Tumblr's shift toward media/brand social networking

[sarasa_cat]

Good read on tumblr's rapidly shift to a pro-business platform and what that means for fandom: http://fanslashfic.com/2015/12/02/the-demise-of-fandom-on-tumblr/


Originally saw this somewhere on a very short list of tumblr blogs but do not remember where. I am going to give Credit to owlmoose  for signal boosting it. but I could be wrong?

Comments

[owlmoose]

I did reblog that one so I will happily take the credit. ;) And I agree, it's quite a good article.

[sarasa_cat]

Credit given. :)

Enjoyed the little story in the article about Pinboard's creator realizing that fandom is a distinct kind of user (and a sizable market) so he added a feature that makes the site/service more in line with fannish needs.

Was interesting reading about tumblr's changes from the POV of a person with two hats: fandom vs online marketing. I originally knew about tumblr well before the big fandom jump because a lot of visual artists and food bloggers were early adopters and used the site to promote their work/business.

Much agreement with the author's assessment of where tumblr is going and how it will become less and less useful for personal blogging and interpersonal social networking.

[lobeliar]

A good article; thanks for linking (and to owlmoose for signal boosting it so that you could see it and subsequently rec it)!

It was good to read something from the perspective of someone who can appreciate the advantages of the changes that tumblr has made, while still sympathizing with the fandom end of the pool -- since, being on the fandom end myself, I didn't really get until now who benefits from tumblr being the way it is.

[sarasa_cat]

It was an interesting read. I'm glad I found it.

I admit to having a reasonable understanding of the side who uses tumblr and other similar platforms for business reasons, either to run their 21st century equivalent of a mom&pop shop or as a large corporation advertising their goods and creating brand loyalty. So, when yahoo purchased tumblr a couple of years ago for an ungodly sum of money, I started wondering how Yahoo would attempt to "convert" the people who were blogging their for fun (which includes fandom) and turn them into a product to sell to their real customers, the businesses who are advertising their goods.

Pretty much everything that fandom wants goes against the kind of experience that tumblr needs to provide as a social marketing platform.

[thene]

ngl, as someone who's never wanted to be part of the tumblr communication architecture, it's been interesting reading the financial news about how the site is now clocking negative value for Yahoo. I do think it's important to remember at this stage that if they can't monetise you, they don't care, and don't have any commitment to you, and from a fiduciary POV nor should they; responsibility is to Yahoo's shareholders, not tumblr users. Given that Yahoo are simultaneously searching for both a financial structure and a revenue model for tumblr and their other web media businesses...guessing that shit is going to be unstable for the next couple of years. prediction; it's going to get spun out and sold off like a hot potato to someone, anyone, who has an idea about how to monetise it properly (bc I doubt that yahoo will figure that out for themselves), and non-lucrative users will get gutted in the process.

[sarasa_cat]

Add in that Yahoo!, as a company is in trouble and is forced to shed assets and rethink their core business ... and a giant YES to everything you said.

As you might have guessed from comments above, I was initially introduced to tumblr as a personal/social marketing microblogging platform a couple of years before fandom made the big jump. Perhaps because I know what tumblr was or perhaps because I was just more satisfied with LJ/DW/Fanfiction.net, I continued putting my fannish energy into non-tumblr platforms although I have run a fannish tumblr account since 2012, although for the past 2 years I have treated it like a Pinterest account because any fannish interaction beyond reblogging fanart or screencaps I like isn't worth the effort/headache.