🪴/ Tumblr x ATProto 🪴/ Tumblr x ATProto

I wanna make a Tumblr-inspired UI for the ATProto blogging platforms. One of the main interesting features of Tumblr is that a post's replies aren't shown in a threaded view like Bluesky.

Reblog

The most important factor I think is the reblogging mechanic, where you append to the growing length of what's going on in the discussion, which inverts the normal setup of replies and quote posts on Bluesky/Twitter.

Since a reblog functions similarly to both, you're participating in a larger conversation, while also pushing that conversation to the front of your page. The whole chain moves along with the conversation, unlike quote-posts where context can be lost without clicking into the thread.

Tag

Tags are important. They provide context and an additional place to write little love notes and inside jokes since they're not as in-your-face as other platforms. They should allow spaces. #A very long tag versus #AVeryLongTag or worse, #averylongtag.

I think we could get close to something workable with just a format for viewing bluesky feeds with quote posts shown as a linear progression, then each thread is individually shown based off of the leaf quote post.

Maybe there's space for making this a different thing. I might be underestimating the value of the blog format vs microblogging. Maybe that's where Leaflet, WhiteWind, Pckt , and GreenGale come in. It'd be hot to implement ask boxes , dunno how you'd manage anonymous asks though...

Side-blog

jade @galaxii.nexus

tumblr was onto something with side blogs. i need to be able to post what i will describe as "wellness check" ramblings and repost crazy art onto one account, repost nsfw on another, and have an account where i have the vague appearance of being normal. add this to atproto

January 22, 2026 at 10:53 AM UTC

jade makes a good point about the value of thinking about multiple identities and facets you might want to share but keep separate while reducing the upkeep of actually curating everything. Tumblr's multiple blogs per account made that simple. ATproto would need to add something like private data to manage keeping identities separate under the same account, but maybe today a Tumblr ATproto app could make it easy to copy over data from an existing account you're signed into.

A Tumblr-esque internet

Wafrn seems to be an interesting exploration of how to build a Tumblr analogue that interacts with the ATmosphere .

Another foray into AT-Tumblr is Keith Kurson w/ a small side project called Pollen that is exploring this space too 🔮.

Keith Kurson @keithlaugh.love

okay i have made tumblr now what atproto embeds should i make first

January 29, 2026 at 11:45 PM UTC

TBH maybe Pollen is what I want, just needs a bit more polish and adoption <3

It already has the biggest feature I'm looking for: reposts add to the end of the long-growing discussion. I'm curious if there's the ability to fork the conversation at any point or if it's restricted to a linear flow of conversation. Importantly missing IMO is the ability to form tags that are of unbounded length. I'm sure that's not compatible with cross-posting to bluesky, but I think a true Tumblr offshoot won't be, it's another form.

I've made an exploratory blog on Pollen just now, check it out:

As a non-atproto attempt, Pillowfort is another example of a Tumblr clone, though it's lost adoption after they banned NSFW content.

The biggest platform that I've interaced with that was Tumblr-esque is actually another decentralized social protocol called Secure Scuttlebutt. At least one of the employees of Bluesky worked on it, and it keeps a warm spot in my heart for being a platform that attempts to do social local-first. Liking a post and writing a comment happened locally, everyone's posts were saved to your device. Slower, but also means you can post while you're on the subway or in the air.

Anyway, let me know if you're building this! I think it would take a good bit of work to make solid, to properly capture all the reasons folks love Tumblr. Similar to the laundry list mentioned for Discord in "On Discord Alternatives" by Soatok, we need to get the full breadth of features and culture that make it feel right.