#bird app refugee

[oscar-wilde-thing]

Hey, uh, general friendly reminder for folks who might be new/newish to Tumblr- if you really enjoy a post, remember to reblog it, not just "like" it. Reblogging keeps posts circulating around the site and helps the people who follow you see the good stuff, there's no algorithm keeping track of likes. It legit makes me sad when I see people liking my original posts but not reblogging them, cuz it means the audience to that post stays small. We don't get the comedy of containment breaches if reblogs don't happen.

I've been on this blue hellsite since 2011, if you ever have Tumblr questions, feel free to DM me 💜

[lcdmeowsystem]

am i allowed to call my mutuals oomfies on here or will everyone crucify me..

[alchemicaladarna]

Alright! Hello and Welcome to QSMPblr twt refugees!! First of all, I don't have twitter, but I read through a lot of stuff, and I can't imagine how hellish the experience has been the past few days:((

Remember that you guys are valid, and are welcome here!

Of course, this community isn't without its flaws, but I think you'll find that overall, it will be a much better experience than the old bird app. First of all, there are no CC's here, so I guess it's kind of a safe space in that sense? You can post the most batshit insane thing and not have to worry if a cc will see it or not XD

Ok, so here's how Tumblr kinda works:

Tags. Tag your posts appropriately, but don't spam (in other words, don't use unecessary tags- like tagging a character even though they're not even mentioned in the post)

Make sure to change your pfp. If you keep the little shape guys, people will probably think you're bots or smth.

You can actually BLOCK tags and people here! Remember, if you don't want to see any discourse, the block button is your friend. No one's going to come after your throat if you just simply want to filter the posts you see.

Some examples of tags you might want to filter out are: #discourse #neg #crit #qsmp neg #qsmp discourse #qsmp crit etc.

Be kind, respectful, courteous, and considerate of everyone in the community! If you have a certain opinion, or you want to talk about certain topics that could spark discourse, then use the appropriate tags I've listed above!

Also, literally number one internet rule: It's not that hard to show kindness and compassion towards others. It's really what we need the most in this community right now as well, so just keep that in mind, please and thank you!

[cloudfoxy]

That person has to be a birds app refugee, ain't no fucking way we're being called misogynistic for (rightfully) hating a man (a canonically misogynistic, homophobic, abusive man)

[kj-ursa]

wowzers I've not been terribly active on here bc of Bluesky. Here's some stuff I've been working on!!!!!!!

[the-wolf-in-the-police-box]

I’m once again asking all of the twitter refugees to STOP bringing their weird Nine/Rose vs Ten/Rose rivalry here. This is something you freaks and weirdos made up and you can just keep that on your imploding bird app!

The Rose Tyler/ Doctor and Rose Shipping/ RTD era standom on here didn’t even really make a distinction in flavors of Rose/Doctor shipping until you all showed up. Literally Go Away!!! Stop posting in the Rose Tyler tags you’re as annoying as the Rose hate posts!

[ctrl-alt-vibeshift]

i will die for my country twitter

i've traveled through many different social media lands in my time on the internet, and my netizenship has lasted almost as long as my citizenship offline. i got an instagram account behind my parent's back in the early days before it was purchased by facebook, i lived through the rise and fall of vine in middle school, and witnessed tiktok subsume musical.ly in high school. none of these changes in power, re-drawing of borders, annexations, or flag design overhauls have hit me as hard as the recent twitter coup.

as someone who often touts that i was raised on stan twitter, i haven't been dealing with the rebranding of twitter very well. i've been stuck in the first stage of grief (denial) ever since he-who-musk-not-be-named first announced that xtraordinarly terrible new name and logo. twitter was where i found my place online, where i could meet and become online friends with people just as parasocially attached to my latest obsession as i was. i first joined for the norwegian teen drama SKAM, which i actually found out about here on tumblr. once the series wrapped i gradually shifted to devoting my page to troye sivan and connor franta, before a complete descent into the gloriously hellish world of k-pop stan twitter.

regardless of whose face my profile picture was, i always had twitter to turn to when my socializing needs couldn't be met in my little suburban town where i was always one of the few resident stans of [insert past obsession here]. it largely influenced how i interact with people to this day, both on and offline, as well as my sense of humor, my politics, my music taste, my way of speaking, my aesthetic sensibilities, my viewing habits, my identity, etc. while i've informally revoked my stantwittership since late 2020, i still actively use a "personal" account to tweet about whatever i feel like, although i often fall back into reacting to and commenting on the k-pop and other culture happenings i do still keep up with, and if you scroll through my profile quickly my account could be mistaken for a stan one.

twitter is where i've met many oomfs over the years, some I still keep in touch with solely online, others have transitioned into oomirls. it's been somewhat of a home to me, at least to the digital persona that embodied everything i couldn't in my real one. it still had that feeling after that musky fellow initially took over, although some of my more impassioned countrymen immediately cut all ties with the platform, becoming refugees harbored by other social networks and encouraging others to jump ship with them in foreboding final tweets. nevertheless i've persisted, disappointed but not surprised at the monetization of twitter blue and verification checkmarks, unaffected by the changes in moderation and community guidelines. it wasn't until july 2023, when the rebrand was first announced, that my faith in my homeland began to waver.

i've refused to update to that dreary new version of the site, with its grim and cheaply assembled app icon. i will hold onto my little blue bird as long as i can, even if it means being shot out of the sky with it. i've turned off auto updates and have hastily canceled the download on the few occasions where i've accidentally tapped "update" on it while installing others. fortunately, the app still functions for me without issue, although subtle changes have implemented themselves regardless, like my notifications tab now reading "[user] liked your post" instead of "tweet." recently, i've been unable to look at quote tweets on tweets, but can still view individual ones in my feed. i'll continue living like this until the app is rendered functionless without updating, a day i pray never comes.

i wince in pain every time i see "X" written in place of twitter now, although i'm slightly relieved that it is typically followed by "formerly known as twitter" in parentheses. i can't imagine calling stan twitter "stan X," such a moniker sounds like telling someone to literally stan an artist or piece of media called "X," like exclaiming "stan LOONA!!" saying "i'm an X user" or "are you on X?" sounds like banter about the latest designer drug (or perhaps a colloquial shortening of ecstasy?) but let me stop myself before i write another essay solely about the preposterousness of using the 24th letter of the alphabet as your brand name.

i don't know what the future holds for twitter, and with each passing day i hold my breath when i tap my blue app icon with white bird graphic, a quickly disappearing relic of tweets past. i now feel like i'm the member of a stateless nation, joining the likes of the kurds and their longing for a kurdistan. while my flag no longer flies, i remain a reluctant patriot, holding fast on stolen land. you'll have to force me off my lot before i rise for the pledge of xllegiance.

[televisefur]

CW: Non-art tangent, Mentions of Twitter, mentions of hate speech

My opinion on Twitter and how we should use social media in 2023

I want to make this space a blog where I can express myself freely - so some posts will be art, and some will be like this. Thank you for staying with me!

Now, onto the topic of today's blog post.

Remember how we had tons of different social media websites, like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.? And now, most of the younger folk stay on Twitter, now known as X, and rarely ever go to Facebook, not to mention what happened to MySpace.

As part of this centralization, from 2012 and up until 2023 Twitter used to be my home online. Most of my followers are on Twitter and most of the people I know from the communities I'm in are from Twitter. I liked the convenience of having one platform where I could post art, talk to people, share my opinions.

As you know, Twitter, now X, has been irreparably damaged. As time went on, even before Elon's takeover, it became impossible to share your opinions without being supressed by the Twitter algorithm. I should've known I had Tumblr as an option where I could do so. Well, now as I've realized this, I'm making this post to talk about it. But things are so much worse now for Twitter when it comes to expressing your opinions or finding out what people think about things - which was Twitter's original intention.

When Elon came over, things became even worse. Elon started promoting alt-right hate speech, and made it much harder to get noticed or even talk to people in DMs without paying for Premium. But unlike Reddit, there was no giant tidal wave of people moving to Mastodon or any of the other alternatives (and people came back to Reddit anyway because some communities just stayed there or got reopened, and Lemmy has a host of issues that make it inconvenient for the majority of users).

Instead, the community splintered - Bluesky invites are flying off the shelves, Meta had their euphoric moment with Threads, and even Tumblr is trying to attract Twitter refugees by replicating its user interface, but most people stayed on the bird-turned-letter app- meaning we as artists or fans have to stay on our old Twitter accounts while at the same time spreading our attention thin between different platforms.

Tumblr used to be this extremely niche platform for artists, fans, various communities but it is becoming more popualr as a general social blogging website. I think that's a good thing, because I don't believe in gatekeeping, but I also don't like how uncomfortable existing Tumblr users are right now with the fact that a ton of Twitter users are coming into the platform.

Basically, I should've "switched" to Tumblr a long time ago and made that my priority. I should've just left Twitter a long time ago, when it started becoming the "only positive vibes" platform. The people behind Twitter manipulated it and the content you see on it for years, and that is the thing I dislike the most, second to the far-right push itself.

But now, the only thing I can do is get used to a splintered experience of social media once again. And I kind-of have a method for it, but I'm figuring it out. Like, for example, why should I use both Mastodon and Bluesky if both are virtually the same except one is open for everybody but more niche, and the other one is locked but is actually trending? Maybe it depends on which one is more popular at the current moment. Maybe it's based on how fun it is to use the platform. Maybe it is based on what I can do on it.

The thing is - I'm in the exploring phase. And that's the fun part.

[dumpsterfire-dweller]

IT IS TIME. FOR. A SEQUEL!!!!! TO MY FIRST. PROPER POST.

TYPES OF TUMBLR REFUGEES PART TWO ELECTRIC FUCKING BOOGALOO

Bababam... SO recap first wave(s) of refugees crawling to tumblr, the cockroach of websites, immortal as can be was from no other than the blue bird app after a certain E-boy (E-lon Musk) bought it and started just ruining it. But NOW BAM BACK TO THE FUTURE PRESENT reddit decided to do a little fucky wucky (its your ususal greedy company bs) that fucky wucky uppy being killing 3rd party apps which made user very mad and so maannnyy subreddits are going dark(aka privated temporarily or permanently) as a form of protest! Which we can safely assume will make redditors be without their subreddit and come scattering like mice towards the hellsite.. so lets add those rats to the list of TUMBLR REFUGEEESSSS

So no more rambling this is TYPES OF TUMBLR REFUGEES PART TWO ELECTRIC MOTHERFUCKING BOOGALOO

-twitter refugees who already had tumblr but never used it and came crrrrawwwling back once elon bought twitter.

-twitter refugees who still have hope that the blue bird app wont die.

-twitter refugees who are new to tumblr and came when twitter started burning down thanks to the muskrat .

-twitter refugees who are new and came right when elon threatened to buy twitter.

-REDDIT refugees most likely coming from the darkened subreddits thanks to the fuck up of the new API access policy.

[mxkokopuff]

Welcome

I’m Kit and I’m an ex tumblr user turned refugee from the bird app bc fuck the bird app. So i’m back here and slowly remembering how to use this site--

I am the biggest Estinien and Karasu fan ever. I’m the only one that can say that- That’s like the rarest pair there is those fuckers ain’t even been in the same room, before but in my silly lil lore with my WoL, Koko Malaguld, they are in a polycule together and it’s cute.

I have other ships. And like 50 other characters. I’m so normal about FFXIV I promise. Post about my main OCs coming soon maybe?

Anyway enjoy your stay and I hope you like dragons-

[esmoonlady]

I keep on seeing shit about how tumblr treats reddit refugees compared to twitter refugees and I'm just here knowing DAMN well I am coming from twitter because Elon is retarded (can I even say that on here? Idk and idrc I have adhd) and I just be like "yeah uh huh brain dead bird app people bad" even tho I spend way to much goddamn time on the brain dead bird app

[jasper-dracona]

The only thing I ever saw on the internet almost as often as I saw tumblr screenshots was Reddit stories. Plus, yeah, it was a really good resource for getting a question answered, so we saw Reddit come up a lot when we were curious or confused about something. That site of y’all’s was a helpful friend sometimes, and we appreciated that :)

Oh, and the fact that the site was very user-run and functioned on the work of dedicated volunteers is very much a spirit that I think Tumblr vibes with. Like, xkit makes our site function how we want it to, and maybe I’m just too new a user to know (joined 2018) but, as far as I can tell, that’s operated and updated by a mysterious ring of volunteer wizards or something.

But think of yourself here as your own mini-mod! Filter tags related to things you keep seeing but don’t care about, filter tags of things you find scary or gross, filter tags related to political discussions or sensitive topics that you’re not always ready to hear about, block people who post about stuff you don’t like or don’t care about, and don’t feel ashamed to unfollow someone if they’ve stopped posting about stuff you like!

My filtered tag list is pretty long compared to most, other people have blocked a lot more blogs than me, but it accomplishes approximately the same goal of making sure that my Tumblr has stuff I wanna see and is a place I want to go and look at stuff. I know it’s not gonna be filled with unnecessary discourse, or a show I don’t like, or news about something really bad and depressing. It’s gonna be fanart of shows and games I like, positive messages, stupid jokes, radical queerness and helpful advice!

I stopped using instagram after I joined an activism group and made some friends and followed them all on there, because all they would do all day every day was share posts about depressing stuff about big political topics, and how we need to be doing more about this and this and this too, and doing more and more and more and I couldn’t stand to open the app anymore. Never gonna have that problem here and it’s great.

Anyway some examples of tags I have filtered:

#dsmp - ‘cause I could not give less of a fuck

#abortion ban - too heavy to be hearing about all the time

And an example of the other way around: a friend of mine has ornithophobia, fear of birds. But I LOOOVE birds, so that’s kind of a problem, right? Wrong! I just have to remember to quickly add the tags #tw bird and #bird tw so I can reblog all the bird pictures I want without her having to see them, because I know she has that tag filtered!

So yeah, welcome to Tumblr, Reddit refugees! Be your own mod, don’t be shy about filtering, unfollowing, or blocking, and also don’t tell anyone to stop posting about something you find annoying, because that’s what those features are there for.

[princess-megzie]

Hi new people! (And thanks @traegorn for sending people my way!)

It’s been a while since I was in here. I don’t even know if I remember how to use tumblr properly. But I’m glad to have y’all here!

My blog is mostly fandom related (Sailor Moon and Overwatch are my two big ones) with personal photos, memes, and social justice sprinkled in there too.

I’m also a co-producer on Let’s Be Legendary Podcast where I play Seline Argent. We put our hearts and souls into this show so if you’re into actual play DND podcasts and wanna hear about some werewolf half-Fey Wild West lesbian adventures, please give it a listen!

I’d love to have more witchy mutuals since I’ve been in the process of rediscovering my craft for the past few years.

Other than that, I have a LOT to catch up on but I’m just glad to be a Bird App refugee!

[teslathelame]

the urge to report everyone clogging fandom tags with intro/moot fishing posts vs not wanting to be mean to the poor bird app refugees >_<

[delyvt]

Hi again, Tumblr! Looks like a certain bird app is dying again. I hope all you Tumblr veterans have room for a few refugees or two! 🥲 Here's a meme as payment for safe passage!

[lorgejorge]

Hardest part of being a bird app refugee is all the cool blogs that blocked you before you filled out your bio