Hi all! With the spate of accidental blog deletions recently, I thought I’d write up a little post about a Python program by @discoinferno that I used to back up my blog!
My entire blog, all 57,649 posts at the time of backup, are now stored on my computer’s hard drive. 40 gigabytes of blog! It took about 8 hours to download, and I feel so much safer having it all saved.
Obviously I haven’t gone through the entire file to make sure all the photos and such are there, but I have gone through and spot checked, and it all looks great.
If you want to use the program I used, here is what you do:
3) Click “Download ZIP,” and put the .zip file wherever is convenient for you. I put it in Documents, but you can put it in your default Downloads folder if that’s easier.
4) Unzip the file. In Windows, you can just right click and select “Extract all” from the menu. If that doesn’t appear, you may need a program like WinRar, which is free and downloadable online.
5) In the unzipped folder, tumblr-utils-master, there will be a folder with the same name. Double click on that and take a look at the files. You are going to click on the file called “tumblr_backup_for_beginners.md” and tell Windows to open it in Microsoft Word or whatever word processor you use.
6) The instructions in that file are amusing and easy to understand, and they will walk you through the rest of the process! Just follow them exactly, and you should be all set!
Additional notes before running the program:
1) PLUG IN YOUR LAPTOP
2) You’re going to want to go into your power settings and change the settings that make your computer turn off the screen, go to screensaver, or sleep after certain amounts of time. You don’t want to have to restart this process two hours in, trust me lol
3) Make sure you have enough space on your hard disk for your entire blog. I don’t know what happens if you don’t? I assume the program just stops, which is a lot of wasted time.
Good luck!
EDIT: This does not back up videos unless you download another package. Check out the “tumblr_backup.md” file for more info.
This still works right now.
It’s a simple bit of following directions. I’ve never coded in python before, and I followed the built in beginner instructions from the .zip and it works out just fine.
I recommend if you are wanting to back stuff up, do it with this. I started the tumblr backup about a week ago and it is still not done nor is it available to me to download yet. I can’t see me getting that before the 17th either, given that there’s big old swathes of it they will want removed.
Okay, folks. So. Tumblr’s jumped the shark in a big way, and I’m not even just talking about indiscriminately blocking all “adult” content on a platform that IS, in fact, primarily 18+.
Many blogs, like the wonderful @blackkatmagic , that are not especially NSFW have vanished.
(And I for one LIKE being able to go to curated porn blogs run by actual people and have a chance of finding stuff to my taste, it was one of the things that kept me on this hellsite, but that’s another issue entirely.)
I know lots of people are talking about migrating, but none of us are sure to where yet. Pillowfort seems to be an option, some people are talking about Twitter. But for now, it’s a mess, and even if we knew where we were going, it’s often a huge process, and a lot of us have stuff on tumblr that ONLY exists there.
One possible quick solution to save your blogs, both NSFW and personal, is to import it to WordPress. I found this solution through from frantic googling on how to save an entire blog, text posts an all. There are several apps for downloading all the pictures from a tumblr, (Plently for Windows, but only a few paid ones for mac, of which Tumbelog Picture Downloader is working for me so far) but this is the only solution I’ve seen so far that allows you to save EVERYTHING. I downloaded my NSFW blog in like 10 min. My regular blog, which is significantly larger, is in the process of importing, but I don’t anticipate any problems. I will, of course, update you if I have any.
This tutorial I found worked really easily. http://quickguide (.) tumblr (.) com/post/39780378703/backing-up-your-tumblr-blog-to-wordpress
I put parenthesis around the .’s like we’re back in FF-Hell, just in case tumblr’s new thing about outgoing links kicks in. You know what to do.
To break it down, just in case:
Sign up for a WordPress.com account at wordpress (.) com/start
You’ll have to create an account, with your email, a username, and a password. They should send you a confirmation email immediately, check it, activate it, and you’re good to go.
On the site, it will ask you for a site name. That page asks you a bunch of other information too, but you only have to fill out the site name.
Then you have to give your site a URL. If you’re lucky, your tumblr URL is still available, if not you’ll have to come up with another one, sorry.
It will tell you if that option is still available for free.
Then it will ask you to pick a plan. Free is really good enough, I swear.
Now you’re set up! You can import your tumblr!
The only differences from the linked tutorial are that the Import button is now on the first level menu, not in tools.
Hit Import, then you have to follow the link for “other importers” at the bottom, to find the option for Tumblr.
Then you’ll have to sign in with tumblr, using your normal tumblr credentials. You’ll be redirected there automatically.
You’ll have to allow WordPress permissions on your blog.
Then your blogs, including all your sideblogs, will show up in wordpress.
Hit import, wait a WHILE depending on the size of your blog, and you’re done!
ALSO!!
I made my NSFW blog private for now, since I don’t know WP’s policy on NSFW.
This means that to access it, someone has to have an account and request access. But hey, part of our problem on this hellsite has been people going places they aren’t wanted, so I don’t personally see this as a bad thing. They can send a request from the landing site on your blog, you get an email, click a link in the email, and PRESTO, they have access.
To make it private, go to Settings > Reading > Site Visibility. Go back and check, it took me changing the setting twice for it to actually stick.
tl;dr, you can import your entire blog to wordpress in just a few steps.
I’m going to tag the hell out of this, in no particular order. PLEASE reblog this and spread the word so people know it’s an option. If you’re having trouble, PM me, and I’m happy to help.
I personally don’t have a Pillowfort account yet, but my partner does and she has let me look at her account fully to see what it is like. I’ve also viewed Pillowfort’s demo account which is linked to on their Kickstarter. I am waiting with anticipation when I can make my own account, but right now Pillowfort is in a closed beta which means the only people who have access to the site are ones who have been given special registration links. They were doing waves of free beta accounts a bit ago (which is how my partner got her account), but right now for every $5 you pledge to their Kickstarter you will receive a registration key if the Kickstarter gets fully funded (they are as of today 40% of the way to their $39,900 goal).
Here is why I’m excited for Pillowfort:
If you delete your original posts, every reblogged version will be deleted too. Edit your original post and the changes will appear on every reblog,
The ability to make posts visible to everyone, just followers, just mutuals, or just yourself.
A functional blacklist where you can blacklist a post body & tags or just tags.
A terms of service that explicitly states you hold all rights to your own intellectual property. It also states clearly that it forbids callout posts, doxxing, degradation, harassing, hate groups, spamming of tags with unrelated or offensive material, and slurs against minorities. If there is a user that is doing anything offensive or hateful, it is encouraged and mandated you don’t make posts about it and instead flag it and let the site moderators take care of it. This sort of system cuts down on “dashboard drama” and harassment that sites like Tumblr are known for.
They have threaded comments which means discussions or praise no longer clog up your posts and your blog, keeping things much more organized and clean. We can also use tags for their ACTUAL purpose, tagging of posts for ease of search and organization instead of talking.
They have communities and a more connected user-based and user-led environment.
Posts in chronological order like they should be!
A staff that actually cares about the input of their members and is driven to listen and collaborate with their members to create a site that the users actually want instead of being led by a corporation that has their own agendas in mind.
A staff that wants to avoid corporate involvement, unwanted ads, and selling of user info to fund Pillowfort.
The future possibilities of what the staff can do with the site that we didn’t dream could be possible to have all in one place including accessibility and a functional mobile app.
So far, I’ve seen a lot of good things and I’ve been really impressed with how the staff is handling the site and how they have explained their plans for the future of Pillowfort.
If you say you really want a social media site that actually cares about their users, this is it. This is your chance to have what pretty much all of us want. This new blogging platform is all the best parts of Tumblr (and for those who miss Livejournal this is like a wedding between Tumblr and Livejournal) with all the parts we hate and loathe about the site scraped out of it.
If you can’t support Pillowfort monetarily, then please, please reblog, tweet, share, and spread it about everywhere you can.
This is our chance to have a social media made with us in mind and it’s already starting out so well with 10,000 users in the closed beta. Let’s bring it to the next stage of its life!
REASONS TO JOIN PILLOWFORT!
KEEP IT BOOKMARKED SISTERS, AND WAIT FOR IT TO COME BACK ON AIR
I WILL BE HERE WHEN TUMBLR DIES
i will update you guys when i made an account!
Given the recent Tumblr announcement in regards to NSFW images, a platform like @pillowfort-io is even more vital!
2009 – GeoCities shuts down, taking old fannish websites
2010 – FFN forums deleted
2011 – Delicious destroyed by Yahoo’s incompetence
2012 – major FFN crackdown on porn
2014 – Quizilla shuts down
2015 – Journalfen’s servers become fully robust, deleting Fandom Wank
Didn’t quizilla have purges before finally shutting down? And I know basically every vidding home hot destroyed, repeatedly taking out the entire history of vidding online.
… they deleted Fandom Wank???
Well, not specifically. Journalfen failed completely and has never come back. FW was on Journalfen, so while you can see some entries on the Wayback machine, I think (?), the long comment threads aren’t archived.
2007 – Youtube starts using its “content ID” system to identify (and block) works that include copyrighted material in their database.
2009 – Greatestjournal shuts down, taking down fandom’s biggest collection of blog-style RPGs
2012 – Megaupload shut down by FBI; some (many?) fanvid archives lost
I thought there was also some kind of purge at Deviantart, but I don’t recall the details.
I’d like to remind folks that there was literally wank last month about why do we need the OTW.
Well, this would be why: we sincerely believed in the internet values of a decade or two ago, which involved owning our own servers if we wanted to see our projects remain stable, in the long term, online.
Worth mentioning: Yahoo purchased GeoCities, and was behind the decision to shut all those sites down.
Yahoo’s incompetence destroyed Delicious.
Yahoo owns Tumblr.
1356: 50% of monks.
People just… completely forget. I was there for all of the bans on fanfiction.net. You don’t know panic until you go to log in one morning and find out a bunch of your works have been deleted, gone forever, because some asshole arbitrarily decided that they wanted to ban something.
AO3 IS IMPORTANT. IT MATTERS.
2016 -y!gallery an archive of m/m art and stories, original and fanfiction was completely destroyed and all works were lost
Y!gallery itself was originally built in response to Sheezy art banning adult themes in 2005
Deviant Art in my experience says it doesn’t allow porn but will allow erotic art of women to reach the front page, straight male gaze gets a pass. Art focused on men is more likely to get deleted.
A lot of things destroyed by anti-porn rules are really anti-porn not made by and for straight men. It’s women’s and queer folks work that is demonized.
^^^^^ i actually tested this when i was on DA. I drew a bunch of s*xually e*plicit vag*nas and d*cks and the d*cks were removed within 24 hours. the vag*nas were never reported.
these bans are attacks on women and queer/LGBTQ people. the straight male gaze is apparently the only legitimate n sfw view
2010 ish (?) – deviantART purges adult fanfiction (I only very vaguely remember this one, because I’ve never been a dA user and it happened during my fannish hiatus, but there is some incomplete info on Fanlore. If you remember more about what happened, please help edit that page!)
Fandom purges are almost never just about one thing. Fannish content both relies on fair use exemption and is frequently sexually explicit, so it gets attacked on both copyright/legal grounds (thank you, OTW Legal Team, for protecting us!) and TOS/hoster rules about porn/specific fictional content (thank you, AO3, for being an open archive!). On top of that, there is a nontrivial history of fannish content being lumped in with content that criticizes authoritarian governments, and targeted by sweeps by those governments and their censorship agencies when they purchase or put pressure on the commercial entities that own the servers (thank you, OTW, for being a nonprofit and owning and defending our servers!).
If you care about fannish content, you have to fight for fanfic on all three fronts. And if we hop off of HTTP and onto one of the decentralized protocols like dat et cetera, like people are starting to talk about in response to Article 13 and the Tumblr purges, we will inevitably be targeted along with a) people pirating media, b) porn distributors, and c) anti-government protestors, because those groups are also going use those protocols, too. I’m not saying, don’t think about migrating. I’m saying: there is a systemic problem within fandom, regarding the fact that we routinely get hit on three fronts: legal rights to the material we transform, sexual content, and governmental disapproval. Protecting fandom means fighting for fandom on all three fronts and putting thought and effort into how to make an archive robust against all three prongs of the attack.
This is what’s made AO3/the OTW so special: we have lawyers protecting our right to make what we make, we have a TOS that protects our right to make things that are sexually explicit, and because the OTW is a nonprofit, it’s more robust to the pressure that can be brought to bear upon commercial entities by both corporate and governmental powers (though, I note, especially when it comes to governments, it’s not immune, and we have to keep actively protecting it, and we have to protect other fans). If you are in fandom but you think that copyright upload filters are fine, because, well, you don’t want to put fanvids on YouTube, you are part of the problem. Your community is under attack. The powers that be have always come for us by attacking us in pieces, and we have always only ever successfully fought back by banding together.
I’ve been in online fandoms for twenty years this year, and have spent that time basically being chased from one platform to another because of TOS changes.
I wouldn’t be as upset about the goings on here if it hadn’t been for that quote by the CEO, “We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change.” I just…I was absolutely furious earlier, and now I’m just fucking tired. This isn’t about sulking about not being able to find adult shit, and I don’t even actually post adult shit here in the first place anymore. This is about this specific space, where LGBTQIA+/female aligned/mentally ill/neurodivergent people were able to express ourselves in ways we’re not “supposed” to, now demonstrating that we absolutely are expendable when it comes to the little respectability dance it’s trying to do for whatever corporation it’s trying to impress. That what we do isn’t going to be allowed to be culture in this man’s eyes was just a fucking slap to the face. That’s not what culture is, it’s not what it’s about, and it’s not. Fucking. Up. To. Him.
I haven’t decided exactly where I’m going to go this time yet (Twitter? Is that even going to be viable for us much longer either? Dreamwidth? I do miss the LJ format and closed comms, but somewhere to host images would be nice?) but I will make a post saying where I’ve gone. I guess my blogging here the past couple of years has mostly been reblogs anyway, and most of my fandom creative output has been fics on ao3, so that’s definitely not going to change.
I’ll let y’all know where I go if anyone else is going to the same place. I also just want to say how grateful I am for ao3 and everything they do, because, seriously, we would be absolutely fucked without them.
“lol the only people mad about the tumblr announcement just want porn lol”
Yeah, no.
Tumblr blocked the tag “chronic pain” in this mess for no reason
They’re flagging commonly used tags by queer people, sex educators, and artists who make their fucking LIVING on tumblr
They’re gonna take down genuine sex workers because they didn’t curb
the problem with spamming porn bots YEARS ago when tumblr users REPORTED
OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND *OVER* that it was a problem
Tumblr
IGNORED the bots, IGNORED the problems, and honestly treated it like
NOTHING until their app was taken off a store due to it.
They’re
fucking over a shit-ton of REAL PEOPLE who rely on tumblr for community
and/or income because they ignored users’ complaints about shitty porn
bots for YEARS until it had financial consequences
I can no longer even talk about chronic pain without the post being blocked from searches
I have drawn one or two nude pieces on my art tumblr which is 99% safe
for work but now I’m worried the blog will be taken down entirely
because Tumblr won’t bother differentiating between spam and REAL PEOPLE
just trying to live their goddamn lives
And god forbid I want to
talk about bisexuality or sex or kink in just… MY LIFE. As a
normal-ass human being who just wants to TALK ABOUT HUMAN THINGS
No, their solution to nuke a problem they’ve ignored for years is to take us all down at once
So maybe don’t laugh about “oh no not my pornz” because 1. plenty of
that ~porn~ is made by actual humans making their living and 2. WAY MORE
than “just porn” is being targeted
This along with Facebook
continuously upholding white supremacy by letting nazi shit fly by while
they ban people for speaking out against their oppressors and it’s
basically like we’re running out of truly free places to just… BE
With the purge incoming in December 17, I am fearful of what will happen to my blog. I started this a year ago, I don’t know what to do because of my depression and lots of people helped me during that. Thank you so much for following and supporting me.
It’s really annoying to start from scratch again. I won’t delete this blog but I won’t be probably continuing posting until December 17 in Tumblr because the staff sucks and the judgement day going on.
I will transfer all my stuffs and find me as;
–Sanxkei in Patreon (I will be posting my art[p*rn probably] there from now on and I won’t ask much just to see it and my system of asking support will be commission-based like what I do to here.)
-@san_kiesha and @sanxkei in Twitter
My Gmail (carlita.sanxke@gmail.com) is still active so to my commissioners don’t worry I will not abandon you guys.
All these two years with my old and new mutuals,
Thank you so much for the support and I hope we can meet again in different website.
From someone who’s survived MySpace, livejournal, deviantart, and fanfiction.nets’ content purges and bad policy updates, here’s some advice on how to get through tumblr’s recent bullshit:
– don’t knee jerk delete. I know it’s tempting to peace out immediately but hang on and do the other steps first. Out right ghosting and erasing everything is how fandoms die.
– archive everything on your blog you want to keep
– tell your followers how they can archive and keep your work too. A lot of fic and art were only saved from ff.net and lj because other people saved it first. If you’re cool with other people saving your work for them to personally keep, let them know this. You can absolutely discourage reposting but I really do highly recommend you allow people to personally save fic and art they like and are worried will disappear forever. Digital Dark Ages are a real thing.
– tell people where you’re jumping ship to. Give links. Keep that info up, even if you’ve left the site.
– go through who you follow and find out where else you can follow them. Save their work if they’ll allow it. It’s tedious as hell but if you want to keep up with people on here clicking on their page to check in is the best way to do it.
– support places like ao3. This is exactly why ao3 asks for donations a few times a year. They are a 100% anti-purging, judgement free, ad free non profit run by an elected board and protected by lawyers. Places like ao3 literally save fandom so please continue to support them and other similar archives. This is exactly why ao3 is so important.
Hey all! In addition to the link to my AO3, there’s now a link to my discord channel in my tumblr profile! I’m probably going to be quiet a lot of the time, but it’s there, and I’ll probably be on it at least as often as I’m on Tumblr, if not more so.
Asknotbug's Tumblr Backup 