So, I thought I would share my two cents about the tumblr purge, as someone who’s blog got nuked.*
*disclaimer, I am not/was not posting anything illegal, just some regular porn once a week, properly tagged and warned for and for now I intend to keep the new blog completely safe for work
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who sent me well wishes and advice since I’ve been back! You’re all sweethearts and I really appreciate your help!
Still, there are some things I want to tell you that you might not want to hear, but you should hear:
1. seeing the ‘account terminated’ page for the first time is what I imagine being kicked in the balls is like. There was no email, no warning, nothing. I had tumblr open at work, and by the time I got home it was just… not there.
2. I did write to support immediately upon realizing what happened. That was monday, the 19th, six days ago, and I haven’t heard back anything since. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, tumblr/staff made absolutely no public communications since the 18th.
3. I’m aware of that post going around that you should write to staff politely and you should get your blog back in a few days, and I would like to remind everyone that that post is from 2016. It is not recent.
4. In all the articles I’ve read, there was one example of a twitter user who claimed to have been reinstated after sending a ticket, but I think that was already going around by the time I was nuked and so, I’m not even sure if that had to do with the current purge, or was a result of something previous (I think it was a n*s*f*w artist, so they might have been dogpiled by antis, I’m not sure)
5. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but other than that one person I haven’t heard from anyone who actually got their blog back since monday?
6. This will sound like I want to strike fear into the hearts of the good people of tumblr, but let this be a wake up call for all of us: do not feel safe. I’ve felt safe. I’ve curated a dash for myself that made me believe that tumblr was a pleasant, accepting, safe place for all creators, and I’ve been wrong. Now that I signed up again and actually took the time to read the ToS and shit here’s the reality:
16. Termination
Either party may terminate this Agreement at any time by notifying the other party. Tumblr may terminate or suspend your access to or ability to use any and all Services immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason or no reason, including but not limited to if you breach any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement. In particular, Tumblr may immediately terminate or suspend Accounts that have been flagged for repeat copyright infringement.
Yes, you’ve read that right, tumblr can terminate your account FOR ANY REASON OR NO REASON. And do you know what that also means? Tumblr is in no way obliged to reinstate your blog since there are no criteria for termination. None. Nada. If there needs to be no reason to get terminated, you can’t actually claim to have been wrongfully terminated. So yeah, I’ve sent in my ticket, I’ve explained the situation, but there’s literally no incentive/commitment on tumblr’s part of give it back.
8. Back up your blog and keep your eyes open for alternatives. Don’t let this be the only social media where you keep up with online friends. Exchange email, twitter, discord, whatever. Look into new platforms.
The first thing I did with this new blog was put my other social media contacts in the sidebar.
I’ve had a pillowfort account for a while now, but I never really used it before this (and they’ve been down for a day now anyway) but I’m sure as hell going to keep up with it after this. It might be in beta, it might be buggy, but I never want to see that ‘account terminated’ page again and feel like I’ve been cut off from all of you guys.
Ignisfilimundi 