Most of you have already seen plenty of these posts by now, but in the event that I, too, go into permanent cryosleep, I’m writing this missive to let you all know where I’ve been, and where I may be headed.
To cut it short, regardless of how you feel about Tumblr’s upcoming policy change (in T-minus one hour and five minutes, no less), the loss of David Karp last year and the unmitigated disasters stemming from the rogue anti-adult bot and new CEO have destroyed my faith in Tumblr as a medium, through which I once showcased my work, found aesthetic inspirations, connected with other lovers of cyberpunk, and made friends.
The staff claim that literature will not be affected by these sweeping, knee-jerk policies- but if that’s true, why was their very own staff post announcing the changes *also* flagged?
I refuse to shy away from certain themes and mature content in order for Tumblr (or should I say, Verizon) to please advertisers. Even a subscription option without any of these restrictions would have been preferable.
That said, I doubt that I’ll be deleting this blog outright. It has a certain amount of history to it, and, as I said earlier, I’ve met some good people through it. But it’s time to move on.
I’m currently looking for a blogging platform replacement. I do have a Twitter and Mastodon persona if you’d like to follow me there, however!
For those of you who don’t know what Mastodon is, it’s basically Twitter, but decentralized and without the ad bots… or the promoted posts… etc etc. A decidedly less corporatized approach to microblogging! I tend to live there most of the time, but I maintain the twitter presence, such as it is, since that’s currently more mainstream. For now.
I hope some day soon I’ll return here to link to a new writing blog, whatever service I choose to use. One thing’s for sure, it will be one that won’t so easily endanger creative freedom in the pursuit of profit.
“Despite being separated from each other for several years (and suffering/surviving various kinds of plot-drama in the time between), Jodie, Shea, and Jia have come across a purikura machine and have decided to take another set of photos for old time’s sake.” - @stormbine
Commission for @stormbine of 3 main characters from their Mercury Nine Universe/Novel
Experimenting with a secondary blog to hold all the draft posts/inspiration/references I’ve always wanted to post but felt were out of place here; especially since this blog is meant to be like, 70% original words, and 30% fancy imagery to break up the text walls. (whoops)
I’m still torn on what to do with the memes, but I’m probably going to make a tertiary blog to fit all of those. Maybe.
Until then, here’s a link! stormy-reblogs.tumblr.com
Extremely handy if you follow a lot of people and hate missing anything good.
Best Stuff First moves the best stuff on your dashboard—mhm!—right up to the top.
It’s rolling out this week on iOS and Android, and comes with this Help Center article.
Thanks! ✌️
I don’t have the option to turn it off yet, but chances are good that my dash is still affected. Chances are good that y'all have been affected. Whatever you do, keep checking your settings tab for the ability to TURN THIS OFF. Because we creators are gonna suffer from this.
————
There’s a chance that y'all might not have gotten this option yet, but i finally did. For the sake of all creators out there, check your general settings and look for this option. If you have it, TURN IT OFF. Don’t let some algorithm dictate what you see.
Don’t just like this. It needs to be spread so people know. Not only will your feed be out of chronological order, but creators who aren’t hella popular are suffering lack of exposure because of this. This is the one thing i WILL pressure to reblog.
