Why “Go Nuts, Show Nuts” Doesn’t Work in 2022

For those who don’t know or remember, Tumblr used to have a policy around porn that was literally “Go nuts, show nuts. Whatever.” That was memorable and hilarious, and for many people, Tumblr both hosted and helped with the discovery of a unique type of adult content.

In 2018, when Tumblr was owned by Verizon, they swung in the other direction and instituted an adult content ban that took out not only porn but also a ton of art and artists – including a ban on what must have been fun for a lawyer to write, female presenting nipples. This policy is currently still in place, though the Tumblr and Automattic teams are working to make it more open and common-sense, and the community labels launch is a first step toward that.

That said, no modern internet service in 2022 can have the rules that Tumblr did in 2007. I am personally extremely libertarian in terms of what consenting adults should be able to share, and I agree with “go nuts, show nuts” in principle, but the casually porn-friendly era of the early internet is currently impossible. Here’s why:

1. Credit card companies are anti-porn. You’ve probably heard how Pornhub can’t accept credit cards anymore. Or seen the new rules from Mastercard. Whatever crypto-utopia might come in the coming decades, today if you are blocked from banks, credit card processing, and financial services, you’re blocked from the modern economy. The vast majority of Automattic’s revenue comes from people buying our services and auto-renewing on credit cards, including the ads-free browsing upgrade that Tumblr recently launched. If we lost the ability to process credit cards, it wouldn’t just threaten Tumblr, but also the 2,000+ people in 97 countries that work at Automattic across all our products.
2. App stores, particularly Apple’s, are anti-porn. Tumblr started in 2007, the same year the iPhone was released. Originally, the iPhone didn’t have an App Store, and the speed of connectivity and quality of the screen meant that people didn’t use their smartphone very much and mostly interacted with Tumblr on the web, using desktop and laptop computers (really). Today 40% of our signups and 85% of our page views come from people on mobile apps, not on the web. Apple has its own rules for what’s allowed in their App Store, and the interpretation of those rules can vary depending on who is reviewing your app on any given day. Previous decisions on what’s allowed can be reversed any time you submit an app update, which we do several times a month. If Apple permanently banned Tumblr from the App Store, we’d probably have to shut the service down. If you want apps to allow more adult content, please lobby Apple. No one in the App Store has any effective power, even multi-hundred-billion companies like Facebook/Meta can be devastated when Apple changes its policies. Aside: Why do Twitter and Reddit get away with tons of super hardcore content? Ask Apple, because I don’t know. My guess is that Twitter and Reddit are too big for Apple to block so they decided to make an example out of Tumblr, which has “only” 102 million monthly visitors. Maybe Twitter gets blocked by Apple sometimes too but can’t talk about it because they’re a public company and it would scare investors.
3. There are lots of new rules around verifying consent and age in adult content. The rise of smartphones also means that everyone has a camera that can capture pictures and video at any time. Non-consensual sharing has grown exponentially and has been a huge problem on dedicated porn sites like Pornhub – and governments have rightly been expanding laws and regulations to make sure everyone being shown in online adult content is of legal age and has consented to the material being shared. Tumblr has no way to go back and identify the featured persons or the legality of every piece of adult content that was shared on the platform and taken down in 2018, nor does it have the resources or expertise to do that for new uploads.
4. Porn requires different service providers up and down the stack. In addition to a company primarily serving adult content not having access to normal financial services and being blocked by app stores, they also need specialized service providers – for example, for their bandwidth and network connections. Most traditional investors won’t fund primarily adult businesses, and may not even be allowed to by their LP agreements. (When Starbucks started selling alcohol at select stores, some investors were forced to sell their stock.)

If you wanted to start an adult social network in 2022, you’d need to be web-only on iOS and side load on Android, take payment in crypto, have a way to convert crypto to fiat for business operations without being blocked, do a ton of work in age and identity verification and compliance so you don’t go to jail, protect all of that identity information so you don’t dox your users, and make a ton of money. I estimate you’d need at least $7 million a year for every 1 million daily active users to support server storage and bandwidth (the GIFs and videos shared on Tumblr use a ton of both) in addition to hosting, moderation, compliance, and developer costs. 

I do hope that a dedicated service or company is started that will replace what people used to get from porn on Tumblr. It may already exist and I don’t know about it. They’ll have an uphill battle under current regimes, and if you think that’s a bad thing please try to change the regimes. Don’t attack companies following legal and business realities as they exist.

If you needed proof that it's not about fairness, but solely about excluding us from public life, well...

I'm not really sure why you need proof of that but here you go.

My Gal, The Finale

It’s here, the final chapter of My Gal! I hope when you read it that you can feel every ounce of love I poured into this comic. My Gal started as a silly little comic 8 years ago but blossomed into my love letter to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and my love letter to all of you! I’ve found my joy and passion in illustration again and I’m so thankful for all the support you’ve given me now and through the years. But most importantly, I just hope this brings a smile to your face ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Can you believe the original ending I had for My Gal didn't even have a kiss goodnight?! What the hell Evay?! Obviously I had to completely rewrite my ending. See, it was worth the wait after all!

Other than drawing the hedgehog smooches, my other favorite part of making this chapter was recreating some of my favorite Sonamy scenes throughout all of Sonic media history (seen in the fourth page of this chapter). Hopefully you'll recognize some of those iconic scenes!

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twitter is broken today 😭 are there any other ways that people search for anthologies to apply to?

might not be broken actually! Might be working as intended!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1675187969420828672?t=Vz-o-KCqBCFe4Yn5InM-YQ&s=19

OH FUCK! okay twitter is dead, that’s amazing. this is a death blow. does he not understand that the platform relies on addictive doom scrolling, and that people actively want to quit but can’t because it activates all the right brain chemicals? this is wonderful for me at least, with Elon’s help I can finally kick this particular addiction.

Zim is autistic and is going to turn the world autistic

rip to people who have to 100% agree with everyone they follow but i'm different

Friendly reminder that LGBTQ+, Queer, and LGBT+ are the preferred terms for the community (x).

Friendly reminder that Queer is approved by 72.9% of the people, and the groups who don’t prefer it’s use as an umbrella term are straight people, exclusionists, transmeds, truscums, sex-negative people, and sex work critical people (x).

Friendly reminder that aros and aces are excluded only 9.2% / 8.1% of the time respectively while being included  78.9% / 81.2% of the time (x)

Friendly reminder that exclusionists are in the minority and aro/ace people are included in the LGBTQ+ community by the people within the community.

Also, i checked out the survey the second claim sources a while back: this is not OP choosing the words truscum, exclusionist, etc. These are labels that the survey gave people the option to self-identify as. It’s self-proclaimed exclusionists who dont like the word queer, not random accusations

yeah that’s super important. 

This one gets reblogged on main. The reclassification of ‘queer’ as an inexcusable slur is a recent development which stems in part from exclusionist rhetoric. We reclaimed it decades ago. Learn our history. You are not immune to TERF propaganda, but you can absolutely choose to educate yourself to spite it.

Be kind. 💜

only "art tip" that matters is you can do whatever you want forever

"NEVER do this it makes your art UGLY" "fixing bad art" "NEVER give your ocs a mental disorder or any sign of not being neurotypical even if you have the disorder you want to give them" "dont give your characters self harm scars thats PROBLEMATIC" [yes i have actually seen that one before.] "Anything that isnt realism is UGLY" SHUT UP !

Glad everyone agrees .

Here’s some positivity for headmates who are transfem boys and transmasc girls!

Being part of a system can have a profound influence on someone’s gender. Sometimes contradicting labels can allow systems and headmates to express themselves to the fullest! This post is for all the transfem boys and transmasc girls out there!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to systems and headmates who are bigender, multigender, boygirls, and girlboys!

⚧ Shoutout to transfem headmates who use he/him pronouns and transmasc headmates who use she/her pronouns!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to transfem and transmasc butches, femmes, twinks, otters, and bears!

⚧ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls whose gender is inherently connected to their plurality!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are taking HRT, planning gender reassignment surgery, or are transitioning in other ways!

⚧ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are only interested in transitioning socially!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are still questioning their gender identities!

⚧ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are comfortable and at home with their gender and self-expression!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are intersex!

⚧ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who have faced transphobia or harassment due to their identity!

🏳️‍⚧️ Shoutout to transfem boys and transmasc girls who are T4T or Sys4Sys!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having conflicting or contradicting labels. Your gender is valid and you are lovely just the way you are! Remember that you will always be a vital and cherished part of both the plural and trans communities. You bring a unique perspective to these communities that is valued and needed!

Please continue to learn and grow, and to discover how to live your best life unapologetically! Rest assured you and your system will always be welcome in our spaces. We’re rooting for you and we wish you the very best!

(Image ID:) A pale orange userbox with a cluster of multicolored flowers for the userbox image. The border and text are both dark orange, and the text reads “all plurals can interact with this post!” (End ID.)

theres something about the fact that us trans men are counted as women when we're dead or statistics and forced to misgender and erase ourselves to recieve health care for parts we have or when we need help when the world makes us dead or statistics but when we try to say anything about it we're told this is apparently a privilege and we should shut the fuck up about it - or worse that we're predators for needing these resources that remove our manhood from us in order to be accessed

Never trust a furry disliker

To clarify, since everyone’s asking— it’s fine if you feel off-put by or apathetic toward furries. That’s your prerogative. My point is that the people who constantly feel the need to announce to the world how much they hate furries (often in a violent way) are 9 times out of 10 telling on themselves about how they regard people they don’t (want to) understand