this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
194 points (98.0% liked)

Technology

60084 readers
4914 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hard to believe Tumblr lasted this long even. They killed like 3/4 of their content (and audience) when they decided to not have any porn like 4 years ago. Everybody left. An early example of enshitification.

[–] 432hz 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They... Still have SO MUCH PORN.

You can't search for it directly, you have to search tangential items and then follow other people who post stuff you like.

It's a rabbit hole but it's there.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That seems like a lot of work considering the alternatives.

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

No website (that I've ever found) has quite managed to replicate how tumblr works in terms of discovery, customization, community, and organization, so some people prefer to put in the work for the sake of using a format they prefer.

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

how tumblr works in terms of discovery

I really like Tumblr (mainly because RSS support), but I find their search VERY limited. Maybe I'm being stupid, but I haven't been able to search for 2 tags at the same time (e.g.: "#artists on tumblr" and some genre "#pixelart").

In general I find very difficult to filter repost and look for original content only.

Do you have any tips?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When I say discovery I mean it's much easier to be discovered as an artist on tumblr compared to any other website I've used.

I find it's easier to find certain new stuff if you follow the right people or look through more specific tags.

[–] 432hz 1 points 1 year ago

It is.

But you end up with a highly curated experience for your particular fetish that's not readily available on pornhub, ET al.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's not good, especially as they wanted to join the Fediverse in the future.

[–] aodhsishaj 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean there's Pixelfed which is similar, the communities could just migrate to that.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like it's a different format and use case?

Pixelfed feels more like Instagram, which is with real profiles with names attached sharing photo updates about their lives with friends and family

Tumblr feels like it's more for niche communities and semi-anonymous posting. Although I personally haven't used it as much so I might be off there

[–] MysticKetchup 8 points 1 year ago

Nah you're on the mark, it was more like the older Internet where you were just a username and didn't have your entire identity attached to your account. And yeah, for better or worse Tumblr was known to have a very insular community with weird interests and trends. That's how we got Goncharov.

Two other things about Tumblr that no other site has managed to capture are longer format posts and being able to reblog multi-user conversations. Everything else prevents you from making longer posts outside of screenshotting a notes app.

[–] atrielienz 8 points 1 year ago

Didn't know this existed. Good to know.

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

Word from insiders communicating openly about it was that it wasn’t going to happen for the same reasons behind this soft end of life: there wasn’t profit in it and they needed to find profitability.

Word was that the project to federate was internally put in a “too hard let’s try later” basket. Of course none of that was made public. But this life support status is really just the other shoe from the broken federation promise.

Interestingly, I suspect there’s a conversation to be had around how difficult it is to federate with the fediverse and AP, whether from the ground up or as an add on. I’ve seen conversations about how it really is difficult work. If it were easier, maybe things like tumblr would have done it earlier and the fediverse and it’s various platforms would be richer and more successful.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Tumblr has been "on life support" for years now, if it's gonna croak then I'll believe it when I see it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

yeah since they banned porn lmao

[–] itscozydownhere 18 points 1 year ago

It was so good. Even without considering the porn I mean

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

After quotes and anecdotes about love, loss, mountain climbing, and learning on the journey, the memo notes that nobody will be let go and that team members can make a ranked list of their top three preferred assignments elsewhere inside Automattic.

Other companies would've used the opportunity to fire most of the team. Kudos to Automattic.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn it costs $30M a year to keep Tumblr running? I figured it could be handled for like 20 cents a day. Like those starving kids on TV.

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

The server time alone is probably in the millions a year. Server time is cheap on a small scale, but it adds up.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I’m really surprised theres no Tumblr esque fediverse website. I wonder if them teasing activitypub support killed want for other developers to want to work on one