Agreed, fuck Tumblr.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

As per a conversation I had elsewhere - yeah, fuck Tumblr.

I left a flounce post letting people know I've pretty much fucked off back to an actual blogging site. (Also Ao3, Twitter, and Facebook. BTW I am currently Yves Adele Harlowe on FB until they make me change it again.)

And I've pretty much come to the conclusion that if DreamWidth is to take off and have the success that LiveJournal did, we kind of need to be the content we want to see until other people start coming over. Yeah, it's a lot of work and can be a pain in the ass, but that's how it began 2001-2002 during the Great Migration from Yahoogroups, and that's how it can happen again.

It also tends to follow specific fandoms. LOTR and Harry Potter are the fandoms that really precipitated the move from Yahoogroups to LiveJournal. If a franchise goes viral and its fans who are major content creators start trickling over here, others will follow them.

I know that DreamWidth's image hosting/sharing features are where LiveJournal's were in 2008-2010, but you know what fixes that? Money. And how does DreamWidth get money? New subscribers.

I think one of the main attractions to Tumblr 2010-2011 was the fact that it could be used as a content dump area, because around the time it was created, LJ's image hosting/sharing features were still not ready for prime time (Photobucket/Tinypic, anyone?) but I've been using Imgur for that over the past year or so, anyway.

But really, Tumblr was created as an image-sharing service. You know those image macros that were popular in the late augties, the ones with text of some sort of platitude about life, or a dark personal secret, superimposed over a picture of something like a sepia-toned swingset, or a sunset, or a clothesline, or a picture of flowers? THAT was what Tumblr was created to be - a "hipster secrets" macro aggregator. It was also trying to be Instagram before Instagram was a thing. Well, Instagram *is* a thing (and I'm also over there, but to follow very specific people - and I'm not giving out my contact info over there just yet.)

Tumblr's format is conducive to conflict instead of discussion and debate, ("le discourse" my ass) to context getting lost, and communication breaking down. Its primary use now is to perpetuate "callout culture." It's been that way since 2012, six months or so after I started using it (I joined at the end of 2010 and then just let it sit for a long time.) But it's not getting better. It's never going to get any better. The way the platform and the site and service itself are set up are part of the problem.

I started using it to follow the Tron and Homestuck fandoms. Not to get into 24/7 shouting matches or "discourse," or callout posts over the internet - or to see other people's shouting matches and callout posts played out so much that they drown out the content that I actually came there to see - like a film I was enjoying suddenly cut to one of those David Attenborough shows where a hapless gazelle is being ripped apart by lions at a watering hole (which is exactly the thing that led to this decision, today.) I went there originally to consume fan created content for Tron and Homestuck and other fandoms I like, PERIOD END OF SENTENCE.

Fuck Tumblr. I honestly hope people go back to actual blogging sites - or that The Next Big Thing comes along and squashes it, and people abandon it en masse like they did with Yahoogroups starting around 2002. You hear about people going back to LJ and DW from Tumblr...but you never hear about people going back to Yahoogroups. That's the fate I wish upon Tumblr.

Comments

[robin_iamar]

I hear you. I've been occasionally backing off of Tumblr only to go back because for a long time, *this place* didn't have many of the people I actually went to Tumblr to follow (I followed on yours and Tanathir's heels in 2010!). I learned lots there about social justice...and about Social Justicing (TM). Also watched friends having to basically start their Tumblrs over again when posts went viral because even a harmless post going viral can and does bring on the abusive nonsense.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Yeah. The thing is, I have nothing against social justice. We need social justice now, more than ever! It's just that "the discourse" basically boils down to - "my experiences, and my perspective, and my interpretation are the only valid ones. Anyone who disagrees, or even holds to a slight variation of my worldview, or someone who accidentally omits something out of ignorance because it's not a part of their experience IS THE ENEMY OPPRESSOR AND MUST BE DESTROYED!"

If the folks on Tumblr would realize for like three seconds that the situations they are trying to fight for or against are bigger than each individual person's experience or interpretation of the issue and unite as a whole, they could really affect a lot of progressive change. But they won't. Because it's easier to flame someone over their fanfic or their interpretation of a ship or a character than take on actual world problems.

[worlds_of_smoke]

This is pretty much 100% why I never got into Tumblr. Even when the interface didn't make my brain hurt, it's such a fucking black/white site, philosophy-wise, that it's become toxic.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

It's been toxic for five years or so. It seemed to be getting better - but no, it really hasn't, and it's been too much of a time suck for me already.

[worlds_of_smoke]

I just read a few friends via RSS feed. The infinite scroll and constant suggesting of people to follow makes me want to stab the site. And, honestly, I use social networking for conversations and Tumblr is so not a site that makes conversations easy.

[fidget]

Tumblr is a festering abyss of pus and hyperbole. It should be set on fire and launched into space.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

Yes!

[lb_lee]

Yeah, I'm trying to take a bit of a break from tumblr. It's just too exhausting, and I need to pull back for my own sanity.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I've tried to do that multiple times. It's actually easier now that the Tron and Homestuck fandoms are mostly dead. SuperWhoLock has never been my thing. I haven't seen a single episode of Steven Universe yet. I was leaning more towards Star Wars, but it is filled with the same toxicity as any other fandom. Last year I got into an argument with some folks who were 100% CONVINCED THAT REY HAD TO BE A SKYWALKER OR IT WAS RUINED FOREVER BECAUSE HOW DARE SOME RANDOM GIRL (their words, not mine) TAKE ON LUKE'S LEGACY?" (My argument? That it would be awesome if Rey were "Some Random Girl," because the Force can choose anyone.) These were all young women who were professing to be feminists and Social Justice Warriors, by the way, and not dudebros or Redpills or Meninists. And I pretty much noped out of the fandom after that except for just reblogging stuff.

[lb_lee]

Oh god everything I've seen of the Star Wars fandom is that it's like that old story about the Virginia trash mountain that caught fire. I've had to blacklist it.

Fandom has never really been my thing, thank god, and I do not regret this tendency of mine, because HOOOOOOLY CRAP. It's at the point where I'm kinda worried that I SHOULDN'T be making those posts about Piers Anthony, since I'm worried folks will interpret it to mean, "This man is a pedophile and should be BURNED" when all I want to talk about is that his books had an influence on us.

Some of tumblr's "radical politics" are the most regressive things I've ever seen, in a shiny pseudoradical wrapper. It's bizarre and weird to watch.

[finch]

I'm trying to do something similar, posting here more in general, following new people. Commenting more, when I can.

Next step is maybe new communities? idk. I don't fandom much anymore but I think that's got to be next.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I definitely think new communities are the answer. I even created one for Buckaroo Banzai. I just need to start doing stuff with it.

[apprehensiveacolyte]

The ONLY reason we're still on Tumblr is because that's where the Gallifreyan Tradition Society started, so I at least am sort of obligated to stay. But the Tumblr environment just has this feel of being at therapy, only any second your therapist could be replaced by Rush Limbaugh, you know?
-Cass