this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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It's not quite the end of Tumblr, but when management is supposedly sending memos with the Lord Tennyson quote about having "loved and lost," it doesn't look like there's much of a future.

Internet statesman and Waxy.org proprietor Andy Baio posted what is "apparently an internal Automattic memo making the rounds on Tumblr" to Threads. The memo, written to employees at WordPress.com parent company Automattic, which bought Tumblr from Verizon's media arm in 2019, is titled or subtitled "You win or you learn." The posted memo states that a majority of the 139 employees working on product and marketing at Tumblr (in a team apparently named "Bumblr") will "switch to other divisions." Those working in "Happiness" (Automattic's customer support and service division) and "T&S" (trust and safety) would remain.

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[–] [email protected] 217 points 1 year ago (5 children)

We tried to warn you, yet you banned the porn anyways.

[–] [email protected] 112 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I audibly snorted when OnlyFans was going on about this the first time around

[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

When onlyfans said they were going to stop allowing porn. I was like wait, wut? You're going to shut down you're own product?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

At least OF came to their senses and that's why they're still thriving.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I almost wonder it was a guerilla marketing success story in terms of that whole debacle. Like i don't think they were hit with anything but derision and snark.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My guess (and I think I read other people guessing this) was that the banks were pushing them to ban porn, and by announcing it the way they did, they were able to get cancellations data proving that they would die, so if the banks wanted any money from them at all in the future they had to back off, and did.

If it was marketing, then it probably backfired enormously - OF barely had competition that I heard of before then, but certainly did immediately after the announcement.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I thought the creators all learned to code.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why would banks care about porn? All they should care about is making money. They're literal banks afterall.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's usually the credit cards. They don't want to be associated with the porn. Their brands show on the website.

Nobody knows what bank any company uses.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This makes sense

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It seems that way to us on the face of it but the lines that've been trotted out are firstly the worry that money is coming from an illegal source whether underaged or trafficked and secondly that money laundering could be happening, OF would be/is an extremely easy way to clean dirty money.

They used to have to set up actual businesses that did actual work in case a genuine customer appeared, now they can buy feet pics and jars of farts or whatever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmm I don't think that's it. They can still publish bullshit content and launder money that way. Also, jars of farts aren't porn and presumably still allowed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Tough to sell any old jar of farts without somebody wanting it for some reason (like having already seen pics of your butthole and becoming a perverted fan of everything your butthole ejects).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I agree. Supposedly it was about adult sites having higher rates of chargebacks, fraud, etc. But to me that sounds easily solvable with increased fees from the banks for that industry instead of trying to push morals.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ladies and gentleman, I'm about to surgically remove my head to avoid losing my shirt, you shall desist in questioning my authority/methodology...

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, this was predicted by everyone, long in advance. The surprising thing here is how long they've managed to cling to life. I expected them to be deceased by now. I didn't think they'd last another three years, let alone five.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Verizon banned porn. The new owners have turned more of a blind eye to it. I know, hard to keep up with all the different owners and their individual policies.

Its different corporate masters passing Tumblr around. At least try to see how different owners have different policies. I think we all knew that Verizon was utter crap as an owner and did untold damage to the brand. But I actually was rooting for Tumblr to make a comeback this time.

Alas, Automattic couldn't save Tumblr after all the damage to its reputation.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They didnt really try to.

A lot of the new money making features were half assed, and got abandoned pretty quickly after release. Lots of users who wanted to support them have complained that they seem to not want the money.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They’ve also added features no one wants. For example, the recent “Tumblr Live” nonsense, which is basically Twitch meets Shorts. It’s at the top of your feed and you can’t permanently turn it off - you can turn it off for what was a week, then a month. They wasted money and time to get that feature going, one that you know cost a lot because hosting video isn’t cheap, when NO ONE goes to tumblr to look at random cam girls.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol, never used Tumblr, but that sounds terrible. I hate how they want to change all social media to the exact same thing, instead or leaving us with different choices.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, same. It’s like they think unique identities is bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s about aiming for the lowest common denominator to maximize user number and engagement. Autoplaying short vids in a feed that you didn’t curate - all things optimized to trick your monkey brain for one more scroll or one more click. Works on everybody from children to elderly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Except in Tumblr’s case, no one goes to tumblr to watch videos on the first place, and the way they have it set up is awful. It’s at the top of your feed, and you have to tap any of them to watch them in anything larger than a tiny square.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

They honestly didn't have a choice at the time. They were either going to have to completely moderate content, or get sued to bankruptcy for allowing CSAM all over their platform.

The double-edged sword of user-generated content is that a bunch of them are creeps and not participating to be creative.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Speaking of bans, does anyone know what happens with community ban, is that forever or do they give you a cooloff time or what? I still get notifs, just can't respond to anything

Edit: i wonder if I'm on ice cuz of my nesting test thread

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

"Community ban" as in you're banned from a community? Unless the mods set a specific duration, it's perpetual. If you think you are banned from a community check the mod log or ask the moderators.