Petition to have Tumblr actually do something about porn blog bots following users.

• It’s annoying.
• It gives an imperfect metric for how many followers you have. (I would estimate about 25% of my “followers” are porn blogs run by bots).
• It makes pulling up your activity page iffy even if you use Tumblr strictly for SFW content.
• It’s problematic for individuals who have struggled with sex and/or pornography addictions, especially since many of the blog names are not obviously porn names, causing you to preview the blog.
• It exposes minors to illegal and harmful content.

And to many some of us:
• Porn (not the human beings in the porn) is disgusting.
• (Some of us, but not all) also find porn degrading to human beings, especially women (simply because women are more often the central attraction in porn, not because they are women and therefore somehow magically more affected by sex than men.)
• It makes Tumblr a less classy, less reputable place.

Please share this if you agree this is a serious problem.

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Update Aug. 01, 2016: Both myself and others who’ve messaged me regarding this have tired to contact Tumblr support directly, through email, and through Twitter. Aside from a generic copy/pasted response about how great it is that we’re being vigilant against spam, they have not taken any action or even acknowledged that this is a problem for many users. They don’t even take action when a user complains that the porn-bots are using their non-NSFW pictures for the porn-bot profile picture, or when the bots steal copyrighted NSFW images for their own use.

I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I’m beginning to think Tumblr has a vested financial interest in the porn-bots and actively wants to keep them going. For example, they might have back-door agreements with major porn sites because this is a great way to bring in new users (especially young users)  who don’t yet visit those sites. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that they don’t care about this problem. I encourage you to reach out to them directly as well through various social media. This will not change unless they feel like it will be more beneficial for them to deal with the problem than leave it the way it is. 

Edit: Whoa. I posted this less than two days ago (July 25th 2016) and already it’s by far my most popular post (4,300 notes). It’s awesome seeing this kind of response, and I’m happy I decided to make this even though it seemed silly at the time. I was writing it as a way to vent more than really thinking anything would come of it, but I couldn’t be more pleased.To the people saying thank you because they thought they were alone in being really annoyed and/or disgusted by the porn-bots: Thank you! I didn’t know so many people agreed on this issue. I thought I was in the quiet, silent minority. Now I’m rethinking that. It goes to show we’re more alike than we think.To everyone reblogging and tagging @staff : Thank you! I didn’t realize that was an option. How great would it be if something actually came of this?Of course, we could choose to go on other websites. But I’m guessing I’m not alone in my confusion as to why it’s easy to avoid porn on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, DeviantArt, etc. etc. but close to impossible on Tumblr. I can’t imagine it’s beyond their capabilities to deal with this issue.Lastly, people have added a couple more reasons this is a problem. It’s a problem for:

• People who are repulsed by sexually explicit images
• People who don’t mind “normal” sexual images but who can’t get the (often violent) hardcore gifs out of their minds after seeing them with an accidental preview.
• People who are religious and disavow pornography. Obviously it’s not a sin if the contact with pornography is accidental, but it still causes negative guilt-like feelings, especially when they catch themselves linger over the images, even for curiosity’s sake. I’m sure there are even more.

Edit #2: Some people have brought up their concerns about what I mean by “especially women” and if I mean to target sex workers as part of the problem. These are great questions!  I address them here.

Edit #3: Even though I specifically said only some of us find hard-core porn disgusting, some people have brought up their concerns with what I mean by that as well. I can understand why you would feel that way, and really my beef about the porn-bots doesn’t need that to be effective, but in case you are curious. I discuss that here. If you are then further curious to see what kind of guy would have such strong opinions about porn, you can read this. I’m happy to talk about it with you, but please note this is not an open invitation to attack my beliefs. :) 

Edit #4: One more quick edit before going to sleep for the night. I realize my plea for getting rid of the porn bots also touches on much more complicated issues that people have strong feelings about. Porn-use in general, sex workers, misogyny, philosophy, religion. It’s good to talk and even debate, try to understand each other better, but I also feel like this should be a more focussed thing. Let’s just deal with the one thing we agree with: the porn bots suck eggs and they need to go. By reblogging this, you are NOT saying you agree with whatever other beliefs I may hold. This is only about the porn bots. I should have been tighter on my original composition, focusing only on the porn bots. (Man, that’s a weird sentence.) I’m really sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings today in our discussions. That’s not the kind of person I am, but short bursts of text are not the best medium for convey complex feelings and emotions. Goodnight.