Effective 12/17/18 tumblr is going to begin deleting everything that does not fit their new guidelines in the name of free speech and people being unable to make their own decisions. That's up to them of course but it means that all "adult" content is going away. What hurts so bad is having over 5,000 followers there representing four years of steady effort and it's all gone. There's thousands of photos and gifs there for the moment -

https://mudpuddlevisuals.tumblr.com/

https://quicksandvisuals.tumblr.com/

I have no idea how the BBFC plan to police this in the UK - will they really be going to spend months on the internet trying to block these sites? It might be easier for those based in the UK, but unlikely for those that are not. I should imagine that the intentions might be one thing, but the reality is likely to be another thing altogether. As we already know through the efforts to rid the web of torrent sites, a big fuss was made when PirateBay fell, but dozens of others took it place.

The sad thing, I agree, is that people have four or five years of posts on their tumblrs, and these will eventually go. The Tumblr enforcement of their long-standing no-porn rule appears to follow child porn images being found. But there is some naivety if Tumblr or anyone else thinks they can't be found in every part of the internet, and sadly will continue to be there. This isn't going to get rid of them - and quite how Tumblr can police hundreds of thousands of their customers, I have no idea.

Interestingly, the BBC have come up with this article on their news website:

*
FROM THE BBC:
Tumblr has a major porn problem - bots, spam and, most seriously, images of child abuse.

But for those that use its site legally, the decision to ban adult content across its entire network is seen as a reluctance to tackle the issues properly.

Tumblr has decided to give up, rather than do as other sites have done and invest in measures to handle illegal content, while allowing sexual expression.

"There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content," said Jeff D'Onofrio, the site's chief executive, in explaining the decision.

He's right, of course. There's a lot of porn out there. But Tumblr has long offered something different, and important.

Founded 11 years ago, Tumblr is a platform where users can publish text, images and videos quickly, as well as share and comment on other submissions. The site's popularity peaked in 2014. Yet as its use dwindled, its reputation as an alternative corner of the internet grew, not least as a place to find unique adult material.

Unlike typical pornography sites, which overwhelmingly cater to men, and serve an often narrow definition of what is attractive, Tumblr has been a home for something else - content tailored at vibrant LGBT communities, or for those with tastes you might not necessarily share with all your friends.

If society deems it acceptable for any porn to be on the internet, then that acceptance must surely be inclusive. Unlike most of those other sites Mr D'Onofrio speaks of, Tumblr has been a space where different body types are sexually celebrated, not degraded.

In 2015, Cosmopolitan described Tumblr as a place where women "can explore their sexuality with the support of women without judgement or fear".

It argued that Tumblr's design seemed to cater to different physical need: offering a slow, building stream of visual and emotional content - rather than the instant video gratification of sites designed with hurried male audiences in mind, fast-forward button and all.

Many on Tumblr have been fearing a porn ban since the network was acquired by fading web giant Yahoo in 2013. That time, the adult content was allowed to remain. But in 2017, when Yahoo was acquired by Oath, the digital arm of telecoms giant Verizon, the writing was on the wall.

"I had feared this day would come," wrote one user, who runs a fetish account, in response to the chief executive's message on Monday.

"I'm so sad to see this happen, and can't believe I'll be losing this blog. I honestly don't know what I'll do without it, but I truly hope that the kinky community comes up with a new place for us all to get together and share."

When the new guidelines come into effect they will prohibit any depiction of human genitalia, "female-presenting nipples" or sex acts - including illustrations. There will be exceptions for classical artistic works and political protests that involve nudity, but the company warned enforcement might be inconsistent. Users are able to export their posts if they wish to leave the platform.

"We've given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward," Mr D'Onofrio said. "We've realised that in order to continue to fulfil our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change."

That change means marginalised people, those who are all-too-used to being ostracised in their offline lives, now face it in their online space too. Some of the internet's most-needed communities are now homeless.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46435975

Tumblr was where I first found my sploshing success start to expand. For now you can see it at http://messyhot.tumblr.com in it's total glory before they kill it. It was a big traffic pump for a long time but at least now I'll be forced to pay more attention to my own site

These new rulings coming in are stupid. Over on Twitch, they are saying that they may be required to get proof from every streamer that they are within the copyright laws of that particular game they are streaming.

The issue we face is that the world is still very closed to fetishes and porn in general. People still react very strangely to ladies stripping or men banging one out on camera and it's very sad. I have a friend who cam's, and some of the things she's been called in the past is unbelievable, and I think that's where a lot of these laws stem from, people who try and shy away from the world, but it brings everyone else down.

They'll rely on busybodies reporting things. There are lots of people who really do have nothing better to do all day than interfere in other people's business, who will happily spend all day every day searching for things they can report.

I imagine the initial tranche of blockings will be of sites that are already listed as porn on the various big lists that the mobile and broadband providers already use to block adult content unless you've opted in to view it. The UMD is already on those lists. So as Andy says, if the UMD doesn't implement some form of (officially acceptable - which probably means the PornHub system) age-verification for at least connections from UK IP addresses, it will be blocked. And given the UK is about 1/3 of the entire global WAM marketplace, that's going to negatively affect a lot of people.

All UK producers with UMD-based download stores will need to acquire international VPN facilities as a matter of urgency, or we will no longer be able to administer our stores or prepare new scenes for release once the block goes live.

Andy, the extract from the legislation you highlighted makes it an offence to possess an image that is both pornographic and extreme (not just pornographic). "Extreme" is defined by reference to specific acts that are set out and include such things as sex with animals and corpses and non-consensual sex, all well-outside what would be allowed on UMD and all I think illegal in the UK.

I dont think this part of the legislation need be a cause for concern to people in this community. Age verification is a different matter.

Alan

Andy, I agree that the definition of pornographic is very wide but the definition of extreme is quite specific and under the section of the act you highlighted you would only be committing an offence if you had an image that was pornographic AND extreme. Simply having a pornographic image is not unlawful.

Also the legislation is from 2008 (not 2018). The note at the top of the page says that amendments up to 5 December 2018 are included but the only actual amendments are from 2015.

I see your point, although I think we'll be protected by the sheer logistics of it. Just look at the problems the police/CPS are having trying to deal with the ludicrous number of things (and just ludicrous things) that now count as "hate crimes". I can't realistically see them making even more work for themselves by pursuing the millions of grown adults who own perfectly legal images, or how they'd even be physically able to.

Like me with Pornhub reporting for you guys for instance. This means thousands of new government jobs for cucks, neckbeards, and white knights such as myself. Great right!!?

Can't wait to see what they have next in store for video games! Last time it was a bunch of self righteous twats bitching about how over sexualized women are in video games while parading around naked in public saying shit like 'this is what real women look like'. Oh the double standards.

This is extremely sad. In my evolution and discovery as a bi/pansexual being, like UMD, tumblr had been an important part of that discovery. The announcement states that there is no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. That is an absolute fallacy and misnomer. There is no shortage of sites that feature prurient or salacious content. But not true adult sites where you can view real people in moments of passion or vulnerability, and have a conversation or express how it makes you feel. And by how it makes you feel I'm not talking about "Dayum, that makes me horny, I'd hit that!" I'm talking "Wow, I've always considered myself straight, but looking at those guys together, I don't know, does this mean I'm gay?" And the conversation that follows is of support and guidance and compassion.

Having the context of an exotic image or GIF, and being able to read or participate in a truly "adult" conversation was very important to discovering who I am, and I doubt I would know that without the opportunity sites like UMD and tumblr presented. Removing the narrow definition of adult material because a small segment of the population can't be actually adult about it, or because of a small minded outside view of it is cowardly.

While the gunge tumblr sites will be much missed and a disaster for some here who rely on them in various ways, my deep concern is that the tumblrs concentrating on vintage/antique homoerotic and nude photos will not disappear. Despite the nudity, they are rarely arousing, but these are photos from a hundred and fifty years ago in some cases, and those tumblrs really are of remarkable use to historians and researchers when it comes to anyone looking into how men (gay and straight) have interacted with each other over the years. Most of the pics come from private collections, and if they leave the internet, the likelihood is that they will not be posted again. It would be a real disaster for anyone interested in social and cultural history.

Let's be positive.

What alternative sites are here to Tumblr (now that they are restricting their content) for good general porn content.
I know there is Youporn and Xhamster, but they are note quite the same.

Yes UMD have the specific content we like, but where is the best place for the sort of stuff you used to be able to view on Tumblr ?

I really expect to see Tumble FAIL, as they are closing down much of their content.

I wonder what would happen if porn producers started doing photo sets of scenes from the bible. Wonder if the uptight people would have a conflict. But I do not recommend trying to recreate Job's daughters getting him drunk and raping him.

It only takes about 10 minutes to create a Reddit account and then create your own SubReddit. We have one for Vidown updates but we currently have posting turned off for anyone but mods. It's at

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vidown

Our system automatically posts catalog updates there and can also post them to the producer's own SubReddit if they have one.

We do something similar on Twitter

https://twitter.com/vidowndotcom

If a producer has their own Twitter account and enters it into our system, they are automatically tagged in their store's updates. They can then retweet them or not.

As far as I know, you can still do your own thing on Wordpress.com too.

Besides the download store system, we also operate a general webhosting service here:

http://themothership.net

Anyone can operate their own site for very little money and there's a one-click Wordpress installer too if they want to run their own blog or forum

There are plenty of other avenues left.

Job's daughters? I was originally raised a good little Christian and I've read a LOT of apocryphal books. Never heard about that one though. I remember Lot offering up his daughters to gang rape, and Noah's youngest son Ham doin him in the butt while he was passed out drunk... but Job's daughters is definitely a new one to me.

Am I the only producer that hates people sharing gifs and images from my work on social media like tumblr/instagram? Even if they are properly accredited (which is in the minority of cases). If I wanted to post my work there, I would do it myself. I don't post it there because I want my work to stay on fetish sites, specifically here, and not platforms that everyone in the general population is on.

I realize this probably qualifies as "fair use" and that I just have to accept it if I'm putting this material out there. But I really hate it.