Tumblr lets you change subdomains easily. If Pitchfork chooses to relinquish the subdomain, the original owner could take it back immediately, regardless of how Tumblr Support acts.
Pitchfork's response implies that they will give back the subdomain if the guy asks. That should be the end of this. Except I'm almost certain this guy is going to continue complaining in order to keep attention on himself.
and hey, why not? i was amazed at the attitude difference between his blog post (extremely angry, implying that tumblr SOLD it to pitchfork and did not care of his interests) and the letter he sent to tumblr (polite, to the point). whats more, it doesn't look like he waited to hear back from either party before the letting loose the slander and finger-pointing. did he even email pitchfork for an answer???
hopefully tumblr will release some sort of official position on it like pitchfork did. and 3.5 months is not very long, but the its not like the posts were actually anything important accorindg to that screen shot. maybe tumblr should add a new feature that shows a message on login to let the user know that their domain may be reclaimed.
If you've posted five times in a year, and the last one sounds like you've decided your blog is obsolete, then it's not an instance of somebody abandoning a longrunning thing. It looks like somebody gave the service a few tries and gave up.
People often "give up" on a site a few times before they become a regular user. I do this all the time; For example, I signed up for HN "675 days ago" but I think I might have made 1 or 2 comments in the first 200 days.
Tumblr has a very informal attitude regarding staff blogs. Meaghan was a blogger before she ever worked for Tumblr. When she blogs about things, it's not an official response. It's merely her personal reaction. The staff blog is at http://staff.tumblr.com.
Tumblr employees wouldn't be using the service effectively if they were all stodgy officials. The fact that they're allowed to be themselves, flaws and all, is a feature.
Perhaps a feature for the individuals who work there, but certainly not a feature for the company itself. This looks bad for Tumblr no matter where it gets posted. This was a response to a matter affecting the company, not Meghan personally, so it would seem to be a reflection of the company's thoughts no matter where it appears.
