[Apocryphon]

Was a Tumblr ever seen as a spiritual successor to earlier internet also-rans like Xanga, Livejournal, and MySpace? Platforms that unlike Facebook were much more user-customizable, even if it often made things much more garish.

[Macha]

I think for a certain subset of users it was definitely the heir to livejournal

[Izkata]

If anything it was a cross between Twitter and phpbb forums.