Tumbl'd

[olivermoss]

After long years of people complaining they wanted off of Tumblr, people are actually leaving. Will it last? Did fandom already leave Tumblr and a lot of people didn't notice until now? Does Discord leave you in the cold because of timezones? Or are you sitting here wishing other people would set up the communities you want to be in?

A surprising amount of the Tumblr blogs I followed deleted this week.

Comments

[ahbuggrit]

I haven't really looked @ discord yet. IDK if I will?

I haven't noticed anyone deleting yet, but that would be more because I'm unobservant rather than no one leaving.

I myself plan to abandon/delete my blog (once I manage to download the bloody thing) and already deleted my old blog I abandoned 5 years ago.

I'm angry at the sudden flagging (probably a tactic to chase the NSFW users off the site) and seeing as I mainly lurk on tumblr, it's not too big a loss for me (other than the ease of stumbling over new fanart).

Going to try a bunch of different social media. See what works, where people go, etc.

[olivermoss]

I happened to see because I was culling my own follow list and then it shrank on it's own.

If one specific artist leaves Tumblr I might leave, too. Well, after the holidays because I am in a Tumblr-based event right now. yay timing

[ahbuggrit]

timing probably very bad for a lot of seasonal holiday events
which sucks

[olivermoss]

The event I was in seems to have vanished, actually. I am okay with this in light of all the chaos going on.

[isis]

I never went to Tumblr, but I have to say that I've been using Discord more and more over the past year (mostly due to the Yuletide IRC chat becoming a Discord, and then branching out into other servers, including COF) and I like it a lot - as a supplement to Dreamwidth, not as a sole home. Timezones are an issue, but really, in low-traffic channels, asynchronous conversations work pretty well, like message boards, and I have gotten over my trepidation of adding to a conversation that took place 6 or 10 hours prior.

[olivermoss]

Discord is my favorite fandom space, but there is something ethereal about them. I think they work best in coordination with a Tumblr or PF or DW account. That way if a server is nuked or remade, people have a place to see WTF is going on.

[harpers_child]

Discord confuses me. Then again so did IRC. I think my brain just doesn't handle chat rooms well.

I am in the process of doing necromancy on an old comm. Fingers crossed the old mod will transfer ownership.

[olivermoss]

Good luck with the comm!

[acequeenking]

I kind of wonder if this will be enough to overtake the throne of fandom tbh. I know the anti-NSFW policies killed LiveJournal, but there really isn't a sight as good as Tumblr when it comes to incorporating images and there were a lot of LJ-clones... and now everyone seems to love reblogging.

I really would love to see fandom situate itself back here. Given how much every alternative seems to be anti-pornography (instagram, twitter, anything ending in an io domain) or just chat rooms, it makes sense to go where fandom smut would at least be welcome. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if it moves to somewhere else instead. My biggest fear is it moves to twitter or FB.

[olivermoss]

A lot of anime and Asian media fandom is already on twitter. A lot of fan artists are there. I'd complain because I hate twitter, but rn Discord is good to me so I can't justify my salt.

[acequeenking]

I just do not understand twitter or the appeal, tbh, of a platform that only lets you write 150 characters!

Discord I would be fine with, though I wish it would have some sort of indexing ability to help find different chat rooms.

FB is my biggest fear, because their desire to have real-names for everyone would be...unfortunate.

[olivermoss]

I liked Twitter back in the day, not for a long time, tho.

Finding Discords can be hard, and not every fandom has one. Ironically, the best way to find one is to ask on Tumblr tags. At least it's not Mastodon which delights in it's own obtuseness.

FB I have many, many deep problems which that I won't get started on here. I'll be here all day!

[tozka]

I think Discord could be fun in a "nostalgic for AIM/MSN" kind of way, but I don't think it'll be the main hub for fandom. I think we'll be split between DW, Twitter, leftover Tumblr accounts, and [unknown image hosting site]. Maybe Pillowfort, a little? I'm kind of expecting the DW rush to slow down in the next few weeks/months, but I hope that enough people stay to keep up activity on comms and stuff.

[artemis1000]

I'm torn between believing fandom will leave Tumblr or if this is just another short hype before everyone resigns themselves to their Tumblr fate.

I feel like many artists had been on Twitter already, it just didn't feel quite so acute since a sizable number of them cross-posted to Tumblr occasionally or were cross-posted by others.

I'm fine with Discord and enjoying it but it wouldn't work for me as my main fandom hub. It's been a nice place to get to know the people I reblog on Tumblr, though.

[olivermoss]

My pet theory is that the last three weeks made a lot of people realize how far the site had already fallen. It was a wake up call for me, at least.

[artemis1000]

Makes sense!

I'd already tried to make it to Pillowfort when I got my beta code back in the summer but with so few accounts, it was hard to gain traction and I focused solely on Tumblr again. Just didn't seem worth it the extra time it would cost me to keep up a presence on two platforms.