
Categorizing Posts on Tumblr - samber
https://engineering.tumblr.com/post/148350944656
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j_s
Did they ignore NSFW categories?

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throwanem
That, or fold them into stuff like "photography", "art", maybe "writing" for
whatever fanfic stuff goes on.

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derefr
What exactly is that "gif art" category? Do they mean...

• actual _art_ in the medium of gif, like this?
[http://hexeosis.com/gif01/](http://hexeosis.com/gif01/)

• really just short videos with sound, i.e. "people sharing Vines on Tumblr"?

• subtitled clips from TV shows?

Those would all suggest very different business strategies Tumblr could
pursue.

• The first means Tumblr's userbase is really just trying to use it "as if it
were" Pinterest (i.e. "aesthetic blogging.") Tumblr could embrace and monetize
that, but it would require a pivot that would probably remove (what many would
see as) vital features from the site.

• The second means Tumblr's content spread is really just a reflection of the
relative popularity of video-sharing services like Vine and Snapchat and
Instagram among Tumblr's age-bracket[1]. Hard to monetize; it basically means
Tumblr is just used for sharing things created elsewhere.

• The third means a set of Tumblr subscriptions essentially satisfies the same
need that watching Entertainment Tonight does: seeing little highlights of
everything that's come out recently, maybe with responses. Tumblr—or really,
Yahoo—could certainly monetize the heck out of _that_ , but they'd have to
have some humility to do it: Tumblr, in this use, isn't an audience to
advertise to, but rather a huge set of content _creators_ you can advertise
and cross-promote.

[1] [http://www.statista.com/statistics/199242/social-media-
and-n...](http://www.statista.com/statistics/199242/social-media-and-
networking-sites-used-by-us-teenagers/)

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type0
So from the charts I see that tumblr is best used for gifs and astrology,
maybe even gifs about astrology. This should be followed by hipster fashion
and gossips. Social media at its best.

