From Automattics News Blog:
Since Automattic acquired Tumblr we’ve made it more efficient, grown its revenue, and worked to improve the platform. But there’s one part of the plan that we haven’t yet started, which is to run Tumblr on WordPress. I’m pleased to say we’re kicking off that project now!
We’re not talking about changing Tumblr. We’re not turning Tumblr into WordPress. That would defeat the purpose. We acquired Tumblr to benefit from its differences and strengths, not to water it down. We love Tumblr’s streamlined posting experience and its current product direction. We’re not changing that. We’re talking about running Tumblr’s backend on WordPress. You won’t even notice a difference from the outside.
Running Tumblr on WordPress will make it easier to share our work across platforms. We can build something once and bring it to both WordPress and Tumblr. We can run Tumblr on the rock-solid infrastructure behind WordPress.com. Tumblr will benefit from the collective effort that goes into the open source WordPress project. And WordPress will benefit from the tools and creativity we invest into Tumblr and contribute back to WordPress.
This won’t be easy. Tumblr hosts over half a billion blogs. We’re talking about one of the largest technical migrations in internet history. Some people think it’s impossible. But we say, “challenge accepted.”
Do you yearn for the days when people owned their corner of the internet and expressed themselves in wild and wacky ways? Do you want to see an internet focused on creativity, art, and ideas instead of debating and dividing? Do you think content and data should be owned by authors and artists, instead of getting locked behind the closed platform of a mega-corporation? Do you want to build an internet where anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone with a product can sell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world?
This is what we’re building at Automattic. We are passionate about making the web a better place. You can see it in our creed and our actions. We’re forming a team of smart, creative people to kick off this project. If you love writing code, eat data for breakfast, and are ready to join the fight for the open web, we want to hear from you!
*** end of statement ***
Ken Pierce Media Thoughts: Now before I get into some editorial thoughts on the matter, let me reiterate that the above copy was culled from the Official News section of Automattic’s website and is being shared with you in order to keep you all informed and especially if you are using Tumblr as a means of sharing your own creativity with the world. Now as you know, KPM is still using a Tumblr Blog but for us its mostly just a feed to our other core websites. When a post goes live on PiercingMetal or Piercing Ken in WordPress BTW, this link is sent to the KPM Tumblr automatically for some additional reach. For a number of years I was also able to port our Instagram posts to the network but that seems to have been turned off by Instagram. So I’ll admit that I’m no longer all that enamored with Tumblr as a platform despite maintaining course with it. When Automattic took them over I had hoped for a better statistics model and the ability to have them be a more professional acting blog service as opposed to being something mostly for hobbyists and artists. They started and killed a live aspect, started and killed the means of being tipped and then we learned how staff was being redeployed to other projects. Now as far as their being a half billion blogs I will venture a guess that several hundred thousand of them are dead blogs or spam placeholders. While they got rid of the explicit content some time ago I still see numerous suggestive images in the feed that can lead a visitor elsewhere and likely to a compromising dotcom. Do I like the move to WordPress? I guess I do if it makes the network smoother but I do still think that these moves are leading us towards the eventual full integration of Tumblr into WordPress. Sure they say in the above that this isn’t the case but who knows what will be the view in the coming months. I do hope this move is better for the platform and cleans it up as a whole. Perhaps they need to implement warnings on adult-themed content like Blogger does. Keep it family friendly etc. What do you folks out there in the Net think? Are you still using Tumblr as a serious means of your creative work? I’d love to hear if you are.
As I wrap this up I’m going to share that video from some time ago when I decided to import my whole original Tumblr up to that date into a shiny new WordPress. I figured that some of you might be considering a similar option and while this ended up working I’ve still got miles of editing the old content based on being too “today busy” for complete focus. See you next time.
Official: http://www.tumblr.com
Official: http://www.wordpress.com