Pillowfort

About

Pillowfort.social is a blogging platform which gained attention after emerging as a possible alternative for NSFW bloggers after Tumblr banned adult content. Pillowfort was created to take the best features from popular blogging platforms and discard the bad. This includes more privacy and control for posters over their own content, along with better communication tools like threaded comments. It is also community funded with plans for minimal advertisements, allowing for total creative control over the site.^[8] The site launched their closed beta in 2017 and currently in open beta with new users able to join through free invites or paying for a $5 registration key. As of June 2020, Pillowfort has over 85,000 registered users^[1]

History

Pillowfort was started by Julia Baritz.^[6] On May 29th, 2016, she and the Pillowfort staff launched an Indiegogo campaign^[1] raising $5,239 of their $600 goal.^[2] In the Indiegogo, the site outlined its mission thusly:

We’re creating Pillowfort because we have been blogging for years, and have long dreamed of a platform that would bring together all the best features of the various platforms we’ve used, allowing each user to customize their own experience. The ability to curate your own blog, and participate in organized community discussions about your favorite subjects. The ability to control who can see or reblog your content, so that you can post whatever you want without worrying about who can see it. Most of all, we wanted to create a blogging platform that was every user’s own party-- a place to surround yourself with your favorite things, share them with others, share your own creations, and have fun with people who share your interests.

A second fundraiser was started in 2018 on Kickstarter in which pillowfort raised $57,045 of their $39,900 goal.^[3]

Tumblr alternative

After Tumblr announced their new ban on adult content to go into effect on December 17th, 2018, users began searching for an alternative and pillowfort gained a lot of attention. 48 hours after the announcement from Tumblr, Pillowfort's Twitter account gained around 10,000 followers (500% increase)^[4] and had trouble keeping their website up due to heavy traffic.^[5] After the ban, the site was profiled by Wired, who documented the struggle the site faced by attempting to mesh its ideals with its sudden increase in traffic. “If our server costs increase by 10 times the way our overall site traffic has, then we won’t be immediately bankrupted, certainly, but it’s more expenditure than I planned for,” said Baritz.

Domain change

In April 2019, the domain was changed from .io to .social due to regulations against sexual content appearing on .io domains.

Search Interest

External References