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Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

wsj.com

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Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#81

Post by ethbro »

photomatt wrote: post #57
knd775 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Adult content is not our forte either, and it creates a huge number of potential issues with app stores, payment providers, trust and safety... it's a problem area best suited for companies fully dedicated to creating a great experience there. I personally have very liberal views on these things, but supporting adult content as a business is very different.

I appreciate the perspective, but let's be honest.

What you're essentially saying is 'Adult content is hard because the US government is willing to lean on payment providers to enforce quasi-legal, anti-free speech policies.'

Have you considered adopting a federated corporate structure that would legally firewall off a "tumblr-for-porn"?

Most of the goodwill bonfire seems to have been caused not by Tumblr treating adult content differently, but by not even putting up a fight to provide a space for it.

Having a mirror world Tumblr that adult blogs could be kicked to would earn a lot of that back, while presumably amortizing platform development and ops over a larger userbase.

Surrendering because free speech is hard is never a good look.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#83

Post by pilsetnieks »

knd775 wrote: post #24
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.”

It doesn't mean it's going to be like that forever. Maybe they're just saying that for the time being until the deal goes through, and afterwards when they've actually familiar with the product and know what it takes to properly implement adult content handling for Tumblr. Automattic isn't that large of a company, and it could take some time and effort to implement proper content moderation features, assign and train people, etc. Either way, even if they leave everything as is, there is no way they are going to be worse stewards of the thing as Verizon or Yahoo were.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#84

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #18
JBReefer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Most sites start that way. That was our policy on reddit too. If it was legal it was allowed. But you can see where that leads -- as you get bigger you attract a crowd that may be legal, but not one you want to support. The best analogy is that I support your right to spew your hate speech if you want, but I'm not going to open my house and let you do it in my living room. Most sites eventually decide that they don't…

[deleted]

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#85

Post by zymhan »

ethbro wrote: post #81
photomatt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adult content is not our forte either, and it creates a huge number of potential issues with app stores, payment providers, trust and safety... it's a problem area best suited for companies fully dedicated to creating a great experience there. I personally have very liberal views on these things, but supporting adult content as a business is very different.

I appreciate the perspective, but let's be honest. What you're essentially saying is 'Adult content is hard because the US government is willing to lean on payment providers to enforce quasi-legal, anti-free speech policies.' Have you considered adopting a federated corporate structure that would legally firewall off a "tumblr-for-porn"? Most of the goodwill bonfire seems to have been caused not by Tumblr treating ad…

> Have you considered adopting a federated corporate structure that would legally firewall off a "tumblr-for-porn"?

That is literally the convoluted situation photomatt was trying to avoid.

I also think that the suggestion is hilariously naive. Presumably the founder/head of the company has considered a variety of incorporation structures.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#86

Post by tptacek »

xwdv wrote: post #43
knd775 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.”

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 valence in an HN discussion thread, since people have opinions about adult content and not so many opinions about the overwhelming majority of Tumblr content that isn't suppressed. So it takes on an importance on HN that it doesn't have elsewhere, simply because of the fundamental dynamics of message boards ("controversy is always important").

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#88

Post by Gpetrium »

It is worth noting that Tumblr was an indirect acquisition by Verizon when they bought Yahoo in 2017.

It seems to have had stable unique views up until Aug-Sep 18 [1]. At some point it suffered from country-wide bans in places such as Indonesia. The country bans coupled with a ban from the iOS App store [2] caused direct downward pressure on viwership. This has led to a rapid drop in viewership in the months after [3]. Considering the amount of legislation towards telecom companies and the potential risk to the Verizon brand by proxy, it was imperative that the company would sell Tumblr.

Due to the current political environment in the US, it is unlikely that Automattic will open the gates that partially made Tumblr what it was in the 17-18 era for the next 3-6 months, that is unless they take a very conservative take on reviewing that kind of content prior to it being posted.

[1] [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/261925/unique-visitors-t... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/17/18100156/tumblr-apple-ap...

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#89

Post by Bartweiss »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #53
ojbyrne wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Techcrunch says the number is "nominal:" https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/12/verizon-is-selling-tumblr-...

I think after Verizon failed so hard on their Oath thing, they probably just want to dump all the crud they bought in the process.

I've been wondering if you could trade successfully just by shorting literally everything Oath buys into. Their acquisition list is basically just a subset of the Startup Graveyard at this point.

Re: Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic

#90

Post by epc »

qnk wrote: post #60

For me the most important aspect of this acquisition is that Automattic is a fully remote company. Tumblr's office space in New York City must be very expensive, I wonder if they're getting rid of it and transition everyone to remote.

Tumblr consolidated into Yahoo's office space last year, whatever the cost is is likely a rounding error on Verizon/Oath/Yahoo's balance sheet.
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