Tumblr is a microblogging, social networking service that was founded by David Karp on February 19, 2007,¹⁾ was acquired by Yahoo! for $1.1 billion in 2013,²⁾³⁾ failed,^4)5)6)7) went to Verizon⁸⁾⁹⁾ who would ban adult content,¹⁰⁾ then Automattic acquired it for ~$3 million in 2019.¹¹⁾¹²⁾

It was one of the earliest adopters of the tumblelog (microblog) format, alongside Twitter, which allowed busy people to share small snippets of content, unlike the traditional blog, and offered a wider sense of community, thus how it benefit from DeviantArt and LiveJournal's declines.¹³⁾

The service has seven post formats,¹⁴⁾ and users may like, reblog, and leave a reply to the post if allowed.¹⁵⁾ As usual, the dashboard can be changed up by following and unfollowing blogs, but you might need to pin 'following' in tab management, then toggle off the algorithmic bullshit (i.e. turn off 'best stuff first' and every 'include' setting) in dashboard settings to get the classic 'intended' experience.

A single Tumblr account is attached to a 'primary blog' that messages will be always sent from. You can also create additional, secondary blogs that can be set to private or shared with multiple accounts, but asks and submissions can't be sent from these. It's also possible to edit your blog's HTML theme as well, just make sure that 'enable custom theme' is actually enabled.

Despite the obvious decline, Tumblr has continued to be popular with teenagers and young adults,¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾ as it captures a unique sense of 'sincerity' that other platforms avoid¹⁸⁾ or have not been able to replicate.¹⁹⁾²⁰⁾ Tumblr has also been cited as a place where people reached their political coming-of-age, but there's usually a healthy balance since fandom content and shitposting had always been its anchor.

• Tumblr Savior
  A simple 'blacklisting' extension from 2008²¹⁾ that is still receiving updates.
• New XKit
  The unofficial successor to XKit (2011–2015), mostly being phased out for XKit Rewritten.
• XKit Rewritten
  The rewrite of XKit, actively maintained by the New XKit team. Recommended.

• tumblr-utils
  Python 2.7 script. Check the beginner's guide and review your tumblr_backup.md file.
• TumblThree
  The GUI one, if you're allergic to command prompt. It just dumps everything into a folder.

Tumblr used to have adult content,²²⁾²³⁾ but Apple²⁴⁾ and payment processors didn't approve, threatening its mobile revenue.²⁵⁾²⁶⁾ In the past, Tumblr tried to circumvent this with the 'Safe Mode' setting²⁷⁾ and NSFW toggles,²⁸⁾ then the CSEM fiasco²⁹⁾ and prudish App Store reviewers would force Tumblr to ban adult content on December 17, 2018,³⁰⁾³¹⁾ which was very unpopular.³²⁾

Following the 2019 acquisition, Tumblr formally added 'sensitive content' toggles,³³⁾³⁴⁾ and a 'sexual themes' community label.³⁵⁾ This meant that some artful nudity would be permitted, but anybody who saw this as a signal that Tumblr would be allowing adult content would have their hopes dashed, as Mullingweg continued to echo that they weren't in a position to unban adult content due to the risks associated with it.^36)37)38)

“the petulant whims of Mullenweg inflict harm to its business and the community that has embraced it.”
– Attorneys for Plaintiff WPEngine, Inc.³⁹⁾

Unlike the passive nature under previous owners, Automattic was rather 'abrasive' with staff critique, as they would outright terminate blogs and call them internet trolls.⁴⁰⁾⁴¹⁾ This became noticeable on May 27, 2022, after users pointed out that a staff member liked Attack on Titan and Harry Potter,⁴²⁾ so it was purged,⁴³⁾ then the blog was terminated for “harassment of Tumblr staff”.⁴⁴⁾

We'd later see Mullenweg terminate every blog that hopped on a 'Kung Pow Penis' reblog chain against him, claiming that they had broke their “non-genuine social gesture schemes” rule.⁴⁵⁾ Mullingweg later spoke on behalf of himself and his team, pointing out that such attacks have impacted their health,⁴⁶⁾ but believes these 'super-trolls' can brushed aside.⁴⁷⁾ A year later, Mullingweg found himself in a lawsuit.⁴⁸⁾

Prior to the Yahoo acquisition, the GNAA exploited an XSS vulnerability in their war against blogs around late 2012,⁴⁹⁾⁵⁰⁾ then a data breach from early 2013 wasn't discovered until May 12, 2016.⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ During the Yahoo era, people were concerned with Yahoo's dismal track record with data breaches and malvertising, but they actually remained clean up until the merge into Verizon.⁵³⁾

After Tumblr's designer resigned, Yahoo! made several controversial design changes like full-width posts to match the app,⁵⁴⁾ neutered post editing,⁵⁵⁾ abandoning nested blockquotes,⁵⁶⁾⁵⁷⁾ removing replies,⁵⁸⁾ etc. During this era, criticism was largely ignored, except for replies, which returned after nearly five months.⁵⁹⁾⁶⁰⁾ Under Automattic, Tumblr began actively collaborating with the New XKit staff.

During July 2018, a child exploitation issue on Tumblr was discovered⁶¹⁾ and went viral among the users.⁶²⁾ Tumblr allegedly responded to the original poster's concerns⁶³⁾ and evidence of their post was deleted. However, the Tumblr app was later removed from the App Store on November 16, 2018 for CSEM on private blogs,⁶⁴⁾ suggesting that the team under Verizon never actually resolved the issue at hand.

• The early years of Tumblr is typically described as this mixture of hipster content (e.g. aesthetics, quotes, photography) and fandom content (e.g. fan works, memes, reaction images) which had a friendly rivalry. As time would tell, fandom content would end up dominating the scene, but these years came to a close as Homestuck peaked and we had the DashCon fiasco in July 2014.
  • During this, 4chan declared war on Tumblr over 'meme theft' in 2010, but the skirmishes famously backfired^65)66)67) and ended up introducing new users to 4chan who influenced their early 2010s culture, then '4chumblr' was born. Of course, it's important to note that 4chan and Tumblr both had different vibes before the whole 'culture war' shift of the mid-2010s.
• We would see the userbase mature in the mid-2010s with a noticeable surge in social justice and identity politics, which opened the door for increasingly radical politics. However, not everyone rode this wave and you'd occasionally see complaints about the website's neo-Nazi problem.
• Starting in 2016, all inactive Tumblr blogs would get '-blog' tacked onto their URL if their account had been inactive for over a year,⁶⁸⁾⁶⁹⁾ which led to some blogs getting a humorous '-blog-blog-blog' if you knew where to look. Additionally, a policy discouraging 'URL hoarding' would be enforced.
  • By the way, if you happen to be suspended for this: you will have to contact Tumblr Support, not the Tumblr Abuse email that gets sent to you, and don't offload the URLs onto another account.
• Around 2018, the website stealthily added nine font colors that were named after sit-com characters: Joey Red Orange, Monica Pizazz Orange, Chandler Electric Violet, Phoebe Broom Yellow, Rachel Dodger Blue, Ross Malachite Green, Niles Hot Pink, Frasier Midnight, and Mr. Big Blue-Charcoal. The font colors were not easily accessible as they were in a beta stage.
  • When these became publicly available, it was reduced to Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Pink, Purple, and the default color, which was once Black until they realized they had dark color palettes.
• From December 2022 to January 2024, Automattic and The Meet Group entered a contract where The Meet Group's 'LiveBox' was white-labeled as 'Tumblr Live',^70)71)72) which came with a 'snooze' feature that annoyed everyone since it could not be permanently turned off.⁷³⁾ It was so unpopular that the official Tumblr account posted a meme as the contract expired.⁷⁴⁾
• ⭐ If you're creating (or recreating) a new Tumblr account: Go to your dashboard settings, then toggle off 'Best Stuff First' and all toggles with 'Include' to remove the algorithm bullshit.

• Tumblr Alternatives

• Tumblr - The front page of Tumblr.
  • Tumblr Staff and Changes on Tumblr - The only staff accounts that you need to know.
  • @tumblr and @tumblrsupport on Twitter - Same as above, but on Twitter.
• Post Limit Checker - An old tool that once told you when your blog is close to the 250 post limit.
• Tag Replacer - Self-explanatory tool. An alternative to New XKit's Tag Replacer extension.
• Find Untagged Tumblr Posts - Self-explanatory tool. For people who want every post tagged.
• trntbl-clone - A fun tool that scans your blog for audio posts and composes a playlist.

It's actually quite tolerable after people fled in droves.
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　　　　　 ∧＿∧ 　　（´<_｀ 　）　At least, some erotica
　　　　　（　´_ゝ`）　　 /　　⌒i　　occasionally passes by.
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￣￣| /　　　./　Tumblr. / |　|
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田|　|　＼＿＿＿））＼　￣（u　⊃
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