the sky is folding, I'll see you in a while

Received this from Tumblr in the past couple of days:

The future is bright

Hey, did you hear the news? We’re being acquired by Automattic! They’re a technology company that empowers people to build beautiful websites, tell their stories, and find and grow their audience. We couldn’t be more pleased with this new and complementary home where we can continue working on behalf of our community—you.

Riiiiight. Because I'm sure those of us who used Tumblr as a way to connect with each other, a way to foster community, a way to express ourselves without restrictions...I'm sure Automattic really cares.

Your login credentials will remain the same. Nothing will change with how you use Tumblr and we’ll continue our efforts to make your experience even better.

Actually, not true, because I've been in the aggravatingly slow process of transferring the content I want to keep to another blog. I haven't made a single post on my own to Tumblr since the announcement. What happens at that point? I kill the account.

Starting September 26, 2019, your Tumblr account will be governed by the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

There are a few worrying passages in their Terms of Service.

Subscriber Content License to Tumblr:

When you provide Subscriber Content to Tumblr through the Services, you grant Tumblr a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable right and license to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, display (publicly or otherwise), perform (publicly or otherwise), distribute, transmit, modify, adapt (including, without limitation, in order to conform it to the requirements of any networks, devices, services, or media through which the Services are available), and create derivative works of, such Subscriber Content.

This has become a fairly standard clause for electronic services, in order to allow the hosting services in question to host user-published content. And I get that. The phrase that jumps out at me, though, is "and create derivative works of, such Subscriber Content". That, to me? Is very telling, and is not standard to most electronic services.

The reference in this license to "creat[ing] derivative works" is not intended to give Tumblr a right to make substantive editorial changes or derivations, but does, for example, enable reblogging, which allows Tumblr Subscribers to redistribute Subscriber Content from one Tumblr blog to another in a manner that allows them to add their own text or other Content before or after your Subscriber Content.

Emphasis theirs, and gosh, thanks for explaining, but words have meanings. The rest of the clause allows those specific things, including reblogging by other users, a major function of Tumblr as it existed before. So the creation of derivative works based on user content is not needed as a clause in their Terms of Service.

There's also this:

Compliance with Community Guidelines:

You agree that you won't violate Tumblr's Community Guidelines.

What does that mean for the end user? Let's just focus in on what started all the controversy in the first place, and is very much in the Terms of Service that will go into effect on the 25th of September:

Adult Content. Don't upload images, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples — this includes content that is so photorealistic that it could be mistaken for featuring real-life humans (nice try, though). Certain types of artistic, educational, newsworthy, or political content featuring nudity are fine. Don’t upload any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, that depicts sex acts. For more information about what this guideline prohibits and how to appeal decisions about adult content, check out our help desk.

Which means that Verizon, and its subsidiary Automattic, is CHANGING NOTHING about the policy that lost them hundreds of thousands of users over the past few months.

We think you’re going to love Tumblr’s bright future, but we also want to remind you that you have complete control over whether or not your Tumblr account remains active after Tumblr’s acquisition by Automattic. If you’re just not feeling it, you can choose to export the contents of your blog(s) and/or delete your account(s) by September 25, 2019.

And this is the bit I didn't know. I can export my entire blog, without having to do it by hand? (Which has been both irritating and exhausting, as well as somewhat angering to realize how much the anti-Adult policy stripped content that I also wanted to save from my Tumblog.)



And that, in fact, is what I'm doing. Took me a bit, I'm ashamed to say, to figure out exactly what they meant in their instructions, but once I got to the right area, the Export function showed up very clearly. But I'm sure that is a download that will be preparing for several hours, because my Tumblog goes back to 2014. That's a lot of content to batch up into one file.

Have more Qs? We got you. Find your answers in the FAQ.

Yeah, don't care. This is beyond last-straw time. I'm not even surprised, I'm just continuing to be disappointed. When that file downloads, I am killing my account formally, because I will then have the files I need to go through and repost. And that will be that. I am done with Tumblr.

slipped down, couldn't get much lower

The glasses are a nice touch.

In the meantime, I remain baffled by this headline. I mean, Tumblr is only down 30% of users? I expected that figure to be much higher. Pursuant to that, from another chat forum:

[1:01 AM] Fxxxxxx: 30 percent is less than I expected tbh.
[1:01 AM] Fxxxxxx: I didn't expect it to completely die, but I expected a higher drop than that.
[1:04 AM] Axx: I expected less, really, between the "yeah I'm kinda leaving but not really leaving" crowd and the "I'll just put the porn elsewhere but Tumblr remains my primary thing" ones.
[1:04 AM] Axx: And the many faceless others who are simply too bound by habit to do otherwise.

If it helps, I only still have an account because I'm culling through the archives, throwing everything I want to keep up on a separate blog, and then I'll kill the account. I don't read the currents anymore, I don't scan through my feed, I don't say anything on the platform since the Decision of Great Stupidity went in. Essentially, they're counting me as an active user when I'm nothing like.

Meanwhile, beyond the screen, I was shopping for a sun hat. This made my brain crumple:

1900 beach caps for women cap ball womens baseball trucker hats sun visor 5.5'' large brim summer uv protection girls straw hat foldable floppy

I don't want a swimming cap. I don't want a trucker hat or a ball cap. I want a sun hat. And this wasn't a straw hat, it was a linen one.

wide sleeve wedding dress pop collection wave short lolita curly wigs + wig wide-brimmed wide-brim cowboy brimmed mens witch black jfh bora

I'm definitely not in the market for a wedding dress. I don't own a single wig, let alone a curly Lolita one. Wait, no, that's wrong, I do have one shoulder-length, straight pink wig specifically to use with my clown costume. Which I have worn twice, to be fair, so I figure the wig was a good buy. That aside, it's not a Lolita-style wig.

Where does witch come in? And the hat's not black, so where does black come in? What on earth is 'bora'? And it's not a mens' hat, so...bwuh?

booney outdoor safari men red fedora extra wool a zzcc women's retro felt bowler ladies kids lanzom panama roll up with hard group safari/outback neck flap white yellow s girl boater big spf farmer scarecrow

It's not a fedora. It's not a boater hat. It's not made of wool or felt. It's not red. It's not in kid sizes. It's not a farmer hat. How in the hells does scarecrow fit in?

round blue fall vintage roxy cute open costume paper crushable plain hawaiian brown cowgirl halloween quicksilver fancy navy tan flat stetson

Hoo, boy. It's not a cowgirl thing. It's not for Halloween. It's not for costume use. It's not "Roxy", whatever that is. It has nothing to do with mercury. It's not a Stetson.

western small collapsible pink mexican mini columbia farm gray 1920s farmers garden natural orange green asian funny travel scala adjustable golf

Again, no Western influence anywhere. It's not from Mexico, Columbia, the 1920s, though to be fair, it may be from Asia. It's not grey, it's not for farming, it's not pink. I guess one could use this in a garden...

bulk boho hawaii oneil quiksilver purple hillbilly colored raffia italian flexible country sexy mg outback toyo boat cuban chinese french folding lifeguard beige woven rolled joyebuy upf50 personalized cloche

It's not a cloche, it's not for lifeguards, it's not personalized, it's not Italian, it's not Cuban, it's not raffia, it's not a "hillbilly" style, whatever that is. Again, sorry, no mercury in the product. It probably will fold, it probably is flexible, but it's not purple or from Hawaii. It's definitely not Italian. It's definitely not from Australia. What does "toyo boat" mean? I have no clue. It's not French, Scala didn't make it, I guess since it has a color, it may qualify as colored...

But overall, I'm just massively confused. Amazon, police your listings.

so tell me what the point is with everything you say

So, I've been fairly busy for the past few days with another blog. It's not a perfect thing, but considering Tumblr is trying to commit professional suicide as we watch, and they've only given everyone who posts or reposts adult content until December 17th to delete or be flagged...I'm moving everything I want to save off the site.

(There's also someone with a so-called "rescue plan", but...I have serious reservations. And major doubts. We'll see if that becomes anything other than smoke and air.)

It's just a long, slow, annoying process. I'm leaving behind anything I can't track down the original photographer/model for, or anything I reposted just to add something like 'yes please'. And I'm starting from when I started Tumblr, which means 2010. Aaaaaaaagh.

So it'll be a while. If anyone's interested, they'll slowly surface here over the coming months. (I've also updated the conductor contact points far, far down on the sidebar to reflect this.)

I'll still be blogging here. I'll try to do at least one post every couple of days, but we'll see how that goes. And I may decide, just to catch up, to move the posts on the new blog to two a day. We'll see.







And to finish things up, have a ton of people reacting to news of Tumblr's decisions.
That is all. Back to the reblogging grind.

but there's a purpose under the surface

Well, this is unexpected.

Dear oceanplait,

For anyone who doesn't know, that's my name on Tumblr. I'm not directly linking because the link's in the bottom section of the sidebar.

As part of our commitment to transparency, we want you to know that we uncovered and terminated 84 accounts linked to Internet Research Agency or IRA (a group closely tied to the the Russian government) posing as members of the Tumblr community.

The IRA engages in electronic disinformation and propaganda campaigns around the world using phony social media accounts. When we uncovered these accounts, we notified law enforcement, terminated the accounts, and deleted their original posts.

While investigating their activity on Tumblr, we discovered that you either followed one of these accounts linked to the IRA, or liked or reblogged one of their posts:

1-800-gloup
bellaxiao previously known as: blogmadworldlove
bellygangstaboo
blackness-by-your-side previously known as: black-galaxy-magic, fullyfurrymiracle, u4guy, ufo-pilot-and-his-sexy-spouse
cartnsncreal previously known as: feelmydragonballs
coldfirefan
destinyrush previously known as: delightfullyghostlysong
funkycodex previously known as: craftykryptonitedelusion
gogomrbrown previously known as: go-mrbrown, infectedv0ice, todd-la-death
honestlyyoungpersona
hustleinatrap previously known as: thenaturecanpost, tumblercube
info-mix previously known as: americanstatistics, crazypolitician, girlsagainst, illegalmom, just-stat, rochelbarr
lagonegirl
massmedear previously known as: massblog021
mooseblogtimes
morningwoodz previously known as: 5cubes, bangbangempire, empireofweird, gifemprireohh, innerpicsempire, picsempire
nevaehtyler previously known as: laserenita
postingwhileblack previously known as: ghettablasta, heygeraldmartinjohanssen, honestinjun, nativewolveshere
rebellloudwiththecrowd previously known as: massivelystrangetyrant
sassydreamlandcloud
shoutoutworldwide previously known as: blackprideworldwide, krispymentalitycowboy
sumchckn previously known as: blondeinpolitics, blvckcommunity, classylgbthomie, hwuudoin, politixblondie
swagintherain previously known as: blacklivesmatterusa, carzwithgirlz
the-real-eye-to-see
thetrippytrip previously known as: matrixpath, themostpost
thingstolovefor previously known as: the-inner-mirror
this-truly-brutal-world previously known as: awesomewhitepearl, free-mind-and-soul
voteforwest2020 previously known as: mrbadasscat

Near as I can remember, I'm unsure whether I followed any of these accounts (I follow a lot of accounts randomly just to see what they do), but I think I remember reblogging craftykryptonitedelusion, girlsagainst, morningwoodz, and blackprideworldwide. But...now I'm worrying over what I did reblog, and if it was true or false.

You aren’t in trouble, and don’t need to take any action if you don’t want to. We deleted the accounts but decided to leave up any reblog chains so that you can curate your own Tumblr to reflect your own personal views and perspectives.

Democracy requires transparency and an informed electorate and we take our disclosure responsibility very seriously. We’ll be aggressively watching for disinformation campaigns in the future, take the appropriate action, and make sure you know about it.

— Tumblr

So I'm a tiny blog on Tumblr, but this seems huge. Tumblr tends to be fairly free-wheeling, even in the post-acquisition days; they block for child pornography, extreme racism, provable hate speech (and the line for what that is slips, now and again)...this seems like a group block purely by association. It also seems to match the patterns we're seeing elsewhere in the attacks on our government, our industries, our voting system...which of course our highest leaders in office deny. So my question is...how big is this thing going to get?