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.)

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

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.
“”"”

This is tumblr.

“”"
In my world, Tumblr is the happy realm of new media hipsters — artists, designers, entrepreneurs and urbanites posting the latest LCD Soundsystem track.
“”"

This is your fantasy world.

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.nn(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.)