What Happened to the Masterpost?
Google Trends statistics for the worldwide use of “masterpost”—2004 to 2025
Like many other young teenagers in the 2010s, I was sucked into the emotional turmoil that was Tumblr before they cracked down on NSFW content. My pick of the poison was Magcon boys, yet the site was the rule 34 of fandoms if they aren’t your thing. SuperWhoLock was arguably one of the most active internet fandoms of the time, but I’m only here to discuss one trend that reached nearly every member on the platform: the masterpost.
Of course the masterpost isn’t exclusive to Tumblr, yet if you grab a search engine most of the results point to that site. Here is where you usually get whiplashed with content: 5SOS fanfics to music theory resources, how to do taxes to original comics. My favourite corner of the masterpost sphere was within the studyblr community; I was endlessly entertained with productivity content and resources to really lock into grade 8 English. Unfortunately, most of the links that connected masterposts together seem to be lost to time, although https://studyblrmasterposts.tumblr.com has remnants of the golden age available.
A screengrab of https://studyblrmasterposts.tumblr.com (I love this vibe pls explore it (after reading this:))
Turning to the term “masterpost” itself, Wiktionary defines it as an internet term for “a posted message that gathers together several other posts on a single topic.” Growing in popularity in 2011 and 2012, “masterpost” took off at the start of 2014, reaching peak Google searches in July of that year. The term suffered a gentle decline in interest into the 2020s. If Google provides any insight, its search engine displays a clear connection between the usage of “masterpost” and the rise and fall of Tumblr’s internet dominance. Why did such a useful tool tumble to its demise?
searches for “masterpost” peaked in July 2014.
I might be getting a little dramatic there, the masterpost is still being used, primarily in text-based communities (such as Reddit or Bluesky) from what I’ve gathered. It is an invaluable resource to the text and art communities, with a tried-and-true way to display your portfolio in an accessible way online. Did the fall of Tumblr result in the fall of masterposts? Doesn't look like it, but a transition to spending more time in video-based communities such as Instagram/Tiktok/Youtube might have had an impact. Who needs a masterpost when you’re giving all the content you need, via algorithms designed to keep you endless scrolling? The internet may be pulling us in all directions to grab onto our attention (and turn it into that sweet sweet ad revenue), but there’s still the option to be more conscious of our internet consumption.
Keeping it short and sweet, here’s the call to action for fellow masterpost lovers: get out there and explore the masterposts available on Tumblr (or other sites if you’re brave) in 2025. Practice safe internet protocols cause idk there might be some weird ones, but some resources are SO rewarding to explore and save, and (hopefully!) stick in the mind better than the TikTok videos watched over a break.
If you couldn’t tell, I desperately miss the masterpost being a more common feature on the internet, and made one for engl to gather book related resources if you want to check it out ;) I recommend the reddit map :)