Apoplectic Skeptic

As I’ve said before (along with plenty of others, I’m sure)… if you’re getting something for free, such as, oh… I dunno… maybe a slick, easy, stylish, trendy blogging service based in NYC… then you’re the product being sold.

Why people are asking for “their slice” of the big ol’ money pie is a mystery to me.

Sure, I wish tumblr’d have gone about it a different way (I’ve long hoped for a pro-level tumblr account option, real serious paid features, etc), but it is what it is now and to whine and bitch about “how come I didn’t get miiiiiine?” on this historic payday is pathetic. Unless you’re being snarky, in which case… snark on, I say. :)

helms-deep:

A few months ago, I wrote this post about how to properly source material that you found on the internet, here on Tumblr, or even add your own info if you in fact were the one who created said content, and want others to know how cool you are because you’re proud of what you’ve done.

On Sunday morning, the following image came across my dash via a reblog from one of my followers:

If you look at the image, it is very clear who created it: the blogger apolloablaze. And here’s the link to the original post, which now has over 66,000 notes as of this writing. It’s very clever, and apolloablaze deserves credit for creating this.

Now, a short while ago, I saw this from Buzzfeed:

Notice who they put as the “source” of the image? Themselves. You’ll also notice that the image has been slightly altered, with the “Tumblr” logo looking more like the Yahoo! font.

Not more than 15 minutes later, what comes across my dash?

Notice it’s the altered image from Buzzfeed. And also notice that this person has not only stripped it of its source, but reuploaded the image to their own blog and replaced it with THEIR NAME as the source. If you take a look at the particular blogger in question, they are notorious for doing this, not only on their own personal blog, but on two other blogs they manage.

So my question is this: what should we do? Start publicly shaming these people? Create a new blog called “stopstealingotherpeoplesstuff.tumblr.com” and let people submit obvious attempts to snag other people’s original content? Flood their inboxes with messages telling them to stop? Start stealing anything original they post, strip their names from the “source” and replace it with our own? I’m not sure.

Personally, I’d just like to make sure that original content creators are always credited for what they make, and that their work is properly attributed. I know the reblogging system here on Tumblr isn’t the greatest, and that’s part of the problem. I’d love to see the actual “source” of an image be retained no matter how many times it’s reblogged. that would be a good start.

Regardless, if you didn’t create it, it’s not yours. Don’t attribute yourself as the source. You’re breaking the #1 rule of the Internet as given to us by Wil Wheaton: Don’t be a dick.

Rant over. For now.

People suck.

There are many high-profile sites and fellow tumblrs who aren’t following this very basic code of online conduct.

notentirely:

thanks for tumblr, a platform i have grown to love over the 6 years that i’ve been here.

i understand this is your project and i’ll understand if you sell it. but i wanted to point out, you left money on the table when it came to me.

i’d have paid a small fee to have a “no-ads” dashboard. you could have added all the ads you wanted ($$) and i’d have given you money ($$) to have them not show up for me. money in your pocket both ways.

i also would have paid a small fee for premium features ($$). all that time wasted on trying to get me to not use ‘missing e’ could have been put to better use asking me to pay a small fee ($$) for a better user experience within tumblr itself.

there are several other ways you missed making some solid dough on a tumblr fan such as myself, but i think the point is made.

you left money on the table with me. i hope you don’t do that with yahoo, or whomever you may sell to.

tumblr is a neat place. you did something really great in creating this software. however, we did something great in being the community that used it. you made tumblr worth something, and we’ve made it worth more.

good luck and thanks again.

respectfully,
notentirely

It’s pizza night and we make our own pesto, what?

squashed:

azspot:

squashed:

… okay. I mean, I guess that would be fine.

I guess change is inevitable. It happens fast on the Internet. The blogs I first followed on Tumblr are by and large gone. Or less active. In some way, I feel like the old guy who hangs out with kids because all his friends are dead. And he likes yelling at kids.

The point being, Yahoo isn’t looking to buy talent, technology, or a quick profit in Tumblr. It’s looking for relevance. It’s knows that when you drop a billion to buy a cool friend, you don’t immediately screw it up by doing something massively uncool.

It’ll be okay.

Is this misguided rosiness in lieu of Yahoo historical pattern of buying and burning successful online platforms?

OTOH, outside of steadfast service stability (which I am indeed most thankful for :)), Tumblr has languished in the past year — the only “enhancements” being of a negative nature (i.e., the recent editor “upgrade”, still riddled with bugs that make it excruciating to edit posts with blockquote text)

And it might serve as the needed impetus for me to complete development on my own homebrewed (and self hosted) tumble-wiki alternative.

In 2007, I was drinking coffee in Marco’s livingroom/dining room/office. He told me he and David had launched a website that had done remarkably well. He urged me to register before somebody else registered daniel.tumblr.com. Maybe I could write things there instead of on LiveJournal. There were about 27,000 users at that point, one of whom was AZSpot. Since then, Tumblr has grown to about 300 billion users, each more unique than the last. So it’s done okay. Marco has left Tumblr, started Instapaper, and recently left Instapaper. The last time we were drinking coffee together, he had a living room and a dining room and an office. So he’s done okay. And I’ve done okay with Tumblr as well. The point being, on the Internet, a lot has changed since 2007. And in 2007 if somebody had announced that LiveJournal was maybe being acquired, I would feel about like everybody feels now. (Where would I store my feelings!?!)

The point being, life is brutal and short on the Internet. When awesome websites are acquired and eventually shut down by other websites, it’s either a pattern or it’s just what happens on the Internet. Does anybody seriously think that if Yahoo hadn’t acquired GeoCities it would be the coolest site on the Internet now?

Though, there’s another angle. Yahoo was founded in 1995. In Internet years, that’s like the Roman Empire. (I’m going to resist the urge to troll you all by saying that, it’s not bad to be in a conquered province because at least you get to be part of the glory of Rome.) Yahoo has at least survived.

The broader point being, things change quickly on the internet. There’s always a younger, cooler site looming just over the horizon. I’m not sure that acquisition by Yahoo particularly diminishes Tumblr’s longterm prognosis. It means an influx of cash, stability, and technical capability. Heck, probably a functional search feature. And it means that Tumblr doesn’t need to desperately look for ways to monetize.

The Internet will kill everything you love. But by the time it dies, you won’t even care.

Filed under: Example of a Good Reason to Follow Squashed.

evangotlib:

…I like the Yahoo purchase of Tumblr (if it happens).

Tumblr needs something to happen.  This is clear.  The team in place has taken the company as far as it can go.  They are creators - builders of stuff - they are not managers.  This lack of experience has caused issues at Tumblr that have hurt the company in the short term and are potentially devastating in the long term.  They have lost a ton of good people over the last 18 months due to internal and organizational strife.  This needs to end.  David needs to be free to do what he does best: concept and build amazing things.

Yahoo has the potential to be a great home for Tumblr.  Marissa Mayer knows what she is getting with Tumblr: an extraordinary and special entity.  She is not going to allow Yahoo to make the same mistakes that they made with Flickr.  She understands product and the importance of good design, two key elements of Tumblr’s success.

Will there be more ads?  Yes.  But frankly the Radar ad product is awful and there needs to be iteration here.  You can’t be as big as Tumblr is and hope there will not be ads.  What we can hope for - no, what we can demand - is better ads that enhance the overall Tumblr experience vs. detracting from that experience.

Tumblr really can’t raise any more money.  At least not the kind of round that would put them on a path to satisfy the business goals of the board and investors.  And there is so much they need to do (FIX SEARCH).  An acquisition by Yahoo will allow these things to happen and remove pressure from David and his key people.

A sale will also result in Yahoo gaining some really terrific, brilliant and visionary employees.  These people can impact other Yahoo products and help Yahoo become great again.  There is value in this…for all of us.  I don’t want to see Yahoo fail.  Yes, a lot of what Yahoo has done and is doing sucks.  But there are smart exciting people trying to change that.  And we should support them.  Yahoo can be great again.  And Tumblr can be a driving force for that change.

I’m still up for paying $9 a month for this service (as opposed to the idea that Yahoo would have to make the ad presence a lot larger)… if it all works.

But, otherwise, yeah… what Evan said.