c0up

So Tumblr removed its RSS feed import functionality a week or so ago, and decided not to tell anyone. 

I noticed this a week ago too, when I was frustrated with the lack of data portability with my Flixster ratings, but realised I can pull them into an RSS feed, and thought, hey, I'll just start pulling them all into a Tumblr blog on the side, and every now and then, use my main Posterous blog for a longer review.

I googled it, and it seemed simple enough, with lots of posts around importing RSS feeds, but for the life of me, I couldn't find the option in the dashboard, and then searching Twitter, came across puzzled old Tumblr users wondering why their blogs are no longer being updated, and new ones wondering why they can't import feeds. The puzzlement has turned into exasperation now that they've realised the feature has simply been removed, without any communication from Tumblr.

And why did they remove it? This is what Tumblr customer support had to say...

Hi Karma,

In order to conserve our resources, Tumblr is no longer supporting feed imports on blogs that have not already imported feeds in the past. We deeply regret any inconvenience that this may cause. But, this change will allow us to focus our resources and energy on other useful Tumblr features.

Sorry we can’t be more help,

Renee

From the comments on this 40tech post

I see... That feels like a complete cop out to me, and more importantly, pathetic communications on their part. I know I tweeted @tumblr, and many others did, but clearly their Twitter account is just to show off features and not communicate with their users.

UPDATE:

As Kathy says in the comments, Tumblr have stopped the importing of existing feeds too. At least get the message straight /facepalm

UPDATE #2:

In addition to removing the importing of RSS feeds, it seems like you can no longer stop search engines crawling / indexing your Tumblr blog, with the option disappearing...