#new arrivals products | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thatonecrookedsmile · 1 year ago

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I know that at this point the release of the third novel is practically around the corner (and I know I'm also very late to talk about this) so there's really no need to post about it. But I haven't seen anyone commenting on this on Tumblr before, which is kind of surprising, I'm not going to lie. (And I checked the tags and I used the search bar, I didn't find a soul who posted this before. Either that, or they posted it and I didn't see it (words/tag filters working maybe))

Anyway.

SO,for those who are excited for the new book and didn't already know this (either because you don't use Twitter, haven't seen this here on Tumblr before or are behind on the news) a new extended preview for Bendy: Fade to Black was released a while ago!

The first preview had already been shared here back in June, and it only had the first chapter of the book + the first page of the second chapter. This extended preview has the prologue of the book, chapter 1 and more extra pages for chapter 2 (I don't think it's the entire chapter,tho)

(Also, the book has 33 chapters in total. Nice)

Again,I know it's too late to be able to talk about this at this point (I got busy in September and was prevented from talking about it before), especially since this book is coming out like. This week lol. There's not much point to talk about this now. But repeating myself, I didn't see anyone commenting about this here on Tumblr. I checked the tags and used the search bar, and nope, nobody. Which is surprising considering the other official (I think?) things people decided to share here. And hey, maybe there really is someone out there who doesn't know that this preview hasn't been released (because I'm sure at this point some of you reading this will have already seen this preview before I posted it here) so consider this post as a helping hand/a reminder perhaps.

And just so this isn't just *a* post sharing the preview, here's a reminder for everyone to remember to tag your spoilers if you're going to talk about the new book! And for those who won't be able to read this book anytime soon (Me), remember to mute/block tags and words so as not to be spoiled! I have to definitely do that after posting this.

But yeah, that's all, have a good night everybody! (or day, whatever time you are reading this)

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #bendy and the dark revival #batdr #bendy: fade to black #bendy ftb #but yeah it's interesting #the cover of the DCTL graphic novel was shared here #that tweet from theMeatly talking about fangames was shared here #and his other tweet talking about the canonicity (??) of the books was shared just last week #coincidentally I saw someone talking about it 2 or 3 days ago while I was writing this #but the new preview of the new book #which is practically Bendy's Next “Big” Thing for this year #no one decided to comment here #That's why I was surprised #one would think that; considering one information given on one of the prologue pages; some people would like to debate about the new previe #I guess I was wrong.#But yeah;“Kismet Production” huh;I can't wait to see what kind of misadventures will happen in this place #Excited for the book #A shame that my copy will take a while to arrive :..)#bendy: fade to black spoilers #bendy spoilers #just putting these here as a precaution #crookedsmile open his mouth

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johnlacena · 1 year ago

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@staff comments from an engineer in the tags.

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.

#oh my god DO NOT DO THIS TUMBLR IM BEGGING YOU #JUST WRITE A TUTORIAL OR SOMETHING!#a bunch of new users just arrived—ask them what the pain points were! show them one of the instructional posts users have already written!#please please don’t give me an algorithm i don’t want it #i don’t want to be addicted to this platform rather #and i will never read emails and i don’t have notifications turned on #fix the search! please! listen #i’m a software engineer. i know why these kinds of projects get prioritized.#it looks better to shareholders. as soon as AI or algorithm enters the conversation stocks jump up and they keep rising.#but it’s a BAD IDEA!#so much time at so many jobs has been wasted on bad ideas—i know it’s not sexy but make the backlog the top priority!#don’t take away the core features i’m begging you #make the for you page better if you want i don’t care just leave the following page ALONE #tumblr #staff #help #product direction #core product strategy #engineering #it will only add to the backlog and break more stuff! you’ll be scrambling later and execs will demand to know #why things haven’t been fixed and you’ll say it was because you were adding what they wanted #and they’ll change their mind again #listen to the users. please. listen to the users! we know what we want! it’s all right here!#you can make it easier for new users without algorithms!#just FIX THE SEARCH FUNCTIONNNN #and add the multiple sorting that others mentioned that’s a great idea #i would use that

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