Ok but it’s actually really funny, what’s happening to tumblr is what people believed was happening to Texas politically for a while.
For those that don’t know, there was a long running joke (at least mostly joke) amongst Texans (primarily conservative ones) that California liberals were rushing out of the state, and to Texas, cause quality of life and whatever. But that they were bringing the politics from California to Texas, thus making the state bluer, and presumably “Trying to make Texas into California without understanding why that was a bad idea”.
It wasn’t true, or if it was was only a small fraction of the political shift, but good god that’s actually happening on tumblr now.
First the reddit migration, bringing a new influx of people who, seemingly, have mostly integrated well.
However, then came the twitter migrants, and that’s when problems began. They were expecting “Twitter but better” And to a large degree, that’s what they got. But they simply did not understand what better actually meant.
No algorithm IS the better. Tumblr’s wackier layout is the entire point. It’s not meant to be sleek, it’s meant for crabs. It’s not meant to shovel you content, it’s meant to let you seek it out, carve your niche out of the internet as god intended.
So when they arrived, there was immediately an influx of people saying “Why is this not like twitter. Where is the content. How does growth work.” and while tumblr users did their very best to provide that context, I believe that staff missed that part, and only saw people complaining that tumblr doesn’t work like twitter.
So what’s the obvious solution? Make tumblr yet another twitter.
But no, please do not. It’s not what we want. It’s not what the site needs. It’s not even what the twitter refugees want, even if they don’t know it yet.
Keep tumblr tumblr, please.
