Had kind of a terrible day today where nothing really went right. Here’s a quick Undertale doodle I did of the world’s favorite line (and mine as well).
What everybody’s going through now? Many of us have gone through before.
The loss of weeks, months, years of time and investment in building our
friend circles, our communities, our audiences, our content. A lot of
that we can never fully get back.
We know that pain. In some ways, having been through it before makes it easier. In others, the commitment and investment were real and they are a real loss.
I’ve said several times that I’m liking what I see of Pillowfort. This is true. But I have caveats. And they descend from what’s happening to Tumblr, and what happened to Livejournal back in the day, and MySpace before that.
The thing is, while I do believe Pillowfort’s team have the best of intentions in mind…so did the guys who developed Livejournal. That original team? They were great. But they were a private company. Just like Tumblr. And eventually–also like Tumblr–when they’d moved on in life or whatever, they did what most people in that situation would do: they sold it.
These platforms aren’t OURS. They aren’t owned or controlled by us, the users. When they’re private companies or private individuals, those people can ultimately do whatever they like, to OUR content. And even if they’re good people, their needs and inclinations will change with time. When I tell people I like Pillowfort…well, I do. But I can’t guarantee its code base will be ready to handle a mass fandom exodus. And I can’t guarantee that even if it is, in 5-10 years you won’t find yourself right back here. In fact, history suggests you probably will.
The LJ Strikethrough was the last time this happened. At that time, Dreamwidth and AO3–both built with the same principles of user privacy, user control of their content, and freedom of expression–were just coming online. But at that time, the majority of exiting users chose Tumblr. And here we are.
Now Pillowfort is an option. It’s designed to fund itself via user-generated revenue–purchasing premium features, etc. so that the users are also its customers. Dreamwidth is still an option, using the same model and still operating under the same principles it was founded on, still willing to grow and change based on feedback from the users it was created for. Mastodon is out there too now, a Twitter ‘clone’ that also gives the user ownership of their own platform.
It’s also true you don’t have to choose only one. In my case, I’m hedging my bets. I’ve been active on Twitter for a little while now. I’ve had a Dreamwidth since my late LJ days, and I set up a Pillowfort a couple months back because I wanted to see what I thought so I could give people my genuine opinion. And I’ll be on all those for a while yet.
So I’m saying, just…be thoughtful. Investigate. Don’t just leap for the option that looks shiniest on the surface, or most familiar. Most especially, don’t just go for what seems familiar. Look at the ways you’ve been dissatisfied with your experience, or your community’s experience, and consider how the different options might address those problems better. And remember that your experience online–your time, your creations, your communities–represent things of real value, and they deserve a choice that will respect and protect them.
And I guess I’m also saying…if you don’t see anything you like, consider building it yourself. You don’t need to be a coder in order to have a vision, or to organize people, or to put out a call.
Alright, by now plenty of you are aware that Tumblr has decided to axe (most) NSFW content from its site. Here’s their statement, in case you haven’t seen it yet. Figured I’d address some of it before I start migrating.
What’s happening?
Tumblr is drastically altering its policy on NSFW content. The change will be enacted in December 17, 2018.
Is all NSFW content forbidden now?
Not quite – their new terms state that all sexual content featuring real people (i.e. photos and videos of a sexual nature, including non-artistic nudity) is forbidden. However, illustrations are only explicitly stated as forbidden if they “display sexual acts”. Written erotica is specifically mentioned as allowed.
So, written smut, and NSFW art that doesn’t feature sex acts would in theory still be allowed. Weirder fetish stuff that can’t immediately be catalogued as explicit could also fly under the radar.
However, the site has also seen a change to its search and tagging functions, which means that even if you continue to produce the above-mentioned allowed content, you are likely to have your blog tagged as explicit, which would take it off search results (both through tumblr search and via google). In practice, even if your NSFW content is not outright banned, there’s no incentive to post it, as you will likely gain no followers.
Why are they doing this?
The official statement mentions a desire to foster a more welcoming community and a safer place to be yourself, yadda yadda. Also, this would supposedly be something they’ve been planning for a long time.
The more likely explanation, however, is related to Tumblr recently being kicked out from mobile apps due to their blatantly incompetent job at monitoring adult content – specifically the presence of child pornography, though the massive influx of porn spambots has also been mentioned.There’s a good chance they found proper monitoring too expensive, and cutting off NSFW content entirely had the added bonus of making the site more ad-friendly, which is desperately needed in a company that has failed to turn up a profit after being bought by Yahoo.
Any chance they’ll retract?
Unlikely. I mean, Patreon did recant an extremely impopular announced change to their payment system due to massive user outcry, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Feel free to contact Tumblr support about it (be polite, but if you plan to stop using the site due to this change, make sure to say so). But I wouldn’t put my money on it.
So where do we go now?
That’s the question! A lot of alternatives have been mentioned in the past few weeks. I might do a follow-up on this post later with some more details, but for the time being, here are some alternatives:
PILLOWFORTis a tumblr-like platform that’s currently still in beta. In addition to that, by the time I was writing this post their site was down due to maintenance. However, I’ve seen some good things said about it, so if they manage to get the site running soon, give it a try. You need a $5 key to enter the beta, though you can find some folks giving them away here and there. Try checking the notes on their Tumblr page (lmao)
TWITTER is also a popular option. A lot of your favorite NSFW artists might be posting there already (here’s mine!). Twitter’s image compression and timeline format make it far from ideal for posting art, but these problems tend to be offset by the massive audience.
MASTODON is largely known as “twitter minus the nazis”. I’ve found the interface a bit tricky to get into, but it’s something to consider if you want more control over your timeline, since it has some features that could be pretty useful if you want to keep your horny off main. Still nowhere near the userbase Twitter has, though.
Booru galleries like Gelbooru or Danbooru offer huge amounts of views, but posting your own content is frowned upon, reposting other people’s works without credit is rampant, and engagement is extremely low. I don’t particularly recommend them.
If by any chance you’re a furry NSFW artist, you’re probably in a better position than, uh, non-furries. Skinnies. Humanies. Fur muggles. I’m not in the furry community myself, but most NSFW artists know that furry sites offer much better engagement than most NSFW sites open to the general public. Then again, it’s extremely unlikely you’re not already a member, so I’ll skip mentioning them. Feel free to add them in the notes if you think it’d be helpful!
NEWGROUNDS allows NSFW content with no particular restrictions. However, bear in mind that its current userbase is far removed from the community you might have been accustomed to on Tumblr.
HENTAIFOUNDRY is a site for general adult art. (here’s mine!) Despite the name, it’s open for all drawn smut, regardless of style. However, keep in mind it has a quality filter (and corresponding submission queue), its userbase has been declining as of late, and, just like Newgrounds, might not be an audience fit, depending on the content you’re creating/interested in.
If getting started on all these sites seems overwhelming, I suggest giving POSTYBIRB a try – it’s a simple program that allows you to post on multiple sites simultaneously, saving you a lot of time.
That’s all for now! Uh, be sure to reblog this if you think it’d be useful, since this post won’t show up on searches.
Give you three to one that Tumblr’s “we’re banning adult content but will allow discussion of relationships and sexuality” policy is going to end up being strangely selective about what kinds of relationships and sexuality are exempted.
Consulting Witch 