Pitchfork Responds

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February 16, 2010

Meaghan O’Connell, Director of Outreach at Tumblr, has posted her response to a user’s accusation (plus an exclusive response to Tumblr users here on The Rumpus) that Tumblr “stole” their domain at “the behest of a corporation.”

For those catching up the “corporation” in question is Pitchfork, and they have now posted their own response:

It could not have been clearer to either us or Tumblr that the account had been abandoned. If there had been an active blog at this URL, Pitchfork would definitely have contacted the user before ever going to Tumblr. We also would have assumed that Tumblr would not comply with our request if there was an active account at that subdomain.

So the user was perhaps domain squatting. But it is worth noting that Tumblr isn’t the first social media party Pitchfork has been late to. Why only today they announced that they’re back “up and running” on Facebook (their page was quiet from June 22, 2009 to January 20th of this year). Pitchfork made the announcement via their Twitter account, @PitchforkMedia, which one assumes they use because @Pitchfork is owned by this guy.

BSKY

Isaac Fitzgerald

Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals. Formerly of The Rumpus and McSweeneyâ€™s and most recently the founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Isaac is now the co-host of BuzzFeed Newsâ€™ Twitter Morning Show, #AMtoDM. He also appears frequently on The Today Show to talk books, and is co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (with Recipes) (winner of an IACP award), and the author of a YA novel and picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He uses Twitter.

3 responses

Nico

February 16, 2010

Well, pitchforkmedia.com was their url for years, before they got pitchfork.com. makes you wonder why they wouldn’t just stick with the pitchforkmedia theme, since that tumblr url is entirely vacant.
Seth Fischer

February 16, 2010

I’m still confused. A couple months without an update means one is squatting? I’m not trying to be argumentative. I just don’t understand. Wasn’t the guy posting football predictions and stuff? I have no idea why I’m obsessing over this story at the moment, except that I’m avoiding actual work, and it seems like bad form and more evidence that everything on the Internet demands your constant attention or else you become inconsequential almost immediately. That bothers me a little. Not tumblr’s fault, though, I guess.
Isaac Fitzgerald

February 16, 2010

Seth, I agree with you, and the story is still becoming clear. Find it to be an interesting argument given that Pitchfork’s facebook page was “quiet from June 22, 2009 to January 20th of this year.”