(2016-08-01) Wenger Thinking About Leaving Tumblr Looking For A Decentralized Blog Network

Albert Wenger: Thinking about Leaving Tumblr: Looking for a Decentralized Blog Network. My blog Continuations has been on Tumblr since I started writing it a bit over eight years ago. But now I am seriously considering moving away from Tumblr.

First, Tumblr is not supporting https for custom domains, which means over time my content will be penalized by Google’s search algorithm.

Second, Tumblr has started rewriting all URLs. I am sure this serves an important analytic purpose for them but I want my links to point directly to where I set them.

Third, Tumblr has started to run ads on blogs.

I was an angel investor in Tumblr and early on spent a bunch of time talking to David about monetization. My hope at the time was for the ability to “follow with money.”

I was imagining something like Patreon, but integrated into a publishing platform. (patronage)

it is 2016 and if I am going to make the effort to move Continuations, it will be to something that I control entirely.

ideally the platform I move to would include a decentralized network

In functionality my ideal system would be quite similar to Tumblr + Disqus but would use something like Onename as its identity system. Every post (and comment) would be signed with an identity and it would be possible to follow content based on identity independent of publishing location. (2016-08-08-WengerSignAllThings)