Tumblr and the Terrible, Horrible, No-good, Very Bad Censorship Policy

I joined Tumblr in 2011/2012. It's had... a run. I won't call it a good run, for reasons that quickly become evident the more you read about my own user perspective. The more you read about the nonsense that Tumblr did, the more you realise that it was pretty much doomed from the start.

This is, after all, the site that survived a 4Chan raid by also having Dashcon at the same time. The biggest, most ludicrous disaster and fraud combo in the history of huge mistakes ever made by mankind.

Primary amongst those mistakes was the staff's insistence on ignoring the user base in favour of aesthetic 'improvements' that did little to improve the performance of the actual site. This caused some glitches that are memes in and of themselves. They implemented a messaging system by making it spread through the user base like a virus. They never eliminated the code for features they outmoded, which means that, if you know the URL to use, you can still use the relics of the past.

The biggest goof of all was ignoring the signs of rot. After Yahoo purchased Tumblr -a multimillion-dollar mistake- and attempted to use the user base for advertising -never a good idea- the porn bots, then the bigots invaded. Despite claims of wishing to eliminate hate speech - the bigots were allowed to persist. Despite claims of wishing to eliminate bots, the bots were allowed to persist.

Tumblr has always been a realm of niche interests. Hell, I started there because I thought it was a decent venue to practice my writing on, and I could follow a few people I admired because they also used it as a platform for their nonsense. So I used it as a platform for mine.

The thing about niche interests is... some of those niches aren't the most sanitary. There are kinksters and swingers and sex workers on Tumblr. Or... there were. All of them were decent human beings and tagged their stuff so that people could avoid that. It was only after the commercial interests took over that the trolls, the irresponsible, and the bots took over, plastering the forum with everything unwanted.

Hell, it was probably the 4Chan raid that sparked the instigation of a few bigot blogs that lured others in like decoys on a pond.

Some people think it's funny to ruin something nice for others. That's their problem.

The larger problem was basically rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Making things 'prettier' or adding nonsense features like highlighting only the most popular posts in a searched tag. It was almost as if the people running Tumblr didn't want a social platform of content creators. Which could be true, and I think I know why.

Content creators are weird.

Imaginative people are possibly the furthest from 'normal' that you could ever hope to meet. I started my Tumblr journey with Minecraft (a hugely nerdy game) found Steam Powered Giraffe (best band in the world, look them up) and discovered a little something called The Adventure Zone. All of this is niche stuff that the mainstream is ashamed to be associated with.

When the Adventure Zone graphic novel debuted at number one in the NY Times Bestseller list, my local bookshop got RID of it's 'bestsellers' display rather than have a graphic novel in there. I thought about trolling them, but I already ordered my copy months ago and giving retail staff shit isn't worth it.

People want Harry Potter and Twilight and the fun and profitable side of creativity. They don't want steampunk weirdoes or a comic book based on an audio podcast where three brothers and their dad play D&D. They want the magic of making money without getting the slime of weird stuff all over their grubby little hands.

The problem with that is - the people with the money have never had the kind of social ostracisation necessary to turn inwards into having an imagination. Nor can they possibly fathom what turns someone to the weirdness that makes stuff new and refreshing. They just go with 'edgy twists', which are kind'a bland when you get down to it.

A for-profit creation engine does things like: remake the classics of the past with the technology of today. Exactly what's happening in Disney. A for-profit creation engine creates sequel after sequel after sequel with no idea of what made the original so alluring in the first place. I'll give you a hint - it wasn't more of the same ol' same ol' until audiences dwindle away from boredom.

Weirdness needs a place to be weird. If you can't use that as a selling point, then you're not the salesperson you thought you were.

So long, tumblr. You tried to kill everything good about yourself, but you only made some pissed-off cockroach assholes like me. It's been a slice.

You'll have to nuke me from orbit to get rid of me though.