Basically, because I know Mobile is bad with links, the article points out hat the broad, “sfw only, no titties allowed” wave on the internet in recent years is largely due to Apple’s absolute stranglehold on the App Store. Apple has strict guidelines about NSFW content that choke creators right out of mainstream social media, even on sites like Reddit, for users of their products:
But there are fewer and fewer mainstream sites and services that support porn and adult content, and much of that attitude has grown out of Apple’s strict controls over the App Store and the iOS ecosystem. Steve Jobs famously suggested that “folks who want porn can buy an Android phone,” and Apple has repeatedly leveraged its unprecedented power over millions of smartphones to sanitize the apps that are available on iPhones. Apple does not allow apps “that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic.” In 2016, Apple famously deleted all third-party Reddit apps that allowed users to toggle NSFW posts on and off; even now, it is impossible to access porn on an iOS Reddit app unless you jump through various hoops.
remember though that this anger isn’t about Being Horny On Main, it’s about sex workers, their platforms and followers, NSFW creators and their art, and adult content communities that are continually being shoved out of spaces they created in recent years:
Tumblr’s leadership seems to believe that the community using Tumblr for adult content is the same as any other porn site—showing a serious disconnect with how its users actually interact and connect on its own platform. “We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community,” he wrote.
The value of Tumblr for NSFW creators and fans was in the autonomy to curate something original, and the freedom to express and share what they’re into—something that can’t be replaced by algorithmically-suggested porn on the rest of the internet.
it was mentioned before somewhere else, but 20% of Tumblr’s traffic is brought in by content they’re now flagging as “adult”
This is yet another example of a platform ignoring adult content when it helps the platform flourish, and then leaving those users out to dry when it’s time to crack down for some monetary gain or face-saving. In addition to being a terrible way to treat your user base, banning adult content on Tumblr will stifle a lot of creativity.
The communities that will feel this change the most will be the already-marginalized. “Tumblr banning adult content is a huge loss for the LGBTQ community, especially those with overlapping marginalized identities,” Kitty Stryker, a queer porn performer and consent activist, told Motherboard in an email. “For many, that’s the one place we could find porn that represents us, made by indie performers who created their own content outside of an often racist, transmisogynist, fatphobic industry. Tumblr was where our content could exist without pushing us into the restrictions of a misogynist, male dominated workplace.”
Dreamwidth staff are aware of the situation. Take it easy on them, guys.
“We welcome everybody, and with some exceptions like spam, our only content restrictions are what’s illegal under US law. We’re not advertiser supported and our income is entirely from user payments, so our concern is 100% for you, not what content makes advertisers nervous.” – update
For people who want to use Dreamwidth, but are totally confused about how it works!
What is Dreamwidth?
Dreamwidth is a social media platform founded in 2009 after Strikethrough
It’s made out of a heavily-modified version of Livejournal code
It’s based around producing your own original content, and seeing original content other people post
The site is owned and run by fans and aims to provide creative people with an Internet home
Getting around your account
Your journal is like your “home”. It’s where you keep your stuff. It’s got different parts:
Recent Entries: View your posts in chronological order
(yourusername.dreamwidth.org)
Profile: Your “about” page
(yourusername.dreamwidth.org/profile)
Archive: See your posts as a calendar
(yourusername.dreamwidth.org/archive)
Tags: See all the tags you’ve used and go to their posts
(yourusername.dreamwidth.org/tag)
Memories: Like the “Likes” feature on Tumblr
You also have a “Reading” page (yourusername.dreamwidth.org/read)
This is like your Tumblr dash
It’s where you read entries from your “circle”, the people and communities you’re subscribed to
You can customize it a lot with filters and control who you see when
Finding new things
Listing an Interest in your profile is like getting listed in the phonebook. This is opt-in, choosing to say, “Yes! I’m really into this thing! Consider me a person who blogs about it!
Content Search is the more powerful way to search through the blog of everyone who’s opted into it, so you can look for everyone who’s posting about a certain thing right now. However, you’ll have to wade through a lot more junk.
Communities are Dreamwidth’s social hubs. They’re places where a lot of people can share content they’re interested in and talk to each other. Unlike Tumblr tags, they’re managed by specific people and have rules, so people behaving badly can get kicked out.
Paid members can see the Network page, which shows entries from everything everyone in your circle subscribes to. It’s a great way to discover new stuff and also learn what awful taste some of your circle members have
Latest Things is a direct firehose of EVERYTHING PUBLICLY POSTED TO THE SITE, HOMG
Privacy controls?! That’s a thing?!
You get to choose who sees your posts! You can make your posts public, private, or “locked”, which means only people you’ve added to your access list can read them
When you add a new person to your circle you can choose to subscribe to them, to make their posts show up on your Reading page, and/or to grant access, which lets them see your locked posts. You can do one, the other, or both!
Likewise, communities can make posts viewable to members only.
You can also create custom access filters, to allow only some of your access list to see a post.
Banning someone means they cannot leave you comments or send you messages. There are more advanced tweaks to make sure they never show up on your reading page if they post to a community you subscribe to, or remove them from the comments on a post.
Comments
The comments to a post are where the real fun happens.
Comments are sent to the email of whoever you’re replying to. They’re a real conversation. You’re not shouting into the void–you’re talking back directly to the post’s originator and other commenters.
You can edit your comment so long as it hasn’t been replied to, and you can delete your own comments.
The originator of the post, and administrators if it’s a community, can delete threads, or “freeze” them, leaving them intact but preventing anyone from replying to them.
You will add new skills to your resume
Dreamwidth leaves a lot more “backend” open so you can customize your experience to a huge degree. However, this means learning or using coding languages like HTML and CSS
The comment box on entries does not have a built-in text editor, so you will have to add your own HTML if you want to add <i>italic</i>, <b>bold</b>, or <a href=“http://websiteurl.com”>links</a>.
Alright, by now plenty of you are aware that Tumblr has decided to axe (most) NSFW content from its site. Here’s their statement, in case you haven’t seen it yet. Figured I’d address some of it before I start migrating.
What’s happening?
Tumblr is drastically altering its policy on NSFW content. The change will be enacted in December 17, 2018.
Is all NSFW content forbidden now?
Not quite – their new terms state that all sexual content featuring real people (i.e. photos and videos of a sexual nature, including non-artistic nudity) is forbidden. However, illustrations are only explicitly stated as forbidden if they “display sexual acts”. Written erotica is specifically mentioned as allowed.
So, written smut, and NSFW art that doesn’t feature sex acts would in theory still be allowed. Weirder fetish stuff that can’t immediately be catalogued as explicit could also fly under the radar.
However, the site has also seen a change to its search and tagging functions, which means that even if you continue to produce the above-mentioned allowed content, you are likely to have your blog tagged as explicit, which would take it off search results (both through tumblr search and via google). In practice, even if your NSFW content is not outright banned, there’s no incentive to post it, as you will likely gain no followers.
Why are they doing this?
The official statement mentions a desire to foster a more welcoming community and a safer place to be yourself, yadda yadda. Also, this would supposedly be something they’ve been planning for a long time.
The more likely explanation, however, is related to Tumblr recently being kicked out from mobile apps due to their blatantly incompetent job at monitoring adult content – specifically the presence of child pornography, though the massive influx of porn spambots has also been mentioned.There’s a good chance they found proper monitoring too expensive, and cutting off NSFW content entirely had the added bonus of making the site more ad-friendly, which is desperately needed in a company that has failed to turn up a profit after being bought by Yahoo.
Any chance they’ll retract?
Unlikely. I mean, Patreon did recant an extremely impopular announced change to their payment system due to massive user outcry, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Feel free to contact Tumblr support about it (be polite, but if you plan to stop using the site due to this change, make sure to say so). But I wouldn’t put my money on it.
So where do we go now?
That’s the question! A lot of alternatives have been mentioned in the past few weeks. I might do a follow-up on this post later with some more details, but for the time being, here are some alternatives:
PILLOWFORTis a tumblr-like platform that’s currently still in beta. In addition to that, by the time I was writing this post their site was down due to maintenance. However, I’ve seen some good things said about it, so if they manage to get the site running soon, give it a try. You need a $5 key to enter the beta, though you can find some folks giving them away here and there. Try checking the notes on their Tumblr page (lmao)
TWITTER is also a popular option. A lot of your favorite NSFW artists might be posting there already (here’s mine!). Twitter’s image compression and timeline format make it far from ideal for posting art, but these problems tend to be offset by the massive audience.
MASTODON is largely known as “twitter minus the nazis”. I’ve found the interface a bit tricky to get into, but it’s something to consider if you want more control over your timeline, since it has some features that could be pretty useful if you want to keep your horny off main. Still nowhere near the userbase Twitter has, though.
Booru galleries like Gelbooru or Danbooru offer huge amounts of views, but posting your own content is frowned upon, reposting other people’s works without credit is rampant, and engagement is extremely low. I don’t particularly recommend them.
If by any chance you’re a furry NSFW artist, you’re probably in a better position than, uh, non-furries. Skinnies. Humanies. Fur muggles. I’m not in the furry community myself, but most NSFW artists know that furry sites offer much better engagement than most NSFW sites open to the general public. Then again, it’s extremely unlikely you’re not already a member, so I’ll skip mentioning them. Feel free to add them in the notes if you think it’d be helpful!
NEWGROUNDS allows NSFW content with no particular restrictions. However, bear in mind that its current userbase is far removed from the community you might have been accustomed to on Tumblr.
HENTAIFOUNDRY is a site for general adult art. (here’s mine!) Despite the name, it’s open for all drawn smut, regardless of style. However, keep in mind it has a quality filter (and corresponding submission queue), its userbase has been declining as of late, and, just like Newgrounds, might not be an audience fit, depending on the content you’re creating/interested in.
If getting started on all these sites seems overwhelming, I suggest giving POSTYBIRB a try – it’s a simple program that allows you to post on multiple sites simultaneously, saving you a lot of time.
That’s all for now! Uh, be sure to reblog this if you think it’d be useful, since this post won’t show up on searches.
Important information for what is developing on here now.
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.
ForLoveFromFear 