So of course the big thing everyone is talking about today is tumblr banning all adult content

[frelling_tralk]

Most of the user base don’t seem to have a clue where they want to move too now, I’ve seen the most references to MySpace actually, although I presume that’s mostly people joking? :P Must admit I don’t hate the thought of this giving fandom the final push to move away from tumblr, but nobody seems to have much of an idea of where they want to go instead at the moment. I’ve seen people talking about wanting to set up a whole new platform, but that’s going to be tough to set up for a significantly large number of people. Most sites are supported by ads still if you want to make running them affordable, but then you run into the same problem of user content being policed. I noticed that DW already released a hopeful welcome post though lol, the owners always comes across to me as a bit too eager to pick up disgruntled users from other platforms, although I suppose you can’t fault them for trying! And honestly it does seem like dreamwidth is fandoms best option if they want to go somewhere that’s run entirely by fans, but then tumblr people just never seriously consider it whenever it’s suggested :shrugs: I’m guessing they want something a bit more image based maybe

I did come across comments on how this is exactly like what went down with livejournal, although I’m not sure I remember it the same way. Apparently it originally started with asking to post porn behind a cut, then it was requesting that it be hosted externally with a link, and then finally all LGBT content was made nsfw by definition and people were asked to leave. I...don’t remember that at all? I remember the main issue was with child porn, didn’t some conservative group start sending links to LJ accusing them of hosting child porn, and that was when LJ started targeting entires that featured drawings of Harry Potter underage characters in sexual positions. It wasn’t a blanket ban on LGBT content from what I remember though, and it ended after about a week or something anyway when LJ ended up reinstating those users and admitting they overstepped. Obviously the damage was done by then though, and LJ’s reputation never did fully recover in the eyes of fandom :(

Comments

[violateraindrop]

People seem to want to move to pillowfort which is still in a closed beta, so that's not really possible at the moment. Honestly, the reason why I never wanted to leave LJ for dreamwidth is the fact that you only have space for 15 user icons and you have to pay 1$ per extra icon or get a paid account for 35$ a year. I'm still on LJ for the icon community. For me, it seems silly to move, but I have lost some people on my flist after the last TOS update.

I came to LJ in 2007, so I honestly don't remember anything about the "big strikethrough" (I think that what it was called).

To be honest, I had no idea that there is soooo much porn on tumblr. I follow fandom blogs, either run by teams dedicated to one fandom or random blogs that share the same interests.
Nazis on the other I've come across, but tumblr doesn't seem to care about them.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Lol yeah I’m the exact same, it’s hard for me to consider leaving LJ for DW because over here I have a permanent account with over 200 icon spaces. DW feels like going backwards to only have space for 15, plus limits on other things like how many entries and comments you can subscribe too

I do remember strikethrough being all anyone in fandom was talking about for a while, even though it didn’t affect any of the fandoms I was actually involved with at the time, but everyone was so concerned about how much further the censorship would go. Admittedly LJ handled it badly, but they never banned all LGBT content for good, they were targeting stuff like Harry/Snape fanart because they were so paranoid about being accused of hosting child porn. And they did end up backing down fairly quickly, whereas it doesn’t seem like tumblr is planning on changing this policy

I don’t come across that much porn on tumblr either, but guess that’s because I stick to blogs I know. Last time I browsed the tags for the show Nikita, I did come across a massive closeup of some woman’s asshole :(

[yourlibrarian]

Just popping in to mention that you can have up to 500 icons at DW. I have them myself.

Also, this is a pretty good run down of what occurred in 2007.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I'm not on DW, but I hope this'll bring more activity to DW, and then to LJ through crossposting. I've seen it today, but it might not last long. Who knows?

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Honestly I think that LJ’s rep is too tarnished at the moment, people just think of strikethrough and the ~scary Russians~ owning it now, I can’t imagine people wary of censorship leaving tumblr for LJ sadly. It probably will attract a few new users to DW though, although whether they will stick around or not who knows, because the platforms are set up pretty differently. Tumblr is so much about having a whole stream of content to browse through and never really stopping to take any of it it, whereas word-based blogs just aren’t really like that, I think that DW will prove to be a bit too slow for younger members of fandom. Maybe if communities become more active it could work out though idk

[mazephoenix.livejournal.com]

I wasn't there for Strikethru but this is terrible. My fandom is probably moving to..who knows? twitter? Dw? In the end only the pornbots will stay on tumblr winking at each other through a barren wasteland where once fandom bloomed.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Nobody seems to know where to move at the moment, I think the problem is they will likely find the same issues wherever they move too if they are vocal about wanting to find a platform that will welcome all adult content without censorship. Most platforms are going to balk at that when they rely on keeping the advertisers happy, I think that DreamWidth even had trouble with PayPal working with them at one point because they refused to remove any of the user content?

I think that either DW or pillowfort are probably the best option if you want to be entirely free of censorship, although I’m not sure if either platform is actually build for the huge number of users that tumblr hosted on their servers

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* Thank god I never gave a damn about tumblr. Tried it once, but it wasn't for me. I never understood the appeal of it, and I never will...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I use it for reblogging gifs and fanart occasionally, but I’ve never felt very connected to the community over there either, maybe it’s more appealing for people who are heavily into graphics, but I always preferred having discussions on LJ.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

The strike through as I remember it was about Incest and underage sex either in images or written. It was never focussed on LGBT specifically. It unfortunately was very heavy handed and started to delete support journals for breast feeding mums and young children discussion forums which were wholly innocent. It also got rid of support journals for abuse. By the time they had corrected their errors a lot of people had left. Having said that porn is everywhere and if owners of forums don’t accept that they are very blinkered.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I think I vaguely remember one of the issues being that icons of breastfeeding were also being banned? They did eventually back down, but yes it’s a shame that strikethrough has become such a notorious example for LJ, even though I don’t think they handled it that much worse than any other platform would at first that wasn’t really familiar with how fandom worked. SixApart were the owners then from what I remember (was that their name?) I don’t want to come across like I’m making excuses, but quite honestly I imagine that some of the fanwork that fandom produced must seem quite bizarre to an outsider. They were definitely very heavy handed in how they went about it though, I think getting flagged as hosting child pornography by an outside source is what got them overtly determined to clean up the entire site and get rid of any possible nudity or sexuality

[sidleypkhermit.livejournal.com]

Wow, the game-of-telephone urban legend version of Strikethrough has gotten even worse since the last time I heard it! LMAO. I'm still sittin' here on LJ waiting for Cartoon Russia to ban me for being gay and meanwhile enjoying the experience of a platform with an actual business model...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Haha yes, I’m still awaiting the dire repercussions we were promised from the servers moving to Russia

[malicat.livejournal.com]

The petty part in me is all like "that's what you get for thinking tumblr is better than LJ" because while I do use tumblr (mostly for reblogging fandom stuff,funny things and animal posts),it never could give me the sense of community and friendship that I got over here. Less here in recent years as well thanks to the mass exodus but still...

I was here when the big strikethrough happened but I actually don't remember that is was so damaging to LGBT blogs?

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It wasn’t LGBT specifically, it was underage porn and incest from what I recall. Harry Potter users were targeted the most for things like drawing sexual fanart of the twins from HP together. SPN was targeted pretty heavily too I think for things like Wincest, and also Daddycest with John Winchester. Like I said above though, I can see why some fandom content must seem pretty bizarre to an outsider, and panic about just exactly what are we hosting on our site here. It was very much a knee jerk reaction that they didn’t think through after some religious/conservative group contacted them to complain about links they had come across on LJ, and they then ended up targeting things like nudity in icons in general which got pretty much everyone in an uproar.

The whole thing lasted less than two weeks I think before LJ eventually backed down, I *think* that bringing in the age restrictions for the LJ’s that host adult content was the compromise in the end, or at least shortly after that? And even that created a huge amount of grief from fandom and accusations of censorship, although funnily enough I see other sites like DW with the exact same setup these days, and no one seems to have any objections to them doing it *shrug*

[stolenglimpse.livejournal.com]

Wow! I've been on lj for almost 20 years and I somehow do not remember the major strikethrough thing that happened? It might have been when I, myself, made an account on Twitter and used that a lot more and then I opened a Tumblr for Sims but I never heard anything wrong about lj. I do remember being surprised at how much lj had changed though and how many people had moved off it for Twitter and Tumblr.

And then lj was bought or whatever from Russian and that was another drama and people freaked and said to go to DW instead, which is basically lj but with a lot of exceptions... I have an account there, it's a backup of sorts... I rarely go in though nowadays... I find myself thinking it is kinda pointless to even still have an account there...

I knew Tumblr was big for porn (I will not shy away from the fact I was searching for things over there from time to time!) but I didn't know how huge it was really. And I knew something was happening as there was less and less results found...

LJ's my home. I have a paid account over here and I don,t think this'll ever change...

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It all happened in 2007, that was what caused the first big exodus from LJ with everyone convinced that it was no longer a safe space for fandom. I created a DW as a backup last year finally, but I also always forget to check my flist over there, so probably it is pretty pointless to still have it really, although I guess I will move there if LJ does ever shut down for good. It’s the most similar to LJ anyway, so I don’t know where else I would go

It seems like Tumblr owners panicked big time after their app was removed by Apple for adult content, and this is the result

[domluver.livejournal.com]

I only remember a little bit of the big LJ strike but that didn't really effect my fandoms/friends all that much. Later on and as people go older that's what killed it really. *shrug* I'm not going to leave tumblr, people are making a big stink about it but people will still stay. Besides I've been on LJ for 12 years going to take me a lot to leave this too.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It didn’t really affect my fandoms much either because I’ve never been into Harry Potter, and I didn’t start watching Supernatural until the fourth season, but I do remember it being an issue that nearly all of my flist was talking about, and then there was some fandom comm set up in protest to represent just how many fandom people were members of LJ.

And I think you’re right that probably a lot of people will end up staying on tumblr still, especially if they ever work out a better filtering system. At the moment people are mostly annoyed about completely work safe content being flagged, but if they get that sorted out then I’m not sure that so many members are going to care about porn no longer being allowed?

Mind you I have seen a lot of posts complaining about how unfair it is on sex workers who use tumblr, and honestly I was surprised that they even thought that tumblr was the right platform for that in the first place?? I find it hard to work up much outrage over them not being able to solicit clients on a platform that was always meant to be there for sharing graphics, but people just seem to be outraged over everything at the moment

[perpetual.livejournal.com]

I wish everyone would leave Tumblr and come back to LJ. But then, that's what I've wished for as long as Tumblr has existed.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Same :(

[complicat]

My memory is LJ strikethrough is similar to yours - I don't remembering it being about LGBT content, I thought it was panic over underage fanart after some US conservative group started making trouble.

If it leads to an LJ/DW revival then that would be nice. I do like Tumblr for the ease of finding fannish image and gifs, and the comedy tagging, but I hate the lack of privacy and the over zealous SJW fandom policing and bullying. Also really never need to see another closeup of someone's genitals which some porn blog has spammed into the tags I follow :(

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It was definitely primarily about rape, incest, and underage content (I read an article on tumblrs ban today which mentioned strikethrough, and apparently even rape support comms were being suspended), but the popular narrative on tumblr seems to instead be that LJ was only targeting LGBT content. I've noticed that it all seems mixed up with the claims that the Russian owners are also known for specifically targeting LGBT content, so I suppose that people are correlating the two perhaps, but then I still haven’t seen any evidence of that either? The last fandom drama did have people claiming that LBGT content was definitely going to be targeted now that the servers are moving to Russia, but so far I haven’t heard of a single person being warned? A surprising number of tumblr users seem utterly convinced that all LGBT content is banned on here though

And there is always the hope that this might bring some users back, but honestly I think that LJ and DW are just not going to be what most tumblr users are looking for. I’ve complained with other LJ users many a time on how we just don’t get the appeal of tumblr, and I’m sure the appeal of our sites will be equally lost on a lot of tumblr users. My understanding is that DW is very limited when it comes to hosting gifs for a start? Pillowfort probably has a better chance of succeeding as it’s a mixture of tumblr features, alongside LJ features like threaded comments, but at the moment the servers seem disappointingly unable to cope with much

And I hate the bullying and self-righteousness that goes on as well, I think the problem is that tumblr is such an isolating platform to use, it’s not nearly as easy to connect with others and make friends, so instead users just end up talking down to one another

[tasabian.livejournal.com]

My involvement on tumblr is so limited, I had no idea it had become a porn hub! Have never much enjoyed the endless scrolling and missed the LJ comment threads, always so nice for episode discussions.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I didn’t realise just how widespread it had become either! And yes I much prefer the threaded comments that we have on LJ, it’s impossible to properly have conversations on tumblr when that’s just not what reblogging was designed for

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

My bet is on the migration happening in waves- obviously, the most affected users are leaving already to other places, i.e. twitter, artstation, or whatever have you, but I don't think anyone knows what the next long term place is going to be.

DW's fault is that it doesn't mesh well with the current layout of fandom as a social media platform I think, and instead sticks to the more traditional blogging approach that LJ has. Which is fine for a lot of things that tumblr never was despite people attempting to make it otherwise, but in the image meme repost/reblog internet scene, it's lacking so while it'll probably pick up a few, I don't think it's going to get the bulk of it. What'll probably happen is either a continued fracturing of fandom of across platforms, or a new thing that comes along that everyone flocks around.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah that makes sense, I don’t think there’s going to be a mass exodus, but likely more and more people are going to start spreading out and looking elsewhere. It happened similarly with LJ once being the main fandom hub, and then gradually people started leaving for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr. But a lot were just following the herd so to speak after their flist quitened down, not everyone left as one after Strikethrough

I think that DW could have its appeal for tumblr people if some big communities are set up there and really flourish maybe, but otherwise yeah I can’t see the reading list style of a blogging community appealing in the same way as the never ending content you scroll through on tumblr. DW isn't even set up for mobile at the moment, which was part of what hurt LJ as well imo, that the mobile app was so lacking. Maybe some older members of fandom who still remember LJ will go to DW, but I don’t think your average tumblr user will find it the ideal replacement

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

I don't remember there EVER being a blanket ban on LGBT, but I definitely remember slash communities being targeted, people's friends disappearing (some were reinstated), and survivor communities being taken down because there was no differentiation between the way people were using the tags. First Strikethrough, then Boldthrough, and it was initiated by a conservative group called Warriors for Innocence who had an agenda about it under the guise of caring about child porn, which somehow turned into looking at LGBT content more specifically.

You don't create an entire server/platform for content if nothing's really happening.

And no, I don't think the relationship between LJ and fandom ever recovered because the staff weren't very quick about explaining what was happening or making it clear that they would take care of problems. People just didn't feel safe, and that was always going to be more of a problem for LJ, because LJ felt like home... Tumblr is just this garbage fire that we all participate in. That's not to say that Tumblr isn't ten THOUSAND times worse with communication, since they have in the past marked the "lesbian" tag as NSFW entirely and are flagging everything remotely flesh-colored, from blankets to birds to a marble. And tits, but only if they're peachy. If LJ was sloppy and overly conciliatory towards groups threatening them, Tumblr is haphazard and lazy... at best. I'm not sure either 2007 LJ or current Tumblr really understood their userbase or how to keep them both happy and have some modicum of regulation... but I'm also pretty sure Tumblr doesn't care about either of those things at the end of the day.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

You’re right of course that there was a reason why so much of fandom left and were disappointed in LJ’s initial response, I just found it puzzling how there’s almost this knee-jerk reaction on tumblr whenever anyone mentions that they’re thinking of going back to LJ. Many seem to believe that we’re heavily restricted in what we can post here, when that’s just not been my experience. SixApart did eventually course-correct and admit they overstepped, and if anything the Russian owners seem even more hands-off since then. Fair enough that much of fandom will still never trust LJ again after those past experiences, but it was still strange for me to see posters suggest that all LGBT content is banned from this platform now


That's not to say that Tumblr isn't ten THOUSAND times worse with communication, since they have in the past marked the "lesbian" tag as NSFW entirely and are flagging everything remotely flesh-colored, from blankets to birds to a marble

It is interesting that there seems to be next to no attempt at damage control, I don’t know if tumblr will ever completely die out, but they certainly seem to have a very blasé attitude towards keeping their users happy. SixApart left it a couple of weeks too long, but they did at least attempt to reach out in the end, whereas the owners of tumblr seem like they’re in no rush to keep any of their main client base happy

[tinny]

My fandom is splitting down the middle with the by far largest content provider (a fan blog that checks and translates Chinese message boards) going to Twitter (of all places!) and the fans going to either DW or Pillowfort.

DW is not suited for the image-heavy things and gif post layouts, and Pillowfort can't handle the amount of users it's currently seeing. I would actually prefer everything moving to pillowfort, but they are too small and too slow and still in beta. (If they'd actually done what they promised and gone live last Autumn, they might be in a place right now where they could have profited. Right now... I think not.)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I use twitter for following news and celebrities, but I would have thought that’s an even worse platform than tumblr is for fandom. How are you meant to converse with other fans and discuss shows when you have a 140 word limit?!

Pillowfort strikes me as another well-meaning idea like izzy or whatever it was called that probably isn’t going to take off in the long term, but we’ll have to wait and see I suppose. It does seem like a lot of the places that were set up specifically in hopes of catering to fandom are not usually as successful as whatever is spontaneously decided on though

[haebin.livejournal.com]

Going back to Myspace? That would be the worst thing ever, lol.

I would be okay if the people would come back here with their fanart but at the same time I fear all the drama we had in the last years. I will still stay at tumblr because I am there for the pretty pictures and the awesome fanart (without being naked ^^). Let's see if tumblr will die or survive this. :)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

The whole MySpace era passed me by actually, I never really went on there lol

And it would be nice if a few people returned (but yes, definitely without all the drama that tumblr can bring!), but at the moment it seems like DW is where a lot of former LJ users are heading instead. It does seem to have inspired my flist to be a bit more active anyway at least, so that’s always nice to see