The thing about Avery being banned right now is that people have been pushing back against the site's moderation for well over a year by now citing overzealous moderation - specifically, flagging trans selfies as sexual content even when the user is fully clothed - while dragging their feet on accounts that explicitly break the TOS.
We've seen users arguing between buying the checkmarks and the crabs to make the website profitable for the reason that this may be the first avenue of monetization to actually sustain the website, ever - and users who don't want to reinforce the haphazard standard that the website is being run by. We've even seen staff try to push users towards mass-buying the Tumblr crabs on a specific date, calling it "Crab Day", using the same rhetoric, only to be rebuked by users who are unhappy with the way the website is being run.
The issues that led to Avery being targeted by TUMBLR'S FUCKING CORPORATE BOSS have existed for well over a year by now. This is simply a progression in a direction that Tumblr has been criticized about before. What makes it notable is how explicitly targeted this has been towards a single user of the website, and how gormless and petty it reflects on a figurehead who singlehandedly reflects the management of Tumblr - the captain of the ship.
The core issues that led us to this point have existed for longer than this blowup, this is just the most public, unbelievably immature way that it could have crossed from "plausible deniability" to "explicit, textual confirmation".
And I just want to say: Tumblr users have never been beholden to the administration of the website. Historically, Tumblr users have rejected changes to the site whether it be the visual design, changes in TOS or whenever the website has changed hands. I remember when Tumblr was bought out by Yahoo for over a billion dollars, everyone was melting down over "yumblr" and fearmongering about a massive corporate entity forcing sterile corporate values onto our vibrant community.
That certainly did come to pass with the porn ban, but for most of the time it was just Yahoo flailing around trying to monetize the site and getting pushback at every turn, before ostensibly admitting defeat by selling the website for just over a million bucks. The porn ban sucked and we feel its effects to this day, and frankly it's probably the harbinger of this exact scenario - where again, the CEO of the website is beefing with a user after that user was harassed for years, WITH EVIDENCE, only for the administration to ban her for life and dismiss her concerns entirely on the way out.
But the sheer majority of the naysaying didn't come to pass, and the stuff we didn't want that Yahoo did try to push? Users fought back. People weren't afraid to say to management "this isn't why I use Tumblr, it sucks ass and we're going to bug the fuck out of you for it". People complained when post editing was taken away. People complained about ask limits and fanmail. Tumblr users have been complaining about Tumblr for longer than any other userbase on the internet. We have never been beholden to the administration of the website.
Are we bound by TOS? Sure, but look at all the cowards who flag users en-masse and send them death threats, who somehow come out the other side unscathed. Fuckfaces break TOS all the time. Being noticed by staff obviously puts a lot of pressure on you to follow the TOS, but think of every bastard on this website you've ever seen break the rules and go unpunished. Secondly, think about the raw, hyperbolic nature of Tumblr's comedy. This website has always had leaner guidelines than other social media sites. Short of making terroristic threats - and Christ, can't that be exploited by the world's most thin-skinned CEO - Tumblr users are known for taking a joke way further than it probably needs to go.
I'm getting off track, so here's my point.
Tumblr's culture, its norms and community, come from us. And that has always come at the expense of the reigning power over the website - whether it be David Karp or Yahoo before Automattic. Tumblr users have been enjoying the website at the expense of the website for years, but it might be time to become more vocal about it. Go back to your roots as Tumblr users. Complain. Make memes. Make sure this shit goes down just as noticeably as shit like Do You Like The Color Of The Sky. That has always been what we do.
This was not an isolated incident. It was the most visible instance of this happening, and given that once again, the CEO OF THE WEBSITE - THE CAPTAIN OF THE WORLD'S STUPIDEST SHIP - is the one going after this one disgruntled user in front of the entire userbase, this is arguably the most notable case of transphobic moderation happening since Automattic bought Tumblr.
It's not transphobic solely because the user is transgender - it's transphobic in the way that her posts were mass-marked by bad faith actors, those posts were slapped with sexual content disclaimers, the user disputed these claims (successfully, until the team reversed that decision later) and she was personally banned while nothing happened to the people whose harassment of her and admittance to abusing the moderation tools to make her a target were catalogued and submitted to Tumblr staff. As if to add insult to injury, they followed up as they banned her a second time, saying that they found nothing wrong with the evidence of harassment she submitted.
Trans users have been reporting unfair treatment ever since Automattic bought the site Avery is just one of multiple trans women who've had to deal with this treatment, and she arguably got banned for being the most vocal about it. A bit hyperbolic in what she said, but nothing that other users haven't said before and perfectly in the spirit of the Tumblr community openly and brazenly taking the administration to task for their fuck-ups.
I do feel sorry for the staff who chafe under Matt Mullenweg. A former staff member has come forward to answer questions and talk about their time working at Automattic, and there are people working there who are employed around the world, who are always putting out fires, who need the steady paycheck for the work that they do. This isn't a call to harass or single out staff.
But I do think that Tumblr users have rested on their laurels in regards to criticizing and challenging Tumblr's administration. The institution of Tumblr. And given that the foremost authority over this entire fucking website is singling out and personally banning users, and threatening to report them to the police and the FBI, I think that has to change.
I think Tumblr users have to rediscover their sense of civil disobedience and challenge this horseshit as far as it will go.
All that Matt Mullenweg can do is shut down the website. That's bad for sure, but WE are Tumblr. WE give this website its value ("value" as in the content of its character, its beating heart. Revenue-wise, we suck the place dry lmao). And I would rather take Tumblr down in a blaze of glory than let this malignant cunt fail his users and personally go after them when they get too loud in criticizing how he runs the site.
So do what Tumblr users do best, and complain. It's all we really can do imo. The worst case scenario is that Matt Mullenweg goes full meltdown, drops an orbital nuke on some tags and/or decides to ax the entire website. And that would genuinely fucking suck - I would lose a lot of longtime internet friends who have shaped my life for the better over the course of a decade.
But if the CEO of Tumblr got so ass-blasted he wiped out a bunch of tags, that's a point where we can point at him and go "that's wrong, you fucked up and broke your own terms of service, you literally cannot justify that outside of sheer petty anger". And if he nukes the website? That would genuinely be hilarious. There's no coming back from that. Dude would go down as the most high-profile ragequitter in the history of the entire tech industry.
I've lost my original point in the mix. Point is, Tumblr users have never taken this corporate dogshit lying down. Make memes. Bake this horseshit into the history of the site, and never let Matt forget the day he lost the trust of Tumblr's entire userbase. There's no way for Matt, or Automattic, to win this. So make it as hard as possible to justify what happened to Avery, and shitpost as hard as you can.
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