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Comment by me551ah | Hacker News Reader

Is tumblr still relevant?

According to their stats page, they have 135 million monthly active users: https://www.tumblr.com/press , about a third of what either Reddit or Twitter claims.

I'm also willing to bet that they have a measurably lower proportion of bots than most other social networks, if only because the perception that Tumblr is irrelevant makes them less attractive as a target.

Bot spam on Tumblr is rampant even if you don't have many followers or post much.

Around 80% of my (admittedly very small number of) followers are bots, mostly poorly masquerading as women, and advertising porn sites.

They usually seem to unfollow after a week or two though, especially after I block them.

Anecdata: I have few followers, directly post maybe once every couple of months if that, reblog a few posts a week, and I have no problem with bot spam posts - can't say that I even remember seeing one.

Bot spam followers on the other hand, yeah, a couple a week, but since I don't follow or interact with them, there's no issue.

There are bots, but at least for those who (like me) don't have a lot of "real" followers, they're pretty easy to catch, report, and block when they first follow you. (Having never had large numbers of followers, I can't speak for the experience there.)

unfortunately, there are many, many bots.

Define "relevant".

Tumblr is never going to be The Next <insert many-billion dollar social network here>, but it does have a road to profitability and long-term sustainability now that it's being run by people who at least vaguely understand and respect its userbase.

I don't know if it's still relevant, but it's the only social media app I still check every day. I only lurk now, I followed some people years and years ago, and they still come up with amusement daily.

Adverts aren't too overloaded (Although I'm clearly not in their demographic anymore, as an older gent, I exclusively get adverts for blue pills, I don't think they have much of a pool targeting me), it still posts new posts from people I follow chronologically.

It's not a world-enveloping thing like the major social media platforms (and it's not going to be) but it has a good number of active users and I enjoy it more than the alternatives.

Yes. At least, for certain subcultures, it's The Place to be right now.

TIL!

I have noticed some people sharing their porn and erotica on Tumblr again, but I thought they were just playing cat and mouse with the content filter

I really missed that Verizon got rid of it and its now in saner hands.

This checkmark parody is hilarious and apparently Verizon didn't delete my erotica feed, just hid it and now I can appeal all of those decisions to restore them! wow

My understanding is that any depiction of sex-acts and most depictions of genitals are still against the rules of tumblr (due to iOS requirements?) ?

that's what I read too

I can proudly report that all my post appeals were accepted with the simple appeal of "reverse verdict from the verizon dark days"

and they accepted all of those and added a "community label" of Mature

they are by default hidden on iOS app but can be shown with a tap

they're currently under the stewardship of the company that makes WordPress. I'd say it's in good hands today.

You can put someone whose brain has been lobotomized into the care of the nicest person on the planet, they'll still be in a bad place overall.

this is the weirdest forced metaphor

Given what's happening to twitter, is being relevant a good thing now (if it ever was?)

From what I can tell, tumblr users think 'no.'

(I am inclined to agree)

I think it's relevant to specific social circles. If you're a huge fan of some media, any media, tumblr is probably a solid bet of engaging with fellow fans in ways reddit isn't as good at.

No. Check again when they implement ActivityPub.

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