Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic • Hacker News Board

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#21

Post by hisnameisjimmy » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #6

ekc wrote: post #5

This is interesting, given Automattic has one of the...weirdest views on free speech there is today. Near-absolute free speech, within the means of the law, with really odd exceptions.

Isn’t that majority opinion in America? I only see opposition to free speech in niche communities.

Freedom of speech according to the law is different than private companies granting the same protections.

Also, with a lot of these platforms, you're also getting freedom of distribution, which is not a right guaranteed by law.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#22

Post by knd775 » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

photomatt wrote: post #11

I'm super excited to have the Tumblr team and product join the Automattic family. We've been evolving Automattic to be more of a Berkshire Hathaway-inspired model and businesses with a lot of autonomy, and this continues that trend. I was very impressed with the engagement and activity Tumblr has continued to have, and I hope that with this new ownership and investment the product will blossom.

I'm curious why you would choose to maintain Verizon's policy changes that alienated the majority of the user-base.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#23

Post by BitwiseFool » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

photomatt wrote: post #11

I'm super excited to have the Tumblr team and product join the Automattic family. We've been evolving Automattic to be more of a Berkshire Hathaway-inspired model and businesses with a lot of autonomy, and this continues that trend. I was very impressed with the engagement and activity Tumblr has continued to have, and I hope that with this new ownership and investment the product will blossom.

We? So I take it you work at Automattic? Any insights about the decision to buy Tumblr?

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#24

Post by knd775 » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

romwell wrote: post #20

So, the real question is: are the censorship policies going to be reversed? To be specific, is adult content going to be kosher on Tumblr again? Because if not, I'd have very little faith in the platform (and I do have an account there).

Nope.

>Mr. Mullenweg said his company intends to maintain the existing policy that bans adult content. He said he has long been a Tumblr user and sees the site as complementary to WordPress.com. “It’s just fun,” he said of Tumblr. “We’re not going to change any of that.”

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#25

Post by ravenstine » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

skilled wrote: post #4

Surprised by this news. Tumblr has lost a ton of momentum since its policy change, and the site itself doesn't have a very strong "brand" audience attached to it. Fun fact: I can't recall the last time I either opened a Tumblr link or saw one in the wild. But maybe that's just me.

Their brand wasn't particularly strong in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for years it was widely known as a home to porn and people blogging about genders. I never knew anyone personally who hosted anything on Tumblr.

Maybe it could be turned around, but it's pretty old-school at this point and seems hardly better to me than MySpace.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#26

Post by amyjess » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:42 PM UTC

skilled wrote: post #4

Surprised by this news. Tumblr has lost a ton of momentum since its policy change, and the site itself doesn't have a very strong "brand" audience attached to it. Fun fact: I can't recall the last time I either opened a Tumblr link or saw one in the wild. But maybe that's just me.

My assumption is that two things are happening:

1) Tumblr has turned into such a disaster that Verizon is looking to dump it ASAP, and they're asking for fire sale prices.

2) Automattic thinks they can turn Tumblr around. They will probably get a lot of good will if they reverse the porn ban, and that alone will draw a lot of attention to Tumblr. And if that fails, then Automattic has 200 new employees they can put to work on their in-house projects. At worst, it's an acquihire, and if #1 is correct, it's a cheap acquihire.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#27

Post by ilikehurdles » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

BitwiseFool wrote: post #23

photomatt wrote: post #11

I'm super excited to have the Tumblr team and product join the Automattic family. We've been evolving Automattic to be more of a Berkshire Hathaway-inspired model and businesses with a lot of autonomy, and this continues that trend. I was very impressed with the engagement and activity Tumblr has continued to have, and I hope that with this new ownership and investment the product will blossom.

We? So I take it you work at Automattic? Any insights about the decision to buy Tumblr?

Based on his profile, he's the founder.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#28

Post by afturner » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

simcop2387 wrote: post #9

skilled wrote: post #4

Surprised by this news. Tumblr has lost a ton of momentum since its policy change, and the site itself doesn't have a very strong "brand" audience attached to it. Fun fact: I can't recall the last time I either opened a Tumblr link or saw one in the wild. But maybe that's just me.

December 17th 2018, maybe? I know I stopped seeing a lot of tumblr links when that policy changed, even ones that weren't affected by the change. I'm curious how much traffic and posting changed when that finally went into effect.

This paints a pretty clear picture: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=tumblr&geo=US

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#29

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

BitwiseFool wrote: post #23

photomatt wrote: post #11

I'm super excited to have the Tumblr team and product join the Automattic family. We've been evolving Automattic to be more of a Berkshire Hathaway-inspired model and businesses with a lot of autonomy, and this continues that trend. I was very impressed with the engagement and activity Tumblr has continued to have, and I hope that with this new ownership and investment the product will blossom.

We? So I take it you work at Automattic? Any insights about the decision to buy Tumblr?

[deleted]

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#30

Post by exogeny » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 8:44 PM UTC

Does anyone want to try to elucidate whatever bull case Yahoo! modeled out to buy it in the first place? Because God knows anyone with a brain should have probably been able to see that it was going to be a disaster.