Notes of a Tumblr Refugee

[ljwrites]

You can say "I told you so" XD

I'm not going to delete my Tumblr, nor do I think the site is going anywhere soon. I think it's more of a pile-on effect? It wears on you, after a while, that the site so transparently does not care about its userbase and absolutely refuses/is unable to implement the most commonsense moderations to make the community safer and more inclusive. The whole thing has burned me out on the whole model of for-profit social media.

So I've been backing things up and am looking for alternatives. Pillowfort sounds promising, though it's still a baby and will take a while to be anything like Tumblr if it ever does. I look forward to trying it out, made a donation and am waiting for a key--they're getting an influx of people like me so it'll take a little time. Update 12/11/2018: I got my key and it looks nice so far, a bit slow but that's to be expected and the staff warned me about that. I'm lj-writes there if anyone's on PF.

I made a  fandom account plus a more general account on a couple of Mastodon servers. Mark took one look at my screen and said, "That's Twitter!" and in a way he's right--this is the Twitter I wanted, microblogging without the bustle and drama. In fact it's purposefully designed to cut down on that kind of thing, which I like. This also exposes just how much Twitter has been lying about being unable to cut down on harassment and abuse. It wasn't the harassment they couldn't stop, it was the engagement--and therefore profits--they didn't want to cut down on. I've already had a couple of nice conversations, which isn't bad when I've just started out. I find it useful for posting short updates and random thoughts, more than DW or Tumblr.

And of course, another place I'm looking forward to being more active on is right here back on DreamWidth. I've actually been reading DW tutorials for people moving from Tumblr, and I unexpectedly learned some things especially on how to find new people. I've been hearing reports of DW becoming more active in the wake of the Tumblr news, too, so while it'll never have Tumblr's frenetic pace--which is a good thing, it's a different platform after all--I may be able to look forward to more activity, especially if I take the effort to populate my feed. It'll be nice to make more thoughtful posts in a format that's actually conducive to commenting. I may bring some of my Tumblr essays over here, too, though some of them are rather dependent on images and image hosting still a thorny issue I have to iron out.

Disappointment and uncertainty about Tumblr have forced me to branch out and explore other options, and it's surprisingly fun. Not having my online time so super-concentrated on Tumblr may result in my content being spread out over different platforms, which is fine because they have different strengths and weaknesses. Or maybe I'll start finding one place more comfortable than the others and start concentrating there instead. We'll see.

Comments

[anehan]

Hi there! Long time no see! ^_^

I've also found the change unexpectedly rewarding. I guess that's at least partly because I used Tumblr merely for reblogging. I didn't really post anything myself, and it was very rarely that I interacted with anyone. Twitter became the only venue for any sort of fannish interaction, but even there, I mostly talked about non-fannish things.

I haven't tried Mastodon myself, even though it seems interesting. I know from experience that having too many social media platforms to use will just exhaust me. I already have too many (Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, DW, Facebook), so I guess I'm in the wait and see mindset for now.

I have become more active on DW, though. I've been commenting here and there, which has been nice. I guess that'll taper down in time, when the excitement of the change of routine fades. :/ But for now, DW is where I'm most active.

[loopy777]

I'm still waiting for message boards to come back.

[dhampyresa]

You can say "I told you so" XD
I told you so :P

DW has some native image hosting, for what it's worth. Not a lot, but some.

howdy!

[thebiwriter]

*waves* hi LJ! good to see you over here. i'm new and haven't really found my footing yet, so it's cool to hear about your experience with DW (as well as Mastodon and PF.)

i'm kind of going through the same thing: trying out the various non-tumblr sites, and seeing where i'll land. i really enjoy the functionality of DW (and i miss Livejournal) so maybe i'll end up making a home on here too.

i'm having a harder time making connections on here than i have on the other sites i've tried out; it seems a lot harder to find people with similar interests, and fandoms/communities on DW. i'm sure i'll figure it out though, in time.

anyway, just wanted to say hello!

[lb_lee]

I admit, for completely selfish reasons I do hope you'll be active here again; we always loved seeing your posts and insightful commentary! (And since we've had to basically quit all social media BUT Dreamwidth, for safety and sanity's sake.)

That said, as petty as it is for me to say, I feel so very validated in our leaving of tumblr when we did. Ain't no better place to witness an online explosion than from a safe distance with a tub of metaphorical popcorn.

--Rogan/Mir/Mori blob