
New NSFW content restrictions enrage Tumblr users - mcrittenden
http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/tumblr-nsfw-content-tags-search/
======
Alexx
Along with the fact that if your blog is flagged adult they set robots.txt to
noindex on your whole subdomain, so you're nuked from google (and there is
nothing you can do about it). Now you're out their internal search engine too
- They're doing their best to hide away the porn as much as possible without
actually removing it.

~~~
JimWestergren
A site:tumblr.com now returns 943 million URLs in Google. It would be
interesting to see this number in a few weeks time.

~~~
evilmushroom
581,000,000 for me.

~~~
pessimizer
googlebubble makes google a bad source for this kind of estimation now, I
guess.

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mindstab
As my friend said: "I love watching Yahoo spend nine figures on things only to
offhandedly gut them like a child playing with sharp knives."

~~~
tokenadult
A great line. But maybe Yahoo is playing with dull knives, as it seems to
achieve maximum pain for minimum gain.

~~~
ihsw
One could also argue they're holding their knives backwards, so in addition to
being causing damage by using the knife improperly they're also cutting their
hands up by _bleeding_ money.

~~~
awj
I'd characterize it as a knife with no handle.

~~~
floydenstein
More like a knife with a blade as a handle.

~~~
saalweachter
They grasp the knife firmly by the blade, and disembowel with the dull handle.

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shortformblog
As a guy with a larger reach on Tumblr, I've been asking my readers about
this, about how they would suggest handling this situation:

[http://shortformblog.com/tagged/nsfw-tumblr-
feedback](http://shortformblog.com/tagged/nsfw-tumblr-feedback)

I've only posted a sampling of the responses I've gotten. I have more than 60
sitting in my ask box right now. People are REALLY upset about this.

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Shish2k
The market seems to be voluntarily making a massive hole for an adult-content-
friendly blogging platform to fill, I wonder why the startup scene here isn't
jumping on that?

(I'd do it myself if I knew of any appropriate payment system; but my only
payment systems experience is with paypal, who hate adult content more than
the blog hosts do, and bitcoin, which is unheard of outside of geek and
finance niches...)

~~~
Zimahl
_The market seems to be voluntarily making a massive hole for an adult-
content-friendly blogging platform to fill_

There is so much euphemism in that sentence when referencing porn that it's
almost _palpable_.

That said, I agree. Doesn't everything on the internet start with porn?

~~~
lectrick
> Doesn't everything on the internet start with porn?

It's hard to say, without a clear definition available or even, arguably,
possible...
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it)

Which strikes me as extremely weird.

------
voyou
I wonder why this is blowing up today? It's not a brand new policy: it's been
largely the same since at least April 29 of this year, i.e., before Yahoo
bought Tumblr:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20130426023137/http://www.tumblr....](http://web.archive.org/web/20130426023137/http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw)

What seems to be new is a) the addition of the "Adult" category, which is
blocked from safe search tag pages even for people who follow a particular
blog and b) a slight relaxation to the third-party indexing policy, where NSFW
(but not Adult) blogs are now indexed by external search engines.

~~~
ricardobeat
I don't use Tumblr, but I think you're underestimating the change. While blogs
in the NSFW category had little restrictions, 'Adult' ones are completely
hidden from everyone except those who have already subscribed. Characterizing
Adult vs NSFW is arbitrary, so your blog might simply disappear without any
warning.

------
jseliger
I can see why: given Tumblr's focus on images, porn or at least NSFW material
seems like a logical use pattern. For text, at least, I prefer Wordpress.

DailyDot doesn't cover this, but I wonder: what is the logical NSFW-friendly
alternative to Tumblr?

~~~
McPants
Blogspot is one of them.

~~~
sp332
You're not allowed to make money on adult content on Blogger.
[https://www.blogger.com/content.g](https://www.blogger.com/content.g) This is
a recent change, and feels a bit like a shot across the bow designed to force
the biggest adult bloggers off the service.

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javis
Didn't David Karp say jus the other day on Colbert he wasn't going to censor
Tumblr? What happened?

~~~
protomyth
Because when someone like David Karp speaks, he is talking about a strictly,
technical truth and not the practical truth of the situation. We punish are
children for being deceptive when the pull this stunt, we reward[1] or ignore
politicians and business folks.

The practical truth is that these blogs have been censored, because if Google
cannot see something, it doesn't exist for 99.9% of the people.

1) You might be saying to yourself, I don't reward or approve this conduct.
Did you watch West Wing? Did you like the C. J. Cregg character?

~~~
6cxs2hd6
The other big question was, would Tumblr give up Colbert's data to the
government? Karp's answer to that was to blink and say nothing.

Both answers, aroma of attorney.

May as well have had the lawyer do the interview instead.

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samman
From the article:

"Adult and NSFW content will be visible to anyone who has opted-in via their
Settings page."

Seems reasonable...

~~~
rincebrain
Yes, but the point is that you cannot opt into being able to search for adult
blog content.

~~~
freyr
What's the difference between NSFW and adult?

~~~
samman
NSFW = 'Occasional' adult content

Adult = 'Substantial' adult content

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agscala
Looks like a good opportunity for someone to build something tumblr-like
strictly for NSFW content that encourages people to build connections like
tumblr does (or did)

~~~
dspillett
The problem with a site explicitly being for NSFW content is users avoiding it
in case it accidentally shows in history/logs. With tumblr they can claim to
have been looking at/for something else entirely.

~~~
sp332
The subdomain would already show up in history and logs. It's hard to explain
away e.g. fuckyeahboobies.tumblr.com

~~~
LoganCale
The vast majority of Tumblr users browse via the dashboard rather than the
subdomains.

~~~
sp332
Is there a way to follow somebody without visiting the subdomain?

~~~
elliottcarlson
Yes - all via the dashboard/search functionality.

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taopao
No big loss, since Tumblr search is TERRIBLE. As are most features - the
service feels like a creaky pile of hacks for viewers and publishers alike.

A Tumblr directory/web crawler would be really great.

~~~
rubbingalcohol
This isn't just Tumblr's search. They're cutting blogs off from search engine
indexing too. And if you reblog anything from a blogged flagged as adult, it's
looking like your blog gets flagged too.

A lot of the line between "adult" and "art" is very blurry, but anyone who
deals with nudity is at risk here. Tumblr has a huge community of artists, who
now have to worry of being censored.

"Sure, you can have a blog, but no one on the Internet will find it, ever."
Sounds great.

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lnanek2
Pretty funny. Buy the new cool thing all the young people love, then start
isolating and hiding the sex appeal that got it where it was.

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ebbv
If you are surprised that Yahoo is ruining Tumblr you're either so optimistic
that I envy you, or have no knowledge of the history of Yahoo or acquisitions
in general.

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lukasb
Crazy. Why would they prevent Adult-flagged Tumblrs from being indexed by 3rd-
party search engines?

[http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw](http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw)

~~~
protomyth
Advertisers don't want controversy. Advertisers are the customers.

~~~
derefr
Right. More specifically, here's what's actually going on:

10% of Tumblr is porn, right? And it's not _amateur_ porn, or "oh hey I
reblogged a butt." No, the vast majority of that 10% is one thing and one
thing only: mirrored rips of full galleries from paysites. Illegal, copyright-
infringing rips.

Basically, if Tumblr had any sort of scalable process to distinguish these
from their other content, they'd just shut them down immediately. Using Tumblr
just to bulk-rehost copyright-infringing images is 100% against their TOS,
that much should be obvious.

Basically, Yahoo gave Tumblr some good advice here: if they _don 't_ want to
fundamentally restrict their users from posting adult content, then it's all
Tumblr can do (legally) to sweep these gallery-rip Tumblrs under the rug, so
that you can only find them by seeing a reblog from them or by knowing their
URL (which also, a lot of the time, means "by following a link from a porn
subreddit.") It's not that they're _adult_ ; it's that they're _in breach of
copyright_ , and giving any public-facing path to them is the same as
endorsing them (thus opening Yahoo to being sued for that infringement.)

This whole thing isn't about "OH NO A BUTT"; it's more for the same reason
Mega's internal search won't show you "Adobe CS6 Master Suite [cw33t].rar",
even though you could get that from them with the right URL. Hosting something
is one thing; advertising it is another. Tumblr's emphasis on _free speech_ is
a mask for one thing here: they want safe harbor provisions to apply to them
as far as this content goes, by not giving it any attention/promotion.

EDIT: I reposted this _to_ Tumblr, expanded and phrased in a slightly more
Tumblr-audience-targeted manner, explaining what safe-harbor provisions are
and such. [http://leviaul.tumblr.com/post/55886555106/you-
guys](http://leviaul.tumblr.com/post/55886555106/you-guys)

~~~
makomk
Actually, I think most of the stuff I've seen is amateur porn, either posted
by its creator or reposted by others. You might be underestimating just how
much genuinely amateur porn is out there these days.

~~~
lsc
maybe, but that might not be any better. I can imagine the consequences for
being known for hosting "adult content" where nobody is checking the actor's
ID at the door could be way worse than the consequences for hosting stuff the
copyright holder doesn't want you to host.

------
icehawk
There is a option in the settings:

    
    
       Browse tag pages in Safe Mode
       Hide content from NSFW blogs.
    

It works exactly like it says on the tin.

~~~
freyr
But, but ... censorship!

Seriously, I have to wonder who is actually enraged by this. If you want to
browse for NSFW content, check the box and get on with it. If you want your
NSFW posts to be displayed to unsuspecting people... I guess you're out of
luck.

~~~
icebraining
What if I want to browse for Adult content?

~~~
FireBeyond
Then find something else - I fail to see how you have a particular right in
this case for Tumblr to provide your adult content to you.

~~~
icebraining
Oh, for sure, I'm not one of the "enraged" people; I just wanted to point out
that it's not just a matter of changing a flag.

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candybar
I don't see a problem here - given that NSFW/porn traffic is worth much less
than other traffic and even less to a generalized blogging platform like
Tumblr, what's going on is that they are presently subsidized. This is an
attempt at reducing the subsidy and making the platform less attractive for
pornographers or even casual NSFW bloggers. For instance, if a porn pay site
wants to create a blog to promote their site, why should Tumblr make it easy
for them to do this on their platform? It doesn't really help them in any
realistic way.

~~~
TheCraiggers
What's your source for that "NSFW/porn traffic being worth much less than
others"?

As far as ads go, traffic is traffic, and clickthroughs are clickthroughs. Not
only that, but Tumblr is a social media service, and like all social media
services, they live and die by the amount of users they manage to keep. People
who join for boobs are still people that can convince their friends to join.

~~~
candybar
No, traffic is not traffic in advertising. If you have a popular blog on home
improvements, advice on mortgages or home purchases, the price you get for
advertising is going to be orders of magnitude higher than advertising on
random lolcat blogs, which in turn is going to be significantly higher than
ads on porn blogs.

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alanh
UPDATE: Tumblr says this was all a combination of poor design, anti-spam
measures, App Store censorship, and plain old misunderstandings.
[http://staff.tumblr.com/post/55906556378/all-weve-heard-
from...](http://staff.tumblr.com/post/55906556378/all-weve-heard-from-a-bunch-
of-you-who-are)

Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6073519](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6073519)

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shastamcnasty
Thefreepornguide.com has a list of all nsfw tumblrs.

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tn13
This is really sad. I am unable to understand why the mainstream web companies
like Yahoo! Google has such disdain for pornographic content.

I can fully understand that they do not want their family traffic to go there,
but then why cant charge us a small amount and give a better access to all
those adult blogs in much more efficient way ?

~~~
DannoHung
People don't want their products advertised next to porn.

~~~
tn13
Yes, that is perfectly understandable. Do not advertise those guys but there
might be people who wish to do the same, also there might be other
monetizations methods that can be used.

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Brainix
theworstdrug.com scrapes a lot of NSFW animated gods from Tumblr.

TechCrunch article here: [http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/05/22/what-is-it-about-
porn-an-...](http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/05/22/what-is-it-about-porn-an-
interview-with-the-founders-of-theworstdrug-a-nsfw-gif-site/)

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downandout
It seems that as long as Yahoo has resources at its disposal, it will buy and
destroy everything it can. Even worse, their addiction to failure transcends
management shakeups. I used to simply not care about Yahoo; now I actively
want to see it fail.

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mrt0mat0
i want a search for porn tumblr sites only please! you guys can have the rest
:)

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rch
Doesn't the opt-in setting make this a non-issue?

(not a tumblr user, so I might be missing something)

~~~
mcrittenden
You can opt-in for "NSFW", but not for "Adult".
[http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw](http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/nsfw)

~~~
rch
Well that is unfortunate. Thanks for the clarification.

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_pmf_
A sad day for attention whores and basement wankers indeed.

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rhokstar
Safer web always wins.

