Douchebag of the Week (Feb. 14-20)
It was certainly a lively little week out there on the internets. When Facebook decided to tweak its terms of service, users proceeded to shit a brick and the social networking site promptly reversed course.
Why, even here on the platform for our site, Tumblr founder David Karp got himself into a bit of a pickle by changing its policy as well. How was the suspension of five fairly prominent Tumblrs for violating the “Harassment” portion of the content policy received? On Monday, AntiKris—herself a target of such Tumblr users—got the ball rolling:
I dont know how I feel about this. On one hand, it’s nice to not be reblogged with comments about how greasy, old, loserish, and all around awful I am, but on the other I dont think they should have been removed if that is what in fact happened.
While Karp tried to explain the move on Tuesday, the reception was still not very welcoming. From Soup, later that day:
These sites that were banned were not threatening, they simply were critical of other tumblrs, mine included. I’m a big boy, I can handle it. I don’t need tumblr to ban people who want to make fun of what I post. This isn’t kindergarden.
And while Karp tried to further apologize and better explain the decision, Tyler Coates made a very valid point:
Have you seen what most normal users post as original content? That goes against the idea of “considerate blogging.”
Speaking of original content, Baugher made one of the most astute points of them all, calling bullshit on Karp for his first explanation that “accounts with the explicit purpose of reblogging content in a derogatory way” wouldn’t even apply to Reblogging Julia, who also got temporarily axed:
First, notwithstanding the title of the blog, I don’t actually reblog Our Lady or her Handmaidens. I link to the posts I parse, but none of them have to read it unless they seek it out. Which they do. I don’t “abuse the reblog feature.” That explanation was horseshit.
So, it would seem that the move was ill-advised and that most any sensible Tumblr user found the decision to be incredibly poor for not just “anonybloggers,” but everybody in general.
Well, most everybody except for one Julia Allison, of course. In an e-mail to the folks at Valleywag, Allison explained her glee:
I haven’t asked David to take down any sites in a long time, so I don’t know where the impetus for this particular purge came from, but I’m thrilled that he has. I am absolutely in favor of ridding the Tumblr community - and the internet in general - of what one of my readers once called “mind cancer.” That sort of nastiness is insidious and it will rot communities unless someone says, “This simply isn’t an acceptable way to treat other human beings.”
There is no reason the internet should remain in its current Hobbesian state of nature. Someone needs to begin the long process of setting basic standards of decency online, and I’m proud of David - as a businessman, but also as a friend - that he and his company have the balls to do so.
Ah, of course she would be “thrilled” about something like this. We wouldn’t have Julia any other way. Whereas most every other sensible Tumblr was either outraged, disappointed or frightened by the suspensions of critical rebloggers, Allison couldn’t have been happier that the Tumblrverse would no longer include people who mocked her quest to become an internet celebrity for … well, we’re not quite sure what her credentials for fame are, actually.
Oh wait, we do have one now. Congratulations to Julia, for she is our first female Douche of the Week and an outstanding reminder that yes, even women—especially those who have little more to add to this “Hobbesian state of nature” than photographs of where they went shopping and hobknobbing—can indeed be douchebags too.
