We are at sea again today – somewhere in-between Egypt and Tunisia. We arrive in La Goulette near Tunis the day after tomorrow.
While noodling around on the internet over the last few days – on a voyage of discovery across all manner of platforms – I somehow found myself going full circle back to Tumblr – where my blog lived for a long time – and wondered if my account still existed. Apparently it did, but I had to request it be resurrected – so I made the request and forgot all about it – until this morning when the email arrived telling me the request had been processed, and I could once more begin polluting Tumblr with my idiot blog posts.
With nothing to do today, I thought “what better way to while away the morning than back-fill Tumblr with everything posted in the recent past”. I know how to amuse myself.
Along the way I asked Google Gemini if there was anything I should know about Tumblr that I might have missed over the last year or so – and was genuinely shocked at the response.
Apparently Tumblr is for all intents and purposes on “life support”. An email was leaked from Automattic a couple of years ago that outlined the colossal losses the platform was generating every month – literally millions of dollars a month. Automattic stemmed most of it by gutting staff, and re-architecting it’s back end – but it’s still loss making, and there doesn’t appear to be a way out – every time Automattic tries to implement any way or generating revenue from the platform, the users revolt spectacularly.
It’s a shame. I’ve been a member of Tumblr since the beginning, and can’t help feeling I should be there once again – at the end.
I suppose as with all these things, Tumblr won’t be shuttered – it will eventually be sold – but what might then become of it is anybody’s guess.
Anyway.
My blog now co-exists once again at Tumblr, WordPress and Substack – for now – powered almost entirely by nostalgia. Three horcruxes.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve done quite enough noodling for today, and should probably go find something to eat before the army of eating machines completely empty the buffet. I wonder if they realise the chefs can actually cook more, and there’s no actual hurry? When the mid-day bells rang out around the ship today, there was a slow stampede of sorts towards mid-ships.
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