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Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

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Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#151
post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

>From what I've seen, Tumblr can be a very toxic place and I could understand why advertisers would have problems with the content that ends up next to their ads.

I'm with you on the free speech thing. Early days of the internet I was much more optimistic / naive about free speech and the internet. Now, not so much. Not that I belive in government censorship, but maybe less naive about the results of free speech.

I guess it would change if I had tons of money rolling in, but just generally if I created / ran a social media site, Facebook, Reddit... whatever. I'd feel really NOT OK with a lot of the content those sites are ok with hosting.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#152
post #9

If Verizon bought Tumblr with the sole purpose of having one more service to serve ads to, and if banning the adult content move aims to please the advertisers then oh boy, are they in for a nasty surprise. Tumblr will become a ghost town in days.

It was practically the only thing worth visiting Tumblr for!

That and fan fiction - which mostly has porn in it anyway

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#153
post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

Not to point out the obvious, but the content you are talking about isn't going to be affected.

The issue with banning adult content, is that it often ends up being more easy to ban all adult content and LGBTQ+ content.

Generally speaking, people on the fringes lose a safe place to discuss issues that matter to them, due to keyword proximity to pornographic keywords.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#154
post #9

If Verizon bought Tumblr with the sole purpose of having one more service to serve ads to, and if banning the adult content move aims to please the advertisers then oh boy, are they in for a nasty surprise. Tumblr will become a ghost town in days.

It seems strange to own Tumblr... and then reject a large chunk of it.

Why even own it then?

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people over-estimate the resilience of the human emotional state, especially their own. Time and time again we see regular functioning adults get sucked into objectively insane or self-harmful communities, be it the above phenomenon or 4chan crap like QAnon.

How many people follow QAnon or 4chan nonsense? You're over weighting a sheer minority of people who probably have other issues in their lives as for why they chase down conspiracy rabbit holes.

I do. It's entertaining, especially since there's been some Qanon posts which seem almost plausible, and the rest of the time it's some guy with a neckbeard trying to get likes.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#156
Even Digg didn't set out to die overnight.

Come to think of it, of all decade-plus websites, Tumblr is exactly the one for whom suicide is an entirely expected ending.

Moody, unique, too obscure for the mainstream but popular enough among the kind of people who would appreciate you. You were the kind to enjoy poetry and inspirational images, but those inspirational images just couldn't give you enough dopamine. You sought a higher high, and would happily do so unnoticed, until some higher-up found the hidden closet.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#157

If you think you can code a tumblr clone in a weekend, this is your opportunity. You have 2 weeks, go!

It's possible to code this fast but hardly possible to host it the way it would handle the load without a million dollar invoice or to find an investor that would pay it this fast.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#158
post #21

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. She was in this gigantic web of pro-ana tumblrs with crazy diet plans that tell you to eat like 100 calories a day. Then the app would just keep suggesting more, "skin and bones", "thinspo", "meanspo". Holy crap there are some scary corners of Tumblr. I of course am more mindful of what she looks at, but she was hiding it and I can't monitor e…

I think monitoring the child's online activity is a must, until he's mature enough and at 12 years old, that's basically the start of adolescence, when children aren't very trustworthy :-) On the other hand you can't let them know that you're constantly monitoring them, or they will feel suffocated and start a rebellion. In other words I think having some kind of anti-virus software on their computer or tablet, that…

Yeah you really have to be tactful about it, and do parallel reconstruction wherever possible. Once they know their devices are bugged their behavior will change to evade you.

On the other hand, like sysadmins who enjoy reviewing network logs to find which married executives spend their days skulking around Grindr there are a lot of parents that abuse this to become straight-up voyeurs. There's even an episode of Black Mirror about it. Regardless of your moral/religious convictions, you really don't want to discover or become party to your kids' sexual proclivities without cause.

I don't bug my kids' devices, but I did have to resolve a sexual harassment issue with my own daughter. Her behavior was starting to become worrysome-- lengthy secretive sessions on her phone, followed by signs of distress, anxiety, not eating, etc. When she didn't have access to the phone (or the battery died) it was even worse. So I black-bagged the damn thing, found out what was going on, and confronted her only on the nature of her behavior ("you haven't been eating lately"), gently guiding the questions toward what I knew to be the truth ("is someone bothering you?") and letting her do the talking.

She's none the wiser, the problem got resolved to mutual satisfaction, and I don't have to continuously violate her trust or privacy.

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#159
post #9

If Verizon bought Tumblr with the sole purpose of having one more service to serve ads to, and if banning the adult content move aims to please the advertisers then oh boy, are they in for a nasty surprise. Tumblr will become a ghost town in days.

This news also seems relevant to the Net Neutrality fight. Once Verizon feels they have to protect us from harmful images or thoughts, where will it stop?

Re: Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th

#160
post #130
post #9

If Verizon bought Tumblr with the sole purpose of having one more service to serve ads to, and if banning the adult content move aims to please the advertisers then oh boy, are they in for a nasty surprise. Tumblr will become a ghost town in days.

It looks like a perfect moment to announce a replacement service, complete with a one-click content transfer tool. Something $3/mo, $30/y — and we'll save all your precious work without hassle! Could work for a significant portion of the audience.

Huge market opportunity for OnlyFans.com and similar Patreon-for-porn sites.
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