#a functional hellsite?? imagine

[shapoopy178]

"Likes don't do anything" wrong likes give me serotonin don't be a hater

[borealtwilight]

i can now see my own posts (whether reblogged by me or created by me) in my dash again

what gives, tumblr???

....so am i the only one who can no longer see posts i've reblogged on my dash or?

like the posts are showing in my blog but they're not in my dash feed at ALL.

eta: i also cannot see this post on my dash.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Helloooooo my most favorite author on this hellsite we call home! I was wondering if you could do a lil thing with Slenderman and a reader who is painfully oblivious to flirtation of all kind! It took her years to realize he was flirting with her even after being hopelessly in love with him for quite a while. So maybe whenever she's out and about she might meet someone who tries to flirt with her and she has no idea, but he knows. I imagine she could be coming home after the store or something, happy and bubbly having no clue and just see him staring at her and then she realizes. I have a feeling he'd be a bit amused and mildly exasperated at the same time. I'm not sure jealousy is something he feels, but it'd be interesting to see him get a bit more...possessive. (This is...definitely not something that recently happened to me....not at all I notice when people like me and flirt with me...all the time always. Yep. ((I am lying)))

Slenderman when oblivious!reader gets flirted with

Oooouuuuugggh I really want some blackberry Dr pepper rn hisshisshiss

Notes: fem reader, short post, written on mobile, the forest creature who doesn't fully get humans has become less oblivious than you/lh

CWs: canon typical violence and stalking

Its... a little funny... because before he had zero idea how humans flirted and- as he used to describe it, court each other

Seriously! The closest to 'normal' he got before he figured it out was leaving flowers for you..! And totally non threatening and ominous love notes on your door..!

But he's always watching you even if you don't notice, and he's... picked up on how humans work. How they act, how they function, things like that... and he's far less oblivious than you are so he picks up really quick when someone's trying to shoot their shot with you

Ans honestly... most of the time he's not that bothered. Even when you innocently tell him about a funny interaction you had while you were out (which he more than likely witnessed) he's not going to get jealous

He knows you're his, and he's yours. Nothing is going to change that, much less some person at some check out line in some store!

Though... he does get protective. If he feels someone could be a threat he will act. Be it stalking them to ensure your interaction was one off... or if need be, quietly deal with them to make sure they don't keep bothering you

And he will act like he did nothing, unless you ask. He sees no reason to hide what he's done from you. In his eyes the loss of life just ensured you'd be safe and by his side

[riacte]

Funny how Tumblr is usually more "positive" compared to Twitter and Reddit when it comes to fan reception of things such as Hermitcraft / Life series / MCC, yet most CCs (naturally, and rightfully!) do not come here often because they have to brave the waters of shipping and other Tumblr "weirdness". Tumblr is for fans by fans.

Maybe some MCC participants don't like seeing predictions and tier lists on Reddit. Hiii, we don't really have that on Tumblr. Just fanart and clips of Scar saying "dong" and people unable to get over teams from 2020 and writing found family fanfiction. And Tumblr usually has overwhelmingly positive reactions to HC / Life series stuff. BUT we have the fanfic and the shipping etc etc.

Tumblr may be a hellsite, but the discourse / negativity is kiiiiiiind of more contained compared to Twitter and Reddit. Like, it exists. Of course it exists. But it appears less frequently on main? And the blocking function is better here compared to Twitter.

Pick your poison! Tumblr has the shipping and fanfic and all of that, but Reddit has the criticism. Reddit has some fanart, but basically no fanfic and God Forbid, shipping. Here on Tumblr, we love your stuff so sincerely and deeply that we sometimes make the block people kiss and are inspired to write novels. But please do not see our kissing fanart or our fics or else we'll die.

You know how some MCC participants don't really like tier lists / predictions because it adds stress? Imagine if that entire genre moved off Reddit to Tumblr so fans could still continue to do that and have fun with each other away from CCs' eyes (yes, exactly like how shippers do with shipping). And the MCC Reddit becomes the equivalent of the Tumblr maintags with only appreciative / helpful posts and fanart and skins (but still no fanfic lol). And maybe all the unconstructive criticism / bashing from the Life series Reddit can get moved to dedicated tags on Tumblr, so fans could still discuss that with less risk of upsetting CCs (yes, once again exactly what shippers do, or like how people bitch about petty things in private circles as not to bitch on main). Idk, just throwing thoughts out here on this fandom hellhole of a webbed site.

[computerafterlife]

テレパシーの衰退。

“decay of telepathy”

Hi! My name’s Juno. I’m a non-binary fluid transmasc tomboy (they/them pronouns, please). I’m 27 years old, kinda neurodivergent (AuDHD), and I consider myself a veteran member of otaku / anime subculture.

@romantickowloon is my sunshine, my partner, and my beloved Pookie Zero Custom since 9.17.2020! I am THE #1 FAN of their yumeship (AceYue my OTP 5ever)!

please read below before following! ↓

about me!

I’m most prominently a profic yumedanshi / selfshipper that absolutely loves to share, yap, and brainrot about my fictional pookies. This blog functions both as my multifandom main tumblr and repository of my nonsense as a yume. Please note: I don’t really mind who follows me, but I ask that fandom “antis”, fancops, and anyone adjacent to that philosophy please do not interact, and feel free to block me if you want. I will not usually follow back anyone under 17 and accounts without any indication of general age range.

about my yumeships / sharing / content!

My main fandom is Mobile Suit Gundam – specifically The Witch from Mercury and Wing. I yume / selfship with both Shaddiq Zenelli (WfM) and Duo Maxwell (Wing). I’m extremely normal about them. My tags for them are “pookie 1” and “pookie 2”, respectively. I admittedly am very unserious and casual about my fictional pookies – sharing is fine, and most CxC or yume doubles don’t invoke insecurity in me. I do also reblog some ship or non-yume content if I like it!

I will absolutely hype up others’ yumeships, especially if they’re my friends or mutuals (if they’re cool with it). I do actively try to give my homies’ askboxes lots of love! I am a bit of a writer of readerfic, I have previously run “imagine” gimmick sideblogs, and I have done a lot of short paragraph yume RP. I rarely allow my most self-indulgent stuff to see the light of day, but I will (hopefully) post some relatable, organic, and mostly original yume content.

connect with me on any of these other things!

Muskrat’s Hellsite (twitter / X)

Bluesky

Reddit

AniList

Instagram

Tiktok

please note that i don’t use the last two (willingly)! the first ones + this hellsite are where i’m most active!

Mutuals can absolutely add me on Discord. (Just blease tell me who you the hell you are after friending me! I don’t accept random friend requests!)

I’m in a few of my friends’ own personal servers, adult yumeship servers, and a lot of big public or official servers of my interests! I also have a wee bit of experience as a moderator on small servers.

if you’re still here uhhhhhh thanks for reading lmao

pookie 2 will now glomp you 🖤

( credit for the divider goes to @/kodaswrld )

[chaotic-archaeologist]

Hi! I'm currently doing my MA in archaeology (European Prehistory specialization) and I love it. I always thought I'd get my Masters and dip, but lately I've been seriously contemplating getting a PhD. I love learning and studying my topic and I'm having so much fun at my uni and suddenly starting my working career at 22 doesn't sound very appealing anymore. However, the idea of applying to a PhD program is very overwhelming (luckily where I want to apply has a pretty cohesive sign up step by step), still the idea of funding (especially) and having to write a proposal and possibly getting rejected from the place I've spend the last three and half years walking around is very overwhelming. How can I have that be not so overwhelming to the point of giving up bc if sounds like too much? Do I need to worry about funding that much? Is it expensive?

(I tried to find your advice masterpost before sending this ask to check if you'd already talked abt it, but I couldn't find a working link, sorry)

Thanks in advance :D

Hi dirtling,

First, here's a link to my advice master list—sorry that wasn't working for you. Our blue hellsite is fickle like that.

From what you say, it sounds like you have a great attitude for starting the journey to a PhD. Ultimately, the love of learning and a dedication to the field are the most important parts. The application and the proposal and the funding are daunting for everyone, but they are doable. I find that breaking things down into bite sized pieces and establishing your sense of self worth outside of academia are critical.

Now I feel the need to point out that my experience and advice come from a uniquely American viewpoint, and may not be applicable to European schools at all. Europeans please feel free to chime in with your own advice!

The very first thing you should do is talk to your advisor. Please send them an email right now if you have not already done so! Your (potential) advisor is going to be your champion in any sort of application process going forward. If you want to continue at the same university you're already at, your advisor is the single best person to help walk you through that process. Even if you wind up going somewhere else, you're going to need to make inroads with another advisor at a new program.

Finally: grad school is expensive (at least in the United Stated). However, many programs will have tuition waivers and assistantships that they offer their grad students because if everybody had to pay for it, nobody except the very rich would be able to afford to go to grad school. Exactly how affordable it is depends on the cost of living in your area and how much the school pays you (and whether you're able to work outside to supplement that income if need be).

Honestly, I think you've already done the hard part by getting into (and nearly completing) a Master's program. That's a great step towards proving to PhD programs that you have what it takes, and it should give you a decent idea about finances. What are yours like right now? How about your peers? I would imagine there isn't going to be a vast amount of difference from a MA to a PhD, and in the US a PhD is sometimes cheaper because they're funded while MAs often are not.

There will be differences from a MA to a PhD. Doctoral students are going to be expected to take on larger magnitudes of their own research and function more independently, but a good advisor and program should help you through that process. Again, the key is to take things piece by piece. Start with talking to your advisor and maybe the graduate program director. Take a look at that step by step guide with them and break it into separate tasks you need to do.

Don't psych yourself out about this too much. One thing at a time.

-Reid

[whereistheonepiece]

If this place goes down that's it for me making a dedicated One Piece space.

I keep flip flopping between making a Bsky or not because on the one hand I'm tired of site and app migrations. It's exhausting when everything eventually gets enshittified one way or another, and I'm tired of adapting to new site/app interfaces and new site/app cultures.

On the other hand, this site has been dying a slow death since the booby ban; and every time I log on to twitter I get hit with N*zism, the most rancid kind of misogyny to exist, and the fucking blue checkmark bots/blue checkmark people with the personality of soulless bots ruining everything either by commenting "based" in defense of any kind of bigotry you can think of or just saying the most braindead shit imaginable.

If I make a Bsky it'll be to follow a moot of my main blog if this place goes down, the people I like on Twitter who already left, and a Dorohedoro moot from Twitter.

I already feel some complicated stuff about my place on the internet as a creator as it is, so being a faceless part of the crowd feels the way to go.

But that guy fired most of the Twitter team and that hellsite is still somehow functioning. Barely. So this could be a nonissue.

[inthesp0tlight]

12. what roleplay trends do you remember from the year you started tumblr rp? how did you feel about those trends?

º ✧ 。 @reputahtion had a question for the mun !

oh GOD. talk about ancient history ... i first joined the tumblr rpc back in the early 2010s. in the GLEE fandom of all places (hi @theoriginalbadass icb we found each other again) so i'll preface this answer by saying a LOT of the "trends" i remember were heavily influenced by where on this hellsite i was. and if you can't tell by the tone of my disclaimer? most of them were BAD. but i'll try and be balanced here by giving one negative and one positive 😊

the GOOD: 👏 magic 👏 anons 👏 HELLO ??? i will never forgive the hate filled assholes who forced most people (myself included) to turn off the anon function on their blogs for their own safety because this was the one true JOY of the rpc. i remember having so much fucking fun being on BOTH sides of the equation when silly hours popped off - spamming my mutuals AND being spammed by them. it was deeply UNSERIOUS and led to all kinds of crack filled chaos and i just miss it a lot okay ???

the GROSS: bruh, the whole era of celebrity rp. not VERSES, which are fine (hey i have one). i mean where like, people weren't playing the characters from a show they were playing the actual real life ACTORS. i came across so fucking many rp blogs of the glee cast members where they were shipping with other cast members and. dude. i shouldn't have to tell you that you don't get to write REAL FUCKING PEOPLE in rp ?!?! that's so gross and creepy and i can't imagine how these poor people would feel if they EVER found out about it. i mean it was bad enough that it happened in speculation in the tabloids but people PRETENDING TO BE THEM ON THE INTERNET WRITING SMUT BETWEEN THEM AND THEIR COWORKERS ??? 🤮🤮🤮

fuck, i still see it sometimes and it needs to DIE.

[schismusic]

Redecorating

I've done some pretty stupid shit in my life but this, this whole thing (imagine I'm gesturing around indistinctly with a ghastly look on my face), totally takes the cake. Is it funny if I do the tapping-the-mic-to-check-if-it-works gag in a written post?

It started when I was about to turn fifteen and trying to bed a girl - she honestly dodged a bullet when she said no, I cannot lie to you all. Anyway I guess I absolutely had to find an outlet for being an annoying teenager and being an asshole irl simply didn't cut it sometimes, you know how it is, most of us are here for that exact same reason.

A number of things have happened since I last posted on this hellsite. The short version is as follows:

I had an identity crisis, or two, or five;

I got a driver's license, somehow;

a worldwide pandemic hit, but I guess this is another one of those things that make us equal on this postapocalyptic landscape of a microblogging platform;

just as inexplicably as my driver's license, I also got a beautiful and lovely girlfriend of almost three years now;

who knows, I might even get a degree before 2024 is over.

This is all fine and dandy, of course, but sometimes a dude just needs to scream into the void, wherein "the void" in this case is about two hundred (!!!!) strangers on the internet, which probably includes you, dear reader. Thanks for sticking with me over these troublesome years of absolutely nothing happening on this blog.

What's new then?

Number one: "what the fuck kinda name is schismusic?"

Hi, my name is schismusic. I thought of this ungodly name when I was, as mentioned, a very pretentious fourteen-year-old, and it absolutely shows. However,

one could argue it's part of the charm in a way;

it grants a bit of relative anonimity compared to my other, more beloved Internet alias (which will inevitably come crashing against my inevitable post concerning my band and the record we made a while ago - more on this later);

somehow, it stuck. You people will eat up just about fucking anything, really!

(Another thing that happened: I learned a tiny bit of HTML, because Letterboxd is yet another hellsite I'm not-quite-proudly a part of. Gotta catch 'em all. I love being annoying with HTML formatting as a matter of fact, it's quite liberating to pretend to know that you can code in front of a billion strangers on the Internet.)

Number two: "so is this asshole gonna post fake hipster music on my timeline yet again?"

Not really, or at least not just that. First order of business is that reblogging is fun, but it overstays its welcome when you do it irresponsibly. It also quite literally goes contrary to this blog's original self-appointed mission and this cannot go unchecked. Pretension is law! Bad taste is every single one of this blog's ten commandments! I hate you all more than I hate myself!

Jokes aside, my point is exactly that I want to be a bit less annoying on the Internet for once. Consequently, I have decided to extend the range of posts on this blog beyond the relatively usual songs and reach into short- and medium-form writing (fiction, nonfiction, maybe even reviews: anything goes), pictures I take (the true OGs might remember I used to post my own drawings from time to time: that's not entirely out of the question for the future, it's just that it's been a while since I've last drawn anything worthwhile) and obviously shameless self-promotion (remember me mentioning my band a couple paragraphs above? Well, here is our record on Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube; and no, my dear OGs, this is not the same band I used to talk about back in the day! This is a whole new project for you to check out), both in Italian and English, and maybe even some Spanish if I actually take my Spanish to a functional level.

As a corollary of this final point, I will not be deleting my old content, so that the new people on here can get to enjoy a whole cornucopia of cringe circa-2014 content.

Finally, since this is primarily a music blog, the obligatory soundtrack to the writing of this post:

Shoutout to literally every single one of you people for somehow not getting tired of waiting through these years of inactivity, or maybe you just forgot that I existed. If it's the second one, I hope this post was a fun throwback, and that this time you remember to unfollow me for good like you probably wanted to do back when I was active and annoying on here.

It's good to be back.

Love,

schismusic

[clown-around-and-find-out]

i know it's probably been said a million times but please please please stop trigger tagging your posts as some unreadable jumbled mess of letters and numbers and symbols. there is a way to block specific tags on tumblr and many users utilize that system. however, it becomes useless when people try to... censor their trigger tagging? i cannot tell you how many times i have had to see a post i specifically have blocked in tags because somebody came up with bullshit tags. and even with the content filtering system, it tends to be wildly inaccurate and feels as though it's barely functional. therefore, i have to rely on tags.

let's say for example you really hate the mayor from powerpuff girls. seeing his fuckass mustache brings you nothing but rage and agony. but your entire dash seems to be filled with him even after youve blocked the main bloggers of him. so, you go to your beloved tag filtering system and hope to never see that shitty ass mayor again. problem solved, right? no. because theres another mayor-hater in town who hates the mayor SO MUCH they cant even bear to truly spell out his name. so all mayor-related hate posts are tagged with shit like 'm4y0r'. well, easy enough. you dont want to see any mayor content (both malevolent and benign), so you just filter out the 'm4y0r' tag. but what's this?! suddenly the mayors number one fan has begun to 'tag him' for mayor haters thinking that if they censor his name, mayor haters wont be so upset. so now theres hundreds of different combinations of tags. m4yor, may0r, mm44yo0r. all this weird shit you couldnt ever imagine. you try your best to tag all of these influx of mayor posts with tags that try to censor his name, but to no avail. the content settings dont help, because now every post about your favorite character (the mayor from nightmare before christmas) is censored!

i know it's a silly example (honestly) but it's a representation of what i go through almost every single day on this hellsite. i know this was longwinded but. please. for the love of god. just trigger tag your posts normally.

[voltaspistol]

I tried looking up this one video of this older black lady with this incredibly soothing voice saying nice things to the camera POV style and I finally had to give up because every possible iteration of "soothing black lady older black lady says nice things nice black lady african-american nice lady says soothing things while wearing pearls" consistently came up with videos of white people assaulting black people. Second worst search function imaginable, second only to this fucking hellsite.

[cryptid-esskay]

HELLO EVERYBODY :D

Some people use the pinned post function to highlight important things. Others choose to keep their favourite nonsense pinned to the top for no reasons but the bit. Maybe you didn't know that. Maybe you already did. Everyday is someone's first day on here. It's certainly not mine. I've been here for years so I’d like to share a story with you.

After such a long time of having a main blog in which only strangers could find me, I felt compelled to make something more… corporate. Cause that's what Tumblr is used for- shitposting very professional business stuff. And finding community. That's one of our greatest strengths. We also tell some of the most amazing stories and write folklore that's wiggled its way into common vocabulary.

We are some of the most ridiculous and creative storytellers of the 21st century. Like The God of Arepo, which started as a writing prompt and became its own comic. I consider it one of the most well-known stories I've read on this hellsite website. We have this innate urge to share things with others, and combined with our endless imaginations we become master storytellers.

That is something we have been doing for quite soms time. Something we've always been doing. If you consider the idea that storytelling goes beyond words, perhaps then you understand.

Art is storytelling.

Music is storytelling.

Writing is storytelling.

The very act of communicating is storytelling.

We’ve been doing it all along. Maybe you didn't know that. Maybe you already did. Maybe it doesn't matter to you. To me it does. Storytelling is something I am very passionate about. This is just the beginning.

[cauldronofeverything]

Imagine

Being able to actually find the damn post that you know exists on the hellsite, that you reblogged years ago.

Imagine

A search function that actually works.

[offonaherosjourney]

Yet another PSA for Reddit Refugees

How to use the Search bar to find old Tumblr posts

HAHAHAHAHA YOU DON'T

Ok, but really, how can I track that one post that a friend showed me seven years ago?

By being VERY LUCKY and willing to invest A LOT OF TIME. If there's something you really want to find, here are your best bets, in no particular order:

If you remember specific keywords, try a google search. However, even if you get a hit, the link won't take you to the post, it will take you to the main page of the blog. Have fun dumpster diving (affectionate) in their Archive tab.

If the post belonged to a specific fandom, try finding blogs that only reblog stuff about that fandom and have fun dumpster diving (affectionate) in their Archive tab.

Plead to the void and hope the void answers. Make a post giving as much info as you can about the post you are trying to find and hope someone else remembers it and knows where to find it or has better luck than you tracking it down.

Go to r/tumblr or r/curatedtumblr while you still can and try asking there if anyone remembers the post and has a link.

Learn how to code. Get hired by Tumblr. Fix the Search engine. Submit your resignation.

[harfblarf]

Thoughts on this post (primarily 3, 4, and 5):

"Conversation on tumblr is such a key feature" and "remove clutter from reblog threads by collapsing previous replies" is hilariously contradictory

Everything about the circumspect way this 'roadmap' talks about replies/reblogs makes me extremely leery and I have a sinking feeling about the changes they'll want to make

The only features I can imagine them adding to replies to make them more functional that might (???) actually work are 1) reactions and 2) nesting threads like reddit did. Which. I mean. It could be funny at least

If you take away 'spam reblog a post to give your followers and mutuals nightmares on their dash' away I'm fucking rioting. Pvp is why any of us are goddamn here

You have to realize if you discard the best feature of tumblr, the personally-curated dashboard-- or make it a grandfathered-in feature only old blogs get to have-- or you make it annoying to access or several steps removed from the default experience-- you have to realize you are shooting yourself yourself the foot with a nuke. You HAVE to. You have to understand that. I've seen literally countless posts talking about how it's the prize feature of this hellsite. Literally not a single tumblr blog over a year old wants a fucking algorithm shoved down our throats.

Extra bullet point because the above is so important. What are you doing.

'Notification management for big posts' is such a basic ass feature I do NOT know how it has taken this long to become a priority. But like. Quarter point for a single good idea

Aside: use of the term 'feedback loop' to talk about the personal blogging platform makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. Gross.

Have you done a modicum of research into notification systems and their efficacy over the last five years. Forcing email notifications WILL get people to LEAVE or refuse to sign up. Push notifications are ignored at best, obnoxious at worst. Needing an external motivator to bring people to your 'fun' app is a bad fucking sign, and people are catching on to that. This Will Not Work.

Also, forcing account sign-up for general browsing is so scummy. It's industry standard scum but the industry is a shithole.

Are you even aware that attempting to italicize/etc text on the Android mobile app usually glitches and italicizes/etc the entire paragraph against the user's will? Have you fixed asks getting eaten? How about the ads attacking other posts on tumblr mobile? Make your goddamn shit functional before you talk about ~optimization~ and ~excellence~

Literally your first step should be bot and flagging management. If you could actually get a leash on bots, spam, and your useless automatic filter algorithm, you could implement features that might actually be capable of utilizing user input to sort and promote content. OUTSIDE OF THE DASHBOARD.

It should also be self-evident to you clowns that tumblr's quirks and 'nonstandard' features ARE its appeal. We literally just had two influxes from other websites where the popular conversation of these new users went from confusion to DELIGHT over the very features you are condemning as "outdated" and "bad for promoting new creators".

In conclusion:

If you fuck up the dashboard or ruin the silly fun interactivity features, you will not even be worthy of hunting for sport.

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.

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.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get��� Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[shy-mouse]

twitter is apparently punishing users for *checks notes* using their website too much