A better, more positive Tumblr

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.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

Well done. You have taken what was a wonderful outlet for adult themes and expression, and ruined it. Sexuality is a beautiful, real thing, a shared experience between consenting adults which is far less harmful than violence, which remains universally more accepted and acceptable.

I would ask why this is, but there’s no point in this venue any more. I will be leaving Tumblr, as I no longer feel welcome. I am angry, but even more, I am sad and disappointed.

Goodbye, Tumblr.

P.S. to my followers, I will be putting up links to where I’m going next..

Even this, my SFW blog, will likely gather dust. I am very unhappy with this site, and no longer feel welcome, as I mentioned above.

Lonely Vigil

“And so, the pages of this final chapter turn, the long-awaited end of this tale finally approaching. All the preparations have been made, all that’s left is to wait… and pray that all goes as it should.”

Khira shivered as she mused to herself, forever at odds with the natural chill of the icy wastes of Xelphatol. The Keeper woman shook her head and rose from the hard ground beneath her, gazing once more around the ancient cavern she found herself in, known simply to her as The Crucible. Her skin tingled, a sensory reaction to the aether in the air, its unnatural nature only amplified by an underlying twist of something… wicked. She had spent numerous bells studying the place now in tandem with Zaphir, and although she felt she now had a far greater understanding of the place, it still left her feeling uneasy. Pulling her heavy coat tighter, she wandered away from her resting spot, albeit without a specific destination in mind. She just seemed to think better while pacing.

“For all the headway we made with our research, I still feel as if we’ve only scratched the surface of this place. Of the power the sleeps here. Figures that the Nymians of all peoples had to be the creators, always making things so obtuse and esoteric. Still… I think we found enough in the short term to serve our purposes.”

She stared out towards the exit path, sighing. Her colleague had since left to participate in the final confrontation with X’zarann, along with many more of her friends. A part of her yearned to be there with them, to aid them in that shared fight, but she knew better. She ultimately elected to stay behind at The Crucible, continuing her own study of it. They had found answers in their research, but as is often the case they also brought on even more questions. The biggest surprise to Khira was that the fiend that was Starlight had somehow tampered with the place, though she still wasn’t sure to what ends.

“Hrrmph. It all leads back to you doesn’t it. A spectre that haunts this tribe, even after your… hmm…”

Her words trailed off with her thoughts, back to her workshop. She had contemplated bringing the living sword with her, to keep watch over it in case something happened, but decided against it. In the event that her paranoia bore fruit, this was the last place she wanted to bring that cursed weapon. Instead she’d had it locked away in her workshop in Vylbrand.

Her steps slowed as her thoughts drew back to the present, the sound of her own footfalls echoing about the cavern becoming apparent to her.

“All that’s left to do now is wait. Wait for the call signalling victory… or defeat…”

This is it… the end of October, the end of Poketober… what a wild ride~

Congratulations for going the distance @clockworkdryad <3 Super proud of you~

Verad’s literary background and general, professorial immersion in academia can seem a bit intimidating, but don’t worry, he’s not JUST showing off his brain; he legitimately wants to spark thoughtful debate, and is hoping to fish out those curious enough to question or challenge. I usually find that behind the implicit condescension and explicit pretension are a plethora of thoughtful points which, ultimately, I agree with~

After all, when I write Anstarra, I describe her attributes, yes, I draw focus, assuming that such things would be of interest. I do my best to engage and read what my RP partners want out of the exchange, but by default there is no choice but to fill in a certain amount of dead air.

And people want this. Someone would absolutely rebel if I said An was gorgeous; after all, who am I to assume? But if I describe a slow smirk, sparkling eyes, a shift of her hips and a curling of her tail, I’m inviting rather than demanding. As Verad might say, I’m doing the same thing as saying she’s beautiful, by attempting to convince you. Especially if you want to be convinced. 

Thus, I’m manipulating, rather than dictating. And people want to be manipulated! I sure do. I want my heart strings pulled, my desires enticed; it’s an insult to my ego to skip all that, but, perhaps even worse, it’s an utter lack of foreplay! If I’m not immersed by your storytelling, how am I supposed to attain the emotional payout of being invested in the exchange? Try to force me to fill it all in myself, and I might as well be playing WITH myself.

Literarily, of course~

As we approach the end of this crazy month, I have to ask myself: how much have I really improved?

Birbs!! AND DITTO

this page has no ink on it… sorry about that, but i had a *day* at work and then got home and streamed instead of drawing more. also, this one’s for yesterday, i still need to do a page for today

Gotta draw em all~ and she has been (the first 151 that is), check her out~

The adventures of slime!zaheela. And one random cute cat living in a box. Don’t worry, she doesn’t eat people… she sucks all the caffine, Guarana, taurine, antioxidants (tea), and other energy drink additives and leaves the rest behind (though I suppose to anyone who loves coffee or any programmer/artists she’s worse then a man eating slime)

Poor slime.. also Nihka with the giant floof tail <3

Inktober and poketober are all about learning. Even if mostly what I learn from a drawing is “No, you’re not ready to try and ink something exclusively with the brush pen, especially since you rushed.”

I’m learning~

But… despite all the errors I think it still doesn’t look too horrible

Battle!

Tried using the brush pen again, but a bit more carefully. I think I am starting to see what I might someday be able to use it for

Snooooooorlaaaaaaax

Tired… don’t have it in me to do anything more today

Fiiiish~

An likes fish.

That Ditto

Could have done more, but this almost feels like a coloring book page so I left out the shading (also, stream night: limited time)

can you spot the ditto today?

Best ditto disguise

Also shout-out to Jynx, still the most cringe pokemon to this day

The grim truth of how muk grows larger, as witnessed by the Spherical Pokemon Society.

Trying something different. The full page, but then a close up on the inked.

This got bigger than I intended…

First of all, I wanna say how awesome this is and how I love watching @clockworkdryad get better and better the more she does these~

Second of all, SHIT JUST GOT REAL

A fun event coming up, in lieu of our monthly Host Club~ Sign up, check it out!

Took inspiration from the prompt list for inktober, “Breakable”

Dat Ditto

The new poketober rules have let me have a bit more fun~

Can you spot the ditto hiding in this scene?

Things are about to get a bit.. messy..