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Tumblr
“There’s one born every minute, and three join tumblr.”
— Nonny, Dec. 31, 2014
Tumblr is, per Wikipedia, “a microblogging platform and social networking website” launched in April 2007. Its design is ideal for posting and reblogging pretty pictures. But, because much of fandom in general migrated there after the LiveJournal era, because the infrastructure does not lend itself to thoughtful conversations, and because many users were/are teenagers, Tumblr became wanky. And, because SJ started to become popular within a few years of Tumblr’s emergence, the website is often Baby’s First SJ Experience.
“Tumblr allows wank to go viral. And because you're posting everything on your own blog instead of ‘neutral’ communities, you feel the need to make Important Points and Take A Stand on Things.”
“Tumblr culture sucks. #i hate all your stupid tag posts #like you don't care #but you cry if i unfollow you, tbh #i loved hiddles #but then tumblr happened
“Why am I so angry? I just want to look at pretty pictures. (Pretty pictures do not include weird photoshop textures or .gifs so bright they hurt my eyes.)
“Boy, am I glad that tumblr didn't exist during my puberty.”
“There is always this one person… Like whenever people on tumblr are playing with some little, harmless meme, there is always this one person who comes in with ‘this meme is oppressive/problematic.’”
“Tumblr’s turning me into a wanky bitch and I'm enjoying every minute of it.”|
Tumblr “Social Justice”
Social-justice rhetoric combined with life inexperience leads to such things as (note: most of the original Tumblr links have been removed due to their being dead):
- the belief that the word “asshole” is “body-shaming” or "homophobic";
- criticism of body odor being dubbed “ableist”;
- trigger warnings for fish, posted by vegans who refer to meat eaters as “carnists” and “bloodmouths”;
- the “Human Privilege Checklist," created by an “otherkin”;
- “systems” of alleged multiple personalities sharing one body (a/k/a roleplaying DID); and
- the "transabled", the "transethnic" (that thread does not mention Tumblr but there was a notorious “transethnic” Tumblr troll), and the “transfat.”
Specific to fandom, Tumblr has served to incubate the widespread opinions that nobody must like any canons, characters, or fic that is “problematic,” a word which is interpreted broadly. Relatedly, many Tumblr users are insistent that there is no clear boundary between reality and fiction. Nonnies have often rolled their eyes at Tumblr users who have complex headcanons for characters that are heavily based on their supposed sexualities, sexual identities, and disabilities. In early April 2015, this meme conversation about Tumblr culture touched on these points and others. This editor found these three comments particularly insightful.
Inevitably, Tumblrs arose to parody such people, like that of the toddler/flying dog/transdisabled activist, discussed here by a gleeful nonny. There are also fake!SJ troll blogs such as For Future Reference Only, who apparently owned up to “RPG’ing”; and Your Fave is Problematic, which literally went looking for things about pop culture to be offended about (discussed here, here, and here. (Note that the YFIP blogger fessed up years later in the New York Times, of all places, under their wallet name.)
Finally, trolls from the 4chan board /pol/ have regularly conducted “false-flag operations” by putting up Tumblrs that read like OTT SJ blogs.
Tumblr’s Structure and Technical Issues
The migration of much of fandom from LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, and elsewhere to Tumblr has always been a source of annoyance to nonnies who prefer textual communication, as Tumblr’s software was not created with that in mind. In addition, an upgrade in early 2013 created a number of additional technical problems. However, there are other nonnies who like Tumblr and feel that it meets their fandom needs. Some have said that since many of the worst wankers moved to Twitter, Tumblr has become more chill.
Most people on Tumblr have used a third-party extension called X-Kit. Unfortunately, X-Kit creator Xenix was chased off Tumblr in early 2015 after bad actors spread rumors that he was a rapist. Users were subsequently directed to new X-Kit, updated and run by a different team. Since then, Tumblr has developed its own native blocking feature.
Haphazard tagging and repurposing of other people’s art without credit are other sore Tumblr points for nonnies. Frequently, we ask one another for advice on how to use Tumblr.
“I feel like tumblr is intentionally trying to dumb down human communication.”
“I love it for the pictures, loathe it for the lack of communication possibilities. Fandom is fucking ridiculous for migrating there. :( ”
Some Tumblr Threads on FFA
FFA regularly discusses both stupidity on Tumblr and the platform’s technical limitations. Here are some of the earlier threads:
For a while, nonnies referred to the website as “Dumblr,“ but other nonnies began to criticize this term. In 2014 and 2015 there arose the practice of giving Tumblr-related wank threads titles from horror and other movies, such as “It Came From Tumblr” or “The Beast of Tumblr Flats.” But since then, as Twitter eclipsed Tumblr as a fandom platform and as other platforms such as Reddit and TikTok were discussed more often on meme, the thread title has evolved into “Social Media.”
A few technical Tumblr resources suggested by nonnies have been Tumblr tutorials by OohCamila and UserStyles.org's skins, themes, and wrap tags.
