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Yahoo Censors Tumblr Porn
coolnumbr12 writes "When Yahoo purchased Tumblr in May, Tumblr founder David Karp said Tumblr wouldn't be changing, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said, 'Part of our strategy here is to let Tumblr be Tumblr.' But a new search policy went into effect Thursday that excludes all adult blogs from Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines by disabling indexing of anything it tags as 'adult.' The policy effectively makes the content and 10 percent of Tumblr users completely invisible."
I think the point is that they're not allowing spiders to crawl pornographic tumblrs. That affects everyone who uses a search engine that respects robots.txt.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Isn't the result the same? Whether you take it down or hide it, people who want it can't find it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I imagine a lot more interesting content is on that part of the network.
Not only Yahoo's index, they're blocking indexing for Google and Bing also. Presumably via robots.txt or similar.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Really? Erm, I think we should be given a list so that, you know, we can, err.., check their data-collating algorithms for accuracy. Yeah, that.
"When Yahoo purchased Tumblr in May, Tumblr founder David Karp said Tumblr wouldn't be changing, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said, 'Part of our strategy here is to let Tumblr be Tumblr.'
Yeah, and when an independent website gets purchased by a large corporation the executives never lie to the users of a new acquisition to keep them from doing a mass exodus. After all, the users themselves are a part of the deal.
I dont think somehow this is such a bad idea. I mean, they could have just deleted all those pages really
If nobody can find them what's the difference? Is this like getting out of a speeding ticket on a technicality?
Nobody is going to publish content to places no visitors will go. That defeats the whole point of publishing.
Rendering 10% of Tumblr invisible is an improvement and a great start. Please get to work on the other 90%, too.
Host $5 website. Post redirect to tumblr. Let google index your $5 website.
Your three words are meaningless. Coprorations can't censor speach (at least in this context, what actually goes on in Washington is another matter). Claiming free speach rights within the context of a private enterprise is like claiming that your free speach rights are being infringed if I throw you out of my house after you've broken in holding a megaphone. Its astounding to me how few people understand that the 1st amendment is a contraint on GOVERNMENT, not a general use wrench you can hit anyone over the head with.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
my robots.txt contains one item which doesn't exist.
If you try to access that item your IP is added to the firewall drop list. (until the next reboot)
I don't even have much hosted, just some pictures I don't want to give to flikr.
Well, first of all, there's the question of who determines whether or not it's 'Adult' or merely 'NSFW', since they're treated differently. Since the barrier for 'adult' appears to be that you post nudity often, there are some non-pornographic photographers that are being caught in the net.
Secondly, as of right now, #gay is a verbatim search term. This affects not just porn, but posts about LGBT politics.
Thirdly, lots of artists were migrating to tumblr BECAUSE it was a way to join a network where you could be discovered by fans. Painters and cartoon artists that post pornographic art also can't be found anymore. I know more than one artist that stopped hosting their own portfolio site because it was easier to post on tumblr and provide a DNS redirect. It was a good system, and now the rug has been pulled out from under them.
This isn't just about hardcore porn; most (all?) of that stuff is discoverable through google, even if it's not packaged up as nicely. There's a lot of fandom and art going on that counts as 'adult' content, and it seems to me that it's being unfairly punished.
Plus, honestly, it's nice for users like me to be able to follow some of these people and discover new things that I like and have it all mixed in with my goofy fandom gifs and gender politics and whatnot. I LIKE how tumblr works right now. To me, this is just the puritanical nature of North American culture and law rearing its ugly head.
point is that they're not allowing spiders to crawl
No, that's tangential. The point is people have made different types of information publicly available, using a private service, and now that information is being effectively taken offline with no recourse. The content is content tagged as "NSFW" or "Adult" which could affect educational content, or content not approrpriate for minors -- which isn't always porn.
This is really falls into the broader category of censoring information which was previously publicly available. FTFA that's about 12 million sites apparently
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Yeah, but how do you know it's a honeypot, and not just a normal 404 situation? If you start excluding every site on the internet that has missing pages in one of its indexes, you aren't going to have a very good data set.
It's not just blogs that feature posts tagged as "adult," it's the entirety of any blog tumblr has already flagged as NSFW or adult (the overall blog flag, not just posts). My personal photography blog has been branded as NSFW, as I sometimes post risque work. Basically, there will be no new discovery of my blog, since Tumblr's also blocked internal tag searches for such blogs as well (unless one is already following said blog). My rate of addition of new followers dropped precipitously after that. Bastards...like the occasional nipple is going to end the world.
That? That was a pigeon.
It's still a dick move, and you know it.
Some people use their blog as a source of income. That income depends on their blog having an established, searchable presence. Some of those blogs may have the kind of content (like porn) that you or other people may personally look down on.
"Just make your own blog" is a terrible option when you already *have* an established blog, because it means moving and losing a lot of your traffic.
I don't see anyone where arguing that what Yahoo is doing should be *illegal*. They're arguing that it's not a good thing to do, and I agree with them. Finally, I fail to see any good reason that they need to do it, since the major search engines all have adult content filtering already. It's unlikely that Google or Bing demanded that they de-index adult oriented blogs.
I like pr0n as much as the next guy but a Slashdot groupthink seems to be developing that any entity restricting porn is bad evil censorship.
That would be because it is censorship.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
And, they are stipping the tags from those sites as well so that in internal search will not show those sites either. You have to either see their content through a reblog or if you're following them.
I got here through a series of tubes
David Karp insisted they weren't going to try and censor the adult blogs, while appearing on the Colbert Report just three days ago.
.: Semper Absurda
Free speech is the right that no coercive force will be used to stop speech. It mostly applies to government, but could apply to anyone being physically threatened for what they say.
Censorship, as is commonly used, isn't limited to free speech, but also in instances where there was an implied liberty to speak one's mind. If a television show bleeps someone out, that's called "censorship". If a library removes a book over interest group pressure, that's "censorship". If a newspaper fires a columnist for something they wrote, that's "censorship" (if said newspaper refuses to print someone's letter to the editor, though, that's distinctly not censorship).
And if Tumblr is changing their policy to restrict more forms of speech, that would be censorship.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
and make your own blog. Or use Google blogger. Or any of a thousand different ways. Why is this even news?
If generic blogs were an acceptable substitute for what Tumblr does, they wouldn't have 100 million users.
I like pr0n as much as the next guy but a Slashdot groupthink seems to be developing that any entity restricting porn is bad evil censorship.
Why is it good when it's non-governmental? The loss of utility is the same whether it's done by a government or by a corporation. It may be less bad when it's not backed up by force, but it's still a shameful act by Yahoo, and they deserve to be shamed for it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
To be classified as porn, two opinions have to be met: provokes a sexual response, and has no artistic merit.
Given that people have rather elaborate sexual fetishes, the first part can be (and is) used to classify practically any type of content as porn by at least someone. Not to mention that some people get a hardon from leather boots -- ergo leather boots are pornography? The second aspect is grossly subjective as well, as some people find art in the arrangement of trashcan contents.
Because of this, what get's classified as porn by one individual may not be classified as such by another. Strictly speaking, it becomes a scenario of "you can't look for this because I said so". Well, excuse me, but... I've outgrown the need for parenting on that level. We're basically all adults (or on the way of becoming one), and the world is ran by adults for adults. Subjecting all of us to childlike treatment is an insult.
Self expression need not be limited to original content. Self expression is completely satisfied by the following statement: "I like X" (or XXX, or whatever). Publishing is no longer a profession in of itself (types of publishing may be). Furthermore, you don't really get a say whether their point was worth making, it's subjective and irrelevant to the discussion.
and make your own blog. Or use Google blogger. Or any of a thousand different ways. Why is this even news?
Because they didn't come out and say, "Starting in two months we will stop indexing any site that we think is questionable. This will give you time to move your adult material to a new site." Instead they do it without any warning whatsoever. That's a big fuck you to their customers. How many times will this do this kind of thing again in the future?
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Someone should make a search engine that *only* indexes the stuff that robots.txt suggests against.
I imagine a lot more interesting content is on that part of the network.
Yep. I want "Unsafe search" as an option for my search results - filter out all the mundane crap.
No sig today...
While 10% of the blogs are estimated to be tagged adult.. It's actually closer to 25% of their traffic. I'm guessing internally they knew that tumblr's adult content was rising faster than the rest of the site, and they certainly don't want it to be primarily adult. It might be better for them long term, but there should be some brushback over this.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
Be fair - it's hard to think up cogent analogies for other situations when you're inside a welded box that's been encased in concrete.
I'm surprised he's got any Internet access in there at all, frankly. I'll have to figure out how that happened before the next time.
#DeleteChrome
If you're using a service for free, chances are you're not the customer.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
...as if millions of wankers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Seriously though, Yahoo has a knack for turning acquisitions to shit. Nobody should be surprised here. Expect more "improvements".
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
We hate you back
Fine! I'm gonna go build my own image microblog, with blackjack and hookers!
Probably should make it distributed and censorship-resistant by design.
I propose this new site be named bendr!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Why should he? His art is his art.
Far better response would be to move all of it together to a better place, and choose some better social medium.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
OK, so: "that's a big fuck you to their product". Still pretty stupid.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
No, there isn't a limit to "side blogs" as they're called (I run another one for information on my band's tour schedule). Replying to messages and following other blogs is limited to your primary blog, however.
As far as self-censoring the occasional photograph I take that might have boobs, the horse is already out of the barn. Someone at Tumblr made the call some time ago that my blog was NSFW (luckily, they recognized the difference between art and porn, and did not flag it as "adult." This NSFW flag can apparently never be changed (Tumblr has no mechanism for review or protestation of their classifications). I'd have to start completely over, and somehow convince my several thousand followers to go follow the new blog. At this point, I've got too much invested in "my brand" to deal with any of that.
That? That was a pigeon.
Pornography is one of the MAIN driving forces behind much of what shapes the web today. It may be a waste of space in your opinion, but there are hundreds of advancements in web design, storage, streaming, and so on that would not be where they are today without Pornography.
If you don't like it, fine, but give it credit when it is due. Don't dismiss it.
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
Most women can't stand porn? Are you a new kind of moron?
For a good discussion of this, see the following post at Eros blog:
http://www.erosblog.com/2013/07/19/tumblr-admits-then-denies-hiding-porn/
Eros reported on this back in May, and here has a good discussion of the evasions and falsehoods from Yahoo!
Some of my relatives use a booth at a weekly swap meet as a source of income. That income depends on their booth having an established, locatable presence. Yet the swap meet could change their policies and refuse to sell them booth space at any time.
If you're going to base your livelihood on a business, it's best to put it entirely under your own control. In my relatives' case, buy/rent their own store location (or get together with other booths at the swap meet to co-own it). In a blogger's case, pay the $10/yr for your own domain and $5/mo for hosting.
This is the same reason why captive marketplaces like iTunes or the App Store are a bad idea. No matter how successful you are, you're still at the complete mercy of the marketplace owner.
Well that's the risk you took when you decided not to put in the extra effort and money to start with your own blog, and instead took the easy way out and started with a hosted site which took care of most of the setup work for you. Do you have any idea how many businesses are locked into Quickbooks for their accounting because it was the quick and easy solution when they were first starting out, but now that they've grown beyond its capabilities they're finding it difficult to switch because Intuit makes it impossible to get your data out of their database?
Look, there are two types of people in this situation. Those who complain about how unfair all this is and get nowhere because while it's dick move on Yahoo/Tumblr's part, there's nothing wrong nor illegal about it. And those who take the lesson learned to heart, pay the cost to transition over to the right way to do it, and get on with life. That's the best way to improve your odds of independent success. Running a business isn't about only picking the "good" choices. It's about picking the best choice you have available. Making your own blog may be a terrible option, but if it's less terrible than being put out of business at the whim of some Yahoo exec, then it's the right choice.
Wait, the internet still has ads?
::turns off my adblocker::
::visits a couple of sites::
::turns adblocker back on::
Oh right...wow...this has gotten a lot worse since I last checked...
Aaaahhhh...that's better.
Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
More likely the company is trying to make itself more "family friendly" because they have seen that Ballmer is completely batshit insane and with the Yahoo Search deal going out soon are hoping to get daddy Ballmer to open that big fat wallet to either buy Tumblr or the whole thing.
Personally if the sweaty one gets his mitts on yahoo some programmer here needs to set up a free email with the yahoo look and a similar chat as they'll slaughter, all that Skype bullshit has caused a LOT of folks to go running to Yahoo (seen that sudden bounce Yahoo had a few months back? Well there ya go) and if the ballmernator replaces Yahoo with "Windows Live Bing 3.0 powered by Skype" you are gonna have a HUGE audience that will be happy to come to you, just charge for a couple of extras and enjoy the money truck that backs up to your place every month.
Oh and if you do this and make a mint? For a small fee you can have "help powered by Da Feet" which while not always helpful at the very least it'll be entertaining.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
"...just made it harder to find"
Imagine trying to find information at the Public Library if the librarians suddenly got rid of the catalog. Sure, you could find the information, but at serious cost to the amount of time you have available to you, and thereby preventing you from spending that time looking up other information. What Yahoo! has done is worse--they essentially took books off the shelves and put them in the fucking basement. Define it as you may, this is censorship.
Corporate Mass-Media is doing this with the Snowden/PRISM articles--they're there, just buried amongst all the Trayvon/Zimmerman articles. It's all Jedi mind tricks...
Not surprising, this is the same thing they did after they bought egroups back in 2000, they waited a few months, then made the adult groups disappear from the listings and search.
You misunderstood the analogy (I think). "Free Speech Zones" were nonsense created by the government intending to hide and push speech they didn't like to irrelevancy. The definition of censorship is not the point, but rather the act of pushing things off to a dark corner effectively stifling the content/speech is what is comparable here.
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
The people with porn Tumblrs don't need to move, they just need an easy way to be found. Why not a retro, Yahoo-style directory? That's how lots of us found things before search engines got so good. Just start tumblrporn.com (lawyers permitting) and list all the blogs Yahoo doesn't want indexed, in categories. Sell ads. Profit!
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Well that's the risk you took when you decided not to put in the extra effort and money to start with your own blog, and instead took the easy way out and started with a hosted site which took care of most of the setup work for you.
Wait what? Hosted site? My dear friend tumblr is much more than a hosted site. What you're talking about is effectively the same difference as posting of flickr vs making your own photography website. Or maybe creating a website of your life vs signing up to facebook.
Tumblr is for the large part also a social network. Users interact, friend, follow, reblog, and comment on each others stuff. You tag posts, tumblr offers a complete search engine for internal posts. This is not something you can replicate with a simple website. It's not just a case of hosting. It would not be possible or it would be incredibly difficult to reach even a tiny level of exposure that a simple tumblr blog can give you if you attempted to do it yourself.
To that end it's like many businesses are locked in to Quickbooks because they didn't hire in-house coders and accounting gurus to build from the ground up a business accounting system. Because every small 5 person internet cafe can afford to do that too right?
I was thinking that too. I wasn't aware that there was anything on tumblr that wasn't porn.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});