#im sure theres more in here

[mysticsoldiersailorhylia]

I have been active on this site for ten years. There are some things on this post that I would like to see happen, and many things I would not like to see happen.

I agree that basic site and app performance, as discussed in Principle 6, needs improvement. I admit I have grown used to the app crashing or bugging out, but that doesn't mean it isn't an issue. And I can see how new users wouldn't put up with it.

Updating the search function, as discussed in Principle 2, is something users have been hoping for for a long time. I can't say much for how you plan to update it as you didn't give many details, but there are countless posts detailing exactly how we, the user base, would like the search function to work.

The rest of the changes outlined in Principle 2 leave me wary at best. The golden part of this website is that it doesn't function like other social media. It doesn't push content on us based on what an algorithm thinks we might like. I recognize that for new users coming from algorithmic social media, Tumblr would be confusing. But it is my sincere hope that instead of changing to look more like other social media, you implement a Tips or Tutorial function for new sign-ups that explains and shows new users how to curate their dash. Tips and Tutorials aren't alien to younger generations (we have seen them on other websites as well as in videogames), so new users will understand how to follow along. And an easy close or skip function will allow those that understand Tumblr to merely move past it.

If you force an algorithmic view, pushing suggested posts to the top of our feeds, you will alienate the loyal users that have been here for a decade.

When I first joined in 2012, I followed the suggestion from Tumblr to follow topics that interest me. This means that I occasionally get posts suggested for me based on my interest in that topic. These posts have never been intrusive and have always been the extreme minority of my dash. I do not mind seeing an occasional suggestion that is tagged with something I like (ie music, science, or animals). If I have ever wanted to see more of a topic, or find new posts, I have gone to the search function and discovered new things that way (to the best of my ability given the current functionality). I do not want an algorithm to do that work for me.

I do not want my dash to become half suggestions, half posts of people I follow. I have left other social media sites for catering that kind of experience.

Please leave the suggested content in a separate place. Those that wish to explore new things can click over to that dash, and those of us that want to curate our own experience can feel safe in knowing that our dashboard is filled with the content of those we follow, presented to us in chronological order.

I am uncertain of what exactly you wish to achieve with Principle 3. Once again, we are discussing changing the website for the ease of new users. Putting aside the fact that this would force existing users to learn a new system, causing confusion on our end, you are once again overlooking the option of educating the new users via Tips, Tutorials, or a great FAQ page.

I have seen many Tumblr veterans create Tips and Tutorial posts, and I have seen new users send Asks when they are confused about a feature. Once things are explained, they understand and have even gone on to praise the way our posts currently work.

Much of your language in this section is vague, so I am doing my best to infer what you mean, but it almost sounds as if you intend to make reblogs and replies into their own, separate posts instead of comments and additions on the original, singular post. I am envisioning the way that you can retweet on Twitter, creating a new tweet that quotes the original tweet. I fail to see how this would improve our ability to view conversations, so I hope that I am wrong in my interpretation of your words.

I truly do not understand what you mean by removing clutter by collapsing reblog threads.

As for removing duplicate reblogs: Please do not do this.

I enjoy seeing multiple people reblog the same thing. It's fun to see two strangers, for all intents and purposes, who only have me as a follower in common, enjoy the same thing. Especially when I also enjoy it. That's one of the charms of tumblr. And it is perfectly in tumblr's nature for one person to reblog the same post five times in a row. That is one of the ways we can express ourselves, and we do it because we want our followers to see it. If someone finds it annoying, they should scroll by or unfollow that person. Do not silence our voices by hiding our reblogs.

Regarding the lack of feedback discussed in Principle 4, I argue that it is less to do with users only seeing posts from those they follow on their dashboard and more to do with the lack of search feature functionality and lack of information for new users on how to spread content (reblogging versus liking). I want new creators to get their content out there. Content is what makes this site go round. Tumblr is the Fandom website and the great thing about fandom is that it keeps creating new things. There are new people that want to engage and create, and people that have been in the fandom for years that want more. And we go looking for it as best as we can, given the current functionality of the search feature.

Forcing content on us based on an algorithm is not something we want.

I sincerely hope that you look at all of the feedback you are receiving. New users are important in keeping a site going. But the current users are important too. And we are begging you to listen to us.

Tumblr has been the joke of social media sites for many years. But the fact of the matter is, when other sites became unusable due to hostile algorithms and greed, those users fled here. Because they see that Tumblr isn't an algorithm-based website. That's why they are coming to us. Your current users don't want many of these changes, and I hazard the incoming users don't either.

Don't ruin Tumblr.

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.

[stealingpotatoes]

im meant to be doing my degree but instead i spent like an hour making the worlds most confusing family tree. what is wrong with me

[shiraoyagi]

hot take ??

the only reason people say that "mafuyu and tsukasa have nothing in common" when presented with mafukasa parallels is because they equate mafuyu and tsukasa being similar to "tsukasa has depression" because the fandom equates mafuyu's personality to being depressed and nothing else.

it doesn't help that people (primarily younger people in the fandom) who DO believe in mafukasa parallels end up making the mistake of portraying tsukasa as depressed because as of right now he is not (although it's possible he was in past because of his Very Unclear Middle School Backstory but that's irrelevant)

anyways, mafuyu and tsukasa are narrative foils because their core personalities are built off of the concept of wanting to make the people around them— especially their families— happy.

they both developed personalities at a young age based on someone they looked up to. for tsukasa, it was seiichi amami's performance that inspired him to be a star— a hero that could cheer anyone up. for mafuyu, it was her mother taking care of her that inspired her to be a nurse— and you can see the similarities from there.

for mafuyu, her identity would first come into conflict when her mother expressed her want for mafuyu to be a doctor— suddenly, "everyone's" happiness didn't match what she wanted to do, leaving her in a state of disorder and eventual depression.

for tsukasa, his identity was something he nearly forgot in its entirety at the start of the main story— becoming arrogant and fully absorbed in a hero persona, forgetting the kind person he truly is. furthermore, his current character arc seems to be foreshadowing that what "being a star" to him is going to be called into question— maybe it is something more than just being the main character that saves everyone.

their insecurities are incredibly similar.

in mafuyu's first mixed, mafuyu feels insecure towards ichika because unlike ichika, she feels as if her lyrics have no genuine meaning to be expressed to other people— despite them being her very real feelings. this is brought up again in her second mixed as well.

in tsukasa's third focus event, something similar happens. when watching seiichi's performance, he thinks that his acting is "real" and feels inferior towards him, which is ironic because tsukasa has been method acting this whole time. when tsukasa is acting out rio or bartlett or really anyone at this point in the story, it's not just those characters— it's a reflection of his traumas.

just like mafuyu, tsukasa undermines his passions he's poured his feelings into because someone else's work is more genuine in his eyes.

now, then, foils have many similarities and parallels (and i could honestly list a lot more), but how i define them is that they usually have some kind of major branching difference that MAKES them foils.

for mafuyu and tsukasa it's pretty straightforward.

mafuyu's people pleasing behavior comes from external expectations and pressures— her mother's demands.

tsukasa's people pleasing behavior comes internally, from himself— if he can't meet his own standards, if he can't be the perfect big brother or the perfect star, then he is nothing.

and even then, there's some overlap.

tsukasa's behavior was indirectly encouraged by his mother praising him for being a "good big brother" over the phone instead of asking him if he was okay while home alone.

mafuyu's terrified to be herself around other people because she doesn't want to worry or bother them— she doesn't want to be a burden— and projects her mother's expectations onto them, not realizing that they would prefer the real mafuyu if they knew the truth.

and the concept of mafukasa being foils is most perfectly and blatantly portrayed in these two cards.

mafuyu, the marionette, sitting limp on the floor— puppeteered by her mother's demands and donning a mask to hide her true self.

tsukasa, the jester, standing above everything else— puppeteering silenced plushies— his feelings. he's not being completely honest with himself, and he doesn't even realize it.

mafuyu has cut her strings and ripped her mask in half. she has acknowledged her true feelings and expressed them to her mother, even if she had to run away in the end.

tsukasa has not yet cut his.

[crunchchute]

my attempt at a bunch of my fav artists styles :] idea by sootnuki!!

i would love to do more but this was already a huge challenge

if any artist here dislikes this/is uncomfortable with it/any reason i can take it down or turn off reblogs etc. otherwise i hope its ok 🫡 im not gonna tag anyone just gonna let it do its thing in the wild lol

[shower-phantom-ideas]

Danny is just a kid ya know? Like he is just a little guy. A baby really. 14? Tiny child! Look at him, he needs to be protected. Someone has to help this poor little dude. I mean he forgets to use his own powers to avoid attacks all the time.

Anyway cut to Batfam not knowing all of Dannys power set cause the lil dingus keeps forgetting he can do that stuff in the heat of battle.

Danny uses his invisibility all the time… to avoid being followed. But in a fight? Oopsies hes too busy thinking of funny one liners to realise he could do that.

Intangibility? Give the guy a break. I mean who calls themselves condiment king. Even he was stunned.

He so rarely actually uses his biggest advantage powers that the League doubt he actually has them. He, like any naive child, trusts them and reported fully on his power set. Instead of just asking him to demonstrate his powers they instead start watching him and try to find evidence of his powers.

At least they know duplication was true since they watched him make a copy of himself to go to the bathroom and not miss any of his fav tv show.

[drawing-kitty-ckristal]

Owl yuan

First time drawing birbs n feathers

I realy like how it turned out

[saltseashark]

famblies (found or otherwise)

[cozylittleartblog]

diversity win your spam emails are queer

[cyberdragoninfinity]

buncha arc-v dimensionswap doodles!!! cuz this AU is still doing unfathomable things to @zxal and i's brains

+ some of fusion!Yugo's monsters....funny puzzle beasts and a really fucked up dragon :]

[ch1zzie]

The original in the bottom

Plus the picture I mainly drew but decided to draw the rest for funny

[luck-of-the-drawings]

EDYN TIDESTRIDER, CHALLENGER OF THE UNDERSEA, RIVAL OF THE DEEP. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR BROTHER WAS CHOSEN TO BE A WEAPON OF THE GODS? HOW WILL YOU UNDO WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO HIM?

[ryvdraws]

his tboy swag and autistic coding have captivated me sorry

[skrrtscree]

Woe ryomina dump be upon yee 💙💛

[rosswood]

how many cycles of trauma and suffering does it take to get to the center of a silly little anvil guy (the answer might surprise you)

[infamouslydorky]

I have a few thoughts on Mael Stronghart's overall character design, particularly his clothing

His overcoat looks to be a combination of a clergyman's cossock and a trench coat (shown below)

His waistcoat is also low-cut, which, while fashionable now, was unheard of in Victorian times unless it was specifically for a dinner suit and wearing a starch front shirt or shirt with a "bib" (also shown below)

You see, here's the thing: men of the time did not show the white of their shirt when going outside because that shirt was essentially considered their underwear, so the waistcoats would go almost to the neck with the remainder of the shirt being covered by a kravat. It was widely considered indecent to have shirts so openly exposed

Basically, what I'm saying is for Victorian standards Stronghart dresses like a slutty priest.

[nullyisgoinginsane]

"We're special, Case"