Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by plorkyeran » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:45 PM UTC

danaris wrote: post #173

debt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too expensive to police. Losing users every month, downward trends, etc. Tumblr has become a money loser and won't ever be competitive with Facebook, TikTok, etc. Another botched acquisition.

> and won't ever be competitive with Facebook, TikTok, etc. Which is just another example of why the corporate culture today is absolutely insane. Why can there not be a site like Tumblr that is perfectly stable (leaving aside for the moment whether today's Tumblr is or could become that stable), but is not and could never be "the next Facebook" or "the next Twitter"?

Sites which break even do tend to keep on trucking. The fact that Tumblr now seems unlikely to become huge is relevant specifically because it's a money pit that needs further investment merely to continue to exist.

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

#222

Post by jstarfish » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:46 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #111

LinuxBender wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does exist. It's not a new protocol, you can use (just about) anything that supports tcp. The domain names all end in ".onion"

For such purposes, Tor would be pretty inefficient. I suppose one could say that the inefficiency is a "feature" that makes the system self-limiting, curbing porn addiction. LOL

It'll be like 1996 all over again, only without the added titillation of listening to the screams and shrieks of a 28.8-baud modem in heat.

Instead of watching hour-long videos in 1080p, you get to watch a single JPEG download and render line-by-line until the connection drops right at the exciting part.

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

#223

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:48 PM UTC

bvinc wrote: 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…

[deleted]

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

#224

Post by wukerplank » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:48 PM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #216

nickthegreek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. So many artists, photographers and models used tumblr to showcase their work. It was also easy to link your blog to a .com with little to no webdev experience. The only other social media network out there with a following that allows near the same level of expression is twitter and I have already seen posts from artists directing their followers there. But twitter is no real substitute to what tumblr offered…

I'd say instagram is the other big one for artists, not twitter. Instagram has all the functionality of tumblr with even more accessibility.

Except for some very fundamental things (AKA "link in bio").

But yes, most artists I know moved away from Tumblr years ago (with great success).

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

#225

Post by davemp » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:48 PM UTC

bvinc wrote: 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…

The loose association, engagement suggestion algorithms are seriously dangerous. The suggestions can cause a "thermal run-away" [1] feedback loop for the mind.

Even in a less egregious example than the OP, take modern English for example. If search engines loosely relate English words to some moving abstract concepts, humans no longer have direct control over the colloquial. In a world that defines terms with Google Search, the implications can be disturbing.For example ::

Search: "the beatles are an antiquated band"

-- Results -> "Beatlemania in 1964: 'This has gotten entirely out of control' ...", "Quincy Jones: 'The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world ...", etc.

And: "the beatles are an obsolete band"

-- Results -> "We'll Never See a Band as Big as The Beatles Again — Here's Why - Mic", "Is the notion of a rock band obsolete? - Quora", etc.

    __note:__ these results come from a computer with little google finger printing.

Definitions: [2]

-- Obsolete :: "no longer in general use; fallen into disuse:"

-- Antiquated :: "continued from, resembling, or adhering to the past; old-fashioned:"

-- Antiquated :: "no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent: "

Why are these almost synonymous, benign words related to love of and hate of? I honestly fear for what could be unethical software engineering [3] in these critical resources. Thermal run away of hardware is taken very seriously--see the Samsung Note 7 battery fires.

---

[1]: In a circuit, current through a resistor causes heat generation. Increasing heat on a resistor also lowers its resistance. Lowering resistance can increase current (V = IR). Ad infinitum or until catastrophic failure.

[2]: definitions from Dictionary.com on 12/2018

As a thought exercise, try replacing "current" with "negative emotions", "resistor" with "mind".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_runaway#Electrical_eng...

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics

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

#226

Post by joe_the_user » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:49 PM UTC

village-idiot wrote: post #115

dvtrn wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter at 12 got sucked into Tumblr and developed an eating disorder. I'm really sorry to hear this, having gone through a similar thing with a now ex-significant other. She too became very active in the segments of tumblr you identified and others (showed me many of them, some seemed like teenage angst in blog form, others were far more...worrisome), developed an eating disorder along with severe anxiety issues…

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.

I would put it as "people misunderstand the source of their emotional resilience". A lot of people think that having "strong will" or "strong values" is what will prevent them from picking up extreme, obsessive or hateful ideas.

Instead, anything like resilience is a process. Your friends and your community is part of it. Everyone is suggestible, everyone takes beliefs from associates as well as from experience. Conspiratorial and prejudiced ideas are seductive specifically because of how uncertain the world is. One has to reject such ideas in a way that avoids considering them in terms of "either this is true or this is false" since so many questions well beyond proof either way.

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

#227

Post by zimpenfish » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #154

pdimitar wrote: 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?

They ended up with it accidentally, didn't they? As part of owning Yahoo! (which owned Tumbler).

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

#228

Post by gpm » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

LinuxBender wrote: post #219

ravenstine wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For such purposes, Tor would be pretty inefficient. I suppose one could say that the inefficiency is a "feature" that makes the system self-limiting, curbing porn addiction. LOL

It certainly rules out streaming large videos. For pictures and small videos it should be sufficient. The more challenging issue I see is getting a large community of people to switch from their existing happy-clicky (low-friction, no pun intended) website to something that requires installing Tor.

IIUC Firefox is working towards integrating tor into the core browser, at which point it will be point and click with .onion domains.

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

#229

Post by Mindwipe » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:51 PM UTC

jphalimi wrote: post #200

BlueAThrow wrote: post #146

Apple is calling the shots here. Tumblr was not going to be allowed back on the app store while adult content was on the site.

Isn't Reddit allowed on iOS?

Reddit has been removed from the app store more than once.

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

#230

Post by tapland » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 8:52 PM UTC

panic wrote: post #96

bvinc wrote: 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…

This content will still be allowed, though, since it's not "real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples".

Yeah it's just 'how to live an unhealthy life and risk dying well before turning 15: 101'

I don't know what to do about it, but even as a tech savvy free speech proponent I feel very unhappy about the content kids consume on tumblr specifically. Bullying groups on snapchat etc are just the same old bullying upgraded with a better communications platform, but tumblr offers thousands of insane cult groups run for and by kids.