Reminder before everyone gets really into “threads”: Meta actively HELPS law enforcement criminalize people seeking abortions in banned states an 18 year old and her mom are facing prison time for an at home abortion and it’s all thanks to meta handing over facebook messages
My copy of @drchucktingle’s book Camp Damascus has arrived! (The publishers were kind enough to send me an advanced copy when I mentioned that I had ordered a copy but time was not kind to me as it was Finish Good Omens and Wrap Things Up Before the Strike world, and I had no personal reading time. So I’m really looking forward to settling down to read it.)
All three of these men have active criminal proceedings against them.
Two of them are currently the leaders of their respective countries and the third is a former leader and the frontrunner of one of the only two major parties in his.
All three are fascists who did much to dismantle whatever democracy their country had.
The world would be better off if all three dropped dead this moment.
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.
Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.
Provide high-quality content with every app launch.
Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.
Retain and grow our creator base.
Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.
Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.
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:
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.
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.
we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content
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.
We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant.
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.
I agree with @thatlittleegyptologist. Tumblr, for the most part (since 2010 for me) has been simple. As a “senior citizen” I prefer SIMPLE. I’ve met & connected with quite a few people over the years. It’s brought me friends, laughs, new interests & just plain fun when encountering like minded folks. Tumblr is the ONLY SOCIAL MEDIA SITE I USE.
IF they fuck tumblr up much more, I’m done.
STOP TRYING TO BE WHAT YOU’RE NOT!
We can reply and protest and direct message and ping and whatever other methods exist to make the point clear, but I worry that none of it will matter.
In my experience, corporations don’t make decisions with logic, but with ’experience.’ They don’t use customer feedback for innovations, but statistical probability. Satisfaction isn’t as much of a motivator as pureprofit.
And we are dealing with a corporation; don’t forget that. Like all the other social media companies, I fully anticipate (particularly with this post) that Tumblr will follow all the other major SocMed companies down their corporate bullshit rabbit-hole into oblivion.
Exhibit A: the claims in this post from @staff are antithetical in nature to the 2018 content ban.
I THOUGHT I WAS DONE BEING HURT BY THIS BUT NOPE. I WAS WRONG.
the idea behind a grim (a big friendly ghost dog) is that because the first soul buried in a burial yard would be its guardian they would bury a Very Good Boy there first so a human wouldn’t be stuck at the gate so to speak. so in that way Laika is continuing an ancient tradition of a guardian spirit protecting the souls of everyone who passes after her.
