Forums / Discussion / General

A month ago, I made a thread asking about good websites for posting art (thank you to everyone who responded with suggestions, by the way), and one of the suggestions was Tumblr.

I don't have much direct experience with Tumblr, but years ago while lurking here on KYM, I kept hearing horror stories and seeing screencaps of all the infamous controversies and fandom shenanigans (including stuff like Dashcon, artists getting harassed over minor things like skin tones, social justice politics, "Tumblr Sexyman", weird pieces of fanart like this infamous Undertale one, etc.), all painting Tumblr as this hellsite to avoid like the plague. But now, ever since the crackdown on NSFW material, I've been hearing and seeing posts about how Tumblr has mellowed out and is not (as much of) a hellsite anymore due to the "usual suspects" leaving the site for (The Website Formerly Known as) Twitter.

So, has Tumblr actually mellowed out and become a decent place for posting art (both fan art and OC stuff)? And how would it compare to the sites that I'm currently posting my art to (Newgrounds, Reddit, KnowYourMeme, and Itaku)?

Tumblr: Hellsite (Affectionate)
Twitter: Hellsite (Derogatory)

Been using Tumblr since 2011 (my account got whipped out from existence during 2019 after the NSFW Ban without warning :| )

I will say YES, Tumblr is still a very Decent social sites to share your Art, it helps it has a Tag system

Tumblr is in an interesting place, after the NSFW BAN it lost 1/3 of its userbase and a lot of the Drama Llamas have moved into Twitter, including the people who were extremely vocal AGAINST NSFW art.

To this day a lot of people think the site is Dead, but it's still active and going with a lot of Memery! Hell I still have bookmarked a lot of Blogs just because of the funny posts you won't find anywhere else! They are unique to the Ecosystem

Nowadays the userbase is more and makes self aware Tongue-in-cheek joke with Tumblr related things (Dashcon, Tumblr Sexyman e.t.c)
But unfortunately there are still weirdos in the site that are trying to cause Drama and cause harm

Be aware that the Tumblr staff are completely incompetent and hypocrites, they keep updating things the Userbase DOESN'T WANT (Trying to shape the site like Twitter and TikTok) and breaking things. They still haven't done anything to battle the Porn bots.

If you would like Tumblr alternative there are also
Pillowfort: It's been promoted during the period Tumblr banned NSFW artists
Cohost.org: A site I recently learned about

I would agree that Tumblr is still kicking, but I feel like after the NSFW ban, the site still kinda feels like a shadow of its former self. It feels like a Hurricane swept through a town and while it has rebuilt, the recovery wasn't total and things just don't feel the same.

If Tumblr got way less toxic, I think it's mostly because after the NSFW ban, most of the toxic elements moved onto Twitter or other sites like a virus that's looking for new hosts (though that's not to say that Twitter wasn't a toxic hellscape before)

There was this Beautiful Tumblr post that mentioned how things have calmed down and compared the aftermath of the NSFW Ban disaster like the ruins of an ancient city slowly rebuilding itself while nature is taking over it back.
Including GIFs from Breath of the Wild and Princess Mononoke ending, I wish I had bookmarked it

Poetry aside, I can feel the Hollowness! I lost so many Great Artists I used to follow and 9 years of reblogs