I was so impressed by first exposure to tumblr. It was no-frills, fast and intuitive. After starting my primary tumblr – dwcouch.tumblr.com ‘Adaptation’ I was reminded that even with a platform as slick as tumblr, I have always been slow to journal, or blog – period.

A short while later it occurred to me that tumblr could become the place to store all of the media I had collected over the years. Funnies, industrial design, architecture, furniture and lighting design, metalsmithig, photography, etc. Memes – before they were called memes. This spawned a variety of child blogs that I still maintain today. Tumblr is my preferred ‘Death-Scroller’. It has become my means of cataloging or if you follow me – I guess I could say curate internet content.

Tumblr has gone through some significant evolution and many on tumblr are quite vocal about how un-awesome these changes are. Ads, in my opinion were the worst update. There are ways around those. The attempt to limit porn has had a lasting impact – some of my posts have inexplicably been flagged – I presume by an A.I. trying to prove itself. While I generally think the effort has been well intentioned – even noble – as it pertains to human trafficking, I can’t say it’s been very successful.

All of that said – for the most part tumblr is fluid enough that I can limit or expand content I’m exposed to primarily by managing who I follow. And in some cases, who follows me.

As the tumblr experience has become clunky or polluted with ads and promoted posts – I began seeking out other clients to restore the simplicity and fun of tumblr. Some are better than others – many are simply viewers. While I like some aspects of some but not others – I have decided to build my own. So. This post kicks off a series on Tumblr Client Development.