I’ve wondered for a few years now what the endgame would be for this odd site: the black sheep of the social media venues. Tumblr is, and always has been, completely un-”monetizable”—i have no idea how it makes any money whatsoever .
But at its best, it’s the last throwback to the internet that I knew and loved in the 1990s. A weird, scitter-scatter, gonzo Wild West sort of place. Ironically its Yahoo acquisition was what truly reduced it to a backwater, a terminally uncool site that was always said to be “dying” by media outlets with a habit of firing most of their staff employees before Christmas. This meant that, quietly, it became a place where marginalized people could thrive.
I’ve come to appreciate its complete uselessness. Apart from El Sandifer, Matt Maxwell, Sylvia K and a few others, I have utterly no idea who’s on here, who follows me, if anyone even reads the stuff I put up here on very rare occasion. It’s the dead channel. Over the years, it’s been the place when in the absolute depths of despair I’ll put up,say, a video of the Beatles “Help!”’ and hope that someone sees it who needs to. Like a lighthouse sending out a signal to some ship out there in the dark..
I’ve come to like the weird rando anonymous questions I get. I like the feeling of this being a shopping mall with maybe 4 stores left- standing–a vaping shop, a sad video arcade, a fabric store, and a place you can buy games and phone accessories (for an out-of-date phone).
You get the feeling some bean-counter finally got around to “the Tumblr problem” and now has big plans to finally Monetize this dump in some ridiculous, seriously doomed way. This censorship initiative is the first wave—what will likely soon come is a more aggressive enforcement on visual/audio copyright, which will wipe out like..70% of all posts? Good luck ,baby.
A last thing. Many years ago, for a while I followed the founder of this site and his then-girlfriend’s tumblrs in a “see how the ruling class live” observation project. And they broke up, and his ex-girlfriend stayed on the guy’s own site to document her vastly improved life, showing herself to be a truly compassionate and cool person. She got married recently, to a sweet-seeming dude—she put up the pictures on Tumblr. All power to her, and to all of you, wherever we go from here.
don’t want to lose the hashtag #capitalismkillslove
