the reason I like tumblr is because it’s so easy not to be found here. I don’t have to worry about people from real life being able to find me bc I can hide my blog from search engine results. I can be openly gay here and have a little space to myself to explore my interests and stuff. Social media has always made me really anxious as I’m a naturally reserved person. I’m reluctant to use such widely used sites like Instagram and twitter because I don’t want my family or friends I’m not too close to find me on there ! And also why the fuck do twitter and Instagram make your following and likes public
exactly like these sites DEMAND access to your contacts and phone number and even when you say no they still recommend you to other people based on your phone number and real life proximity to other users. That’s so fucking creepy. I do so miss the old days of the internet where everything wasn’t so connected to your day to day life.
Don’t believe me? Go to an old cemetary (preferably one dating back to at least 1800s) and start reading. See those stones that say “Baby [Last Name]”? Those are children that didn’t survive long enough to be named and/or baptized. Now count them. Every family will have at least one or two. Many families will have 3+. Now check out the other stones and start using some basic math skills. Spoiler alert: you are going to find quite a few that didn’t make it to their teens.
And even those that did…
I mean, my history professor in college was from the time before vaccines. He had polio as a kid. It didn’t kill him, but it forever paralyzed his one leg.
Oh definitely! My grandfather was a “lucky one” with a twisted spine and hips thanks to polio. Fun fact: he camped on the sidewalk to make sure his three kids got the polio vaccine ASAP when it came out.
And my grandfather left profoundly deaf from measles but, oh no, don’t vaccinate. smh!
From someone who’s survived MySpace, livejournal, deviantart, and fanfiction.nets’ content purges and bad policy updates, here’s some advice on how to get through tumblr’s recent bullshit:
– don’t knee jerk delete. I know it’s tempting to peace out immediately but hang on and do the other steps first. Out right ghosting and erasing everything is how fandoms die.
– archive everything on your blog you want to keep
– tell your followers how they can archive and keep your work too. A lot of fic and art were only saved from ff.net and lj because other people saved it first. If you’re cool with other people saving your work for them to personally keep, let them know this. You can absolutely discourage reposting but I really do highly recommend you allow people to personally save fic and art they like and are worried will disappear forever. Digital Dark Ages are a real thing.
– tell people where you’re jumping ship to. Give links. Keep that info up, even if you’ve left the site.
– go through who you follow and find out where else you can follow them. Save their work if they’ll allow it. It’s tedious as hell but if you want to keep up with people on here clicking on their page to check in is the best way to do it.
– support places like ao3. This is exactly why ao3 asks for donations a few times a year. They are a 100% anti-purging, judgement free, ad free non profit run by an elected board and protected by lawyers. Places like ao3 literally save fandom so please continue to support them and other similar archives. This is exactly why ao3 is so important.
Also, go read the source policies and official Tumblr statements in addition to user analyses and reactions. It’s important to keep abreast of developments over time; staying informed is your power in this situation. Memes and reaction posts are funny and are a useful way to vent / provide commentary, but some of them create an inaccurate picture of what’s happening and should not be taken as evidence on their own of what developments have happened.
but really porn is just the canary in the coal mine that our supposed general purpose computing devices are tightly controlled by a duopoly that makes Microsoft in the ‘90s look relaxed and open minded: Apple doesn’t want porn apps on its phones, so there are no porn apps on its phones; other apps can stay if they tithe 30%, but they’re on thin fucking ice.
you can leave Tumblr and go to another social network, but if that gets sufficiently popular it will face the same threat, there is no escape.
the last bastion of freedom is the open web, and I anticipate the day when mobile Safari blocks access to sites that aren’t signed by Apple, for security reasons.
the right to install whatever software you want on your own computer is a vital one, and we should be fighting for it.
sky's stuff 