#if i want your algorithm's opinion i'll fucking ask.

[crystaltoa]

Me: I should make some blorbo playlists! Nobody makes blorbo playlists anymore!

*opens Spotify for the first time in years*

...Oh so THAT'S why.

[jen-with-a-pen]

If people aren't comfortable reblogging fics to their blog (which I am not, due to a personal history of being doxxed and humiliated to my irl friends and family), are comments sufficient enough engagement or would you rather that reader not engage with your work at all?

I feel like that came out sounding passive aggressive but I truly mean it as a genuine question and am just not sure how to rework it to sound less snarky! I see this discourse on and off from different fic writers and respect both opinions and think everyone should be able to curate interaction with their fics as they see fit.

Hi, anon.

I've been thinking carefully on how to respond to this. I can tell you're not trying to come off as snarky– which i say as someone who can't read tone for shit most of the time and whose own tone can come off aggressive or bitchy when I don't mean it to be.

I'm gonna address your ask as thoroughly as I can, if that's cool. Sorry if it's a long response. I'll put a cut in so I don't interrupt feeds ✂️

First, I want to pose a question to your question, which I mean genuinely with no spite whatsoever: why are you on Tumblr if you're not reblogging or don't even reblog?

As I've stated in other replies to the post I made a few weeks back, from the way I see it, Tumblr is literally built upon the foundation of sharing creations and content. There is no dead-set algorithm here like there is for Instagram or TikTok. Sharing is, quite fucking literally, caring here. We are able to form communities of all sizes because we share things. Reblogging is essential to the upkeep, and quite frankly the existence, of fandom and communities. Without sharing, our communities crumble and become ruins. We are actively seeing this as we speak: many mutuals and authors I follow are starting to quit writing due to passive, demanding consumption patterns and 0 engagement.

I know you probably know this, but I thought I'd restate it for answer's sake.

To answer the meat of your ask, I will pull from both personal experience and mutuals' experiences and input.

In my own personal opinion, if you are solely commenting on fics and are not engaging in anything else (no likes, no reblogs, etc.) then I personally think that Tumblr is not the site you should be on and, frankly, you should go sign up for AO3 if that's all you're going to do.

And I mean this earnestly. If all you want to do for engagement is commenting, then AO3 needs you because sharing does NOT affect authors nearly as much over there as it does here. In fact comments on AO3 are the literal equivalent to reblog on Tumblr: we don't get any and when we do it's like finding an oasis in a never ending desert.

Now in terms of what mutuals and other authors have said on the matter, it seems the consensus is that commenting without reblogging is a case-by-case basis. I'm going to quote a mutual of mine here:

"...if someone is commenting on my work but not reblogging… I'd say it's case by case. If it's just MY fics they aren’t reblogging, then it'd be a problem, but if they don’t reblog ANY [fics] I'd be more okay."

Another mutuals also put it this way:

"... I feel like there *is* both sides in this sense; yes comments are nice and engaging even though they aren't the preferred and most helpful way to boost writers..."

I feel like both of them put it into words where I struggled to. I will also say that I do agree with the point being that if you're not gonna reblog ANYTHING– no art, no content, no photos, no other fics, nothing– AND your profile adheres to the guidelines set forth in basic Tumblr etiquette (not looking like a bot and not a minor) then sure, comment away.

The verdict, in summary with my opinion and mutuals': it depends on your behavior and your interactions with other works and content.

I hate the word content but I couldn't think of another one.

But, my question still stands: why are you on Tumblr when you don't even participate in the basic fundamental function of this site?

I also wanted to take the time to address the other part of your ask regarding the doxxing and people finding out your identity.

It has been very widely known for (close to) two decades now that Tumblr is the place where you can have an anonymous identity. Truly. I've been on here for the collective half of the last decade and have been on the Internet for a little more than half my life, now, and Tumblr and fandom are literally the biggest and best places where you can be someone else. You can be completely anonymous.

The common denominator, however, is you.

The amount of information you have on your blog is what you choose to put on it. If you state your real name, your state and city, have one of those (imo stupid) carrd things or whatever, then honey– and I mean this in the nicest way possible, truly– that is on you. I know for a fact (from good and bad experiences) that you have all of the power in the world to annonymize yourself while still maintaining yourself on the Internet. That make sense?

A couple of mutuals made very excellent points regarding this:

"...I have a best friend irl who has Tumblr and is so close to the fandoms I'm in, and she doesn't know I write here. I am anonymous on here. I'm suprised she hasnt connected the dots because my aesthetics are the same in real life..."

"...I personally think its pretty easy to be anonymous on tumblr. Especially since usually all we ask is you have that you aren’t a minor at the top of your blog..."

"...it's really easy to be anonymous on the internet [...] you can be an ENTIRELY different person on the internet..."

From that last mutual, I'll paraphrase and go off of another point they made: the fact that you do want to participate and comment negates your ENTIRE arguement because someone– anyone– can find you and your blog through said comment(s).

Your digital footprint is what you leave behind. So if you have your city and state and grade and real name and all this other shit in your blog or carrd or whatever, then you are the only one who is responsible for having put said information out there.

Hell, I've been mutuals with some people going on 2-3 YEARS at this point and the only other things they know about me is my state, general city vicinity, my cat, and what I do for a living. That's it. And we span from early twenties to married with a kid or two.

We are in charge of what we share and I implore you– as someone with a certification in legal information technology– to please educate yourself on your Internet privacy and digital footprint. Please take the time to think about your actions and the information you have online. I STILL do this to this day, even after getting certified and being on the Internet for half my life.

I am sorry that you've gotten doxxed in the past. Truly, I am. It's a horrible act and I hope you never have to experience that again. Please know I am not being dismissive of that nor trying to blame you for said acts.

But it all comes down to you at the end of the day. In general, it's you, your actions, and the consequences of your actions. And if you happen to be a minor, then I strongly urge you to rethink your decisions and maybe step away from social media and utilize critical thinking in order to asses your situation and who you surround yourself with, both online and offline. I wish I had someone to tell me that when I was 14– fuck, even when I was 18.

And I mean it when I say AO3 might suit you more than Tumblr. If any fandom site has more capabilities to be anonymous than Tumblr itself, it's AO3.

Anyways, I think that's all I have to say for you. My DMs and ask box are always open and I am open to more commentary on the matter and related ones so long as it is civil and respectful. I refuse to stop having this conversation.

Thank you for listening ❤️

[transkeiichi]

Pinned Post

I guess I'll make one of these... hello to the 4 people who follow me <3

I'm Logan, a 27yr old genderqueer trans man. He/him. Bisexual.

I like anime, cosplaying & sewing in general, DND, my horrible little gremlin cat D.Va, and some fandoms I'm gonna mention a lil further down

If I follow you and you read this, my only tagging request for anyone I follow is to tag sn*kes. If you have a special system for tagging triggers or animals or whatever, I will blacklist whatever you use. If you do not, I blacklist pretty much any possible way I can get my blacklist to keep it off my dash. *Note: I only censored the word here because I don't want this to be in the tags somehow, or for the stupid suggested blogs algorithm to suggest me a billion blogs about them. Is this paranoid? Absolutely, but I'm doing it anyway.

Other blogs:

Cosplay

➤hikkikoumori-cosplay

➤I also post all my cosplay on instagram @/hikkikoumori

The Adventure Zone / Mcelroys / DND

➤autisticangus

➤I do not reblog Mcelroys or any DND to my main blog

System blog

➤soundscapesystem

I like being open about my mental health struggles. Tumblr has always been a place I allow myself to be open about these since I spend so much time IRL trying to seem normal. I say this because there are negative stereotypes of those who list their illnesses in their bio, but I've decided I don't give a shit 👍

➤Dissociative Identity Disorder

➤Autism

➤ADHD

➤Narcissistic Personality Disorder

➤Bipolar Type 1

I also "kin for fun" or whatever we're calling it now:

➤Bro Strider

➤Junkrat

➤Keiichi Maebara

➤Dirk Strider

Fandoms you might see me post + #tags:

➤Overwatch + #ovw

➤Homestuck + #hs

➤Cardcaptor Sakura + #ccs

➤Other CLAMP works +#clamp

➤Higurashi When They Cry + #higu

➤Rena Ryuugu specifically + #she!!!

➤KeiRena + #they!!!

➤Zombie Land Saga + #zls

➤House MD + hmd

➤House of Leaves + hol

Other tags:

➤My posts + #logan.txt

➤Bats + #bats!!!

➤Dogs + #dogs!!!

➤My partner <3 + #ray tag

➤Narcissist posts + npd tag

I don't like DNIs, so instead here's some things that might make me fit your DNI:

➤Pro-fiction. Human beings and fictional characters are different. If you ask me if I'm "pro-ship or anti-ship" I would say pro-ship.

➤Transandrophobia is real. I've heard all the excuses to not use this word and to use a different word, but I think they're stupid.

➤Identities that seem contradictory, make no sense to me, or seemingly don't fit my understanding of that identities definition aren't for me, and therefore it doesn't fucking matter if I get it or not. Identities are for the person doing the identifying. You can do whatever you want forever.

➤As a DID system, I try not to interact with syscourse. I have personal opinions about endogenic systems that I don't really discuss publicly. I don't hate endo systems, but I do typically avoid them. I may overlook it in some situations, like if its rarely blogged about, because this avoidance is due to not wanting so many posts about endos on my dash rather than a dislike for the actual person behind the blog. My opinions are more nuanced than "valid or not valid" and I don't care to get into it any deeper than that with a complete stranger.

[commiicc]

Hi. I'd like to talk a little about my time on social media as an artist. I'm sure a lot of this has been said by a ton of artists before me, but I'm going to say it again anyways.

My online handle is @ commiicc. I've gone by the alias Comic for a few years now. I was extremely active of Twitter during the height of the DreamSMP fandom. My time in this community brought me many memories and experience. Both good and bad. Today, I just want to focus on the art.

In my opinion and experience the art community of the DSMP fandom was so incredibly toxic. Artists were the backbone of the community. It was said time and time again. But this held many artists to unfair expectations. The turn around on art was insane. If art was not posted directly after or the day after the stream/ event it would flop. Posts would circulate about the perfect posting times, which I would memorize, then be so sad when I'd post at those times and a price would still fail. I'd blame myself. I'd internalize it and think I just wasn't good enough. It was never my art. It was simply the shit algorithm that is any social media, but that didn't stop me of course.

And I watched so many young artists beg for followers, because validation meant everything. And we all wanted to be mutuals with the popular, big twitters because that meant we'd made it... right?

I watched followers drop and people ask if they'd done something wrong to deserve it because canceling was so common. It was usually just bots being deleted, but "what if I did something wrong" was always everyone's go to.

Going back to artists being the backbone of the community and pumping out content. I used to say how thankful I was for the community because it made me grow and find my style. But in reality, I only found my style once I stepped back and took time on a piece. I was just slapping shit together back then. I hated most of what I made during that time. It was all rushed. Because no one gave me time. I always felt so rushed to post something so it gets attention. Post something so my followers don't think Im leaving. Because if you took too long to post (more than a week) you'd start losing people. I was a small artist and craved that attention... So I forced myself to create, even if I had no ideas. It's pushed me into burn out.

I'd compare myself to other artists who somehow created masterpieces in like two hours when it took me ages to do anything. I compared myself to everyone and hated everything I did. It was incredibly unhealthy.

I've only just now started making things I enjoy again.

Even when I switched fandoms I was still in the mindset of pushing out art, so I hate it all.

Only after burning myself out can I now restart and find my style... Can I now actually create again.

And I know that's just the culture of social media. and people used to tell me "just don't care" "just don't look at the views". do you know how hard it is to be a 16, 17, even 18 years old and NOT look at that??? to be a new artist and NOT care how much attention your art gets??? when a content creator that you love can see your fanart and has actually seen it.. all humans want is validation. Social media prys on that toxic need. On that innate human need. Cause yeah, we all want to know that what we're doing looks good, but holy shit was that place bad.

And I KNOW I'm not the first person to say this. I'm just trying to share my experience and I'm putting all this disclaimer here in case... So please just check yourself and remember we're all human. Social media is kinda awful and this is literally just my blog to share long thoughts and archive who I am. My time on social media fucked me up a little and I'm just now realizing it. That's what all this is.

So yeah all this to say, I'm done posting my art on social media for now. I'm done pumping out art just for the sake of it. When I create something worth sharing, I'll post it. But for now, I'll be in my comfortable void. I'm around and always willing to chat about the art making process or just chat in general. I'm creating. I always have been. I'm just not sharing it. It's not for your eyes.

It will be when im ready.

And new artists, young artists, any artists; your worth is not determined by the views or likes a post gets. Your art is worth more than any amount of attention it gets on social media. Don't create for attention. Create because you enjoy it. Create for yourself. That's where the magic happens.

thanks for reading. sorry this is long. I'm very wordy. thanks for being here.

- Comic

[asksoldieron]

WTF Are We Doing Here? (Pinned Intro Post!)

This is my website!

My comments are broken! You know what works slightly better than WordPress comments? Tumblr! My few readers are already here and I'm lookin' for more! So, screw it, time for a side blog!

HEY, TUMBLR! FREE BLORBOS RIGHT HERE! AND NARY A ONCELER AMONG THEM!

"Are they traumatized?" I hear you say. YES! God, yes.

"Are they neurodivergent?" I hear you say. YES! AND SO AM I!

"Do they fuck?" I hear you say. YES! But not here, because the algorithm will eat me if they do. I want to be seen! There will be language and probably violence and queerness and political opinions, but don't get me in fucking trouble, Tumblr. I'm gonna get enough flack for the queerness. I'm very fragile. Be nice.

So! Let me babble for multiple paragraphs trying to explain myself to strangers on the internet, like usual!

This is Milo. If this blog functions the way I want it to, I'll make you some nice reaction images eventually, but Milo in shadow-puppet form will suffice for an example.

Milo says: I don't want to be an example!

Too bad! If you want to talk to Milo, use the ask button and address him by name. He lives in my brain, they all do. I'll get him for you. I'll make him talk.

Milo says: WHAT? *faints*

Well, Milo prefers to communicate in text and images for the time being, so we'll omit the quote marks for him, unless something changes.

Milo says: What? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY CHANGE?

Who knows? It's a very long serialized story and there's lots of character development. That's the fun part! Fixate on, I mean, be very normal about a character and get more and more and more content about them, watch them grow and change and develop relationships, scream at me and at them when you feel like it, and just keep doing that until I get bored or die. What's not to like?

For the moment, I'm the only one working on this story, and I can't afford to hire help, so we're not talking about flawless quality here, but it's free! (Or pay what you want.) So, please,

🌈Lower Your Expectations!🌟

Yay! There are a lot of site issues and there's only so much I'm able to do to fix it. Typos that look like words are my moral enema. If something is so broken you can't read it or understand it, or if I've really hurt you, please drop me a line (via the message box, if it's not for publication) and I'll do what I can. Otherwise, if you like this content and want more, be kind.

I'm autistic and high-masking so you will be speaking to the public-relations version of me. It's as buggy as my site! I'm just gonna be relentlessly positive about everything! Unless I can't. That's not necessarily your fault, but sometimes I can't. So if you're a little ND too, and a lack of response makes you crater - If I don't answer it's probably not because of anything you did. I got a lot on my plate and social ability is always the first thing to go.

Milo says: Preach, Sibling.

The versions of Milo and the others you'll meet will not be the canon versions, nor will their interactions here affect the story. So go nuts!

Milo says: What? No! Be nice to me too!

And, naturally, these versions exist in a context-free void where they can chat happily with strangers from another universe, even if the real ones would freak out and scream

Milo says: You can't mess around with my brain so I can't feel fear! Oh, my gods! I NEED my brain!

No, no. I'm only making sure you don't have an existential crisis due to the context-free void.

Milo says: Oh. Yeah. That's not a big deal. The context-free void has hot chocolate and snacks.

Right, so we're not hurting them. It's fine! It'll be perfectly safe!

Milo says: Yay❤️!

I'll do another post and give you the lowdown on myself and the main cast, including aliases and pronouns. Or, if you've tripped over this out there in your feed, you could always just go read the darn story. It'll take a while. There's a lot of it already. But we'll be here waiting for you! (Don't comment at the site. Are you reading me? You're on Tumblr, you are here to read. Maintain your reading comprehension at all times! The comments are fucking broken.)

[elipseon]

@staff​

I usually stay fairly quiet because things are otherwise working the way I expect and like them to. However this myriad of idiocy of changes is certainly showing you're not paying any attention to the actual majority of your userbase. I already see you turned off replies on this post, and people are either reblogging with commentary like this or flaming you in the tags for the trouble.

So I pray you actually have a brain cell or two to read those tags and reblogs of actual feedback that are quickly proving your users actual opinions on this. I also hope you're not assuming all those little hearts on this post are for the original, as many are for reblogs like this tearing into the absolute travesty you're trying to commit.

Like many other artists I've noticed in the tags I'll give some feedback to this dumpster fire you're trying to light.

Tumblr's literal top marketed differences from other social media are boiled down to the LACK of forced algorithm, the reverse-chronological dashboard, and being able to CURATE your feed to what you specifically want to see.

The happy bonuses are being able to PREVENT excessive email notifications, see people you follow reblog the same post with different tags while enjoying the humour, and overall customize your experience.

You're going to hurt small creators and niche ones with an algorithm, completely piss off the massive Roleplay community of writers by messing with their dashboard in any way, and generally just make many users leave the site.

And if they don't then the add-ons you allow and maybe even don't allow for your site will get functions added onto them to fix your "improvements".

Like many others, I'm going to emphasize the fact that you really need to instead be fixing:

The Search Function to improve blogs discoverability

The Tag Function to prevent the bots from spamming unrelated tags to their posts

Improving your Anti-Bot set up to stop all the damn Porn Bots

Those three things are what you should really be focusing on first before you get it in your heads that the minority of your userbase wants Tumblr to be like every other social media. People come here to personally curate what they see on their dash for their own experiences, and because they like that tumblr is not like every other social media.

If you can't see that @staff, then there really is a bigger problem here with you. The ones asking for tumblr to change are a vocal minority, who I swear are losing the ability to have critical thinking on their own, and you really shouldn't be listening to them.

And while I understand that you need to make revenue on this site to keep it running, pissing off the actual majority of your users in one massive planned update like this will only put you in the same position as Twitter is. If not to the destination faster. It's a literal contest of how stupid you want to be fucking with what has been your literal brand difference for your side for over a DECADE.

I am praying that your team is actually reading the real feedback here and not disregarding it.

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.

[wild-winder]

》Rules《

Hello.

I go by feral. they/them or she/her.

You might have heard of me. Or maybe not. Ive been around one side of this rpc or another for somewhere around 10 years.

I will turn asks and anons on and off again depending on my safety. if I forget to turn that back on before an ask meme let me know lmao

if you can make it through these rules without being scared off. maybe I will give you a chance. yes they are extremely long. consider it a filter. if you can't handle that. get out. you're already not worth me giving a chance.

I'm well fucking over 18. I am over 30 years old. Get off my lawn. Kids don't belong on Tumblr let alone anywhere near this RP blog. this is 18+ and you need to get the fuck out of here.

I will do icons or iconless threads. I primarily do ic-blogging but I will also do para. I don't always have the energy for threads but I'm willing to adapt.

I am nowhere near as acerbic as these rules make me sound. all of this is essentially fear-biting. but this community leaves me no fucking recourse other than to come in guns drawn. I will keep myself safe. unless you are already friends with me? I do not give a fuck about you. I am here for my safety. this community is too toxic to my well being for me to be anything else.

this blog will be NSFW. all of my blogs will be. though I plan to keep most overt erotic posting to side blogs there will be lurid stuff here and I likely will do sexual sunday stuff here. Get lost if you can't handle it. I'll try to tag such things #nsfw //

in general my tags are in the "#blank //" format but if you have a specific tag you use let me know!

this blog will also feature usage of weed and psychedelics, but no hard drugs.

I have extremely complex and very very harshly enforced rules. I have a lot of needs as a mun. I am not going to apologize for them, because this community at large makes zero effort to make any form of safe space for me to exist in. So instead I will make it myself. If you do not follow these rules you will be blocked for my own safety.

If you find yourself randomly blocked by me and you dont know me, you probably post some triggering shit the algorithm keeps shoving onto my dash so i had to block you to get rid of it. nothing against you. this site just sucks.

I am extremely selective. meaning im very choosy about who I interact with. who i follow. and who follows me. don't take it personal. i have extremely complex triggers that make Tumblr a wildly unsafe environment for me. I can only exist here with extremely harshly enforced boundaries and even then I see shit on here that triggers my intrusive thoughts every single fucking day.

I will only RP with mutuals. I will only RP with non mutuals on very select occasions. often I don't even look at my dash because I don't trust y'all to actually respect my needs and not start reblogging triggering shit because you "forgot." I am so incredibly used to having multiple days of violently intrusive thoughts because some friends "forgot."

and I am so incredibly tired.

I am fat and do have trauma around being fat how I depict big bodies with sexual overtones comes from a place of self acceptance and I will absolutely drag your ass through the dirt if you try and come for me with that. your experience with fatphobia is not mine. I will reclaim my own damn body how I fucking want to and I do not care about your opinion. My body positivity my rules.

I am aggressive and will bite as a mun, I’ve gotten too much bullshit to do otherwise. I have 6 years of experience moderating hyper leftist communities with over 10,000 members. I have heard every brain dead idpol argument in existence. If you try and go to war with me you won't win. Multiple individuals on this platform have tried. None have succeeded. Don't fucking bother. I will beat you.

there are people in this community I do not want to ever see again. if I see you interacting with them I will not start drama. I will not spread rumors. I will just unfollow or block you. that is all.

I do not respect anti vs proship rhetoric and i will not acknowledge or care about it. it's fucking stupid ass teenager culture war nonsense based on radfem terf beliefs worming their way into queer spaces. Get your own disgust-based reflexive politics out of my life because your bullshit is what empowered the current anti-trans wave that's destroying lives. get your worthless ramshackle house in order. you aren't virtue signalling by including it in your rules you're just an idiot.

freaks are absolutely welcome here. freaks and weirdos with every kind of depraved fucked up or silly cartoon deviantart kink imaginable. there might be some things I don't want to see but I will not judge you. yes even for that. yes even for that. I am an ex-furry. There are no kinks that will make me judge you. as long as it is between consenting adults then I don't care.

Please don't stalk my DMs, I am very selective socializing that much especially with people I don't know, its exhausting and puts me on the spot, besides, trying to get me to interact with you that way is a fast way to get me to not do that. Do not see me posting as a right to pester me via dm or on discord. That shit makes me so uncomfortable. I will bite.

this blog is multiverse & multiship. canon is extremely fluid and will change or be rewritten or retconned at any time.

I don’t do actual sex rp with anyone but close friends. do not try. I will block you and retcon any history you have with my characters as blog canon is arbitrary and fluid.

tag shit #feral don't look or #feral dont look

use this tag so I don't have to mind your 4000000 different personalized tagging systems. my safety is about me. not your blog aesthetics.

if you are making it through this. Good for you. I do not require you to automatically send a rules password. I know that can make people anxious. But. If you plan on trying to interact with me, then I need you to include the password "paws up" somewhere. that way I will know you have acknowledged these rules and will abide by them. otherwise I won't interact with you.

dont talk to me about religion and spirituality. yes yours too, even yours. deeply traumatized exvangelical. what beliefs i have are my own and im not interested in yours. that means any mention of demons or angels even in character form. that also counts for witchcraft and such that closely mimics irl spiritual practices. Stuff that's obviously fairy tale fantasy stuff doesn't count. Yes there is a difference between folktales and irl spiritual beliefs. Use your brain. if it's commonly accepted mythological fantasy fun material it's fine. if it is buried in the trappings of modern real world spiritual practices it is not fine.

a dnd wizard is gamey fun fantasy, your irl new age spiritualism is not the same thing. they are not interchangeable. one is made up nonsense for fun and games and the other is a real held real world belief. The latter I do not want to see. and if any game or media specifically draws from those real held real world beliefs. It is off limits for me. and if I see it I will block you.

This means I don't want to see hazbin hotel, this means I don't want to see helluva boss, this means I don't want to see dungeon meshi, this means I don't want to see your edgy demon oc blog. This means I don't want to see your castiel blog. If you get anywhere near me with any of it or reblog or post any of it untagged you will almost certainly be automatically blocked. unless I know you personally and can talk to you about it I am going to just cut you loose without a second thought.

I do not give a fuck about your stupid ass fandom wars over these properties. I need them off my dash because they're triggering. That is the only reason I care. If it involves demons or devils succubi or incubi or deadly sins or hell or angels or heaven or even a stupid pitchfork and demon horns halloween costume any of that horseshit get it the fuck away from me or I will start attacking. I will not be nice to you.

the actual trappings of church or priests or temples are not nearly as triggering as the more metaphysical aspects of religion.

I will not engage with any aspect of settings surrounding that kind of religiousity even in settings my characters are ostensibly in. consider those elements to be retconned even from canon settings I roleplay in. I do not care. No I don't care if yours don't "have a religious theme." if it's got western religious trappings I won't touch it and I will block you.

Japanese yokai don't count. we just call those demons because translators are stupid.

I have other triggers, but people are so incapable of following even this one that I almost don't feel like bothering to bring it up. I don't do alcohol or alcoholism. I don't really like slugs and snails. but they all pale in comparison to how difficult it is to exist in this community with the previously outlined restrictions.

if you made it all the way to the end. good for you. maybe I'll give you a chance. but don't take it personal if I'm not up for it. either way? I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read and understand this.

[prismatoxic]

glancing on twitter for a post someone links to and finding that a bunch of your friends are using it almost exclusively is... a weird feeling?

i'm always going to be sour about the state of modern social media. i think some are worse than others, and i'm especially bitter about ones that try to replicate the tumblr format but maintain the restrictive NSFW content rules. but twitter...

i don't know. i knew i'd lose a lot of mutuals when i left it for good. it was the right move; twitter was stressful, and its algorithm makes it more of a cesspit than it might be otherwise. not even getting into the absolute piece of shit who currently owns it. i hope he gets hit by one of his fucking polygonal trucks.

maybe i'm still sensitive from 2018. when i got banned from tumblr around the nsfw purge, it stung to have a lot of people not... leave it. people who were my friends. i wanted solidarity, but you can't really ask that of people when it comes to social media, because they're all so different and fill such specific needs. but it did feel dismissive. maybe that's the bpd talking. a lot of times it's the bpd talking, in general.

when i got banned from twitter after that, i already had a second one to move to full-time. that time was absolutely mass-reporting, but i didn't want to fight it. i was tired. being on the forefront of discourse was exhausting.

but this time, i left twitter of my own volition. the "post rationing" was what broke me, but that being walked back didn't make me want to return, because i'd been gearing up to do it anyway. it felt like such a toxic place to be. people are still there, though. sometimes they're only there. or mostly. and why not? you can still post NSFW. all your friends are there. why wouldn't you stick around?

some part of me tries to chalk it up to a moral failing on their part, but. that's not it. i'm not better for still using tumblr. so what is it, really? well, it is the bpd: i feel left out. like i left a party to sit on the lawn but everyone else is still inside. it's a me thing, it's no one else's issue to deal with, but the nature of how bpd works means it twists me up inside nonetheless. do i compromise my personal morals to return to twitter? or do i stick it out and stay only here and on aethy? does it even fucking matter at this point?

i wish it was easier to move people to the fediverse. i really do. but if you've been on the 'net long enough, sites like twitter and tumblr and all their derivatives are some degree of intuitive. the fediverse isn't. you can sand down as many sharp edges as you like, but it's always going to look too complex for most people to even try. feditips can help, but only so much, and it's a lot of reading.

why trial and error a new thing when the old thing works fine? when all your friends are still there? i'd have jumped ship from discord ages ago, but all the competition kind of fucking sucks, and all my friends are still on discord, so genuinely, why bother?

i hate the modern internet. give me 2012 tumblr back. give me myspace back. let me use livejournal when livejournal was still good. sure, there's dreamwidth now, but no one's on it.

... it's loneliness, really. it always is. feeling left out, feeling unwanted; these are things my brain loves to force on me. no amount of rational thought can dispel them entirely. i try, but. it's hard.

i guess i'll think on it. my twitter still exists. i just feel like trying to go back would be making a mistake, or if nothing else, people whose opinions matter to me might be disappointed. maybe i'll get over this and not think about it again. i don't know.

[wilvia]

Hear me out please!

I KNOW THAT DILFOYLE IS THE SHIT OK?

But also Gilfoyle and Martin Starr in general is just, let's say very pleasing to look at, in my opinion, so given the very scarce content on him I decide to write a little fanfiction, now based on the reaction It can be either a one shot or I can make it in chapters.

THIS A GILFOYLE x OC

TW: drug use, brief mention of sexual intercourse.

* * *

"Gilfoyle, listen I have a thing to finish here, I can probably be there in a few days"

You said as you were talking on speaker phone while finishing your latest work, more like an illegal hacking job.

"I'm going to be honest, we need somebody to help with the ingestion engine"

I stopped typing and picked up my phone

"Okay give me two days max and I'll be there"

If what Gilfoyle told me was true Richard created a great compression algorithm, and they needed a pair of extra hands to get the platform ready for Tech Crunch,

let's do it.

I arrived a the incubator, I wish it was my first time here but that would be a lie, I have passed numerous nights in this place and some I regret more than others, I knocked on the door waiting for someone to open it.

I was beginning to lose hope as the door sprung open.

"Mae, it has been a while uh?"

"Not long enough, Erlich"

I handed him my car keys.

"Can you get my rig from the backseat? Thank you"

I squeezed passed him and went into the house, seeing all the boys, all apart from one.

"Hey where is Big Head?"

"He moved, welcome back Mae" Dinesh said to me while looking at Richard.

"Oh well okay, Richie tell me everything I need to know" I said as I was about to sit down.

"No, backyard, grab the weed" Gilfoyle said as he pushed me in the direction of the pool, well,

I'm so glad to be back.

I grabbed the weed and the bong, selecting the one that Erlich preferred and went outside, not before earing Dinesh muble to himself "Fucking Gilfoyle".

I went to sit in the chair next to Gilfoyle as he handed me the beer.

"Well somebody is stressed" I said while smiling down at my friend, friend with benefits, occasional benefits.

"I'm not stressed I'm exhausted, we are working day and night for this thing, but I'm glad you are here, we needed another pair of competent hands. "

"So you are calling me competent, wow, this is the first time you complimenting me Gilfoyle, it's kind of scary"

I said as I took a swing of my beer, and started packing the weed in the bong.

"Fuck you Mae"

He said as he took a swig of beer and handed me the lighter.

"Fuck you Gilfoyle" I said as I light the bong, and inhale a couple of times.

I give it to him drinking my beer.

"So how are things with Tara?"

"Like always, she was here a couple of days ago"

"That's great, did you tell her about what happened between me and you?" I looked at him.

"It was already established that our relationship was open, so there was no problem"

"Good to know" I nodded as I try grabbing the bong from Gilfoyle, I had to lean out of the chair to grab and without realising it I was centimeters away from his face.

"Shotgun?" he asked, I nodded and he inhaled and got even closer, blowing the smoke in my mouth, and for some reason being either the long journey, the beer, and the weed or a combination of all the aforementioned things, I kissed him.

He kissed back immediately pulling on my shirt to get me on his lap as we were making out, the sound of the door being opened made me jump up in surprise.

"Mae I've put you computer in the room, but you have to set it up, because... Well I don't want to, also did any of you see my bong?"

Erlich said as he was still standing in the door.

"Yes Erlich we were smoking" Gilfoyle said as he pointed to the bong on the table.

"ah! Great!" Erlich exclaimed as he made his way towards us, I was still standing and to disperse the tention I grabbed the beer and started drinking it, Gilfoyle just stared and smirked at me, I mouthed a "fuck you" his way.