#hell i don't use adblock on this site out of respect for it

[crazyw3irdo]

why tf is there a checkmark on tumblr

tldr: making fun of elon musk

longer explanation: tumblr's been needing additional ways of making income lately. i'm assuming you're from twitter or at the very least new-ish to tumblr, so i'll say that for the past year or so tumblr has been trying various money-making... i hesitate to call them schemes- perhaps just... weird incentives?

there was "tumblr plus" which i think is technically still a thing? but no one uses it. they introduced tipping too, though blogs have to opt in to that one. they dropped a merch store, you can pay for no ads, and they introduced blaze- by far the most popular one. there's also the crabs and the horse though those require more explanation than is necessary for this post. i think the top 5 series falls under this money-making category too.

i'm not even gonna bother to explain the current twitter situation cause everyone knows it, so when musk did the whole "$8 verification" thing tumblr staff saw an opportunity for 1) bullying that bastard and 2) making some money for their site that really needs money.

so now you can buy two checkmarks for $7.99. and you can buy more. they stack. it doesn't mean anything its just cosmetic. you get to financially support our hellsite home and make fun of elon musk, it's a win-win imo.

[danatron1]

Why does Tumblr respect me?

I don't think tumblr users realise how good they've got it. I didn't either - I just got here. I'm amazed.

I right click on a video and save it. As an MP4 file. what. This simple thing is unheard of on other platforms. Reddit doesn't allow this. Twitter doesn't allow this. You're high on catnip if you think Youtube would ever allow this. But Tumblr allows this.

It's a basic level of respect for its users that is so alien to me, coming from reddit. Tumblr just lets me have things. I can open something in a new tab and it's just a raw image. It doesn't lock everything down in an attempt to force you to link to their site instead of just sharing an image. It doesn't watermark anything I download to try and claim ownership of it (remember when people clowned on ifunny for this?). It doesn't see my desire to socialise as an opportunity for free advertising.

Also - I can just share things! Without tracking! I can copy a link without seeing ?feature=shared appended to it. It lets me opt out of algorithm-generated content feeds. Tumblr feels like it actually respects my privacy - it feels like a 2004 website in the best way possible. Custom CSS is a thing, you can have your own domains that look how you want them to. What the hell. Remember when youtube let you fully customise your channel page? Remember myspace? It feels like tumblr didn't get better, everything else just got worse.

My one complaint is that it prevents you from browsing content unless you have an account - that's a dick move. Don't be pinterest.

Tumblr is a big site, it absolutely has the power to lock everything down and try and create an ecosystem that discourages off-site sharing. Not doing so is an active choice. Not tracking every link is an active choice that I fully expect to hurt their advertising potential. On that note - I've not been pestered about adblockers once.

I'm new here, but I'm experienced enough to know a good thing when I see it. I'm used to sites that want to stick their digital hands into my wallet, and only because technology doesn't allow them to slip them under my skin yet. I hope these first impressions are accurate, because I'm absolutely ready to get absorbed into tumblr culture and see the "world heritage posts" I've heard so much about. Not as a tourist, but as a citizen.