I’ve been using this website since 2010/2011, this is currently my third account. I’ve carried this blog through two of them.
The unique format of this website and the ability to post whatever we wanted anonymously is how the LGBTQIA+ community came to flourish here. We could post things here that we couldn’t on other more conservative platforms and it could spread to others in a short time.
Trans, nonbinary, and queer culture and language grew by leaps and bounds on this website. This website made nonbinary mainstream, exploded our vocabulary, provided transition resources and knowledge we couldn’t find anywhere else, and made queer culture accessible to even those of us living in small Christian southern towns with no lgbtq community whatsoever.
Tumblr introduced me to the words I didn’t know I needed until I found them. I’ve made friends here. Connected with other trans and queer people here.
So in a way tumblr has been a blessing.
But. This website has also provided a platform for the worst voices in our communities to become the loudest.
And for that, I can’t be sad at all about the slow death of tumblr.
I think it was a useful enough community BUILDING platform, but for precisely the same reasons it was it’s also absolutely dreadful at community maintenance. We’ve matured as an online, cultural space now, and would be better served by infrastructure that lets us define our own spaces with our own rules–like I genuinely think queer community would exist more coherently and empathetically in something like a forum or even a reddit with the overhead tools and guiding philosophy provided by something like AO3, but tailored for social media rather than fanfic hosting.
Pillowfort seems promising there, if they can pull it off. If not, hopefully another option will come along. Either way it’s a little sad but to me it just means its time for us to evolve, and honestly I cannot wait to leave the worst of Tumblr behind. It was nice while it lasted.













