masterpost of tumblr alternatives

olderglow olderglow

this post will be updated as I find more websites to add! please check with the original before reblogging to see if there’s an updated version, and message me with corrections or more suggestions if you have them!!

websites in red have explicitly forbidden the posting of NSFW content. websites in orange allow certain types of NSFW content or have questionable / unclear guidelines.

for general use

friendproject.net - built on myspace, great blog customization
gab.ai - added for completeness, but has a huge alt-right + racism issue
joinmastodon.org - basically like if twitter and discord had a child??
mewe.com - privacy-focused, has groups and private messages
minds.com - allows you to exchange traffic for being promoted (??)
myspace.com - yes, it still exists, i’m just as surprised as you
nibblebit.com - similar to tumblr with reblogs / likes / customizing of blogs
pinterest.ca - easy sharing and collecting, but has many issues with theft
swarmr.com - an exact tumblr clone down to the default images (??)
twitter.com - allows posting both text and photos in sets, allows retweets

geared towards writers and bloggers

archiveofourown.org - specializes in hosting fic, excellent tagging system
dreamwidth.org - a blogging site similar to livejournal or wordpress
fanfiction.net - another big name in fanfic posting
livejournal.com - technically an option, likely unsafe for LGBTQ peeps
mibba.com - for creative writers, centered around community feedback
quotev.com - decent website for original / fan fic and fandom quizzes
royalroad.com - hosts webnovels and other fanfic, nice dark theme
wattpad.com - modern pretty fic site with direct links to irl publishers
wordpress.com - old and well-established, often considered the default

geared towards artists and photographers

artstation.com - excellent website for posting professional art portfolios
behance.net - meant for professionals posting various visual media types
deviantart.com - huge community, allows posting art + sorting into folders
flickr.com - great community for photographers, can join groups
furaffinity.net - similar to DA but for furries, easy to display commish info
galleria.emotionflow.com - very similar to pixiv, with imo better tagging
instagram.com - photo and video posts, excellent tag search
newgrounds.com - an oldie but a goodie, allows a ton of media types
piczel.tv - allows both streaming and posting art / photosets to a gallery
pixiv.net - huge anime art community, allows livestreaming
vero.co - app only, similar to insta but with MUCH more privacy control

chat or forum based

aminoapps.com - community-based, has blogs + chat, custom themes
discordapp.com - great chat app, text + voice, can join infinite servers
reddit.com - literally a community for everything, SO MANY CAT PHOTOS

18+ only

bdsmlr.com - microblogging + social media for people into kink
blogr.xxx - a tumblr clone created specifically for sharing porn
fetlife.com - considered one of the biggest kink communities online
libertine.center - beautiful + modern site for posting irl nsfw and kink stuff
thefetlibrary.com - for posting of erotic stories, replaces bdsmlibrary

paid platforms

patreon.com - subscription-based access to many diff types of content
typepad.com - similar to wordpress but with reblogging and a dash

up-and-coming platforms

pillowfort.io - closed beta. should function almost identically to tumblr but with many many improvements
poizen.me - development alpha. gorgeous website for artists to post art AND track comms

this one’s still early in development but looks incredibly promising as a platform and super pretty to look at!! go snap up a username before all the good ones are taken! ~~favouritism what’s that~~

qink.co - pre-alpha. 18+ only. plans to be a kink-oriented replacement for tumblr.

defunct platforms

~~(so people will stop telling me i forgot them)~~

jux.com - shut down in 2014 due to lack of funds
shoandtell.me - now redirects to someone’s personal blog
soup.io - more or less closed down this year due to GDPR issues

ways to save your current tumblr posts

use the wayback machine! you do have to archive each page of your blog individually but once you do all the content, including media, will be saved exactly as it was at the moment you archived it.
wordpress allows you to directly import whole tumblr blogs, and if i recall correctly it’s something both dreamwidth and pillowfort have said they are working on.
tumblthree is a great tool with a ton of functions including downloading whole blogs, only posts tagged with a certain tag, all the posts you’ve liked, etc. etc. along with being able to download every type of media hosted on tumblr (pictures, videos, audio, everything). it also has a proper GUI so no computer knowledge required beyond downloading and running programs!
if you have some knowledge of computers you can try this github solution which uses a python script to download your whole blog to your computer. even if you don’t know anything about programming or the command line they give a very good beginners tutorial on how to use it so you should still give it a shot!

if that’s still a little daunting you can try soarcodes’ tumblr post that also has a decent tutorial!

here’s another python script that should allow you to archive all the images from your blog or your likes, though it requires some knowledge of python and the command line or very very good google skills.

some notes

edit: please stop commenting on this post to self-promote your porn accounts on other sites. those replies / reblogs will be deleted or hidden.

please note that every site on this list will have pros and cons, and i haven’t listed them here since this post would be a mile long otherwise. please do your research before moving completely over to another site in case they have policies you disagree with.

also, because I see a lot of misinformed people ranting about this: deviantart does not own the art you post. some years ago hot topic stole a ton of art from DA and sold it on merchandise and people assumed that DA gave them permission to do it despite there being literally zero evidence for that claim. DA explictly states in their TOS that you retain copyright and sole license of the art you post.

and related, mastodon does not allow or condone CP or pedophilia. the people spreading this info are misinformed about what mastodon is. it is not an exact twitter clone; anyone anywhere can host a mastodon instance using their personal computer as a server, which means mastodon as a company can’t do jack shit to moderate them. what they DO is permanently block all users from every other instance from viewing or interacting with that instance, and add that instance to a publicly viewable list along with the reason for the block. please give their post about anti-abuse measures a read before making snap judgements.

post version 5.1, 2018-12-04 23:46 AST

yayroos

For everyone’s information:

The plan for the 17th, when the adult content ban comes in, is to protest.

To do that, we are making as much noise either side of the 17th as possible, and using the site as normal.

On the 17th, dead silence.

People are saying log off but what they really mean is don’t open the site or the app.

But, on the 17th make as much noise as possible on every other platform. Tweet about it and post on facebook and instagram and everywhere else.

What this does is causes a massive dip in ad revenue for one single day. That does not make staff think ‘oh everyone’s gone let’s shut down.’ What it actually makes them think is ‘oh shit people aren’t happy and if people don’t keep using our site we’re out of money and out of jobs.’

A boycott reminds a company that the users (consumers) have the power to make their site (business) worthless with one single coordinated decision.

If you want to join in, here’s what to do:

Do:

Close all open instances of the app and site on all your devices before the 17th
Make posts before and after the 17th on tumblr and other platforms, talking about why this ban is bad
Make posts on other sites during the 17th. Flood the official tumblr staff twitter and facebook with your anger and your opinion
Come back on the 18th and check in

Don’t:

Delete the app from your phone (this doesn’t affect their revenue and since it’s off the store at the moment it’ll be hard to get back)
Delete your account. I mean you can if you want to, but if you keep your account and don’t use it you’re saying to staff that there’s still time to save it. If you delete it’s hard work to come back.
Open the app or website (including specific blogs)
Make any posts (turn down/off your queue and make sure nothing is scheduled)
Go quiet elsewhere. Make it clear that this is just about tumblr, not a mass move away from all social media.

Remember: the execs don’t care about anything but money. Shutting down the site means there’s $0 further income from it. That’s their last possible course of action. If we make it clear we’re not happy, they’ll have to do something or we can do more and more until it becomes too expensive.

Protests take commitment. They’re a defiant action against a business that is doing something wrong. They will try to scare you into not participating, because they’re scared. We hold all the power here, sometimes the execs just need to be reminded of that.