deleted a bunch of chronic pain and chronic illness posts from blogs they’ve left (like mine)
This isn’t just about ‘oh no you can’t look at people fucking anymore’ (even though lots of sex workers are losing their means of supporting themselves). This goes a lot further, with a lot more chilling effects.
The sexualizing of things like ‘top surgery’ or declaring all ‘trans’ tagged things to be … sexual… is really, REALLY fucked up. Never mind the fact that ‘chronic pain’ had NOTHING to do with sexiness, and we’ve been given no explanation as to why disabled people were considered acceptable collateral damage.
ALSO I had a post flagged earlier today for a cartoon picture of Mario in a bathing suit. Mario, from Super Mario Brothers.
Someone else reported a picture of a cartoon scorpion with a hard hat on being flagged as pornography. Tagging things as ‘queer’ or ‘gay’ gets them flagged NSFW. (Hey, guess what I’d been tagging my t-shirts, because they’re pride stuff? Oh right. Queer. Gay. Pride.)
This is a fucking problem, let’s not blow it off.
I know some people are too young (or simply weren’t involved in fandom back then) to remember what went down with livejournal and a couple of other sites “back in the day”, but it all started out as “it’s okay, we’re just removing the nasty porn”, and then “okay well, just make sure you put your porn behind a cut, no, wait jk you need to host it externally, a link is fine, maybe” and pretty much devolved swiftly into “actually sweety, LGBT content is inherently NSFW by default because it might make the kiddies gay if we expose them to it, so y’all need to leave now byyyeeee”.
Like…that happened. And it took nearly a decade for the fandom spaces to recover and stabilize and to get to the point where LGBT content creators could host their content without being told “you’re not welcome here” and I’m just sitting here, watching as youtube demonetizes LGBT content creators, and Facebook flags up LGBT ads as “inappropriate” and now tumblr is going through the queer and gay tags and just mass blanketing it as inappropriate, while actual pornbots and nazis wind up in my recommended feed.
Like I am uncomfortable y’all. I am looking around at everything I’ve built and all the friends I’ve made and I know we’re all looking for the next safe space to jump to while hoping we don’t lose each other overnight like “the olden days” where you’d wake up and your fave blogger was just gone.
And usually it was because they’d drawn or written something as simple yet explicit as a kiss. It was just the wrong kind of kiss.
So yea, the sky is not falling, but the ice under our feet sure is making worrying sounds.
@vaspider the only (and weakest) explanation that I’ve seen for the chronic pain tags being purged was that they were concerned about drug deals happening within the tag. Which is absolute garbage.
This isn’t just about porn. This is a warning sign, and those of us that have lived through or learned fandom history know what the fuck is up.
I’ve seen a couple of posts now advocating to not migrate from Tumblr to other services, but to stay and fight. And while I applaud that mindset to resist and I am all for contacting @staff and telling them (in a respectful manner) that you are unhappy, I don’t believe it will do anything.
It hasn’t in the past.
And this is why:
Tumblr is about creating revenue. Those ads and stuff? It creates revenue. Companies pay to have Tumblr show them to you. So the more users there are on a platform, the more companies are interested to pay Tumblr for the ‘privilege’ of showing their ads to you. Tumblr users are literally revenue creating golden geese. And this is the only thing we are to them. This is why Tumblr is free (it is not in fact: you don’t pay money, but you pay by consuming ads whether you want to or not)
This Purge is not about making Tumblr a ‘safer, friendlier place’. It is not about stopping child pornography or nudity or sex or any of that.
It is not about an ethical or moral obligation
(as evidenced by Tumblr not caring one bit about fascist propaganda, etc.).
It is about being taken off Apple app store
Being taken off that means loss in revenue, because the Tumblr app reaches less people’s devices -> less people interact with it -> less chances to show ads -> less companies interested in paying Tumblr to show you ads -> less money for Tumblr. It is about money, not some moral or ethical obligation (but those reasons sell better in PR)
This Purge is Tumblr’s idea to get back into that sweet app store as quickly as possible to recover revenue
The reason Tumblr never really handled the porn bot issue? It was not profitable
The reason Tumblr didn’t (and still doesn’t) care about fascist ideas percolating freely here? It is not profitable. (after all, they didn’t get taken off the app store for allowing those ideas…)
The reason Tumblr doesn’t care about harassment cases? It is not profitable
The reason they act now (with this knee-jerk reaction) is because it is actually hurting them in their bottom line.
I get you like Tumblr, heck, I like(d) Tumblr! But I am happy to not update and do much here anymore (basically let my blog slowly die (or even remove it, I’m not sure yet), go some place else that maybe even has an ounce of ethics left (or more than an ounce), give my money to them (in form of actual cash, or the time I spend looking at ads to keep them in business) rather than support a system that really does not care at all about anything but the revenue.
I know you’re scared of loosing your content, people you have connected with, the network you have created (and also the connections you have made that actually pay you money). However, this is something you can have some place else. Yes, it will take time and effort (and I am aware that it hurts people financially right now), but it is not like you, or fandom, or your safe space will drop off the face of the earth.
I say, fine, if my content (and therefore the driving force for people to connect with me – and be shown the ads displayed by Tumblr) is not wanted here, I go some place else.
And hurt their bottom line. That is the only thing Tumblr cares about. It is the only thing that will interest them.
Maybe they will even create a better site in a few year’s time to gain those golden geese back. Doubt it though.
If they do, I consider coming back.
If not, fuck you. I take my business elsewhere, cause loss of revenue is the only language they understand.
“Interrogation of the Zodiac Killer” -The Ghost of Sandro Botticelli ca 2015
So I slapped some mathematics on this picture and…
The red lines divide the picture into thirds. They also mostly coincide with the doorway (and Cruz’s right hand), framing him nicely as the Main Character of this picture.
The green line was placed using the golden ratio (the ratio between parts of the picture above it and below it is close enough to 1:1.618). It also goes right under his chin (and through some reporters’ hands or tools).
The purple lines are diagonals that are framing the reporters really nicely.
I’m pretty sure you could also do something clever with a circle and the yellow doorway behind him, but I don’t have the patience to fiddle with that.
Basically, this picture has the same “maths are beautiful” aesthetic as (some well-known) Renaissance paintings.
It also means a photographer did a DAMN GOOD job taking it
a couple months ago i re-opened my etsy shop because we’re having money troubles. about 2 weeks ago i sold a $65 item, but today when i went to look at my balance i had negative money. why? because etsy had automatically opted me into their “boosted posts” marketing feature, which costs $1 per day. i had to go find the option and turn it off manually.
etsy is opting people into paid marketing without their permission. if you use the site, make sure you aren’t getting charged.
That, and at the same time, is it automatically using our sales to pay for our bills?
I actually don’t mind the auto billing out of your balance but they should definitely have rolled it out better or give some one a bigger heads up damn. As for the marketed posts, those are fucking useless and that sucks.
tbh y’all it’s way cheaper to have a storenevy at this point even if you’re on their “marketplace” this is mostly based on the math I did as:
Spookielights Tumblr Archive 