We've discussed Tumblr and their shortcomings a few times before on this blog space, how they tried to block archival efforts, how they flag nudity they purport to allow, even their own article discussing what is allowed. I mean, they auto-blocked themselves! Failure. We kinda figured that they would get some heat from the fanbase for their purge. It happened to LoveJournal after all. Look up "LiveJournal Strikethrough and Boldthrough". To give a very brief description, LiveJournal did what Tumblr is doing now and collapsed because of it. 

Well, now we have a glimpse at what could be. SimilarWeb is an analytics site that tracks website views. Since the porn purge on Dec. 17, 2018, Tumblr's views dropped by quite a bit. SimilarWeb's tracking of Tumblr, seen HERE, paints a pretty grim picture. Reports from SimilarWeb suggest that the site saw 521 million page-views in December, but those numbers dropped to 437 million after it became a safe space for those triggered by pornography. Views dropped further to just 369 million in February.

Looking back to LiveJournal, it was an overreaction to a situation that alienated even unrelated people. Accounts were getting hit for what could be seen as porn, trust in the company from the community was at an all-time low, and people left. Well, it's the same now. Even people who did not interact with porn are casting a grim look at Tumblr. Not only was the porn purge unpopular, since it censored people, and few people like censorship in general, but their automated flagging system is bugged to hell. Normal posts and pictures are getting flagged, even Tumblr's own posts. Also, try an experiment: try to block Tumblr's account on Tumblr itself. I tried it and it did not work. I asked them about it on twitter, but surprisingly, no response. 

Oddly enough, while writing this article, Tumblr posted this to Twitter:

I mean, at least they're self-aware.