More thoughts about the death of Tumblr
Late last week an acquiantance in the US attended a marketing conference, where one of the panels featured a staffer from Tumblrthe minimalist blogging platform that's been a darling of the internet since it launched in 2007. Quite unwittingly the speaker answered a question from a delegate about the removal of replies from Tumblr that confirmed not only that Tumblr lied through their teeth, but also that replies or commentscall them what you willare not coming back.
Replies are not coming back. Instant messaging replaced them. According to Tumblr's own data, there were only ever a few thousand people using the reply/comment functionality, but they were the core group of “bloggers”. They were the engine of the entire community. The Tumblr truck is still rolling down the hill, but the engine has been removed, and momentum is slowing (I'm rubbish at analogiesI'll never be a project manager).
I can't help feeling that the death of Tumblr is a good thing, all things considered. Blogging existed before Tumblr, and it will continue to exist after it's demise (which may or may not coincide with the death of Yahoo, but that's another post for another day). Tumblr tried to change the nature of blogging, and succeeded in a wayif you can argue that making a scrapbook from other people's scrapbooks is “creative” in any way, shape or form. The people that posted content on Tumblr will be missed, but the platform will probably be looked back on as a curiosity.
There has been talk of an exodus from Tumblr towards WordPress in recent weekstalk I have perpetuated, because I obviously would like to keep in touch with long time friends, and WordPress is doing a lot of things right. Historically, WordPress has made good decisions. Hosting journals with the facility for others to comment isn't exactly rocket science though.
Just an aside, rocket science isn't actually that complicatedso the comparison is often unfair. Now you know.
During a rare moment of clarity a while ago it occurred to me what Tumblr may be doing. I don't think they are idiots as suchthey are just misguided. Think about itif you make money from advertising page views, it's in your interest to cause as many page loads as possibleand if you can encourage brands to post engaging content that may be reblogged, the bottom line grows. The clue was written large when Tumblr re-worked reblogs to appear like a conversation some time ago. While having personal blog posts re-blogged all over the place isn't desirable, it's absolutely desirable if you're a brand. And the brands are the people paying for ad placement. Suddenly removing repliesto force reblogsmakes sense. More page views. More money.
Meanwhile, WordPress must be laughing into their sleeves. I remember when Posterous diedWordPress acted tremendously quickly, to absorb their populance. The same thing happened back in the day when Vox closed it's doors.
I can't help feeling that Matt Mullenweg is kind of like the Robert DeNiro character in Casinobeing everybody's friend, and encouraging you to come back and play some more if you win big. You may leave WordPress to try other platforms, buy you'll be back. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you'll be back.