Tumblr's New Adult Content Policy

[ar-ninetysix]

Nothing like offering a freedom to post whatever you want and ripping it away. They should definitely see people being super upset at this, as some people have built their entire lives and gaining a following on using the site through NSFW blogs.

It's a step backwards tbh and I can't imagine that this is gonna keep going over well. That community's a huge part of Tumblr, isn't it? It's not like the site was ever too child-friendly to begin with anyways, a huge majority of blogs on there in general are aimed at adults and teens from what I understand. There's far more important things to fix on that site than drawn lewds. You already got safe mode automatically on and NSFW tags that you gotta go out of your way to find, don't remove the option of uploading there and ruining people's hard work in the process of trying to fix this (quite frankly, irrelevant) issue???

[HGohwell]

Just a quick update: it seems they've already begun flagging work to be taken down. As always with these things, work affects involves perfectly wholesome gay content (such as forehead kisses, hand holding and hugs, all still fully clothed) and women with cleavage, legs on display or in underwear. Interesting concepts of NSFW but then we all knew this was how it would go, right? Just take a quick search on Twitter and see content creators showing you their wholesome work being flagged.

[JBrentonParker]

I literally just made a Tumblr account three days ago because I was looking for an easier blogging platform than fighting with the free, impossible-to-customize wordpress blogs -_-
I always seem to jump on the bandwagon right when the website goes to pot.

Anybody have any recommendations for a good site/blogging platform to post content centered around writing?

[HGohwell]

Pillowfort is the big one people are looking at to replace Tumblr. It's down at the moment, possibly because of the sudden influx, but it's where most people seem to be looking to move to.

[punkarsenic]

i will say, from the looks of the situation tumblrs hands were tied on what they chose to ban; because of a prominence of porn on the site the tumblr app was removed from the app store, which is obviously bad for business. this doesnt make what they did extra good or extra bad (i dont have much feelings abt it bc i dont pay attention to nsfw tumblr), but it was kind of inevitable.

tumblr doing smth that fucks over large parts of their user base is also par of the course

[joannekwan]

Fuck, the universe just wants me to make my own damn site now doesn't it. I just made a twitter account after hearing this news and am looking to beef up my Fur Affinity account soon.

I'm still keeping my main tumblr account, but who knows how much will get flagged. I've already purged the clearly explicit stuff.

The $5 entry fee to pillowfort's beta site irks me and is a major deterrent for your average internet goers. Hopefully they'll get rid of it when they launch for real.

[Freemints30]

This is just upsetting. I don't actively look for NSFW content, but to me tumbler was one of the few large platforms that would allow it as long as you rightfully label it as such which is a very big appeal to many artists. This is just really dumb move that will just cause three things to happen;
Artist who draw said content to leave else where (a large portion)
people angry at this Moralizing move to leave (an extremely large portion)
and finally
People who only use tumbler for NSFW content to leave.(they are many)
Congratulation driving away your audience worse than a you tube apology video.

[skicoak]

I don't know anything about Tumblr's business model but I'm pretty sure the only sites that benefit from hosting porn/extreme adult content are porn sites. Other potential advertisers/investors tend to avoid even the hint of that reputation.

Not judging, just saying.

[HGohwell]

Tumblr used to allow you to post anything you liked so long as it was filtered out correctly, usually behind NSFW blog filters and most people used password protected blogs for it, people used these for reward tiers a lot. Tumblr made it business off of being a site where as long as it wasn't illegal you could post practically whatever you liked, as long as it was filtered properly. It was bought out by Yahoo a few years ago for a really good amount. And has proceeded to nose dive ever since, becoming infested with intrusive and inappropriate ads (seriously, banning adult content announcement right below a sponsored pornsite ad Tumblr?), porn bots, white supremacist blogs and so on. A lot of creators I know only stayed because it was one of the few places which allowed you to post so freely without censorship as long as tagging and filtering was correct, especially as harassment became more and more common

[crayon_witch]

What upsets me is that many people rely on tumblr for gaining an audience/money for their art or sex work. In a blink of an eye people will lose their source of income.

The staff 100% knew about the issues regarding illegal porn. They only chose to do something about it when they were forced to after the app was taken off the apple store. Not a word about the nazi blogs, pro anoroxic/self harm blogs, pedophile community (“MAPS”), real pictures of human gore, etc.

[NanettesClouds]

So this really sucks, but besides pillow fort what are people looking at as alternatives? I've been thinking about getting into the casual-furry-commission-business for financial reasons, and part of my plans for that involved running a Tumblr blog. This kinda throws a wrench into that plan. A lot of sites have been moving in this direction lately so it seems like there's just fewer and fewer safe options for NSFW creators every year.

I guess there's this pillowfort thing but what else???

[joannekwan]

Fur Affinity is THE PLACE for casual-furry-commissions.
They also allow human art as well!

Their site layout is a little Deviantart circa 2009, but it's got a healthy user-base (in terms of numbers).

[joannekwan]

I HOPE THIS WAKES THEY ASSES UP

[vworksart]

Well damn that didn't take long haha!

[skicoak]

Tumblr used to allow you to post anything you liked so long as it was filtered out correctly,

Not to sound flippant, but the key words there are "used to".

Like you said, it got bought out by a major corporation and now they're making a business decision (one I'm sure they've done their due diligence on before announcing).

I get that folks are upset about the loss of a potential site as a creator but with revised IP laws coming and the loss of revenue streams due to that content on site...I think we all better get ready for MORE of this, not less.

[Kann]

Apparently, Tumblr is starting to flag things now, before 17th and the algorithm is working as poorly as people would have expected, targeting posts that are completely fine along the NSFW ones.

[HGohwell]

Given the new rules coming in regarding copyright and fanwork, I can't see how driving away NSFW original creators is a good business plan, especially when their definition of explicit and the algorithm dealing with it is so awful its targeted pictures or literal birds, hand holding and such (disproportionately LGBT+) that many people are leaving the second they get flagged, without even waiting to file and appeal that their handholding or cuddles aren't explicit. Perhaps if they'd done it delicately it might have gone down better. And the fact that they can bring this in so swiftly proves in a lot of peoples eyes that they've been willfully ignoring lots of the other problems raised. This nose dive has been going on for years now, many people are predicting this is the straw that breaks the camels back. It's certainly not the first time a large company has entirely misjudged their position and user base and crashed, after all. I'm sure they have their reasons, but it doesn't make sense that out of all their issues, this is the one they chose to crack down on.

[punkarsenic]

Like you said, it got bought out by a major corporation and now they're making a business decision (one I'm sure they've done their due diligence on before announcing).

this has come years after the take over by yahoo though, and tumblr staff... dont tend to do their due diligence on much of anything

that said i agree that outrage isnt useful right now as much as finding solutions, which i suspect will be difficult with a growing climate of restricted guidelines on sites and a reliance on ad revenue for profit

[indigodrawing]

[skicoak]

I'm sure they have their reasons, but it doesn't make sense that out of all their issues, this is the one they chose to crack down on.

Easiest one to address, and it's the one that's getting them bumped off app stores.

this has come years after the take over by yahoo though, and tumblr staff... dont tend to do their due diligence on much of anything

If it's like other industries, you tend to see parent companies ride out the existing contracts/agreements
they acquire with acquisitions before making wholesale changes...plus we're seeing a ton of potential new IP legislation worldwide. Moves are gonna be made.