Every Ending Heralds a New Beginning
The last 12 hours have been interesting. What started as a single post to Tumblr inviting people to try out WordPress turned into a quiet murmurof sortspeople resurrectinglong dormant WordPress accounts, and beginning to explore. For some it was their first experience of WordPress, while for others it was a trip down memory lane.
None of this would have happened if Tumblr had listened to their users. What appears to have happenedand I might be wrongis Tumblr has re-positioned itself as a viral content marketing machine for wealthy artists, brands, and celebrities. Given the meteoric rise of Buzz Feed, and the insane levels of traffic generated by “list-icles” throughout the wider Web, it would seem the marketing monkeys have been given the keys to the Tumblr zoo. Their first act ? Removing replies.
It's worth remembering that Tumblr never had replies in the distant pastthey were tacked on as an afterthought while trying to compete with established blogging platforms. Over time a small section of the Tumblr communitythe bloggers (as in, those writing about daily life)used Tumblr, despite it's many flaws, because it was easier to use than the alternatives at the time. No investment was required to learn how to postyou could even re-post other people's content as your own. Tumblr rewardedlaziness.
The removal of replies at Tumblr means the only way to interact with content is to re-post it in the form of a “re-blog”. The content gets shared again, and again, rewarding the content creator with more and more eyeballsmore hearts and minds. That traffic is worth advertising money, and that's what this all really comes down tomoney. At some point all free services on the internet have to pay the piperand removing replies appears to be a subtleroute towards profitability.
While reading the predictably abrasive commentary from the close-knit blogging community at Tumblr about the idea of switching to another platform, the chief concern seems to be how they might find each other again elsewhere.
Here's the thingand not a lot of people are going to agree with thisendings invariablyusher in new beginnings.
While the community we once knew at Tumblr will never exist again elsewhere,there is a huge opportunity not only to begin again, but to make sails for undiscovered countries.
I can't help being reminded of Plato's allegory of “The Cave”, where the inhabitant of a cave that had only known the outside world through shadows cast on the wall of the cave was suddenly exposed to the wider world, and could then never return. Moving from Tumblr to WordPress is a similar experiencethe difference in scale of their respective blogging communities is startlinglike sailing from a small inland sea into a vast ocean of peopleall telling their story, sharing their dreams, their hopes, and their ideas about life, the universe, and everything inbetween.
The learning curveissteep, and reaching out to find new readers is awkwardbut if nothing was difficult there would never be any reward. The best friend you might ever have couldbe looking for something to read right now, half a world awaywaiting for you to write the post that will change both of your lives.
What are you waiting for ?