The Tumblr Files - Official Thread - An exposé on the media and people that destroyed the Internet

[Enig]

As someone who has always appreciated the GameCube since childhood, I hate that it was the main platform freaks latched onto so hard.

It's an underrated as fuck console with so many hidden gem titles and it deserves its flowers but weirdos choose to further muddy its reputation instead </3

The Gamecube gets even more absurd when you go down a different rabbit hole and discover that it was not only the direct predecesor to the Radeon GPU lineage, but it was the culmination of a snowballing of events that occured because of Wei Yen's involvement with SGI during the time of Donkey Kong Country occuring at the same time as Lion King for DOS embarassing Microsoft enough to start the development of DirectX. Oh, and Yen and his company, BroadOn, can be considered the actual creators of the Wii with how they put in essentially 80% of the system's development work across both hardware and software. It's about as much of an insane unspoken story as how Nintendo manipulated the development of ARM in the early 90s and caused the creation of the Thumb instructions because the GBA took just that long to get released.

 

[Stock Footage]

Great read up and thank you for your service, @I_Am_Not_Bruce_Willis

Series Really did a great job at highlighting how we got to this point in Internet Culture and showed how LJ and later Tumblr were in influencing the internet as a whole. now that it has been all said and done, It seems like most the cancerous tumors have Ghetto'd themselves into isolated sties like BlueSky (who I have noticed all talk in a similarly tumbr fashion). I am curious what the great internet "vibe shift" that might happen in the next few years will look like and how they will look back on this era of net culture.

As someone who has always appreciated the GameCube since childhood, I hate that it was the main platform freaks latched onto so hard.

It's an underrated as fuck console with so many hidden gem titles and it deserves its flowers but weirdos choose to further muddy its reputation instead </3

GameCube was one of my favorite consoles growing up, and the last time Nintendo gave a shit about keeping up with their competitors (Sony, SEGA, and Micro$oft) before giving up and beating their own drum (WII).

 

[gata]

The one hole I feel like could have been addressed was the Netflix version of Voltron, how it was such a popular series among tumblr with their Yaoi Fanfictions and then Tumblr getting pissed at them for not giving them what they want and causing drama with that, and I know that Rooster Teeth, particularly RWBY, had its fair share of Tumblr fans and tumblr shit taking it over as well. I think that whole trend of "Western Anime" could have been discussed somewhere. But irregardless this is still a very well detailed thing over all of this shit, and I am glad I took the plunge into reading all of it and understanding it.

nu-voltron started mid 2016 (and ended in 2018.) but the fandom retardation kinda started around the later seasons so maybe the next case can focus on the entitled fujoshitters and yuritards (+troons) in the fandom AND creative industries. Although the next case could be the downfall of the Tumblr and how the refugees infected the various websites they escaped to.

 

[Buzz Killington]

That ending Metal Gear timeline was pure cinema.

 

[I_Am_Not_Bruce_Willis]

That ending Metal Gear timeline was pure cinema.

Thanks! That's another thing I had planned early on, and am especially proud of how it turned out. I wanted to use it as a means to quickly address all the major events that occurred in the years since the cutoff date without having to do massive write-ups on all of them.

 

[The_Gam3]

I have still yet to digest everything here but I am indeed satisfied. Really good shit. Although idk if i should feel scared or hopeful for the future now.

 

[I_Am_Not_Bruce_Willis]

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

The Tumblr Files is a great example of why the Butterfly Effect in my eyes is an absolutely valid. Actions we take now can have further consequences down the line, some of which can be catastrophic on a level that most people cannot comprehend or navigate while others allow for everything to work out in the end.

 

[Sooty Soot]

What a blast from the past, absolutely amazing work. As bad as the late 2000's-mid 2010's were, it kind of makes me miss them.

 

[Danann]

Timeline.mp4

Reminder: we didn't made Donald Trump do this...they made him do it.

 

[Obsessed snowman]

Discord

Discord for some reason always seems to evade proper discussion even though it's impact on the Internet has been tremendous. It has fundamentally changed how online communities operate and even how people communicate online in general. I will mention just a few things that bug me about this platform:

• Discord servers are invite based and not easily searchable, which makes it ideal for falseflags and gayopping.
• Since search engines can't index Discord, it technically fits the definition of deep web There are entire communities that are buried inside Discord. There was a post about it in the search engines thread.
• People inside Discord servers have this false sense of privacy. They think that nobody outside their server should know, or indeed will know, of the things happening inside the server despite the fact that all it takes is one guy with a chat exporter tool to leak the entire server. They then get very upset when someone finally leaks their conversations (just look at the spy.pet drama for example).
• Because of the previous point Discord users feel more comfortable acting inappropriately. "Discord" and "grooming" are considered synonyms now for a reason.

In my opinion, out of everything that @I_Am_Not_Bruce_Willis mentioned in this thread Discord by far the worst thing that has happened to the Internet and its influence will be felt for years to come.

Relevant Ben Garrison:

 

[retartedconspiratard]

SiIvaGunner

I used to like that channel untill 1. I realized its more fun just looking up the music that they are refferencingr ather than hoping it was soimething I like, and 2. I hate their fixation of rap.

 

[used_a_throwaway]

You could make this into a youtube mini series. The grift will be successful and you will earn much izzat my good saar.

 

[WelperHelper99]

It was fun reading this to the end. Thing is, looking back, you start remembering the bits and pieces mentioned in these files. I found the part about 2016 kino

 

[Dan of Steel]

I honestly couldn't wrap my head around the first half of Case IV, but are you saying the secret ingredient was Paper Mario? Because that's legit nuts to say.

My main takeaway for what the thesis of this thread has been is the slow, but ultimately relatively short change in broader "Internet culture" going from cynicism, irreverence, anonymity, while also simultaneously its users not taking themselves too seriously and enjoying and embracing a shared love of niche popular culture interests; to one of toxic positivity, ecelebrity, no anonymity and in fact building a "brand", the politics of identity that can be exploited for personal gain, not offending anybody yet offending everybody, and extreme anger and rage. The nexus point of these two cultures converging being mid-2000s millennial Internet users, who either through genuine troll's remorse or an attempt to stay relevant and not be consumed by their new Tumblr audiences, abandoned that old Internet mindset in favor of selfish, shortsighted gains. That part especially is what saddens me and finds a lot of oldfag Internet users in my generation (I'm 35) really pathetic. Giving into a mob of any kind, especially one of nameless faceless Tumblr and Twitter users is fucking gay. It's why I like KF so much and why its been my most frequented website for the past six years or so.
For all its faults, KF still retains some of that old Internet magic that made me love going online when I was a kid. I loved having endless discussions and arguments on forums about dumb shit like "Could Superman defeat Galactus?: or "Who's the better stealth soldier: Sam Fisher or Solid Snake?" and the name calling, flamewars, in-jokes, Photoshop edits, etc that would come from those threads. Now any discussion you see about niche pop culture is about is "X character supports trans rights and if you don't agree I'm going to post your Mom's dox on Twitter to get her fired from her job or killed or both", or "X character is gay and communist, AND supports Charlie Kirk's murder because he was a Nazi". Not only is it much more genuinely malicious, it's also much more boring.

 

[Sneak 'n' Snore]

Amazing writeup, as always
From previously in this thread, I was bracing myself for Games Repainted/Vinesauce but I had no idea how substantially Paper Mario would be included here.

Given this was a fun little Internet project created before the era of cancel culture brought upon by Tumblr taking over the Internet, Luigi’s Mansion has quite a few jokes and memes that I imagine the creators have massive troll’s remorse over. For example, the front door of the titular mansion literally has the Happy Merchant on it. Despite harboring spite against 4Chan & /v/, they clearly weren’t immune to their antisemitic rhetoric. The Toads in the game also have Stars of David on their caps.

You know it did stick out to me as a former fan, how a lot of the edits and memes they used to put in came from an "internet wild west" angle. When their official channel posted their farewell video, I was thinking that Games Repainted, even without accounting for how the team felt after GPM, would have mutated into something awful. As you perfectly laid it out in the SA2 section, GR was starting to get into political themes and even before that, furries and Steven Universe snuck in.
I fully believe that its for the better that GR stayed dead.

A major stream event that helped get GPM on the Internet’s radar was Mario Retardy

The absolute last thing I expected to be brought up in this thread lol, add another thing that would have to be sanitized by the lame and gay modern internet

Despite DatStream and Vinesauce being their own separate streaming groups, GPM actually helped Vinny get into streaming and helped get Vinesauce off the ground. Vinesauce actually has its origins in 4Chan’s /v/ board, which both GPM and Vinny were active on at the time.

This one was new to me and blew my mind. From what I heard previously, they were long time friends but I didn't know GPM played that big of a role. It makes his stunt so much worse.
For what its worth, GPM had the most one-sided "cancellation" I have seen to this day.
Nobody had this faggots back.

Given his love of Steven Universe, it was only inevitable that dozens of Steven Universe references and pictures would find their way into TTYD Repainted. He was also responsible for other elaborate character edits featured in the repaint, such as a trio of waifu characters, and changing the Magikoopas to resembling Farnsworth from Futurama.

To hid credit, changing the Magikoopas into Fansworth and replacing the wand with the finglonger was genius.

This read in particular brought back lots of fond memories but also gradually took a grim turn with the rise of politics and how they corrupt just about everything.

To lighten the mood, and because I have to bring this up anytime GR is mentioned, here is the gif of Luigi tracing his finger along Hugh Neutron's lips:

 

[Outer Space Traveller]

The Tumblr Files
I: Steven Universe
II: Tumblrcore & the Wii U-Chew
III: Undertale
IV: Games Repainted, Discord, & Overwatch

When I released Case I last October, @Enig said to me, “fucking 11/10 thread btw, if it is blasting that much just on part 1 it's going to be borderline end of evangelion by part 4”. End of Eva, eh? Alright, Enig. How about this?

He has returned! Welcome back.

The early 2000s marked a major turning point for video games as a whole. While the generation before marked a major demographic shift amongst gamers, which necessitated games for older and more mature audiences, such as epic RPGs like Final Fantasy from VII onwards or Parasite Eve, or more cinematic-driven games like Konami’s Metal Gear Solid, the 6th generation of consoles would kick off with the one-two-punch of the sandbox-open-world Grand Theft Auto III, and the first-person shooter Halo: Combat Evolved, both releasing in 2001.


Not only did this now cement that mature-rated games were here to stay, and that they were no longer a simple novelty like the original Mortal Kombat or Doom, but now developers and publishers on both sides of the pond felt they needed to jump on this newly forming mature, western-based, “dude-bro” zeitgeist in order to stay competitive.

For example, Capcom, after seeing how huge of a success Grand Theft Auto III was (especially since they published it in Japan), started an internal initiative to put Japan-focused games to the side and make more games for western audiences. Headed up by Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune, Capcom released many games with a more grungy, “western” feel in the late 6th generation, and all throughout the 7th generation, with infamous games like Devil Kings, Final Fight: Streetwise, 2009’s Bionic Commando reboot, and the most infamous one of all, Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry.

Right, there was a revival of the Atari "mature" rated games, but with some focus towards the cinematic experience. We hit that apex towards 2009-2010. I would say then, the cancer came to appear.

Given this was a fun little Internet project created before the era of cancel culture brought upon by Tumblr taking over the Internet, Luigi’s Mansion has quite a few jokes and memes that I imagine the creators have massive troll’s remorse over. For example, the front door of the titular mansion literally has the Happy Merchant on it. Despite harboring spite against 4Chan & /v/, they clearly weren’t immune to their antisemitic rhetoric. The Toads in the game also have Stars of David on their caps.

Oy motherfucking vey!!!!

Timeline.mp4

This is an interesting short video. Informative.

Let me just say: AMAZING WORK. And holy fucking shit, fuck this cancer.

 

[Paper Machete]

The level of research on this is pretty amazing. A lot of threads on this site have people jumping to archive and keeping records of people and events as they happen. Which is a good thing but a lot easier than digging for information years after the fact, especially internet stuff where some of it they tried to delete/hide.

I remember the switch from Skype and other chats to Discord and would like to comment on something and that's how Discord became it's own reason for using it.

Usually you would need a set friend group, virtual or otherwise, to have a chat group. And the chat group was pretty simple. Only one chat/channel everyone was dumped in. You could DM people but the main chat had one ongoing conversation and you couldn't just barge in and derail it however you wanted or people would get pissed. The stronger personalities kept things in line because they were who decided the pace of conversation and what was mostly talked about. Discord's use of channels and the idea of servers being a collection of people who may not have started as friends but merely had a shared interest or randomly showed up changed that. If the general chat wasn't talking about what you wanted you could go into a NSFW channel or a art posting channel or whatever it was you wanted to yell into the abyss about. A lot of people moaned and complained and malingered their many (almost certainly self-diagnosed) issues and mentals about in vent channels. It quickly devolved into not being something people used as a VC chat for multiple different games but people doing it for the sake of hanging around just cause.

I think this sort of environment was one of the main reasons it became a hub for "groom-y" behavior. That and because it became so popular, it's certain most anyone using any socmed platform or playing any game has one, so people are constantly getting filtered from other sites/games into various servers. From there they're introduced to all sorts of things but also the beliefs of whoever is in those servers. So people who get in a particular hugbox start having that effect what content they like/don't like and what behavior they consider acceptable. Instead of the wider internet milieu it's all largely beginning to get influenced by a network of behind closed doors chat rooms. In my personal opinion, it's environments like this that also accelerated a lot of the attitudes many kiwis loathe.

 

[He's Ronald McDonald]

A series of MS Paint-made animations by Blaze the Movie Fan, uploaded in 2016.

Blaze the Movie Fan has an account here. He made posts on the Nostalgia Critic thread and received a lot of negative ratings due to getting angry at users discussing him.

Hey, assholes, if you have issues with my videos you address them to me directly. You can't talk behind my back and expect to get away with it.

The reason I have a problem with people talking behind my back instead of addressing me directly is because it's incredibly rude and uncalled for. I am open to criticism and take criticism into consideration all the time. So it's absolutely disgusting that people in this thread talked negatively about me behind my back. It's very rude, simple as that.

I don't mind negative feedback, but at the very least address them to me directly.


You know I find it funny that instead of arguing with any of the points I made in the videoyou instead nitpick over minor things that don't matter. It shows you have no actual arguments.

 

[LarpBait]

im skimming this shit and im getting ass-blasted by over a decade's worth of online bullshit that i've at least orbited and watched slowly eat the internet alive over the span of 15 years, its shocking how much the actions of the niche individuals and communities in obscure, autistic areas can influence the flow of culture.

Please keep working on this, I don't think there's anyone really doing any big dives on "how we got here".