So now that Tumblr is going through the crapper, it’s time to read the writing on the wall and start talking about alternatives.
Mastodon is the one I’ve tried the most and I like it a lot so let me tell you what it’s all about!
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is like Twitter: it’s a short-form social media network. For each “toot” you have 500 characters.
What sets it apart is that instead of being thrown into a sea of hundreds of millions of users, it lets you start by picking an “instance” to join.
What are instances?
They’re like communities or neighborhoods. Each has its own set of rules, and moderators and admins to enforce them. Each user is also identified by their instance, like an email address. So if user ILoveDogs was joining the basic server @mastadon.social, their username would be ILoveDogs@mastodon.social
But your friends aren’t limited to your instance! You can find users on the federated timeline, or search for hashtags or specific users.
There’s instances for everything, but let me talk about a few of the coolest ones.
Mastodon.social – The main instance, has 250,000+ users. It’s mostly general, and allows all content that follows the code of conduct. It’s HUGE and I wouldn’t recommend it if your interests are more niche.
Niu.moe – My instance! If you love anime and gaming, or basically anything to do with Japanese pop culture, this may be the instance for you. It doesn’t allow underage depictions of sex (photos or drawings), or harassment of any one person or group. NSFW must be hidden.
Sunbeam.city – A Socialist instance with a solarpunk theme. It’s relatively small, but fairly active. If you’re an activism blogger or love nature, you might fit right in. They explicitly disallow Nazis and fascists and sexual harassment, and believe in transparency with their members.
Queer.party – An instance surrounding the LGBTQ+ community. They have a friendly and considerate staff that encourages tagging triggers and reporting content that goes against their rules.
Witches.live – This instance focuses on witchcraft and has a very welcoming community that also really loves memes. They’re smaller, but if you’re a witch, then you’ll fit in right away.
This is only a small section of the instances on Mastodon. And if you can’t find one you like, you’re free to make your own!
Each instance also has a federated timeline, which also you to see and interact with users from instances your instance approves of. So if catsarebetter.meow doesn’t like dogsarebetter.woof, you won’t see posts from the dogsarebetter.woof instance’s members.
What other features are there?
Your icon can be a .gif!
Custom emojis in each instance
Censoring your posts with trigger warnings that require a click to view
Easy blocking of NSFW content
Filtering!
It’s all open source!
What are you waiting for?
Sign up at JoinMastodon.org today!
(And don’t forget to tag your #introduction post with #tumblrmigration so we can find you!)
Okay, folks. So. Tumblr’s jumped the shark in a big way, and I’m not even just talking about indiscriminately blocking all “adult” content on a platform that IS, in fact, primarily 18+.
Many blogs, like the wonderful @blackkatmagic , that are not especially NSFW have vanished.
(And I for one LIKE being able to go to curated porn blogs run by actual people and have a chance of finding stuff to my taste, it was one of the things that kept me on this hellsite, but that’s another issue entirely.)
I know lots of people are talking about migrating, but none of us are sure to where yet. Pillowfort seems to be an option, some people are talking about Twitter. But for now, it’s a mess, and even if we knew where we were going, it’s often a huge process, and a lot of us have stuff on tumblr that ONLY exists there.
One possible quick solution to save your blogs, both NSFW and personal, is to import it to WordPress. I found this solution through from frantic googling on how to save an entire blog, text posts an all. There are several apps for downloading all the pictures from a tumblr, (Plently for Windows, but only a few paid ones for mac, of which Tumbelog Picture Downloader is working for me so far) but this is the only solution I’ve seen so far that allows you to save EVERYTHING. I downloaded my NSFW blog in like 10 min. My regular blog, which is significantly larger, is in the process of importing, but I don’t anticipate any problems. I will, of course, update you if I have any.
This tutorial I found worked really easily. http://quickguide (.) tumblr (.) com/post/39780378703/backing-up-your-tumblr-blog-to-wordpress
I put parenthesis around the .’s like we’re back in FF-Hell, just in case tumblr’s new thing about outgoing links kicks in. You know what to do.
To break it down, just in case:
Sign up for a WordPress.com account at wordpress (.) com/start
You’ll have to create an account, with your email, a username, and a password. They should send you a confirmation email immediately, check it, activate it, and you’re good to go.
On the site, it will ask you for a site name. That page asks you a bunch of other information too, but you only have to fill out the site name.
Then you have to give your site a URL. If you’re lucky, your tumblr URL is still available, if not you’ll have to come up with another one, sorry.
It will tell you if that option is still available for free.
Then it will ask you to pick a plan. Free is really good enough, I swear.
Now you’re set up! You can import your tumblr!
The only differences from the linked tutorial are that the Import button is now on the first level menu, not in tools.
Hit Import, then you have to follow the link for “other importers” at the bottom, to find the option for Tumblr.
Then you’ll have to sign in with tumblr, using your normal tumblr credentials. You’ll be redirected there automatically.
You’ll have to allow WordPress permissions on your blog.
Then your blogs, including all your sideblogs, will show up in wordpress.
Hit import, wait a WHILE depending on the size of your blog, and you’re done!
ALSO!!
I made my NSFW blog private for now, since I don’t know WP’s policy on NSFW.
This means that to access it, someone has to have an account and request access. But hey, part of our problem on this hellsite has been people going places they aren’t wanted, so I don’t personally see this as a bad thing. They can send a request from the landing site on your blog, you get an email, click a link in the email, and PRESTO, they have access.
To make it private, go to Settings > Reading > Site Visibility. Go back and check, it took me changing the setting twice for it to actually stick.
tl;dr, you can import your entire blog to wordpress in just a few steps.
I’m going to tag the hell out of this, in no particular order. PLEASE reblog this and spread the word so people know it’s an option. If you’re having trouble, PM me, and I’m happy to help.
De Gene Zijde 