The Batcave

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

1. Feeling Isolated from Others

Undergoing change at a deep and personal level is a lonely task. It’s something you must go through on your own. As a result, it is normal to feel isolated from others, and as if they couldn’t possibly understand what you are going through.

2. Having Difficulty Focusing on Tasks

Life change requires a lot of involvement and engagement on the part of your right brain. That doesn’t leave much energy left for your left brain. The left hemisphere is the side of your brain you use to perform practical tasks. The fact that you forget phone numbers and names, misplace things, or feel as if you must do everything twice to get it right is perfectly normal. It is a sign that the changes you are undergoing are deep and meaningful.

3. Feeling Restless and Anxious

Whether you are making a job change, a spiritual change, a relationship change, or something else, your emotions are in a continually stimulated sense. In addition to this, there is a good chance that your brain, including your imagination, is constantly in high gear. This can result in stress, which can lead to feelings of restlessness and anxiety.

4. Irritability at Those You Are Close To

If you are making or undergoing positive changes, why do you feel so irritated at the people you love? There’s a reason for these uncomfortable feelings. The people that you care about are often the reasons why you don’t change. They may unconsciously discourage you from changing out of fear of losing you, or they may simply follow the same behavior patterns that you are trying to break, e.g., financial irresponsibility. This can result in subtle resentments that can really come to the surface during this time.

5. Feeling Gripping Fear at Times

Change is frightening. Big change is terrifying. This is so true that you may find yourself in a near state of panic at times. This just means that the change you are undergoing is very real, very meaningful, and very permanent.

6. A New Tendency to Be Confrontational

Chances are, if you are taking action to grow and change, you were really dissatisfied with many aspects of your life. Now, you have decided you deserve better, not just from yourself, but also from others. Because of this, you may find yourself ‘calling people out’ in situations where you would normally let things go.

7. Becoming More Dissatisfied

Just like you may find yourself becoming more confrontational with people, you may also experience and act on dissatisfaction in other ways. This too is a result of wanting better things for yourself and being more and more willing to demand them.

8. Feeling Lost

If you feel lost in the midst of making a change or growing, it doesn’t mean that you are on the wrong path. What it means is that you are dealing with new experiences, new emotions, new expectations, and ultimately a new reality. That’s a lot to deal with. It should come as no surprise that you find yourself questioning whether or not you know what to do next or even know who you are anymore.

9. Feeling a Strong Desire to Be Alone More Often

This one is especially true for introverts who are making life changes and taking action to grow. You are spending so much emotional energy on the changes you are making that human interaction can be a major drain. You may also have an increasing desire to spend more time in solitude meditating, writing in a journal, doing yoga, or engaging in other solitary activities to help yourself get centered.

10. Beginning to Question Your Friendships

When you make changes, you are essentially questioning your life. This includes your relationships with your friends. You may find yourself questioning whether or not you are still compatible with your friends, and whether or not your relationships with your friends are healthy ones. It may be that your changed self just needs time to adjust before you can renew old friendships, or it could be that you will see that you have friendships that are no longer sustainable. The latter can be difficult to accept, but it is still a sign that you are on the right track.

11. Feeling Intense Sadness

No major change or growth happens without loss. Sometimes the loss is more tangible, such as the loss of a job or the ending of a relationship. Other times the loss is less tangible. For example, you may have decided to drop some negative habits and behaviors, and while you know making the change is for the best, you are still sad at the loss.

12. Dreading the Future

It is completely normal to dread the future. After all, you have taken what was a known, good or bad, and turned it into an unknown. You have no idea where your new path will eventually lead. That can make the future feel like a scary place. If you feel dread, that is perfectly normal.

13. Desiring for Things to Be Like They Used to Be

Familiarity is one of the safest feelings that they are. Even negative familiarity can temporarily feel better than change. There will be points in your journey where all you want is for things to be the way they were. In addition to this, when life becomes complex and difficult, it is perfectly normal to regress a bit and seek past comforts, people, and simplicity.

14. Having Strange and Intense Dreams

Strange and intense dreams, even negative ones, are the cumulative result of new experiences, new emotions, and internal and external conflicts. They are your subconscious mind’s way of working out a lot of heavy stuff while you sleep.

15. Desiring to Cut off Romantic Relationships