That Gaming Nerd

A couple of weeks ago we announced an update to our Community Guidelines regarding adult content, and we’ve received a lot of questions and feedback from you. First and foremost, we are sorry that this has not been an easy transition and we know we can do a better job of explaining what we’re doing. We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy task and we appreciate your patience as we work through the challenges and limitations of correctly flagging tens of billions of GIFs, videos, and photos.

Today, December 17th, our policy begins to take effect. This means that we will start hiding – not deleting – posts that contain GIFs, videos, and photos from public view that are in violation of our policy. Again, this is a complex problem, and over the coming weeks we will gradually, and carefully, flag more adult content. (Yes, we will still make mistakes, but hopefully fewer and fewer.)

More importantly, we want to clarify the things that you, as a community, have asked about the most.

Tumblr will always be a place to explore your identity. Tumblr has always been home to marginalized communities and always will be. We fully recognize Tumblr’s special obligation to these communities and are committed to ensuring that our new policy on adult content does not silence the vital conversations that take place here every day. LGBTQ+ conversations, exploration of sexuality and gender, efforts to document the lives and challenges of those in the sex worker industry, and posts with pictures, videos, and GIFs of gender-confirmation surgery are all examples of content that is not only permitted on Tumblr but actively encouraged.

We also want to reiterate some important information from our Support post:

Your content will not be deleted. If your post(s) are flagged under the new policy, they will be hidden from public view and will only be visible to you. You can appeal these flags if you feel your content was erroneously marked as adult content. Upcoming feature changes will also make appeals more manageable for those of you with multiple flagged posts. Your blog won’t be deleted if you’ve posted adult content in the past, and there is nothing you need to do if you have interacted with adult content up until now–it will just be flagged and not publicly viewable. Don’t forget too that you can download your content. It’s yours after all, and we don’t take that lightly.

What is still permitted? We’ve heard a lot of concern about what the policy does not permit, but we want to make sure that you also know what is still permitted:

Written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, and nudity found in art, specifically sculptures and illustrations, is also stuff that can be freely posted on Tumblr. Although, photorealistic imagery or photography – images, videos, or GIFs – with real humans that include exposed genitals or female-presenting (yeah, we know you hate this term) nipples or depict sex acts is not allowed per our guidelines. 

Examples of exceptions that are still permitted but that you may need to appeal if they are misclassified are: exposed female-presenting nipples in connection with breastfeeding, birth or after-birth moments, and health-related situations, such as post-mastectomy or gender confirmation surgery.

The automated tools will improve. Having a post mistakenly flagged as adult totally sucks; we understand and agree that there have been too many wrongfully flagged posts since we announced the policy change. With tens of billions of GIFs, videos, and photos to review and millions of new posts every day, we really need your help to get it right.

The more you help by reporting content that’s not permitted and by appealing content that you believe was flagged incorrectly, the better our automated tools will get at classifying your posts correctly. The more content these tools review, the more they will learn the difference between what’s permitted and what’s not. Most importantly, your content won’t be deleted if erroneously flagged and all appeals will be sent to a real, live human who can make the appropriate call. 

We love Tumblr and the communities that call Tumblr home. You are Tumblr. This place has always been a reflection of the voices and communities that thrive here. As you’ve always done, help us continue to shape Tumblr into the community you want it to be.

Don't claim to be a safe place for self expression while simultaneously censoring ideas and concepts you don't agree with. Don't claim to love tumblr when you literally pushed away those who used your site daily. Don't claim you're morally right when you overreacted to a problem and your only solution was to literally slash your own userbase.

Maybe when you take your collective heads out of your individual asses, you'll see the MASSIVE error you have made. Maybe you'll actually feel bad about the people's lives you ruined. But until then, your incredibly generic and half-hearted apology will serve as a reminder of how little you actually care about the people who use your site.

I know you don’t give a fuck. I know your seat on the apple money throne is too high to hear the voices of your users, but here I go, shouting into the great void between us, into your grand safe space.

You make this lofty post of making a more inclusive and safe Tumblr, but all you do is attack people. you send your mindless bots after their blogs, you put them through days of hell, fighting for their craft, their livelihood, while your bots do nothing but attack innocent people, mes their timelines, flag their posts, delete their blogs, drive a wall between artists and their audience. 

I do not feel your “safe space”, all I feel is the distress of those hundreds of people confused and worried over this event and their loss of ability to enjoy the content i have provided them for free.

I work hard every day because i believe in my craft, i want to offer people a little sliver of escape from their everyday troubles, maybe shed some faint light of hope into their lives, make the life those few moments it takes to read my comics a more tolerable experience. I have been through hell in my own life, comics have saved my life many times over, and here you are, making that altruistic effort to share my experience of hope and escapism substantially harder. Repeatedly flagging my art as offensive, making these mindless accusations on my character and my work. And I do not seem to understand your “idea” of more positive experience. How is it more positive and inclusive to attack people bringing joy and entertainment to others? How does that great lofty goal is in any way advanced by your discriminatory practices? 

You must take people to be complete idiots if you expect them not to see that this is all about you hungering some apple money. Greed, not inclusivity, Moral posturing, not safety. Safety is freedom to express yourself, safety is ability to share your artistic vision without fear of loss of your livelihood and audience because some guy somewhere decides on your behalf if you have right to be heard or seen.

Ideas, even bad ones need to be shared so they can be judged and evaluated on their own merit. Was it then breasts or pastries. Censorship is never the inclusive, safe, tolerant solution. Never.

All you are doing is paving way to another round of puritanical witch hunts. So do posture as some moral paragon, put on airs of inclusivity all you want, but don’t bet on people being dumb enough to buy it when with one hand you go stabbing people in the back, while with other you are shaking hands with the devil in plain sight.

Who you gonna call?