Since Automattic acquired Tumblr we’ve made it more efficient, grown its revenue, and worked to improve the platform. But there’s one part of the plan that we haven’t yet started, which is to run Tumblr on WordPress. I’m pleased to say we’re kicking off that project now!

A little late, but I can't express how much I love this.

We love Tumblr’s streamlined posting experience and its current product direction. We’re not changing that. We’re talking about running Tumblr’s backend on WordPress. You won’t even notice a difference from the outside.

Although it sounds outside the scope of the original plan, it would be amazing if the shared backend as well as the Tumblr publishing front-end made their way into the open-source version of WordPress.

That would open the door to self-hosted personal websites that also make it significantly easier to post content in smaller chunks like a microblog.

Pair that with ActivityPub integrations and you now have a connected web of individuals where the first place they post content to is their own website and for discovery / broader reach can also federate and post to other platforms that also support protocols like ActivityPub.

Can't wait to see how this project develops.

Do you yearn for the days when people owned their corner of the internet and expressed themselves in wild and wacky ways? Do you want to see an internet focused on creativity, art, and ideas instead of debating and dividing? Do you think content and data should be owned by authors and artists, instead of getting locked behind the closed platform of a mega-corporation? Do you want to build an internet where anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone with a product can sell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world?

The answer to all of those is YES.