Back when Tumblr deleted all my blogs, including some very innocent gaming ones about two weeks ago in the so-called "Tumblr purge", I noticed how some of my friends and people that I followed got their accounts back pretty quick, and some weren't even affected in the first place, and it just left me wondering: What did I do wrong? Did I deserved this? Was I considered a toxic or unwanted member of that community?
As days went one, and not seeing any signs of getting my account back after trying to reach Tumblr's support, I started to think that would be it, and only a handful of artist were going to be struck by the ban hammer from the site... "Just my luck". I'm a nobody, so I can't make enough of a noise to force them to give me my account backs like I've seen some social media influencers do in the past, it's pretty much a lost fight.
I resigned my hopes of getting my accounts back, and I didn't see much point of starting a new one if it was going to share the same fate, so it was time for me to move on.
It wasn't until recently that we all got the news that this was just the beginning of an even bigger event, one that would affect a massive group of artist and creative people that were just trying to use their talent into something that is considered Taboo or shameful by normal social standards.
It's not the first time that I've had to face the unfortunate event of losing something dear or valuable to me, feeling defeated by a major failure perhaps to then having to start all over again, and the worst feeling I believe is just that one of being powerless or insignificant over that even, like you're all alone in this and you have no control over the situation, and when you try to fight back when you have no resources, no reach, no power, no level of influence, no one to support you, it feels like there's nothing you can do to change the situation on your favor. Because let's be real, If it was only a group of smaller creator that were affected by this, nobody would have really cared and people would have moved on without us, some didn't even noticed what happened the first time, they were already moving on, I saw it, you can't say that wasn't the case XD
I'm not saying that I'm happy that all of this happened, I'm sorry that you lost all your hard work and tears invested on the site, I'm sorry that you lost your +40,000 followers that you worked hard to reach, I'm sorry that some of you lost content so suddenly without being able to back it up first, I'm sorry that you lost all the fun interactions that you had with people you met over the years through asks (arguably one of the best features of the site)... but if you want to see a positive in all of this, At least we're all on this together.
When I found out that almost every user from Tumblr was going to be banned for one reason or another I couldn't help but laugh, not because of all the things we were losing, but because of the ridiculousness of the whole situation, and seeing how almost everyone of us was under the same problem, it gave me some extra motivation to just... work. We're all on the same boat and conditions, let's keep on going, we still have the same level of skills as we did before, we haven't lost everything.
I'm already making some friends that I wouldn't have met if all of this didn't happen, hopefully I'll meet new ones through this post, and maybe you should do the same, at least this is bringing the community closer than it was before and that's always a positive, we're not gone, we just lost a platform, together we can rebuild everything, on any place, or any Newgrounds.
ESummerdown
Rather appropriate, old friend. (Hey it's Summerdown. You know me better by my DA name Uncle_V. ^~^)
It is quite a bitter feeling when one loses a post, an account, an entire platform! simply because what it is is somewhat more daring or eyebrow-raising. And there is no good that Tumblr turned as sour as it had, kicking out damn near everyone as an extreme solution.
But the good since that happened, as you outlined, is the communities now available to us that we otherwise would not have found, that now we're a little closer together and (hopefully) more supportive of eachother and of our kinds of content.
I can't convince everyone, but we all have a right to go about the internet at our leisure, to draw what we may, like what we like, and pursue our version of expression whatever that is.
And maybe neither of us are very influential, but it takes somebody to start something, and if you had to ask me, I think already a discussion is happening about all this.
Linker
I just find it interesting that there's attempts in all fronts of making the internet more "Correct" and "accessible" but they don't mind destroying a good part of what made the internet great, that is it a place where we can have discussions about Taboo topics that are usually not as accessible in daily life and mainstream society like Sexuality.
The internet has been acting like an outlet for stuff like that for many people (when used correctly), and now they want to censor it and disband this type of communities by taking their platforms away.
It is true that some people are always going to use it the wrong way, and if they're doing illegal activities they should be prosecuted for their crimes, but how can an illustration hurt anyone?