TL;DR: Tumblr is discontinuing its Post Plus feature, allowing creators to charge for content, starting December 1st. This decision follows a leaked memo about downsizing due to struggles in meeting usage and revenue targets. Post Plus, introduced in 2021, didn’t meet expectations, leading to its discontinuation. Existing Post Plus content will be private from January 2024, and creators can’t produce new Post Plus content. Tipping will remain, but the future of Blaze, the sponsored post feature, is uncertain. (via chatGPT)
People keep saying it’s dead to them but the company’s own statements seem a lot more optimistic, imo. I think they’re just refocusing, and dumping a lot of the extraneous “let’s be an everything platform” features the userbase didn’t want anyway. Tumblr isn’t a giant cash so far as I know, but its userbase is sizable and stable, and recently grown since reddit and twitter took a tumble.
As a platform, there’s a lot to recommend it, I think. It’s one of those situations where the experience you get out of it depends on how you curate it. So like, you can go down fandom rabbitholes, or webcomic rabbitholes, or you can entirely ignore that and just subscribe to ocean science blogs, or to photography blogs, or so on. There can be drama in some parts, but that can also be entirely avoided in your feed if that’s your preference. I like it a lot better these days than I did like 5-10 years ago.
I’d agree on that. If they can drop the video stuff and focus on what makes Tumblr a good space and it’s unique features they could last a good long time and we can avoid the complete homogenization of social media.