Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 474 posts

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#221

Post by filleduchaos »

curryst wrote: post #162
photomatt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are planning to do the opposite: excited to invest into the platform. The web needs open and independent publishing and social media more than ever.

Does it? There are an awful lot of platforms that support the kind of content Tumblr supports now. How is this meaningfully different from a WordPress account, or a user subreddit, or a Medium blog, or even Facebook? How is Tumblr going to provide a platform that is substantially different from those? There are more open platforms. There are more popular platforms. There are more independent platforms. How is the new…

To be honest, I cannot think of any other large social media platform that has anything close to the sheer expressiveness of Tumblr.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#222

Post by Simon_says »

ethbro wrote: post #165
dsabanin wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you worried that there's not enough porn on the internet already?

With very few exceptions, I'm in favor of the internet having more of anything that anyone is trying to make it have less of.

Ads? Spam?

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#223

Post by minimaxir »

tptacek wrote: post #86
xwdv wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically an exercise in blowing several million dollars.

It's funny the stuff HN fixates on. If all you read is this comment thread, you might actually believe that non-porn Tumblr really is just "an exercise in blowing several million dollars", rather than a concern for a very loud, probably rather small subset of Tumblr users (or rather: former users). What seems at least as likely as "adult content is vital to the future of Tumblr" is that adult content has much more va…

FWIW, every discussion I've seen outside of HN has attributed Tumblr's decline to the porn ban.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#224

Post by 420codebro »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #212
coldtea wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That boggles the mind as well. The purpose of an ad is to be seen. Whether it's seen next to porn should be irrelevant. I guess, because prudery.

>Whether it's seen next to porn should be irrelevant. It does not work that way. If some average person sees some brand advertised on WSJ and FT, and another competing brand on PornHub he will attach more 'premium' value to a first brand, and will pay more for owning product from this brand. It's only normal and a part of human nature. People enjoy content from PornHub, but they want to be associated with something a…

Honest question: Is is status signaling, or an attempt to avoid the wrath of the [ad buying] puritans?

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#225

Post by mijustin »

robbiet480 wrote: post #192

Axios now reporting [0] that the purchase price was under $3 million [0]: https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1161038705295089664?s=...

‪$3 million for Tumblr seems like an incredible deal.‬

‪(As a comparison, Automattic bought a small bootstrapped startup [WooCommerce] in 2015 for $30 million)‬

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#226

Post by simonebrunozzi »

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.

For the ones that don't know you, you are the CEO and founder, Matt Mullenweg [0].

I am curious to hear more about the: "...to be more of a Berkshire Hathaway-inspired model and businesses with a lot of autonomy". Could you share some details?

Thanks for building Wordpress. When I used to be a prolific blogger, it was my platform of choice.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mullenweg

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#227

Post by 420codebro »

ethbro wrote: post #165
dsabanin wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you worried that there's not enough porn on the internet already?

With very few exceptions, I'm in favor of the internet having more of anything that anyone is trying to make it have less of.

Hate to be that guy, but you left a mile-wide hole open in your argument: What about child porno?

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#228

Post by carlinmack »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #215

It's looks like Tumblrs strict new moderation policies aren't going to be reversed. I've long been a Tumblr user and because of these policies I created Libr to replace Tumblr https://app.librapp.com The front end progressive web app is open source https://github.com/cipher-code/libr It'll be interesting to see if Tumblrs code gets open sourced. I used to run the biggest WordPress deployment in the world outside of W…

Hi just to let you know your acronym for the LGBT+ community (LGBTQIKAP+) is unecessarily long and it comes off like you're trying too hard. I'm pretty into tumblr identities and queer politics and I can't think of any identity which starts with a K. Queer is just as good as the common LGBT+ but some people still associate it with the slur and don't feel comfortable with identifying with it. The plus really is the umbrella for asexual, intersex etc that is "left out" by just using LGBT+

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#229

Post by umeshunni »

basch wrote: post #107
nugget wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, the Yahoo acquisition held a lot of potential for Verizon. In reality, Verizon operationally mismanaged many parts of the business and destroyed most of the value. Tumblr is one visible example of that. It's unfortunate but not uncommon. Once the deal closes, internal politics rather than common sense and innovation rules and a small handful of bad leaders or a small set of perverse incentives can sink the…

Yahoo still has some strong brand recognition in some sectors, and COULD make a massive comeback if Verizon made the right moves. Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Fantasy, Yahoo Email/Messenger. Verizon should release a WhatsApp, FBMessenger, iMessage competitor and let you pick if you want it to be Verizon, Yahoo, or AIM themed. Nostalgia is all the rage. Being able to use AIM (like facebook chat at the bottom of a…

No one outside the US has heard of Verizon and most of the products (whatsapp, messenger) you named have the majority of their users outside the US. Most internet users today have also not heard of or have any nostalgia for Yahoo Messenger or AIM.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#230

Post by rxhernandez »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #212
coldtea wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That boggles the mind as well. The purpose of an ad is to be seen. Whether it's seen next to porn should be irrelevant. I guess, because prudery.

>Whether it's seen next to porn should be irrelevant. It does not work that way. If some average person sees some brand advertised on WSJ and FT, and another competing brand on PornHub he will attach more 'premium' value to a first brand, and will pay more for owning product from this brand. It's only normal and a part of human nature. People enjoy content from PornHub, but they want to be associated with something a…

> people want to signal status

People are biological animals first and humans at a distant second. It's short-sighted to so brazenly dismiss the long term effects of periodically associating a brand with the strong feelings that come with an orgasm.

Post reply on HN