so, on November 9th, 2015, it all began with this post, which currently sits at a little over 160k notes. the domain name now directs to what i believe is a dating site, but years ago it belonged to a platform called natter.
[ID: An advertisement from natter, @/Natter_com, on Twitter. The text reads “The next big thing in social media is really short! Check out natter, where every post is just three words!” Below is a link to download the app. End ID]
the premise: you can post, for all the world to see, anything–so long as it does not exceed three words and a hashtag.
as you can imagine, and as OP of the above linked post pointed out, this had the potential to be “the ultimate shitposting platform.” tumblr users were ecstatic to flex their terminally online jokester chops on a website whose premise was less of an invitation to creative expression and more of a challenge. given the time period and what i assume was just the communities in which the post happened to circulate, statistically most of these shitposts were about undertale.
this post includes some screenshots that are exemplary of what the website’s “world” feature (wherein you could see every single post on the platform in chronological order from most recent) looked like for that one incredible night. here is an example.
[ID: Three posts on natter under the header tab “New.” The first, from natter user @/LEN, reads “it’s time to #ShameThatKink”. The second, from natter user @/frisk, reads “my kink is #determination”. The third, from natter user @/chara, reads “christians against undertale”. At the bottom are four tabs, the third of which, with a World icon, is selected. End ID]
the tumblr teens, myself included (my best post on that platform, if i remember correctly, read “king lear yaoi”), had a rip roaring time that night! the existing population of the platform, not so much. this is anecdotal, but i recall hearing secondhand that there were a lot of complaints from the user base of mostly adult women who would post “had great coffee!” and things along those lines before the appearance of the fandom bloggers trying to outdo one another’s jokes about kinkshaming sans.
miraculously, the swarming invasion of videogame nerds with too much time on their hands irritating the normies had nothing to do with what happened next. according to their social media at the time, the platform was just too small to handle such a large influx of users. they had to do something.
so, overnight on November 9th, natter deleted almost every new account made in the preceding 24 hours.
we awoke on the 10th to discover we’d been logged out of our accounts, and no effort to reset our seemingly-forgotten passwords would allow us entry into the chaotic circle of hell we had ruled for this brief moment in time. after searching back through their tweets, linked above, it looks like they put out a formal statement after accounts had been deleted and sign-ups closed, but it was only after the fact and only accessible on the now-defunct website. they replied on twitter to people tweeting at them to explain, and i found an email i received after inquiring about my account error.
[ID: An email timestamped Nov 20, 19:08 from Alex (Natter). “Hi, Sarah, We were overwhelmed with users yesterday and had to delete a considerable number of accounts, we’re sorry if yours was included. We’ve upgraded our tech and would love to welcome you back :)” Then links to downloads from Android and iOS. End ID]
the tumblr tag exploded with people mourning their natters. bloggers posted their former usernames to reconnect with others whose silly little posts had now been lost to history. i actually still have a mutual or two from this.
well, in contrast to the fervor of natter’s own little cambrian explosion, the prospect of having to rebuild after having it all washed away was simply too much for the disappointed tumblr demographic. those of us who remade quickly stopped using the now-quiet app. months later, in July of 2016, natter sent an email to everyone with an account informing them that the site simply didn’t have a large enough user base to sustain itself and would shut down at the end of that month.
according to their twitter, they had a brief comeback before shutting down for good in 2018.
my memory of this is imperfect, but that’s what i remember and could find information about! personally, i’m not sure if this moment in tumblr history should be remembered as universally as others. it’s certainly less dramatic than most and it lacks a clear villain, unlike so many of the best online dramas. unless, of course, the villain is tumblr itself.
prguitarman
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
