Tumblr is a microblogging, social networking service that was founded by David Karp, under “Davidville, Inc.” (now “Tumblr, Inc.”), on February 19, 2007.¹⁾ It was inspired by the tentatively named tumblelog, now called a microblog, which appealed to busy internet users.

In 2013, Yahoo had acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion,²⁾³⁾ but this did not pan out^4)5)6)7) as Yahoo fell to Verizon in 2017⁸⁾⁹⁾ who later enacted a ban on adult content.¹⁰⁾ Then on August 12, 2019, Automattic acquired Tumblr for under $3 million.¹¹⁾¹²⁾

There are seven post formats (i.e. text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, video) that the user is able to make a post with. Like most social networking services, users may change up their dashboard by following and unfollowing blogs. From there, a user can reblog (similar to sharing or retweeting) and like other posts. They can also add a response to a post in a reblog or leave a reply if the original poster allows it.

A single Tumblr account is attached to a primary blog that messages can be sent from. It's possible to make additional, secondary blogs that can be set to private or managed by multiple accounts if the owner wishes, but asks and submissions can't be sent from these accounts. Also, users can adjust, modify, and edit a blog's HTML theme, but there are obviously limitations and certain guidelines in place.

Tumblr is a casual, entertaining website that has more features than Twitter and, despite losing a third of its users in 2018 and remaining somewhat obscure, it's still popular with teenagers and young adults.¹³⁾¹⁴⁾ Historically, it was a bustling hub for fan communities after LiveJournal¹⁵⁾ and DeviantArt's declines. Arguably, it still upholds this title, but the culture and humor is constantly changing and evolving over time.

In one way or another, you'll be subjected to news and politics, ranging from leftist to liberal with a couple of outliers due to the website's flexibility. However, the rabid, self-righteous activists have migrated to Twitter, ironically making Tumblr significantly more pleasant than it's been historically. In all honesty, while it is slower, there's still an active community and the new management isn't as dead on arrival.

Tumblr initially carried adult content¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾ until it became clear that Apple¹⁸⁾ and various payment processors didn't approve of it, threatening their mobile revenue.¹⁹⁾²⁰⁾ In the past, they tried to circumvent this with the “Safe Mode” setting²¹⁾ and NSFW toggles,²²⁾ then the CSEM fiasco²³⁾ and slew of prudish mobile app reviews forced Tumblr to ban adult content on December 17, 2018,²⁴⁾²⁵⁾ which was very unpopular.²⁶⁾

With the 2019 acquisition, Tumblr introduced “sensitive content” toggles,²⁷⁾²⁸⁾ paving the way for the “sexual themes” community label being added on September 26, 2022.²⁹⁾ Sadly, this just meant that Tumblr allows images with artful nudity while certain acts are still prohibited, then Mullingweg would reiterate that Tumblr was not in a position to unban pornography anytime soon.^30)31)32)

In contrast to prior owners being passive about staff critique, Automattic became rather abrasive by outright terminating blogs and calling them internet trolls.³³⁾³⁴⁾ This became noticeable around May 27, 2022 after users pointed out that a staff member liked Attack on Titan and Harry Potter despite their reputation,³⁵⁾ so the post was purged³⁶⁾ and the blog was terminated for “harassment of Tumblr staff”.³⁷⁾

Then in September 2023, we'd see Mullenweg allegedly terminate blogs for hopping on a “Kung Pow Penis” reblog chain against him, claiming that they've broken their “non-genuine social gesture schemes” rule.³⁸⁾ Mullingweg would later speak on behalf of himself and his team, pointing out that such attacks have impacted their health,³⁹⁾ but he believes these “super-trolls” can brushed aside.⁴⁰⁾

Prior to the Yahoo acquisition, the GNAA exploited an XSS vulnerability in their war against blogs around late 2012,⁴¹⁾⁴²⁾ then a data breach from early 2013 wasn't discovered until May 12, 2016.⁴³⁾⁴⁴⁾ During the Yahoo era, people were concerned due to Yahoo's poor track record with data breaches and malvertising, but they actually remained clean with Tumblr up until their formal merger into Verizon.⁴⁵⁾

After Tumblr's designer resigned, Yahoo made several controversial design changes like full-width posts to match the app,⁴⁶⁾ neutered post editing,⁴⁷⁾ abandoning nested blockquotes,⁴⁸⁾⁴⁹⁾ removing replies,⁵⁰⁾ etc. During this era, criticism was largely ignored, except for replies which returned after nearly five months.⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ Under Automattic, Tumblr began actively collaborating with the New XKit staff.

During July 2018, a child exploitation issue on Tumblr was discovered⁵³⁾ and went viral among the users.⁵⁴⁾ Tumblr allegedly responded to the original poster's concerns⁵⁵⁾ 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,⁵⁶⁾ suggesting that the team under Verizon never actually resolved the issue at hand.

• Tumblr Savior (2008-08-01⁵⁷⁾ –)
  A simple, decade-old, blacklisting extension that is still receiving updates!
• Missing E (2011-03-15⁵⁸⁾ – 2012-12-04)⁵⁹⁾
  The original all-in-one extension, abandoned in 2013.⁶⁰⁾⁶¹⁾
• XKit (2011-08-05⁶²⁾⁶³⁾ – 2015-01-29)⁶⁴⁾
  The alternative all-in-one extension that came out on top, then the developer was smeared.⁶⁵⁾
• New XKit (2015-07-17⁶⁶⁾ – 2022-11-05^?)
  A fork of XKit 7 that became an unofficial successor to XKit. Mostly abandoned for XKit Rewritten.
• XKit Rewritten (2021-03-01⁶⁷⁾ –)
  The rewrite of XKit, maintained by the New XKit team.

• tumblr-utils
  The Python 2.7 script for making local backups. Refer to the Beginner's Guide for setting up and review the tumblr_backup.md file since it mostly relies on command prompt.
• TumblThree
  The one with the GUI, if you're allergic to command prompt, that mostly dumps stuff into a folder and doesn't generate a neat HTML page. Named as a TumblTwo rewrite, which was a TumblOne fork.

• The early years of Tumblr can be described as this mix of hipster content (e.g. photographs, quotes) and the dreaded fandom content (e.g. screencaps, reaction GIFs, memes, fan works, etc.).
  • 4chan's first war against Tumblr was over “meme theft” in 2010, but this backfired,^68)69)70) and it had the effect of introducing people to 4chan, influencing their early 2010s culture.
  • The golden years met its end with Homestuck's peak and DashCon, as their userbase matured with a surge in social justice and identity politics that would consume the mid-2010s.
• Starting in 2016, inactive blogs would get “-blog” tacked on if they were inactive for over a year,⁷¹⁾⁷²⁾ then Tumblr began to enforce a policy that would technically discourage URL hoarding.
  • If you get suspended for this: you will have to contact Tumblr Support, not the Tumblr Abuse email, and don't try to outsmart them by offloading the URLs onto another account. They'll know.
• 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”,^73)74)75) which came with a “snooze” feature⁷⁶⁾ that annoyed everyone. It was so unpopular that the official Tumblr account posted a meme as the contract expired.⁷⁷⁾

• 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 - A tool that tells you general blog data and whether a blog is close to 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
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