed us, and preserve as much as possible of the Tumblr community spirit somewhere new.
The new site will cater for photo, GIF, text and html posts. It will not offer video and audio posts, due to cost reasons – maybe in future, but for now you will need to preserve video and audio content yourself in some other place.
If your Tumblr blog has a mixture of original content and reblogs, or all reblogs, all of that can be copied over to the new site. Reblogs will become “your” original content if nobody else posted them yet, otherwise they will be shown as reblogs. The devs are looking at ways to preserve attribution of reblogs back to the original Tumblr poster, if that person also moves to the new site.
Important: your Likes cannot be copied from Tumblr to the new site. You will have to go find the same posts again on the new site, and like them afresh.
(Similarly, existing reblog comments, asks, messages and other user interaction on Tumblr cannot be copied to the new site – that’s just too much to do, in the short time available.)
If you want to preserve any of your existing Liked posts on Tumblr, you will need to either: (1) download the post to your own PC, or: (2A) reblog it now to your own Tumblr blog, and then (2B) use the automatic tool, before December 17th, to move your whole Tumblr blog across to the new site.
If you have Liked a lot of posts here on Tumblr, the gridllr.com webapp should be able to help you do steps 1 and 2A quickly, I mean download or reblog.
(Someone complained to me today about the appearance of Gridllr on a phone. It’s best to use Gridllr on a PC, Mac or Tablet with a large screen.)
If you have liked a post here on Tumblr and the original poster decides to delete it, or even to delete their entire blog, some time before December 17th, then that post will be permanently lost. So if you want to be sure to preserve any of your Liked posts, you should best download or reblog as soon as possible. If it’s reblogged to your own blog it is safe from deletion, at least for next few days.
Obviously, you will lose access, after December 17th, to all past posts you have liked, if Tumblr has flagged them as NSFW. Again, the steps (1), or (2A) and (2B) covered above will be the only way to hold on to these posts.
Hey so @staff it’s really really shitty to flag as explicit a post about my gay uncle who died due to AIDS.
@staff this is unacceptable
Thank you. I didn’t even see a notification – I just came across it while I was scrolling through my blog to see if anything was flagged.
I’m honestly pretty upset about this. It’s also wild considering the history of the AIDS epidemic and how the US government censored PSAs about the epidemic to not mention gay men because it might be seen as endorsing “deviant” behavior. I’m not saying that’s why this was flagged, I’m just saying there’s relevant history here.
This is also an indication that random LGBTQ posts being blocked isn’t a fluke. This post doesn’t contain any word that could possibly be construed as sexual, like sex/sexual/sexuality. “Gay,” “orientation,” “HIV” or “AIDS” is probably flagged.
This is why Fandom Olds defend AO3 so vigorously. When the crackdown starts, it’s always, always queer subjects that get blacklisted first.
Censorship always starts there, even in libraries.
okay. i legit want to burn shit down now.
This story was heart warming and heartbreaking at the same time, thank you for sharing it, @sorrynotsorrybi. @staff, you are the worst.
Hey remember back in 2015 or whatever when twinkies were no longer going to be made and everyone in america actually lost their minds to the point where boxes of twinkies were being sold on Ebay for $50,000 or some ridiculous amount and the backlash was so severe they decided not to discontinue them? That was the point where we should have realized this country wasnt full of sane human beings.
For those of you going through this for the first time: everything will be okay. Fandom always survives stuff like this. We’re good at it.
I know there’s lots of advice posts out there. This isn’t an advice post. I’m just going to tell you why it’ll be okay.
So far, on every commercial platform fandom has called home, there has come a tipping point when we leave. There have been a few scares on Tumblr before, but I didn’t think that we’d reached the tipping point back then. I do think so now. Given the way I’ve seen fandom leave platforms before, yes, this is the real thing. It won’t happen all at once, but in waves. You can afford to wait, but start thinking about it so you’re not taken by surprise when you reach your limit.
Take note of those advice posts that are going around, and especially of the things the BNFs in your fandom are planning – people will tend to follow them in clusters, so that’s a good place to start. But even if you leave it all to the last minute in the hope it won’t happen, and then realise you need to leave after all, it will still be okay.
We are fans, and the internet has always been our playpen. We all have multiple social media accounts, many with the same handle. We can find each other again. It won’t be the same. Of course it won’t. Tumblr fandom is different from Livejournal, is different from GeoCities. But it will still be fandom, it will still be good, and you will still find people you like, including some of those currently in your fannish circle.
We have the advantage of the OTW now too – this kind of thing is exactly why we built it. It’s our safe harbour, no matter what, because we own it.
Once you decide to leave Tumblr, it won’t be as scary as you think. You’ll recognise people’s handles. You’ve probably already done this without realising it – remember the people you used to share a fandom with, but no longer do? Their handles are still seared into your brain, and you’ll always feel that pang of nostalgia when you see them again.
It’s just the same when fandom migrates.
Some people will disappear, and you never will find them again. But mostly, you will still see the same handles, having the same conversations, sharing love for the same favourites, just in new places. You will find them on Dreamwidth, Pillowfort, Instagram, Twitter, Google docs, discord, fanfic.net, Wattpad, Deviant Art, YouTube, Vimeo, and so on. Most importantly, you’ll find them on Fanlore and AO3, because they are run by the OTW and we own it.
Fans and fandom will still be here long after Tumblr is full of rolling tumblrweeds.
We’re good at this.
No matter where we end up, you will find your people again.
Signing signing signing…. #witches #artbook #cauldron available to buy on my website, link in bio! #magic #fantasyart — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2rmBZHy
I’ll keep posting here for now, but tumblr is testing me by flagging every picture of a forest or tree I’ve drawn as nsfw! I’m super active on twitter with a lot of art posts, and Verse updates. Less active on instagram, but I do post there as well!
Spitfire Alice A Gra 
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