Is Tumblr the new 4chan?
I’m not sure anyone who reads Startup Adventures has been paying attention to the sad story of Jessi Slaughter, 4chan’s latest tween meme-toy, but you can read about it on KnowYourMeme here or ED here (NSFW). It’s a fascinating story about the fluidity and power of the anonymous web, but a couple points in the articles particularly stuck out:
From KnowYourMeme:
The effects of her videos being posted to /b/ and various Tumblr blogs brought out the best of Anonymous, who began trolling her with taunts of her being stupid and ugly. She replied with comebacks that had little effect on the trollers.
From Gawker:
Here’s how the Internet’s rage—funneled by Tumblr and 4Chan’s infamous /b/ board—ended in this sad and ridiculous scene.
From ED:
She also seems to be an underage b& lurker or a total Know Your Meme n00b, due to her knowledge of several memes. She is the latest target of tumblr’s and /b/’s ire.
Call me old or out of touch, but what the hell, Tumblr? 6 months ago, this would’ve been attributed to “4chan” or maybe “4chan and eBaumsWorld”. In my world, Tumblr is the happy realm of new media hipsters — artists, designers, entrepreneurs and urbanites posting the latest LCD Soundsystem track.
When did it suddenly become Encyclopedia Dramatica with more whitespace?
I get how it works — Tumblr has taken serious VC money from some of the best consumer web investors on the east coast, and they need to continue to grow by orders of magnitude to justify the capital and achieve a proper venture exit. David Karp’s a smart guy, but I have to believe that this kind of growth will constrain the company’s ultimate value. There are a lot of reasons why Chris Poole has difficulty monetizing 4chan, but I don’t think it’s for stupidity or lack of trying. It’s just hard to make money off Anon.
Perhaps this is still a really small segment of Tumblr’s community. But given the natural virality of the platform, I would be seriously worried about these elements polluting the rest of the site. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the anonymous web is generally a Good Thing. I’m just not sure it’s a good business.
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Tumblr is a popular website that was created, perhaps, for blogging. While its original purpose has long since been forgotten, its present application is apparent: to provide a circlejerk space for every hipster, 16 year old girl, and Indie artfag to post their favorite stolen photographs and pieces of mediocre art, “meaningful” subtitled stills from pretentious popular films, as well as talking about how cool wolves are. In short, Tumblr consists of boring and vulnerable, boy crazy high school girls that wish they were someone else and the sensitive guys who ultimately win them over by posting desaturated Polaroids of their meticulously decorated bedrooms.
Tumblr's population consists solely of only the coolest and most trendy kids in your nearest suburb or recently gentrified urban avenue, as well as talented photographers, poets and writers. If the Internet had property for its users to virtually dwell in, Tumblr would be the gentrified neighborhood full of studio apartments, paid for by mom and dad. Tumblr users probably want to go to art school to study painting, and likely will get in with enough hard work. But, alas, they are likely to drop out after discovering that reposting images on the Internet didn't magically give them talent.
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This is tumblr.
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In my world, Tumblr is the happy realm of new media hipsters — artists, designers, entrepreneurs and urbanites posting the latest LCD Soundsystem track.
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This is your fantasy world.
Oddly, those descriptions are not that different. Maybe 5 years' delta.
Okay, Brad, I'll call you out of touch. This comparison of Tumblr to 4chan is baseless, absurd and unfair.
Tumblr is designed around respectful behavior – e.g., no native commenting as part of core feature set (ironically, note your anonymous commenter here with the silly take on our diverse community). We also have a clear ToS against hate speech, posting of personal information, etc. And actively enforce it. Anyone that knows us, David, or has firm handle on Tumblr – understands positivity is one of the key drivers to the service/community and we don't tolerate what happened to this minor. The Gawker writer clearly isn't familiar with Tumblr, or just didn't care and was motivated by spike in PVs. Hence the re-posting of the video of an 11-year-old.
4chan is driven by anonymity and sniping. This runs completely counter to Tumblr.
We don't know each other but based on the fact you're an EIR at a venture firm, you're clearly bright and understand this space. But I'm surprised to see you lead with that headline ripped from Gawker, and continue this unmerited comparison. And to suggest that our investors are putting pressure to continue scaling by encouraging anonymity and this type of behavior, couldn't be further from the truth.
Our growth continues and we're focused on continually moving the service forward, with emphasis on the community and UX.
What happened to this child was awful and we were upset that any of it took place on Tumblr. And we did something about it as soon as we were alerted to it.
John Maloney
Tumblr
John, just because Tumblr doesn't like the behavior and is actively working against it doesn't mean the comparison is baseless. It may mean that the potential negative outcomes will be averted, but there's clearly a sizable contingent of 4chan on Tumblr.
From your response, it clearly seems that Tumblr's management was as surprised as I was that your company was mentioned in parallel with 4chan in relation to this mess. I think most people in the NYC tech/media community were surprised.
I'm sure there's a sizable group of Anons on omgpop and formspring as well, but Tumblr's (very useful) viral design makes their presence much more… felt.
(Edit: I wasn't intending to pick a fight with Tumblr with this post. I like David and all the folks from Tumblr I've met, including their investors. I'm more interested in meme culture and how social groups co-exist online, which is clearly something Tumblr has and 4chan does not.)
Calm down spaz. He was comparing the two inasmuch as they have already been compared, or at least mentioned in the same sentence, ad nauseam.
Calm down spaz. He was comparing the two inasmuch as they have already been compared, or at least mentioned in the same sentence, ad nauseam.
tumblr is designed around taking pictures, music, and video from the internet and then reblogging it all over the place. If you are lucky, somewhere in the giant mess you might find the original attribution. Actually, the only place that generally happens with is pixiv, probably because the japanese aren't assholes.
tumblr is designed around taking pictures, music, and video from the internet and then reblogging it all over the place. If you are lucky, somewhere in the giant mess you might find the original attribution. Actually, the only place that generally happens with is pixiv, probably because the japanese aren’t assholes.