This website was literally so fucking stupid. You used to be able to just fucking edit somebody’s post. Like just change it entirely. Nothing was stopping you. What the fuck. Imagine logging into your youtub account and some bozo changed your funny comment to say you love being a dummy. That’s what used to happen here. Every single day.
I wrote an incredibly long post on Dreamwidth about the Tumblr purges and what happens next! Here’s the first bit, which I’m quoting here as a little bit of a fannish history lesson for all you young’uns, probably it’ll get deleted, thanks Tumblr:
First: let me start off by saying that it is very probable that Tumblr will back out of this particular bad idea. They often do. The pattern of fannish archival catastrophes at the hand of corporations almost always has five stages: 1) a sale, or rumored sale, of the platform; 2) falling or nonexistent profits; 3) pressure from (pick at least one) governments, morality warriors, and/or advertisers/other corporate interests; 4) the actual fannish archival catastrophe, caused by a change in the TOS or in the enforcement of the TOS, which itself frequently comes in multiple stages; and 5) a second sale of the platform.
Strikethrough, for example, wasn’t a single terrible idea executed badly, it was at least two terrible ideas executed badly: first Strikethrough, which happened in May 2007; and then, following masses of outrage (particularly outrage from fans), some limited concessions from LJ management; followed by a second round of permanent suspensions conducted a little bit differently, a.k.a. Boldthrough, in August 2007. These tend to get lumped together in fannish memory, but I want people to remember that they were not a single event.
And those two events, themselves, are also not the whole story: Strikethrough itself followed on well over a year of rumors that LJ was changing its TOS/enforcement of its TOS, ever since LJ had been sold to SixApart in 2005, who were trying to monetize the site. Likewise, alongside those rumors, LJ’s adult content—which, unlike Tumblr, may actually have been predominately fannish, because I don’t think actual porn producers used LJ anywhere near as heavily as they use Tumblr—had been under continual attack from Christian pressure groups because it hosted material that they claimed was “harming children” [I can’t find a source on this, but I remember it very clearly—if anyone has a source, lmk in comments and I’ll link], what with all the fannish erotica with clear disclaimers on it that it was intended for adult audiences, frequently (as with pornish_pixies) posted in locked communities. There was, simultaneously, a lot of pressure being put on LiveJournal by the Russian government, because another group that heavily used LJ at the time was Russian political protestors. On top of that, there was a lot of rumor about LJ/SixApart’s advertisers getting antsy about blogs containing adult content [I can’t find a source on this either—if anyone has a source, lmk in comments and I’ll link].
So, in short, here is what happened to LJ: 1) LJ was sold to SixApart; 2) SixApart tried to monetize it; 3) SixApart got pressure from a) the Russian government, b) the Christian anti-porn police, and c) advertisers to bring its “adult content problem” under control; 4) LJ deleted a whole bunch of blogs, backed up and said “mea culpa”, and then… deleted a whole bunch of blogs; and 5) SixApart sold LJ to the Russians.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Following this pattern, here is what I suspect is going to happen to Tumblr: 1) Tumblr was sold to Yahoo (now owned by Verizon); 2) Yahoo/Verizon tried to monetize it; 3) Yahoo/Verizon got pressure from a) various governments, including Indonesia and China, b) the anti-porn/anti-sex-work/anti-shipping moral purity police, and c) the Apple Store to bring its “adult content problem” under control; 4) starting earlier this year, Tumblr deleted a whole bunch of blogs, backed up and said “mea culpa”, and then… changed its TOS and started deleting content [← we’re here right now]; and 5) Verizon will sell Tumblr to ? ? ?
It’s possible that we’ll have another couple rounds in Step 4. It’s not like 2 rounds in Step 4 is magic, or something; my point is just: Tumblr has already backed down once. You see where that gets us (fucking nowhere, that’s where). That said? The death throes are going to take a while. I was still reluctantly cross-posting to LJ in 2015; as late as 2013, LJ was still a lot of fans’ primary home. Six full years after Strikethrough!! Six! Full! Years! After they started deleting our shit, and banning our friends!!! And in that six years, all that happened was LJ’s TOS got continually and aggressively more restrictive, while the Russians were banging up all the political dissenters whose content they’d purchased into jail.
My point, here, is just that we have been here before. Exactly here. We have done this before, exactly this. Tumblr may take a while to bleed out, and they may try to triage it, but the writing is, in fact, on the wall: Tumblr will throw us off whatever cliffs they need to to try and eke out a profit for the morons in Verizon’s boardroom; and in the end, our data’s going to get deleted, or it’s going to get sold, because that is just how these things go.
So we need to figure out where we go next.
Please read/reblog/reply—I really do want people to weigh in! I’m not promising to keep tracking this on Tumblr (come to DW, the water’s fine), but I do want to hear what people have to say.
The only way any other social site we fans migrate to is going to work is for it to be fully, entirely funded through donations from us, the users. Like AO3, which does not and will never sell out to a megacorp, which does not and will not fund itself through advertising, which does not have investors to placate, which has an entire team of lawyers in place to protect our rights as artists and creators, and which runs its donation plea once a year for this specific reason. This is why. This exact thing that happened this week is why they ask us all to spare a few bucks if we can.
I dunno about all of you, but I’m going to have some questions for Pillowfort when they come back online. I want to know if they have a plan already in place for inevitable bot activity, for people who post hate speech and nazi propaganda, and if they are going to have a team in place whose sole job is to keep this shit from poisoning their site like it does every single other site we fans try to take refuge on as a safe space.
I’ve been through literally all of LJ’s bullshit, and now it’s the same thing here. It’s going to be the same anywhere we go, unless we, the fans, are the sole investors in whichever website we use. This shit ain’t free.
I’ve been looking at the options and having the exact same thoughts. I don’t at all mind paying a few bucks a year for this service… It’s a lot less than what I pay for Netflix and I use it a lot more. That said, the main reason social media is, well, social, is that there’s a critical mass of people with the same interests. At this point, I have two or three fandoms I really care about, and one of those is already small and shrinking and fragmenting. So I’ll be balancing the need to go where we own our own content and contribute to the platform with seeing where others in my community go. Not sure where I’ll end up, but Pillowfort is on the short list.
“Per registry regulations, no .io domain may be used, directly or
indirectly, for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic in nature, or
violates the statutory laws of any nation.“
Pillowfort is registered on .io
Explain this to me like I’m dumb though. Does this mean it won’t allow the bots (hopefully), it won’t allow sex workers to do their thing (probably), and/or it won’t allow fan writers and artists to do our thing (??????), or all of it? How are they going to regulate that when privacy/friends-only settings exist on the platform?
“No .IO domain may be used, directly or indirectly, for any purpose that
is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any
Nation. In the event of the Registry being advised by any party that a
specific site breaches this condition then the Registry reserves the
right to immediately deactivate the offending registration.”
I’m no internet scholar, but it seems to me all it’ll take is the registry getting wind of any of these breaches of contract and terminating Pillowfort’s domain registration, or Pillowfort themselves getting nervous about being in breach of contract and terminating user accounts or putting restrictions on usage of the site. With the way this is worded that breach could include anything from child pornography to written erotica.
Historically, this means a site will ignore sexual or pornographic materials right up until they get into trouble for it, and then they crack down. As far as privacy locks go, I don’t know. The prohibited data is still associated with the domain, but I don’t know what kind of access to it they’d have, or if Pillowfort differentiates between public and private posts. They haven’t made their TOS easily available.
Thanks Punk… this is going to require more research. There was at least one other option on my shortlist… when I find the post that mentioned it I’ll share here so we can all be aware.
FWIW, @suedescripture, Pillowfort’s Terms of Service explicitly forbids hate speech/hate group recruiting, as well as harassment, doxxing, call out posts, and other “anti”-type activity that’s poisoned tumblr. They also don’t plan to ever use advertising and instead by funded by offering a paid option to users (similar to Livejournal’s paid option that had some extra features).
But the domain thing is concerning. I wonder why they chose to go with a .IO domain in that case.
Hmmmmmm.
I just saw this on their twitter. I don’t know if it’s come up in this conversation yet, but it’s definitely relevant
I really want a movie where there’s this Dark Brooding Male Hero who’s like, a total badass, and during all the fight scenes he keeps getting flashbacks to happy images of his wife, and like his whole narrative is framed around his wife, and all the other heroes on his team know that he’s got this passion and vengeance and think it all has to do with his dead wife… but then near the end of the movie his wife shows up and he’s like “hey babe” they’re all shocked and they’re like, “Wait I thought all your power and passion came from avenging your dead wife?” and he’s like “no bro, I just really love my wife, she’s really cool, she’s what keeps me going” like… a reverse fridge
Unfridge your wives 2017
Unfridge your wives 2018
“This whole saving the world thing has kept me from seeing my wife for like, three days and I was really starting to miss her!”
It turns out he’s normally a ray of sunshine and is only Dark Brooding Male Hero mode when he misses her.
She shows up and he instantly perks up, smiling and yelling “BABY!” as he runs at her with his arms outstretched.
… anyone else kind of want to see this briefly sketched by Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey or is it just me
concept: which member of the fellowship are you personality quiz, except there’s only one question and its “what do you think about pippin”. answers range from “bastard man, naughty boy” to “my son whom shall be cherished”
Hi, you may or may not know me. I go by Tyramir, and I’m an author. Mostly I write fanfic, but I have also published a book at some point. (Yes, that was a subtle plug – don’t feel obligated to click the links, they’re there to justify to myself why I’m doing this so I can say this wasn’t 100% altruistic because I’m a crusty old troll)
So, recently, Tumblr has made something of an announcement regarding what kind of content they will and will not host in the future. And you know what, that’s okay. It’s their site. They can do what they want. Just like I’m free to say, “Hey, @staff, go fuck yourselves with some sandpaper, you masochistic fucks.”
Ah, that felt good. You know what else feels good? Moving to Pillowfort. I’m in no way associated with them, beyond that I am now a user. I just bought a key. More than one, actually. I bought a whackload of them. I am not rich. See: author. Very poor profession if you’re not ultra-successful. However, what I am is angry, and disappointed with the direction this site is taking.
This site is home for the marginalised, for the outcasts, for the misfits. It’s also the home for a lot of fellow artists, like myself. Ones that might not have a little extra cash in their wallets. So, as a Christmas gift (and as a way of sharing that link up above advertising my book, see self, you’re not totally altruistic), I’m making this offer.
Reblog and like this post. You don’t have to follow me. You don’t have to buy my book. You don’t have to tell anyone it exists. You don’t even have to click that link. Just like and reblog. Anyone who likes it will get one entry for drawing for a key. Anyone who reblogs it will get one. Anyone who does both will get two. And on December 17th, the Day of Ignominy, I will draw ten names, and I will gift ten keys. I’ll even wear a Willy Wonka hat while I do. You won’t be able to see it, but the spirit will be there.
If you want to get the word out, but don’t want to get an entry (say you already have a Pillowfort account), just reblog and tag the post with “no entry,” or some variation thereof. I’ll exclude you from the draw, but thank you (in my mind, I’m not gonna actually thank people, but that requires effort, yo) for helping others learn about this opportunity.
TL;DR: Bald author wants to use very little cash he has to give people Pillowfort accounts. Just like and reblog for entries.Also, I hope you are feasted upon by a swarm of angry weasels, @staff.
missionlameturtle 