The rage I’m feeling today will be tempered by having to watch the long, slow exsanguination of this once beloved platform.
As lots of you surely already know by know, Tumblr has decided to obliterate adult content and blogs on December 17, 2018. This is particularly bad timing on their part, as December 17th has been globally recognized as the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers for over a decade now, and it is no secret that lots of sex workers use Tumblr to promote their art, photos, and personal websites/writing. I personally do all of those things.
But my tumblr, along with many others like it, will be removed in a few short days.
Rather than rant and rail about Tumblr’s bad timing and poor decision-making capacities, I wanted to take today and this post to tell everyone how grateful I am for everything I’ve encountered there. This is the letter posted to Tumblr earlier today:
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So long, and thanks for all the fish.
As everyone has no doubt heard, many (most) of our content/blogs will be obliterated on December 17th (coincidentally the International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers). Before I go, I want to tell all of you that it has been so entertaining and expanding to have been part of this world with you. I have learned about daddy/son play, pumping, body modification, scrotal stretching, masturbation, and so so many shades of sexuality and egagement from the bold and colorful users on this platform. There is no sexual education like the one I have received over the years on Tumblr. I am grateful beyond measure.
To those of you who shared your own bodies, penises, masturbations, and more: You are so valuable and so important. Tumblr’s transformation into a platform for school children and Christian Missionaries does not diminish your worth. You are incredible.
To the people about whom I’ve been fortunate enough to write: you have been what made my blog worth reading. You are all miracles. I am blessed and bettered to have engaged with you and your image for these many years; I will remain in awe.
I hope we might all meet again in another place. But it won’t ever be what this was once.
To all of you: thank you.
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I am disheartened in the extreme today. This is not just ‘oh no, they took away my porn.’ This is the removal and silencing of gay and queer voices, of sex workers’ voices, and of adult artists and content creators who use Tumblr to earn a totally valid living doing something they love.
The sense of community and the potential for normalizing sexual things (so that kids like me could feel less alone, less weird, and more desirable, or so that grown men could find others who shared their loves or their fetishes), was so profound on Tumblr. And now I don’t know what happens to all those things. We go back to seeing sex as orchestrated by mainstream porn companies. We lose a place to share private parts of ourselves. And we lose a place to discover new art.
Sad times. I am sorry for what will happen to so many posts on this blog that featured so many special things and people from Tumblr. I hope I can find a way to keep things fresh here without those individuals.
For what it’s worth, my letter has already been flagged for removal on Tumblr.
-t
As always, a refreshing take. I’m actually glad to have been pushed to taking action on porting my blog to WP.
Please be mindful of the difference between WordPress dot COM and WordPress dot ORG. Seems like there’s lots of confusion on this front lately. A privately hosted instance of the wordpress software (downloaded and independently hosted from .org) is a much safer choice than utilizing the WordPress “community” (the .com that hosts your content for you), which only delays the inevitable – Wordpress (the community) will ultimately need to one day have their own adult content purge and then all will be for naught.
-t
By the way, it’s wonderful to see your beautiful penis for a change. Thank you.
I’m trying to do better about that. Being less precious about it online. I talk a good game, but I have so many reservations about what I really show on the internets. Teach me to cam?
-t
This saddens me greatly. I’ve very glad that you have this outlet to share your thoughts and expressions. And even more so that I can still view your blog posts. There are so many that inkynuse rumble to share them selves with this friends and Fans a like
Glad you’re here, Ryan. <3
-t
https://t.co/cLgT4fqxTL
Sorry everyone must now scramble to find another outlet, and it’s surely unpleasant, but it’s a wake-up call long past overdue. Adult content providers need to flip the Big Birdie to prissy pro-censorship sites like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, and whatever. Time to seek out adult hosting services (https://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/best-adult-web-hosting/). Yeah, you may end up having to pay up to $20 a month for peace of mind…so fuckin what? Charge $5 a year access fee (50 subscribers, and its paid up for the year). Where there is a will there is always a way. As for Tumblr, I stopped going there when they turned Big Bro, and required sign-in for adult content. FU Tumblr!!! Let’s see how long you can survive on prissy jesusfreako and Walt Disney offerings. You exchanged gold for fools-gold…good luck with that!
Wow! 🤭
Hard to disagree, though.
-t
I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t immediately see this for what it is: A result, just ONE result, of FOSTA-SESTA. It infuriates me that Tyler and others yelped about this when it was blazing through the US Congress with broad BIPARTISAN support, passed with virtually zero resistance.
Thanks to congress, and to the short-sighted, anti-sex alarmists driving anti-sex legislation that keeps us a morally regressive, Puritan country, the Internet is being purged. Now I’m angry.
Yeah. It’s been a bad week on the internet. But we’re still at #justthetip, believe it or not. The new Facebook ToS out this week is ultimately far more foreboding than anything Tumblr has done. Trying to censor pornography is one thing, but they’ve stepped into policing the words that folks use to describe themselves and their bodies (it is now technically a ToS violation on Fb to refer to yourself or someone else as a top or bottom). That is hitherto unforeseen and outlines a power Facebook has over lives and spaces that people don’t yet understand.
But Paul, have heart. Because men like you are more necessary now than ever before. Your blogging and sharing and your keeping the Rain City Jacks afloat through pure will – that all becomes exponentially more significant as the ‘easy’ ways to do those things get erased. Tumblr was the easy way to make so much of that stuff happen. It will be harder to be more deliberate and intentional about sharing and about discussing and dissecting the importance of sharing.
#ShowMeYourPenis gets to become so much more than a hashtag to sort Tumblr posts. It gets to be both question and statement, encouragement and authority. We need men like you to stay focused and connected, and to not let their anger get the better of them. The rules are changing to suppress the sight and discussion of male sexuality? We’ll make spaces that don’t abide by those rules.
And we’ll show them our penises.
-t
I had this cool blog dedicated to Leo Giamani, and now is gone for good 🙁
Tumblr was a huge part of me.