How tumblr became popular for being obsolete(newyorker.com)
newyorker.com
How tumblr became popular for being obsolete
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/how-tumblr-became-popular-for-being-obsolete
12 comments
Agree. I like it as a quiet place to jot down my thoughts. I don't post often; when I do, it's easy to remember how to get it to do what I want, I've never been hassled. I could do this on my private server(s), and if tumblr gets weird, that's always an option.
A chronological feed sounds enticing.
There's a subscription feature that's in the works. https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/21/22684089/tumblr-post-plus...
Are.na, although very niche (which I think is a feature), looks very interesting in this regard. Financed trough paid accounts instead of selling user data/ads and being driven by chasing big investor money. It also seems to have a very open api for people to build things upon.
https://are.na
From Wikipedia:
Are.na is an online social networking community and creative research platform [...] Are.na was built as a successor to hypertext projects like Ted Nelson's Xanadu, and as an ad-free alternative to social networks like Facebook, forgoing "likes," "favorites," or "shares" in its design. Are.na allows users to compile uploaded and web-clipped "blocks" into different "channels," [...]
https://are.na
From Wikipedia:
Are.na is an online social networking community and creative research platform [...] Are.na was built as a successor to hypertext projects like Ted Nelson's Xanadu, and as an ad-free alternative to social networks like Facebook, forgoing "likes," "favorites," or "shares" in its design. Are.na allows users to compile uploaded and web-clipped "blocks" into different "channels," [...]
>forgoing "likes," "favorites," or "shares" in its design
I have a feeling that is going to alienate mass populace users.
I have a feeling that is going to alienate mass populace users.
If I could make one change to Facebook, it would be to eliminate the share button. I wouldn't make it impossible for people to copy and paste links to third-party content, but there would be no front-and-center UI for it.
The main thing I want from that sort of social media is to see original content from people that I know. I don't want to see the best cat video; I want to see my friend's cat video.
The main thing I want from that sort of social media is to see original content from people that I know. I don't want to see the best cat video; I want to see my friend's cat video.
If you eliminated the TOP 10 listicle type of things or entire domains that host that kind of content, I'd call it a good start.
> I have a feeling that is going to alienate mass populace users.
Sounds like a key feature.
I think we've learned by now that mass adoption is the death signal for any platform since it will bring in the spammers, advertisers and other undesirables which ruin the experience.
Sounds like a key feature.
I think we've learned by now that mass adoption is the death signal for any platform since it will bring in the spammers, advertisers and other undesirables which ruin the experience.
That could be seen as a feature, not a bug, in and of itself.
Which I think is great. Those features just incentivises people to constantly scream for attention and marketing agencies to try to create viral campaigns.
There are already plenty products aimed at the mass populace, I would love to see again more communities built for the niches. Not just in terms of topics (subreddits et al), but functionality and interactions. Because honestly I came to the conclusion that communities only work if they stay relatively small and focused. I haven't used Are.na enough to say anything about their community specifically, but their approach resonates strongly with me.
There are already plenty products aimed at the mass populace, I would love to see again more communities built for the niches. Not just in terms of topics (subreddits et al), but functionality and interactions. Because honestly I came to the conclusion that communities only work if they stay relatively small and focused. I haven't used Are.na enough to say anything about their community specifically, but their approach resonates strongly with me.
Good
This is a feature. Literally every other social site falls over itself to show meaningless metrics.
I'm drawn to the idea and the ethos, but wow that UI is hard to look at.
I don't like the homepage much, especially since I did absolutely not understand what this is supposed to be about.
The application part itself I quite like. Some of the color contrasts are way to low and style over substance (my first impression was, that it must have been designed by a Swiss Architect), but what I do like a lot is, just how little noise there is.
The application part itself I quite like. Some of the color contrasts are way to low and style over substance (my first impression was, that it must have been designed by a Swiss Architect), but what I do like a lot is, just how little noise there is.
Homepage is definitely a mess on ultrawide/firefox.
But isn't Tumblr userbase mainly teens and their subcultures? What's the value of not having ads, sponsor and astroturfing, if there's not relevant or interesting community to join to begin with?
“All tumblr users are either too young for tumblr or too old for tumblr” - “tumblr teen” argumate (argumate is certainly not a teenager (I think he is probably like, almost 40?) but some news article referred to him as such at one point)
I wouldn’t say there’s nothing interesting on tumblr.
Like, there’s nostalgebraist’s writing on machine learning, Also other people posting some math content.
It is a social blogging site. People write blogs there.
I wouldn’t say there’s nothing interesting on tumblr.
Like, there’s nostalgebraist’s writing on machine learning, Also other people posting some math content.
It is a social blogging site. People write blogs there.
Frank - the autoresponder gpt-3 bot is fantastic.
Just because a platform is not relevant or interesting to you or your circles doesn’t mean it has no value to others. Lots of people got a lot of value out of using Tumblr. When Facebook was limited to people you know in real life, Tumblr allowed for anonymity and making friends with people with similar experiences.
They cite someone saying "There aren’t influencers on Tumblr the way there are on Instagram and TikTok, and the experience for all users might be more pleasant as a result. " they just don't dig further into it.
Tumblr is completely underrated.
I'm using Tumblr for almost a decade and I never found any other place as convenient or as cheap (free and without ads) to have a blog. It's dead easy to start one, to post or to make a custom theme (if you feel like). You can even use your domain for free and you even have "kind of" a social network.
I know that keeping a "fun" blog is not fashionable anymore but Tumblr is really good at it.
I'm using Tumblr for almost a decade and I never found any other place as convenient or as cheap (free and without ads) to have a blog. It's dead easy to start one, to post or to make a custom theme (if you feel like). You can even use your domain for free and you even have "kind of" a social network.
I know that keeping a "fun" blog is not fashionable anymore but Tumblr is really good at it.
I too wish there were more "fun" blogs out there, however I do see a good amount of dev's who keep a fun/techy blog. There have been a handful of services over the last 2 decades that made it quick and easy to spin up a blog (geocities, blogger, medium etc) but Tumblr had the cool factor (plus the social network behind it) and really nailed the posting experience I think — Tumblr was the best chance at a Twitter competitor back in the 2009'ish era IMO.
My own project Glue[1] is taking a stab at this segment so I have vested interest in this space. Trying to marry all the various content types into a single UI experience has been a fun challenge (short text, audio, quotes, code snippets, blogs).
[1] https://glue.im/noah
My own project Glue[1] is taking a stab at this segment so I have vested interest in this space. Trying to marry all the various content types into a single UI experience has been a fun challenge (short text, audio, quotes, code snippets, blogs).
[1] https://glue.im/noah
Six years ago I was looking for a place to host a simple "archive" of blog posts with embedded media, and Tumblr was the easiest and most flexible by far, and the audience was already there in the form of the fandom for a couple of very specific TV shows.
A lot of the fandom exists on Tumblr and Instagram and Twitter as well, but on the latter two, you can't have any permanence. It's all about the ever scrolling feed, and it's about getting on people's feeds again and again and again with new posts, new content all the time. And the type of content you can post there is extremely limited.
Tumblr allows this style as well, and a lot of users engage in it. But it also allows for being an archive, a curated collection of long-form posts about a subject, tagged and organized and easily browsable, no matter how long ago the posts were made.
I do not regret choosing Tumblr six years ago, and people keep discovering my stuff, keep liking it, keep reblogging it, which shows it was the right show.
Let's hope Verizon doesn't fuck it up.
A lot of the fandom exists on Tumblr and Instagram and Twitter as well, but on the latter two, you can't have any permanence. It's all about the ever scrolling feed, and it's about getting on people's feeds again and again and again with new posts, new content all the time. And the type of content you can post there is extremely limited.
Tumblr allows this style as well, and a lot of users engage in it. But it also allows for being an archive, a curated collection of long-form posts about a subject, tagged and organized and easily browsable, no matter how long ago the posts were made.
I do not regret choosing Tumblr six years ago, and people keep discovering my stuff, keep liking it, keep reblogging it, which shows it was the right show.
Let's hope Verizon doesn't fuck it up.
> Let's hope Verizon doesn't fuck it up.
The owner is now Automattic
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/14/20804894/tumblr-acquisiti...
The owner is now Automattic
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/14/20804894/tumblr-acquisiti...
Right, I had completely forgotten about that!
Tumblr marketing is awesome:
> Tumblr is so easy to use that it’s hard to explain.
> We made it really, really simple for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 541 million different blogs, filled with literally whatever.
> Tumblr is so easy to use that it’s hard to explain.
> We made it really, really simple for people to make a blog and put whatever they want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, TV shows, links, quips, dumb jokes, smart jokes, Spotify tracks, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 541 million different blogs, filled with literally whatever.
I always found it weird that people call Tumblrs blogs. A post on your blog there is more like a tweet; people can pile on, amplify it beyond what your intended audience could have possibly been. This can be great or disastrous. It’s yet another social network — hardly resembles a blog at all.
Very early blogs often had more of a Twitter/Tumblr feel in single-sentence posts. The style of longer articles/essays with titles only developed a little bit later. Take a look at one of the earliest weblogs, kottke.org in 2000. The posts there displayed have titles, but that is a post facto artefact of the CMS and current theme, not how kottke.org looked in 2000. If you imagine those titles and metadata away it looks more like a Tumblr.
https://kottke.org/00/01/
Most blogs in the early 2000s evolved into longer articles; but some weblogs kept the style and evolved it into another direction, mixing short posts with links, images, quotes and such. A term for that new mixture was tumblelogs.
https://web.archive.org/web/20050722001616/http://redhanded....
https://kottke.org/05/10/tumblelogs
https://leahneukirchen.org/anarchaia/static/faq.html
http://leahneukirchen.org/blog/archive/2005/04/thoughts-on-v...
That was all 2004/2005ish, before Twitter and Tumblr. So yes, Tumblr has is original inspiration in the the early blogging scene and I suspect the name too. But you’re not wrong, another essential part of Tumblr is the builtin social network and the new mechanism of commenting and reblogging. If I remember correctly those came a little bit late.
https://kottke.org/00/01/
Most blogs in the early 2000s evolved into longer articles; but some weblogs kept the style and evolved it into another direction, mixing short posts with links, images, quotes and such. A term for that new mixture was tumblelogs.
https://web.archive.org/web/20050722001616/http://redhanded....
https://kottke.org/05/10/tumblelogs
https://leahneukirchen.org/anarchaia/static/faq.html
http://leahneukirchen.org/blog/archive/2005/04/thoughts-on-v...
That was all 2004/2005ish, before Twitter and Tumblr. So yes, Tumblr has is original inspiration in the the early blogging scene and I suspect the name too. But you’re not wrong, another essential part of Tumblr is the builtin social network and the new mechanism of commenting and reblogging. If I remember correctly those came a little bit late.
>A post on your blog there is more like a tweet; people can pile on, amplify it beyond what your intended audience could have possibly been.
People could do that with blogs.
People could do that with blogs.
Could, but the platform doesn’t facilitate it. A difference in ease is a difference in kind.
On blogs you can have links to posts other blogs. I am pretty sure its facilitation was the biggest idea behind the web itself.
Blog is a generic term that most people is familiar with but the more accurate description for both tumblr and twitter (hell, even mastodon) is microblog - due to small, short form of the posts
It's a lot more like blogs than it is like twitter, but overall it's almost closest to MySpace. I think if you wanted to write long form content on a social media platform, there isn't really a better pick.
It's a blog (e.g. https://archimodels.tumblr.com). The main diference is that your posts appear on followers feeds also.
I remember Tumbler lacking actual dates and timestamps for the longest time. It was also sometimes difficult to know the provenance of the things you were reading, especially after nested reblogs and comment chains.
These are two really odd design decisions for blogs and trying to read content written by experts.
These are two really odd design decisions for blogs and trying to read content written by experts.
Dates and timestamps have always been available.
From the blog view, it's entirely dependent on the blog's chosen theme. Some themes may omit dates/times for whatever reason; it's up to the theme author, and up to the blogs choosing that theme.
From the dashboard (as a logged-in user), you can see a post's timestamp by mousing over the top-right corner.
From the blog view, it's entirely dependent on the blog's chosen theme. Some themes may omit dates/times for whatever reason; it's up to the theme author, and up to the blogs choosing that theme.
From the dashboard (as a logged-in user), you can see a post's timestamp by mousing over the top-right corner.
After 10 years I've stopped checking my Tumblr feed last year. It's nothing new there anymore in the graphic / web design / typography inspiration area. Everybody left, the algorithm is dumb, no more joy.
However I'm grateful for Tumblr. It shaped my design career considerably, and give me joy every day for years in row.
However I'm grateful for Tumblr. It shaped my design career considerably, and give me joy every day for years in row.
Pinterest is a predator on the web, sucking content and walling itself off, but it's full of good stuff if you enjoy the arts (I've been "into" asemic writing for years) or graphic design.
parasite is probably a better term
If I met someone who said they work for Pinterest, the first thought through my mind would be "now don't be violent"
> It's nothing new there anymore in the graphic / web design / typography inspiration area. Everybody left, the algorithm is dumb…
For me, this is a feature.
For me, this is a feature.
I left when the content filter removed some of my (completely non-pornographic) artworks. The article notes that the content filter is still in place, and still aggressive. I can’t see using it as a blogging platform when such capricious content removal is still in place.
I would go back if they announced a change in that area.
I would go back if they announced a change in that area.
That content filter once gone bad but didn't saw any wrongly marked post in the last few years. And I use tumblr on a daily basis.
You are right - platform with censorship doesn't make any sense. They should provide flexible filters instead, so you won't get content that you don't want.
Wasn't that filter put into place (at least to some extent) because Apple pulled them from the Appstore?
I don’t remember the sequence of events very well, but my memory is that the real slide started when it was acquired by Verizon. Whatever the exact reasons were, it was still a series of bad decisions, because it led from Tumblr being huge to being practically irrelevant.
Yahoo were perfectly capable of neglecting Tumblr or spending more time asking "What can Tumblr do for Yahoo?" prior to Verizon's oversight also. You can see acquisitions like Flickr or del.icio.us which shared Tumblr's fate, just earlier.
They were apparently already working on the adult content ban 6 months before CSAM caused them to get pulled from the app store - it just accelerated the implementation timeline.
Thanks for the correction. I apparently wrongly assumed it was connected.
This is like HN bingo - how many posts before someone blames Apple for something totally unconnected.
Yesterday a poster blamed them somehow for Tesla leaving a brake pad off a car..
Yesterday a poster blamed them somehow for Tesla leaving a brake pad off a car..
That's Tumblr pointing out that they were removed from the app store because of CSAM - not general adult content. And once they blocked that CSAM, they were back.
But that's kind of the problem here. Apple removed an entire platform for what I'm assuming was a few CP reports, and Tumblr reacted by adding an extremely aggressive "adult content" filter that wiped out a ton of legal content, and triggered a mass exodus from their platform, so they wouldn't get their app permanently removed from the app store and have their business completely destroyed.
This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but CP happens from time to time on all large platforms, you get reports and you remove it, it's just a fact of life if you do a lot of third party content hosting. Tumblr doesn't have the means to pre-screen all of the content on their network, so they chose to eliminate all potentially problematic content before it gets published using an aggressive ML porn detector (probably Yahoo's open_nsfw), rather than face Apple's wrath on it. Again, for what was probably a few specific reports on a few tumblr accounts Apple was threatening to (and temporarily did) remove an entire platform from the store that billions of users require to install it.
This is absolutely a consequence of their monopolistic and arbitrary control of their store and their policies that leave no room for error in content moderation. Apple is absolutely altering the nature of the web when they do things like this, and deciding through fear what kind of content is going to be allowed by scaring platforms into adopting a lower floor of controllable risk.
Whether you agree that Apple's infamously closed off bureaucracy should be the content mods or not for any platform that requires use of a phone camera, criticizing them about it is absolutely within the bounds of valid discussion here because they absolutely played a key, major role in a change that wiped out an enormous percentage of Tumblr's users, the vast majority of whom were not violating any laws.
Now I should mention they certainly have the legal right to do so, just as Twitter had the same legal right to ban a Twitter account for a ToS violation, but this feels a lot more concerning to me. It would be like if Apple was telling Twitter to dump an account for their ToS violation or they would remove Twitter from their app store.
This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but CP happens from time to time on all large platforms, you get reports and you remove it, it's just a fact of life if you do a lot of third party content hosting. Tumblr doesn't have the means to pre-screen all of the content on their network, so they chose to eliminate all potentially problematic content before it gets published using an aggressive ML porn detector (probably Yahoo's open_nsfw), rather than face Apple's wrath on it. Again, for what was probably a few specific reports on a few tumblr accounts Apple was threatening to (and temporarily did) remove an entire platform from the store that billions of users require to install it.
This is absolutely a consequence of their monopolistic and arbitrary control of their store and their policies that leave no room for error in content moderation. Apple is absolutely altering the nature of the web when they do things like this, and deciding through fear what kind of content is going to be allowed by scaring platforms into adopting a lower floor of controllable risk.
Whether you agree that Apple's infamously closed off bureaucracy should be the content mods or not for any platform that requires use of a phone camera, criticizing them about it is absolutely within the bounds of valid discussion here because they absolutely played a key, major role in a change that wiped out an enormous percentage of Tumblr's users, the vast majority of whom were not violating any laws.
Now I should mention they certainly have the legal right to do so, just as Twitter had the same legal right to ban a Twitter account for a ToS violation, but this feels a lot more concerning to me. It would be like if Apple was telling Twitter to dump an account for their ToS violation or they would remove Twitter from their app store.
> Tumblr reacted by adding an extremely aggressive "adult content" filter
Which they were already preparing. It wasn't a reaction to the app store removal - they had been planning it for months and this just prompted a quicker activation.
> so they wouldn't get their app permanently removed from the app store
No. They were going to do this regardless of the app store snafu. You can't blame Apple for this move on Tumblr's part (but you could possibly blame Apple for perhaps overreacting to "a few reports" although I don't think we've ever got the full story of what went actually on...)
Which they were already preparing. It wasn't a reaction to the app store removal - they had been planning it for months and this just prompted a quicker activation.
> so they wouldn't get their app permanently removed from the app store
No. They were going to do this regardless of the app store snafu. You can't blame Apple for this move on Tumblr's part (but you could possibly blame Apple for perhaps overreacting to "a few reports" although I don't think we've ever got the full story of what went actually on...)
Tumblr was already making people mark their blog NSFW and started filtering posts and tags long before the App Store thing. They had been “belling the cat” in preparation for an eventual ban.
How much effort is it to scan for porn/have reviewers informed all porn is banned?
Vs.
How effort is it to allow porn but have some algorithm or reviewers determine what is porn but is allowed vs what is CSAM? Obviously images of abuse of a 10 year old are clear, but much more content than that is disallowed, yet you're going to get a lot of shit for taking down self-taken images of that young looking 20 year old when your policy allows porn, and if you overcorrect the other direction you'll get even more shit for not taking down images of that older looking 16 year old.
Vs.
How effort is it to allow porn but have some algorithm or reviewers determine what is porn but is allowed vs what is CSAM? Obviously images of abuse of a 10 year old are clear, but much more content than that is disallowed, yet you're going to get a lot of shit for taking down self-taken images of that young looking 20 year old when your policy allows porn, and if you overcorrect the other direction you'll get even more shit for not taking down images of that older looking 16 year old.
thanks for the clarification.
I feel like the real HN bingo is Apple fanboys coming out of nowhere to defend Apple about some arbitrary thing.
Well, perhaps they're mutually dependent.
Well, perhaps they're mutually dependent.
Just a few days ago it became clear that a large number of tags were shadowbanned only on Apple devices.
Who are they supposed to blame, Tesla?
I started following some Tumblr blogs just last week after a 2 or 3 year hiatus. I fell in love again with not having to log-in to see the content, or being blocked after simply scrolling through a few user-provided thumbnails.
Articles like this make me worried some ass-hat is soon gonna monetize this newly quiet corner of the internet, and make it shit like everything else.
Articles like this make me worried some ass-hat is soon gonna monetize this newly quiet corner of the internet, and make it shit like everything else.
I recently became aware that my eldest child (13 at time of writing) prefers Tumblr as social media because of its "emptiness"
I know this is a stupid thing but I firmly believe that Tumblr imposing content filter ruined Reddit and to some extent Twitter. The distraught tumblr userbase had a unifying demographic characteristics that wasn't on par with the culture of (old.)Reddit. When this group left reddit was very quick to embrace them and alienated a large parts of it userbase. Reddit created an internal clash by attempting to merge these polarizing groups and trying their best to be marketable at the same time.
It is a very difficult to put into words but I think having a tribe of userbase is far better for a social media than to appeal to majority.
I think instagram and tiktok as social media still provides a good experience for their longterm userbase compared to social media that appeals to majority like twitter, facebook and reddit.
It is a very difficult to put into words but I think having a tribe of userbase is far better for a social media than to appeal to majority.
I think instagram and tiktok as social media still provides a good experience for their longterm userbase compared to social media that appeals to majority like twitter, facebook and reddit.
Agree there was a shift, and while it hadn’t occurred to me before, your timing makes sense.
Reddit used to be that place where you had definitely “read it” first.
Now, to your point, most subs that bubble via algo to all and popular are tumblogs (infinite image/meme scrollers), and posts come after it’s already been on IG and Facebook groups.
I’d chalked this up to IG influence, but Tumblr diaspora makes as much sense, together with your hypothesized shift to pop engagement over niche quality.
Still works that if you dump the subs that show up in all or popular, you can get back to text / long-text niche interests. Most seem to be slowing pace of posts and discussion replies though, so unclear how much longer that will last.
Reddit used to be that place where you had definitely “read it” first.
Now, to your point, most subs that bubble via algo to all and popular are tumblogs (infinite image/meme scrollers), and posts come after it’s already been on IG and Facebook groups.
I’d chalked this up to IG influence, but Tumblr diaspora makes as much sense, together with your hypothesized shift to pop engagement over niche quality.
Still works that if you dump the subs that show up in all or popular, you can get back to text / long-text niche interests. Most seem to be slowing pace of posts and discussion replies though, so unclear how much longer that will last.
Sorry, but I was on reddit atleast since 2008 and it was obvious even then that 80%+ of the redditors hadn't read the articles, the whole reason they were on reddit was to chat to other redditors, not to actually read the article. It's a different story now, where the whole conversation has turned meta though (people arguing obout whether people have or haven't read the article and what the behaviour of redditors says about society in general)
“redditor for 15 years“ here
And yes, in a niche sub the idea was to discuss the post, and yes, just as in class or at the local book club, as reddit became more popular soon 80% didn’t read the assignment.
We were talking about tumblrization though. I had intended to make a point about image “content” vs. post or article content, the thing the comments you’re talking about hang off of. Whether for comments or content, there had been more text.
So. I’ve gone and looked it up. Here’s a picture of the home page from Dec 2005:
- https://i.imgur.com/tsisrVy.jpg
- https://web.archive.org/web/20060104090150/http://reddit.com...
No image thumbnails, no subs, and a lot more article upvotes than discussion comments.
And of course, a post about “signal to noise ratio” and another about “the Flickrization of Yahoo”.
And yes, in a niche sub the idea was to discuss the post, and yes, just as in class or at the local book club, as reddit became more popular soon 80% didn’t read the assignment.
We were talking about tumblrization though. I had intended to make a point about image “content” vs. post or article content, the thing the comments you’re talking about hang off of. Whether for comments or content, there had been more text.
So. I’ve gone and looked it up. Here’s a picture of the home page from Dec 2005:
- https://i.imgur.com/tsisrVy.jpg
- https://web.archive.org/web/20060104090150/http://reddit.com...
No image thumbnails, no subs, and a lot more article upvotes than discussion comments.
And of course, a post about “signal to noise ratio” and another about “the Flickrization of Yahoo”.
> Reddit created an internal clash by attempting to merge these polarizing groups
Isn't segmentation of audiences built in to Reddit in the form of subreddits?
Isn't segmentation of audiences built in to Reddit in the form of subreddits?
You might be sharing thirst comments about fetish porn pics. Or you might be discussing tips and techniques for artisanal home cheesemaking. Either way, it feels like Reddit.
Different subreddits have different levels of quality and effort in the average post. But "group" != "audience". The culture trends on Reddit are site-wide, even if the subject matter of each sub varies wildly.
I THINK that what parent commentor is trying to say is that pre-Yahoo-Tumbler, Reddit culture was predominately male libertarian Ron Paul fans... while post-Yahoo-Tumbler, there was an influx of "purple hair" female social leftists. And that Reddit's culture has been somewhat fractured and at war with itself ever since.
I'm not sure that I accept this theory (I think simply has more to do with a continuous influx of newbies, and general youth culture shift over the past 15 years). But I do agree with the result, and the timeline happens to match up neatly.
Different subreddits have different levels of quality and effort in the average post. But "group" != "audience". The culture trends on Reddit are site-wide, even if the subject matter of each sub varies wildly.
I THINK that what parent commentor is trying to say is that pre-Yahoo-Tumbler, Reddit culture was predominately male libertarian Ron Paul fans... while post-Yahoo-Tumbler, there was an influx of "purple hair" female social leftists. And that Reddit's culture has been somewhat fractured and at war with itself ever since.
I'm not sure that I accept this theory (I think simply has more to do with a continuous influx of newbies, and general youth culture shift over the past 15 years). But I do agree with the result, and the timeline happens to match up neatly.
Reddit has always been at war at itself. Subredditdrama didn't magically appear after the Tumblr meltdown.
People talking about reddit degrading reminds me of people talking about when music was the best; it was great when you weren't quite new but weren't quite jaded about it yet.
People talking about reddit degrading reminds me of people talking about when music was the best; it was great when you weren't quite new but weren't quite jaded about it yet.
That's true, but they sort of converge on pages like All and Popular. I'd never thought of a Tumblr exodus affecting reddit, but I remember the Digg exodus.
And even before the Digg exodus Reddit was rife with tribalism. I remember all the pro- vs. anti- Ron Paul stuff when he was running in the GOP primary.
The quality on the default subreddits kept dropping so they tweaked the front page to bring content from smaller subreddits. Which then dropped in quality &etc.
Each Social network is kind of a tribe, that's how they are all different. Tumblr has successfully maintained its own tribe over the years. Same goes with all platforms including HN.
Kinda is amazing outside the pr0n kerfuffle, in essence it’s remained itself. A shame that advertising broke its popularity but glad to see that it’s finally under ownership that isn’t trying to put it against X.
I've never been a big Tumblr user, having only occasionally found my way there through links and search results.
So I am not someone for whom this matters.
However, I never did like the way it would present other Tumblr feeds that I would click on in the page I was on in this side bar navigation way, rather than just navigating me there. The UI felt all rather convoluted to me.
Anyone know why they have stuck with this pattern in particular?
So I am not someone for whom this matters.
However, I never did like the way it would present other Tumblr feeds that I would click on in the page I was on in this side bar navigation way, rather than just navigating me there. The UI felt all rather convoluted to me.
Anyone know why they have stuck with this pattern in particular?
The Tumblr UI was schizo. For example clicking an image in the dashboard: Some images would just open in a new tab, some would open in a light box on the dashboard, some would take you to the blog post, some would take you to some weird Imgur-esque display page, and some would just open a completely unrelated link because you could set the href on them separately I guess??
I've recently been thinking that Twitter has absorbed much of the former Tumblr userbase.
Someone is clearly making a push to capitalize on it, and I'm not looking forward to adding it to the endlessly growing list of beautiful things that rich businessmen have destroyed.