So Tumblr is going to start charging…
I say this not as “they should monetize their users in any way”, but in “they have shown themselves to have real, non-fleeting value and need the money to support the media-heavy infrastructure of a growing community.” Tumblr was hailed as both the death of longer blogging, but that’s not going to die anytime soon.
It’s settled in, a few years later, with actual staying power, as a simple, multimedia heavy style of blogging, and a legitimate community formed from the service’s unique network idea (reblogging, simple like button, embedded question forms). Tumblr’s the self-effacing, cooler older cousin at this metaphorical family reunion. Although I’ve never attended a in-person Tumblr meet-up, they strike me as being about what people like to put on their Tumblr, not about Tumblr’s platform. There’s only so much “techie” recursive content that I can stand after a while.
In fact, I dread the day the Social Media Consultants (TM) find Tumblr. Nothing to see here. Nothing at all. Look, it’s Richard Belzer filming SVU on the next corner!
A few months back, I sat in the New York Times’ 3rd floor, and while trying desperately not to shit myself out of excitement, I managed to open my big fat mouth and disparage Tumblr several minutes after Soraya Darabi spoke to us about what the place meant to her. For my own part, I’d signed up in 2007 for an account, dropped some cell phone photos in there and promptly forgot about it. Then I became obsessed with Tumblarity during the summer of unemployment in 2008. It became a problem (Hi, my name is Taylor and I am addicted to web stats). Funny thing, though, after I managed to poo-poo the whole platform as “just another thing to check” that afternoon at the Times, I went back, cautiously (tumblarity was still in effect), and have managed to find a happy (nay productive!) pattern for tumbling.
It is, in effect, my third way of writing/blogging. Journalism is fully reported stories, this blog is for more complete but random thoughts and announcements. Tumblr is immediate “things I am sharing” and “things that are better just viewed, not behind a bit.ly link” but it is not personal over share. I’ve managed to find a nice niche for Tumblr in my needs, and the people I consciously choose to follow strike me as real people with interesting ideas, not idealistic brand-versions of themselves. Perhaps that in itself is a brand, but I appreciate that kind of online identity. It’s one I aim to myself.
These past couple months I’ve been working on a very long article about Dreamwidth, a codefork of blogging’s wacky old uncle, Livejournal. It’s a topic that I keep circling back to, the difference between online social networks and physical social networks, and the different kind of business you need to prop up either, but reporting it has turned up more questions than answers (of course). Mostly because we’re right in the middle of it, chronologically, to figure out who’s going to pay for what on the internet.
Dreamwidth and Tumblr are catering to different audiences for different needs, but it strikes me as the same basic idea: pay to keep this community going and stable. Although I wonder about the psychological effect on users of putting that need up front (Dreamwidth) as opposed to considerably later (Tumblr). Funding sources make a difference here, but so does a basic business strategy.
