i hate the “on average a user only sees 25 posts per session so they have to be good and varied” bullshit on that staff post. if i open tumblr and the 25 posts i see are nothing but a single mutual mass reblogging their favourite thing that i couldn’t care less about. well. that’s what i enjoy

Tumblr already has a personalization algorithm it's called my beloved mutuals who have great taste and only wish to psychologically damage me sometimes

Plymouth, Devon, England by snowyturner

jesus fucking christ

"i wish i could do something 😔 / i wish the wga had a kickstarter or a gofundme, i would throw money at it" good news! it's amazing how you can literally go onto the wga strike website or the wgawest linktree from their twitter and find links to support writers and other workers affected by the strike

Which of these would you rather see on your dash?

Hey @staff. This is a perfect example of why collapsed reblogs is such a bad idea. Seeing the full thread, you go like this: 😮 ooh, that's cool 😀 "they're free," hehe! 🤣 "16 cents," perfection!!

I have achieved joy, I feel positive feelings toward Tumblr, I want to engage, I want to stay, my eyeballs land on more ads, you make more money, everyone wins! 🎉

Seeing the collapsed thread, you go like this:

😮 ooh, that's cool 😐 "16 cents"? yes, that's literally what the pic shows, not sure why you felt the need to say that

There is no motivation for me to uncollapse the reblog chain—it looks like a boring conversation about the denominations of coins. And even if I do uncollapse it, you've ruined the joke by showing me the punchline before the setup. I am sad, Tumblr is boring, I go elsewhere to entertain myself, I see less ads, you make less money, everyone loses. 😥

Reblog chains are the best thing about Tumblr. They are your unique super power. They are the thing that makes people screenshot Tumblr and share it around. Why on earth would you kneecap them??

I don't know exactly how you plan to implement this. Give people the option to keep them collapsed if there truly are people who are annoyed by how long they can get (you already have a version of this feature), but don't collapse them for everyone or new users by default. Please. It will make Tumblr so much more boring.

I will leave if this update goes through. Reblog conversations are the best thing about Tumblr

@staff hey watch this

PLEASE REBLOG THIS TO GET MORE VOTES.

heres a image of what tumblr would look like, curtosey of @/pastacrylic's post. This change would also only let you see the last reblog in a chain.

also if you reblog, say if you are a long time tumblr user or coming in via other site collapse (twitter, reddit, etc.)

WAIIIT. THE NEW IN-DEVELOPMENT TUMBLR LAYOUT WITH COLLAPSED REBLOGS.

IT REMOVES "NOTES" ALTOGETHER AND SEPARATES EVERY INTERACTION LIKE ON OTHER WEBSITES

I DO NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL

Also it generally doesn't make sense at all. It shows the last reblog of the chain. Which means you only see someone's answer to something, without seeing what they're actually responding to.

This is such a weird change.

Being able to see the whole conversation is half the fun of this website!

Okay the screenshot was confusing because it shows so little but like...

it's basically a read more on every post that's a little long and if there's a reblog chain on it it just tells you how many additions there are instead of just?? showing them to you? and you have to tap into every post to see it instead of just getting to smoothly scroll through it all.

this is a dumb change with a really awkward and disruptive flow. no one wants this. I don't see how this makes the site more appealing to new users or would make existing users happy. just a shit move all around @staff

@staff please no

Because @staff is too cowardly…

A new short clip. Day 1.

They have fun.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Okay, so as a long time user of this site (going all the way back to 2009) I'm going to comment on this, and I'm going to do it in as nice a way as possible, even though this makes me angry enough to consider leaving.

This post is, in the nicest possible terms, corporate-speak bullshit. It lacks insight into its own current userbase, how that userbase interacts with the site on a daily basis, and seems very focused on a term I'll borrow from Folding Ideas: Line Goes Up.

It does not speak to research done on how your users actually use this site, or what they want from it. Time and time again, the users of this site have stated they use it over almost every other socmed out there because it isn't an algorithmic mess focused solely on shoving as much content on people as fast as possible by guessing what they like. The potential introduction of an algorithm to the dashboard is an unnecessary change. In fact, it's ridiculous. Tumblr is remarkably easy to use.

Your post states:

This is factually untrue. When I first joined this site in 2009, I was taken through a screen that asked about my interests and I got to pick 3 of those interests. It then showed me the top blogs who posted things related to my interests and I followed some of them. This gave my dash content. It was a lovely little tutorial on how to use the site and how to make it a place that felt like me. Somewhere along the way you seem to have stopped doing that, and thus your new users are apparently 'confused'.

The addition of 'only serves a small portion of our audience' is a rank falsehood. There's no way around that. If I published such a blatant lie in my line of work I would expect to be brought up on it immediately. That 'small portion' of your audience is your core userbase. The people who've been here through all the nonsense various iterations of higher ups have put us through. They're the ones you're trying to market your Emporium at with merch for memes from 2013-15. They're the ones you've been begging to fund this site so it can stay open, but as soon as whomever it is higher up decides that 'we must be like everyone else' you abandon them. I've been on the internet long enough to know that's a mistake. Countless sites have tried it before you, and countless have failed.

You already do. If you reimplemented the 'here are some blogs related to the interests you picked' as an option on sign up, then you really wouldn't have this issue. I can only assume the 'higher ups' have an opinion so low of their userbase that it's easier to infantilise them to the point of 'they can only find content if we give it to them using their data' rather than 'people know what they like and will outwardly seek it'.

I'm already bombarded on my dash by 'tags you might want to follow' that have nothing to do with my interests and I am unable to remove or curate. If an algorithm is implemented the 'tumblr is a place where you curate your content' ceases to be, since you will have forced content onto the userbase that they have no way of controlling or 'curating'. It is in fact the opposite of what you claim it will do. Your users are not idiots. Do not treat them thus.

Never once have I thought that about my curated content on my dash. I would have left a long time ago if that were true. You know what does feel stale and not relevant? The godforsaken EcoAmerica stuff I am unable to get rid of or hide. I just have to see that same goddamn promoted post over and over again and I'm sick of that, but not what I personally put on my dash. Funny that.

Finally, 'retain and grow our creator base'. Honey, I'm not your 'creator'. I will never be your 'creator'. That corporate bullshit doesn't fly here. I'm here because I want to be here and I'm here for fun, which I think is something your higher ups are forgetting. This site isn't about content creators or socmed influencers, and I've no idea why you think it is. Whomever you've bee asking for feedback, and it clearly hasn't been the current users, isn't putting you on the right path.

Tumblr doesn't exist without its userbase, and if you piss that userbase off then they will leave. We'll exist just fine without Tumblr. You won't last long without us.

@staff If you claim that most users want an algorithm or whatever, you're really going to need to back that up with data if you want a chance of the high-engagement high-community high-loyalty users believing you. It's POSSIBLE that all of us are in a bubble together and actually most of tumblr's traffic is an entirely different group of people, but the people who think of themselves as your core audience and actively identify as Tumblr Users? Those people are going to think you're insane for most of this post.

If there's some data backing this up, SHOW US, because this sounds like bullshit based on our lived experience.

Kylemore Abbey

Connemara, Ireland, 30 VI 2023

by Таня

Almost here.....

— Beth Buelow

Run for it, Victor Sillue

English added by me :)

#chinese government said no more professionally filmed queer shows for you >:( so chinese people said dw we will #film some ourselves :))) (via @guzhu-furen)