I Was Born Free: For the record, I think pinning is a great idea.
Tonight I wanted to pin the Pinterest logo because I’m an insufferable ass, but I knew that it was going to be a fun experiment.
I am a big fan of tumblr’s strategy of promoting posts. It helps me sort through so much trash. If they are never going to implement any kind of list-like features (that would, say, let me keep solid tabs on my closest 20 tumblr friends and not see all 800 blogs as equals), then this is a great feature.
This is such a solid way to get real content in front of people. Outside of some bullshit facebook page adspace, this is the first time that a social network has helped their base (in this case, the content-creators) better highlight their own work for their own audience. I think it’s fun! It’s fun because it helps quality content (literally) float the the surface. If any one of us creates something that takes longer than 5 minutes, you can bet your ass we will see the worth of a 5 dollar investment to make sure no one skims past it. The followers win, too! If they are following your exploits and interested in your goings-on, they would certainly prefer to see something that you go out of your way to promote.
Sure, it could end in an ad-pocolypse, but couldn’t every day end that way? We’ve had over four years of free image hosting, audio hosting, support, community building, and innovation. I’m excited to see them figure out how to serve us while also helping their business grow at the same time.
Perhaps an ass-kissy post but it’s from the heart.
I feel like this is an extremely cynical attempt to monetize the narcissism of the huge tween on tumblr, who don’t necessarily know the value of $5, and it’s very little more.
I shan’t be pinning, folks.
If you create something that takes longer than five minutes you should not be paying other people for it to be seen. Especially not rich people whom you are essentially already paying — for that “free” image hosting, audio hosting, community, etc. — by creating content for their website and spending hours on it every day.
Tumblr is not a neutral platform!
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