6 ms·

Sounds like what caused the mindshare death of Tumblr. Pivoting away from the core reason you make money even if it's not the intended use case seems like a gr

by rarec 5y ago

Sounds like what caused the mindshare death of Tumblr. Pivoting away from the core reason you make money even if it's not the intended use case seems like a great way to cause the death of your company.

whateveracct 5y ago
Tumblr is doing fine though. The people making good posts & talking to each other didn't leave. It may be fewer users (and fewer $$), but tumblr is waaay better since the NSFW ban. And I'd even say due to it.
- TX0098812 5y ago
  Hmm.. "tumblr is waaay better since the NSFW ban" and "It may be fewer users (and fewer $$)" These don't seem to add up.
  - whateveracct 5y ago
    Yes they do. There's as much or more tumblr activity for my dashboard & on my blog. I get way fewer porn spam bots following me now. And people generally seem to be happy with the website & are continuing to use it to talk about the stuff they like.
  - whateveracct 5y ago
    Do you think the value judgment of tumblr should be based on revenue or user count?
- Mediterraneo10 5y ago
  Not only did Tumblr activity collapse after the NSFW ban, but in the subjects I follow, activity seems to have settled on a niche of transwomen blogging about hobby or interest X, where their posts are mainly about being a transwoman interested in such things and not the hobby or interest itself. I understand that Tumblr has value for those transwomen wanting to express themselves and build community with others, but it has become a network relevant to only a tiny, tiny percentage of the population.
  - whateveracct 5y ago
    Tumblr has plenty of discussion about hobbies, TV shows, anime, video games, etc. If you like a certain thing, tumblr is a great way to be exposed to people discussing it, making text jokes about it, making fanart about it, etc. That has been literally unaffected by the NSFW ban in the many fandoms I follow on it. There are people like you describe, but it doesn't dominate the platform imo. It's easy enough to get a lot out of tumblr.
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
    Is it possible you are in some kind of algorithm filter bubble?
    - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
      No, it’s just that intellectual subjects on Tumblr always attracted a certain share of neuroatypical people, and once the majority of users left Tumblr, only the neuroatypical remained.
- moralestapia 5y ago
  >Tumblr is doing fine though. Citation needed. My impression is their MAU and time spent on site went to the floor.
  - whateveracct 5y ago
    ? those metrics do not affect how good of a product and website it is for me and all the people who use it tho maybe if you have your business boy hat on for some reason it isn't doing fine?
    - elliekelly 5y ago
      You’re forgetting that those metrics are hugely important to tumblr because those metrics are hugely important to tumblr’s customers: advertisers. The reason they claim the policy change was necessary in the first place. I don’t know what you mean by “business boy hat” - could this be a typo?
      - whateveracct 5y ago
        well they had the indirect effect of making the product better for their (unpaying) users. When it comes to tumblr, I quite frankly don't give 2 shits about their advertisers. Why should I? Maybe the site will be shut down someday? You'd think that ship would've sailed.
    - moralestapia 5y ago
      What? You're delusional. Those metrics are literally the bread and butter of social networks.
      - whateveracct 5y ago
        I am talking from the perspective of a user. Those metrics have 0 impact on me as a user (outside of the company going under - or ruining itself in the name of more money.) There's no delusion here. The users that remain on tumblr seem pretty happy about the effects of the nsfw ban. The people that left due to it weren't the good ones for the most part.
hinkley 5y ago
Why not fork instead of pivot? Why do we have to do this other thing too, instead of having a subsidiary that does that other thing? Is it because we've vastly overestimated the power of the network effect?
- ac29 5y ago
  > Why not fork instead of pivot? Remember Qwikster?
  - EduardoBautista 5y ago
    That wasn’t a fork though. Qwikster was Netflix separating itself into two distinct businesses with very different offerings (movies by mail vs streaming).
BoxOfRain 5y ago
Reminds me of Yik Yak a bit, the user count dropped like the Titanic because they attempted to pivot away from the main reason people were using the platform to begin with (in this case anonymous posts).

by rarec 5y ago

whateveracct 5y ago

Tumblr is doing fine though. The people making good posts & talking to each other didn't leave. It may be fewer users (and fewer $$), but tumblr is waaay better since the NSFW ban. And I'd even say due to it.

TX0098812 5y ago
Hmm.. "tumblr is waaay better since the NSFW ban" and "It may be fewer users (and fewer $$)" These don't seem to add up.
- whateveracct 5y ago
  Yes they do. There's as much or more tumblr activity for my dashboard & on my blog. I get way fewer porn spam bots following me now. And people generally seem to be happy with the website & are continuing to use it to talk about the stuff they like.
- whateveracct 5y ago
  Do you think the value judgment of tumblr should be based on revenue or user count?
Mediterraneo10 5y ago
Not only did Tumblr activity collapse after the NSFW ban, but in the subjects I follow, activity seems to have settled on a niche of transwomen blogging about hobby or interest X, where their posts are mainly about being a transwoman interested in such things and not the hobby or interest itself. I understand that Tumblr has value for those transwomen wanting to express themselves and build community with others, but it has become a network relevant to only a tiny, tiny percentage of the population.
- whateveracct 5y ago
  Tumblr has plenty of discussion about hobbies, TV shows, anime, video games, etc. If you like a certain thing, tumblr is a great way to be exposed to people discussing it, making text jokes about it, making fanart about it, etc. That has been literally unaffected by the NSFW ban in the many fandoms I follow on it. There are people like you describe, but it doesn't dominate the platform imo. It's easy enough to get a lot out of tumblr.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
  Is it possible you are in some kind of algorithm filter bubble?
  - Mediterraneo10 5y ago
    No, it’s just that intellectual subjects on Tumblr always attracted a certain share of neuroatypical people, and once the majority of users left Tumblr, only the neuroatypical remained.
moralestapia 5y ago
>Tumblr is doing fine though. Citation needed. My impression is their MAU and time spent on site went to the floor.
- whateveracct 5y ago
  ? those metrics do not affect how good of a product and website it is for me and all the people who use it tho maybe if you have your business boy hat on for some reason it isn't doing fine?
  - elliekelly 5y ago
    You’re forgetting that those metrics are hugely important to tumblr because those metrics are hugely important to tumblr’s customers: advertisers. The reason they claim the policy change was necessary in the first place. I don’t know what you mean by “business boy hat” - could this be a typo?
    - whateveracct 5y ago
      well they had the indirect effect of making the product better for their (unpaying) users. When it comes to tumblr, I quite frankly don't give 2 shits about their advertisers. Why should I? Maybe the site will be shut down someday? You'd think that ship would've sailed.
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    What? You're delusional. Those metrics are literally the bread and butter of social networks.
    - whateveracct 5y ago
      I am talking from the perspective of a user. Those metrics have 0 impact on me as a user (outside of the company going under - or ruining itself in the name of more money.) There's no delusion here. The users that remain on tumblr seem pretty happy about the effects of the nsfw ban. The people that left due to it weren't the good ones for the most part.

hinkley 5y ago

Why not fork instead of pivot? Why do we have to do this other thing too, instead of having a subsidiary that does that other thing? Is it because we've vastly overestimated the power of the network effect?

ac29 5y ago
> Why not fork instead of pivot? Remember Qwikster?
- EduardoBautista 5y ago
  That wasn’t a fork though. Qwikster was Netflix separating itself into two distinct businesses with very different offerings (movies by mail vs streaming).

BoxOfRain 5y ago

Reminds me of Yik Yak a bit, the user count dropped like the Titanic because they attempted to pivot away from the main reason people were using the platform to begin with (in this case anonymous posts).