Tumblr To Join the Fediverse After WordPress Migration Completes

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse -- the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out, the current plan to tie Tumblr into the open social web will come about by way of the site's planned move to the WordPress infrastructure. Automattic confirmed to TechCrunch that when the migration is complete, every Tumblr user will be able to federate their blog via ActivityPub, just as every WordPress.com user can today. The company noted that the migration could also allow for other open web integrations, like giving Tumblr users a way to run other custom plug-ins or themes.

Last summer, Automattic announced it would move its half a billion blogs to WordPress, to make it easier for the company to build tools and features that worked across both services, while also allowing Tumblr to take advantage of the open source developments from WordPress.org. Though the WordPress community itself is in a state of upheaval, ultimately running Tumblr's back end on WordPress would allow for greater efficiencies, while not changing the interface and experience that Tumblr's user base has grown to love. Automattic declined to share a time frame as to when the migration would be complete, given its scale, but a rep for the company called the progress so far "exciting." Automattic didn't say if it would consider integrating with the AT Protocol that powers Bluesky.

Two things can be simultaneously true

[memory_register]

First, I like the idea that the Fediverse is growing, and an open source alternative is being promulgated. This fact makes me more likely to join.

Second, a lot of the Fediverse is filled with self righteous hard left Twitter refugees who are mad about free speech. This fact makes me less likely to join.

ATH

[OrangAsm]

AT Protocol? Has anyone tried posting +++ATH on their blog?

pr0n?

[supabeast!]

I don’t know what all those buzzwords mean. Does this mean that we can have porn on Tumblr again? Because that’s really what everybody wants.

Re:

[karmawarrior]

Tumblr - a once popular social networking platform that died when an anti-child pornography campaign over-extended itself into a ban on all nudity or sexual content. Since then the platform has been batted from owner to owner ending up in the hands of Wordpress developers Automattic.

Automattic - developers of Wordpress and current owner of Tumblr, in the news recently because of weird behavior by its CEO Matt Mullenweg related to preventing one major Wordpress user and contributor from using its open source

WordPress....

[bleedingobvious]

Tumblr just became 30 million times more infectious.... but not just in the VD way...

Never heard of anyone using Fediverse

[bsdetector101]

Still trying to hype something that most people will never use !

Re:

[mcfatboy93]

[raises hand] I live in the Fediverse (Lemmy and Mastodon), its nice once you build your own block list. There is a growing sentiment that major platforms are intentionally toxic and while the Fediverse does not completely fix that, you have a lot more control over the content you see. Plus, if you dont like your own instances moderation policies, you are free to set up your own.

Re:

[karmawarrior]

There's plenty of stuff "Most people never use" that's still useful, should we stop talking about Python or C here too?

FWIW, that icon on the top that kind of looks like a comma with an M on it? That's Slashdot's Mastodon feed. Maybe if you've never heard of anyone using the Fediverse, that's because you've made a conscious effort to ignore people using it?

Rodger Federer

[Gavino]

As a long-time tennis fan, I cannot hear "Fediverse" and not think of Rodger Federer. I'm sure there are others who also think this (probably not many).