I don't want Tumblr to die

[theimaginatrix]

The whole fiasco with Tumblr has me in literal tears, but I don't know what I, an Australian with no money and a small internet presence at the best of times, can do about it.

I know no-one will read this. I'm not going to hide it from anybody. I'm scared. I've spent nearly five years on Tumblr, collected thousands of posts, about a hundred followers that weren't bots, and made some wonderful friends. But I'm so dang scared that's all gonna vanish. I hope the staff is paying attention. I hope they change their approach. I really, really do. But no-one else I've seen on my dash seems to think they will and that's really really sad to me...

Comments

[alassenya]

Hi there, fellow Aussie. I saw your post on DW/Latest Things and thought I'd reply even though I don't know you.

Yeah, it's scary to go through it the first time -- I've lived through several purges and it's never a pleasant experience, even when my own works aren't deleted. But we survive and we move on, and we find new platforms and new friends, and we learn how to back up our stuff to a mirror blog or an external hard drive or the cloud.

If you're confused by the difference between Tumblr and Dreamwidth (and they are very different), you might find this post helpful:

http://star-anise.tumblr.com/post/180776281634/basic-dreamwidth-for-tumblr-users

(That's not me, btw, it's just a useful post I saw).

There are more helpful links here:

https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/2785963.html

(also not me).

It will take a while to settle in, but I hope you and your friends find a new home here (or somewhere else equally as welcoming).

[theimaginatrix]

Ahaha, I say "I'm sure nobody will see this," and someone does. xD

I was on Livejournal for a while before Tumblr (I completely missed the Strikethrough/Boldthrough events and joined LJ in 2012, only to move on to Tumblr in 2014 when my friend moved on over there). I still have my LJ, and I liked how things worked on there. They certainly felt tidier than Tumblr at any rate. The amount of stuff I couldn't easily do on Tumblr that I could on LJ because of accessibility issues is ... well, it sucks to be a blind Tumblrer sometimes. But when one's LJ feed consists of eight people, most of whom no longer post even semi-frequently, and none of whom ever posted funny memes, and when Tumblr has whole conversations about why Character X is like this or Character Y did that ... well, I got hooked quite thoroughly. I don't want Tumblr to disappear, and will do what I can to fight this whole stupid mess. I'm not sure how I'll gain even the small following I got anywhere else, and there are so many good posts on there that might be lost if this keeps up ... :(

[alassenya]

"...there are so many good posts on there that might be lost"

This is what everyone hates. There are backup options but some people are having problems and it's all very slow and no one knows if all the important stuff will be archived before 17th December.

My friends list / circle has also been pretty quiet the last few years so I am hoping that at least a few fans will stick around here.

[theimaginatrix]

I just wish there was a definitive way we could kick someone's ass instead of bouncing off an indifferent and badly-trained bot's armour.

[alassenya]

It's not the bot that's the issue, not really. The issue is that some advertisers don't like anything that relates to sex (even though they are happy to use sexualised images in their adverts). Once a site makes the decision to get its primary income from advertising (as opposed to showing ads while they are still funded by venture capital) the purge follows soon afterwards.

[theimaginatrix]

I'm keeping my Tumblr and don't think my blog will be targeted, but I will also protest where I can. I have this place and now Pillowfort to really vent in, though I still need to get the hang of Pillowfort's controls. Dx