#we're just here to have fun dude

[chipped-chimera]

I always felt the live push was kind of weird, and that explains it (goddamn corpos).

Maybe an unpopular opinion (please do not boo me off stage) but I think Live could have a place if done correctly and - and this is the important one - regulated. I think the primary problem with live - aside from feeling like it is constantly being shoved down our throats - was it felt more like it was trying to capitalize on the TikTok adjacent, influencer farming, algorithmic content bs that frankly so many of us are fatigued from being exposed to. The amount of control a Tumblr user has over the content they choose to engage with by comparison is phenomenal. And Live was the direct INVERSE of this principle.

Live could work well as a feature, but as long as it integrates with the rest of the existing experience. The current problem is it feels like Tumblr and then this weird thing tacked onto the side of it. Again people are here on Tumblr to get AWAY from being pushed content from people they're not following and have no interest in.

To really get this to work I feel you need to restore the user control here. For example - an artist you really like is going to stream? Cool! Maybe you can get a reminder when they go live (again, only if you choose to get the notification from them - either because they have a promotional post and you can click it to 'set reminder for this stream' or something) and you could pop the stream out like the videos do and keep it on the side of your dash with a chat box underneath while you scroll through your dashboard (at least for the desktop experience). Or you can open a tab of 'who is live now' from people you actually follow. Now if people actually want to go through a discovery section that's more algorithmically managed, that should be contained in it's own thing.

Honestly I feel this is the underlying theme of why a lot of us long-haulers cling to Tumblr - we want the user experience to be prioritized. We don't want to be 'told' what we like constantly and feel like we're merely being grifted for money all the time. Algorithms can be good, I don't mind poking around in the 'For You' tab on occasion to find new people to follow, but that's merely to add to my existing curated dashboard feed. Not to replace it.

In summary, the closing points of my Live related TED talk:

Live could work, but it has to fit with what core Tumblr actually IS if you want it to work.

Content curation is extremely important to Tumblr users and is the whole appeal in an internet that is just constantly using machine learning to squeeze as much money out of us as possible. It's against the grain. It's our hellsite.

Don't shove Live in peoples faces unless they choose for it to be there. And if they choose to look in the algorithmic section, for the love of god please have categories, filters, tagging etc. and whatever it takes to keep the pornbots off it please. (aka another reason why forcing live = bad because now you've got the full monty on your dash and you can't control it)

Emphasize user privacy and choice. I've been seeing shit about the intense level of data Tumblr Live apparently collects, which I am presuming is within the terms of that contract. Tumblr users, again like control. Of both what they choose to engage with and what is done with our data. We pass around enough firefox/adblock/anti-data-scrape posts as it is, it should be obvious.

USER. CHOICE. That's it. No really think about it, the whole internet is turning into a wriggling pit of algorithmic bs that's engulfing everything. It's going to get stale, really quick (I mean with the way I keep seeing articles about social media 'dying' - it already is. And they're all sites that have either been heavily focused on or pivoted towards algorithm). Freedom of choice is the whole appeal here.

Treat your userbase well, they'll treat you back. It's a longhaul strat but it's more guaranteed than alienating your entire userbase to make a quick buck (see the website formally known as Twitter for this one). This is an extremely out of left field example but - Final Fantasy XIV, I feel has treated its community excellently over the years. That game initially was a train-wreck. It's now considered one of the best (and possibly biggest) MMOs, all because they stuck to their core userbase who stuck by them, and listened. I am willing to let my FFXIV sub roll over, for months, without playing sometimes because it's one of the few subs I will pay for where I feel what I get out of it EXCEEDS the value of what I'm paying. And I'm actually happy to do that, I consider it a donation.

Look up 'Enshittification'. Yeah. Don't do any of that basically.

Uh thanks for coming to my TED talk idk where else to stick this so sorry it's being tacked on here 💀 Signed, person who has been on tumblr way too long (since 2010) and seen like 2-3 social medias die in my lifetime.

Since the other ask didn't seem to cover it, Why is Live being kept as a feature? It's almost universally hated, there's a post that circulates every week reminding us to turn it off so we don't forget to do so, the only feature live has is porn users which appeals to small portions of the user base but otherwise isn't worth the hassle. Why is this feature still Around? I'm genuinely wondering, this isn't meant as an attack, I just do not understand how a feature so detested could possibly be beneficial to the site.

We have a contractual obligation to try to make Live as successful as possible through the end of the year, and we'll do our best there. By January, aligned with the new more focused approached of Tumblr teams, we'll re-assess whether it should be part of the Tumblr app anymore. That's all I can really say about it, and I hope that answers your question and gives you something to look forward to in 2024.

[lazylittledragon]

y'know every time i feel guilty about bothering someone by singing along when i'm listening to music, i just remember that i have to tolerate my dirtbag brother screaming at his ps5 for hours every day so listening to muffled off-key fall out boy is probably preferable

[vaguely-concerned]

lucanis truly has a near terminal case of burned out golden child syndrome. caterina fucked both of these kids over so incredibly bad with the dynamic she enforced there, with illario being labled the perpetual fuckup kid where lucanis 'could do no (would never be allowed to do) wrong'. the way he admits in the first coffee date scene that the only thing that happened when he showed he could carry the weight of expectation was that more weight was added makes me so sad. you can hear it in caterina's voice in his intro mission that she's incredibly proud of him, but this is clearly a leandra and hawke situation where that pride never translates into relief or resolution or unconditional warmth or understanding or anything that really helps.

[nikutsuneart]

Yesterday's Drawpile! And what I contributed feat. my first ephemer :) Here's to u, november....

Thank you, as always, to everyone who joined and to everyone who contributed! I blow u a kiss

[lovvecherrymotion]

okay so as much as i would have loved a queer mv, i didn't actually expect that to happen. i think they are very good at making queer fans feel included but i just don't actually expect them to be more explicitly queer when it comes to songs or videos idk. i just wish the others had a bit more screentime because they all looked SO good

[glassanimalcollective]

.

[blamemma]

Mother do I dare ask what your reasons are? Because I can’t get into l*stappen either, the dynamic doesn’t interest me and the narrative ain’t narrativing for me (unpopular opinion I think?). Which is a shame because they’ve had a lot of interactions/content this year.

you've definitely hit the nail on the head here with a couple of them. the dynamic definitely doesn't interest me and that's fine, and is kinda why i've been asking pals why the dynamic does interest them, cause i look at them and i'm like huh 🤔 but have had some interesting insights over the past few days. i just think i am quite a visual person, i need to seeeeeee things to believe in them kinda thing (not applicable to everything in the world obviously but ya get what i'm saying) and with max and daniel you have such visible freak 4 freak moments that just addd so much to the narrative and the understanding of them. to me, when the lestappen girlies freak out (not derogatory) over a picture of max grabbing charles' waist, my brain just goes "well that's max, he does that with nearly everyone" because that issss max to me??? that's not a charles and max thing to me?? or those photos of charles and max today, my brain just goes oh that's two colleagues having fun together, literally exact same reaction to the daniel and george photos!! there are other things but i am not in my hater era and i have v good pals who thoroughly enjoy lestappen so i'm not gunna publicly shit on something that they love right in front of their salad but if u wanna chat more my messages are always open my haterisms come out in the dms!!

i think the crux of it for me, is the characterisation that i see people put on max and charles and l*stappen, isn't the way i see max and charles??

[izzy-b-hands]

Putting on last year's trans rigs stream from Drawfee before i have to get ready to go out with my mum and her bf today (bc i have the worst feeling in my gut he's gonna make that An Thing for me if given the chance today, aka whenever i eventually need the restroom while we're at Mystic)

[blujayonthewing]

[gritting my teeth clenching my fists] it's SO FRUSTRATING because felix was lowkey designed to end up in Situations and be trembling and covered in blood all the time but I don't even get to enjoy 'heehoo my little guy's in dire straights in this fight oh noooo' because the stupid encounters are so wildly badly balanced that everyone is dying very fast and I'm too busy stressing out in real life as a player that we're about to get completely pointlessly TPK'd in session three

[valyrfia]

@ the anon who just spammed me with 5 anti lestappen takes, you are on the wrong blog.

[todayisafridaynight]

i didnt really conjure up a cohesive 'plot' to my masadai comics/drawings before drawing them we're just going off vibes and whatever's funny right but its really funny that with the stuff i've shat out i almost can make up a story at this point

[awcatqueen]

I feel like mouthwashing has maybe the biggest disconnect between the content of the game and the fan art that comes out of it

[tizeline]

This is it, FINALLY we're gonna see the actual beginning of the story! Episode one! Yay!! So Donnie and April are just hanging out when they find this weird fox-dog-cat-creature or whatever, but before they have time to figure out exactly what it is, they're interrupted by three Normal Human Teenage Boys! Uh Oh!

... okay so the Normal Human Teenage Boys were actually Giant Turtle Teenage Boys. Cool.

So from Donnie's and April's perspective, as far as they know Donnie and Splinter are one of a kind, they've never encountered any other mutants or yōkai before. Both of them have of course always been curious about Don's origins but have never found any lead on where he came from nor how he was created. All of this is to say, suddenly encountering three other mutant turtles like Donnie himself out of nowhere is literally the craziest thing ever for them!

From the Drax Bros' perspective though... they have no idea why this random yōkai dude is acting like he's never interacted with any other yōkai in his life?? Like sure, some yōkai who live on the surface can be a bit out of the loop when it comes to the rest of yōkai-society. Not knowing what a cloaking brooch is is certainly weird, but whatever, maybe he just kinda lives under a rock or something. But then he reacts Like That to seeing their true forms?? What's this guy's deal?? (Give them a second, they're gonna connect the dots real soon lol)

Next part ->

Reference for the Human Drax Brothers! And yes I have made it A Thing that Leo is a huge Shadow fanboy and I will STICK TO IT!

Also in that TMNT x Power Rangers crossover comic, when the turtles were disguised as humans they all had backpacks to represent their shells, I thought that fun a fun concept so they all have backpacks here too lol.

Oh and another thing, when I was showing sneak peeks of the comic to some peeps on discord, it was pointed out to me that that one panel looked like an Omori encounter so I made this low-res edit in like 2 minutes, enjoy

[grison-in-space]

Sure, but I still want to know their priors and sampling techniques. Failing that, using the most easily accessible methods to gather data can still yield potentially interesting information about overall dynamics even if we apply mathematical analyses that assume oversampling of queer users to "correct" the effects of snowball sampling. It's worth noting that sampling information about human sexuality is pretty much uniformly nightmarish in any case; this is actually not that much worse than published peer reviewed sampling efforts, horribly enough.

I am taking everyone who made a poll to gauge the True Percentage of Queers on Tumblr and putting them through a statistics course

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

UPDATE What's up, it's the proposal guy. You said you wanted to know how this turned out, so I figured I'd tell you. First some context though, because I'm mean and I wanna keep you in suspense longer.

1- I don't wanna doxx us so I'm not telling you where we live, but suffice to say, neither of us are American, and gay marriage has been legal here for less than five years. For both of us, this is the first relationship we've had where marriage was even an OPTION, and I think that's where we've been getting some of that whole 'this has to be a REAL proposal with EVERYTHING' idea.

2- I gotta figure out how to explain this properly. So, I'm pretty used to being the GUY guy in relationships? I was always the one who did the nice gestures, not the one they got done for. Before I met my dream guy, I didn't really notice or care that it was such a thing, I just assumed that's how shit worked. Also, I promised I wouldn't talk a lot about his stuff here, but his last boyfriend before me SUCKED. Anyway point here is, it turns out we both REALLY like feeling swept off our feet sometimes, and a big part of finding each other has been getting to feel special for once? That's a stupid sappy way of putting it the point here is I think all that's what morphed into "I need to be the one getting proposed to, also it has to be completely perfect", and then our Petty & Extra genes got involved.

So I'm sitting in bed thinking about all that up there, and watching all the comments coming in basically being like "Dude, you are BLOWING this" on repeat, and telling me to compromise, and I look up and see him flossing in the bathroom and making all these doofy faces at the mirror, and it's like a switch just flips in my brain, and I'm like "Oh, I'd rather he gets to have his perfect proposal than we both have an okay one". I'm gonna do it.

Morning rolls around, and while I'm 'out for my jog like normal' I hit up a pawn shop for a temp ring (the ring pop thing is cute but NOT HIM). I found one I was at least confident wouldn't get ruined the first time he got his hands greasy (he fixes old machines as a hobby it's hot as hell), got back home, and hid the box in the toe of my nasty ass workout shoes in the bedroom closet, since I figured he'd check there last.

He was still asleep, because he stays up late no matter what and then is SHOCKED he's tired the next day, so I called and booked a table at our usual anniversary spot. (Side note about the 'he picks bad restaurants' thing. This isn't an 'I like Greek, you like Chinese' situation, dude's just BAD at finding places. He either assumes pricey is tasty and I get to eat some overrated gourmet bullshit, or he'll try and find something hip and underground and risk giving us food poisoning again, and he REFUSES to give up and pick somewhere we've been before when it's his turn to plan date night. I'm obsessed with him <3.) Date was set, I'd propose on the 21st.

Some of you might have noticed this, but fun fact! It's currently the 16th.

Last night I'm doing dishes and he's been sent to our room for mug collection duty, and he's taking FOREVER, so I go check just in case he found the ring, because the man's a gift tracking BLOODHOUND. Turns out he hasn't, he's found my Angry Box.

I assume other people have an Angry Box? Basically, we had this huge messy fight right when we first moved in together, and I never wanna let it get that bad again, so I have this shoebox where I keep a bunch of our stuff I can look at if we're fighting and hopefully cool off. There's one of those photo booth roll things, letters we wrote when he moved back with his parents for COVID, the wine cork from our first date, shit like that. Anyway, he's just sitting on the floor staring at it, and I explain about the Angry Box, and then he! Proposes!!! Kind of.

He definitely didn't have anything prepared, because by 'propose' I mean 'ugly cried & rambled at me for several minutes before I figured out it WAS a proposal', but once I got on the same page it was amazing. I said yes, and he had to admit he didn't have a ring for me because he was CONVINCED he'd win and I'd do it, so I grabbed mine because, yeah, he was right. He was like "this is the ugliest ring I've ever seen" and I was like yeah well the plan is to replace it later and he went "No. You can pry this off my cold dead fingers. After I'm buried with it." So I guess it's not a temporary ring anymore.

I'm just gonna go ahead and skip to this morning. I pointed out we still have the reservation, and he said I should propose there anyway because "We can get a free dessert. They have those creme brulee shot glasses you like. And for love, or something" and I said ok deal, but that means you gotta get me a ring to keep it fair, and his eyes LIT UP. When I swung by his work for lunch he was still on the phone with a jeweler and he had a whole page of notes on three other ones. Pray for me.

OH PS: I was RIGHT that he'd been the one behind the cat biting me, but it wasn't about the proposal stuff, it's because I paid my baby sister three dollars to shout 'fuck you' every single time he enters a room she's in for (if you ask me, he should be madder at my sister for charging so little), and he did it by giving her a bunch of treats for biting his hands too, so now neither of us can pet our baby girl without oven mitts on. HOLY SHIT I love this man.

Oh my goddddddd I love everything about this <333 I awwww'd out loud on a voice call, like, six times while reading. You two are friggin perfect for each other and so obviously smitten with each other and I wish y'all all the happiness in the world

PS Are y'all planning to have a big wedding? If so oh boy I can't WAIT to get that one in the inbox

Original post

[starry-bi-sky]

i had SO MUCH HOMEWORK I HAD TO DO YESTERDAY. I didn't have time to get to this! (Or to your other reblog on the other post lol) but now I do! Yesss to enby Danny, he goes by he/they. I love the idea that Danny has so many bits and bobbles and accessories in their hair, they just straight up have (at least whats modernly considered) viking style braids and accessories lol. God forbid they get a PO box because their fans will be sending them SO many hair bobbles and accessories.

If they show up on video with bones in their hair they swear up and down its ethically sourced. Same with the feathers.

I love all of their account names. Pulsar_facts is clever.

I don't know a ton about Coast City or what Green Lantern does there to give much input on that, but rip to Hal LMAO. Danny keeps climbing up places to get good photos of the city or of the sky and more than once has this gotten Hal's attention while he's on-planet. He knows Danny by name at this point.

AND YEAH I HAD TO DO IT. I think all of the YJ4 should get an interaction like this where Danny ends up being saved by them at some point or another and they do something flirty/risqué that gets the hero in question all flustered/hot n bothered. I wanna bully Tim so bad and say that the other three experience this a handful of times before he even gets to meet Nova once.

It goes as followed: Bart, Cassie, Kon, and then Tim. Tim is lowkey SO jealous/frustrated. Like yeah sure he knows Nova is situated in Coast City and he could just orchestrate a meeting between them as Tim, but that's not the same, and it'd be cheating, and the rest of the team would never let him live it down.

So he's just gotta wait until Nova finally decides to pop up around Gotham and get themselves eventually landed in trouble.

AND YEAH WITH BART! Danny is usually super good about personal space boundaries, he's been human longer than he's not been human and he's super touchy with his friends and family. But when Bart saved them they were so thrown off; he smelled faintly like the dust of childhood and the metallic taste of clock gears and the sleepy weight of nostalgia. He smelled like Clockwork, and Danny just had to lean in and get a better whiff to confirm. He didn't fully process or realize what he did until they were at the police station and Impulse already zipped off.

By then it was too damn late, he was so mortified. I think it'd be funny (and mostly because i've attached myself to Bart for this au) that Danny has the most interactions with Impulse before they meet Red Robin. But that's because Central City is in Illinois and he tends to pass through it while going to Amity Park.

(which is like, apparently an actual state its been located in. at least that's what a quick google search and the wikipedia says. That and Ohio, Missouri, and Florida. I was just going to originally say it was a coincidence for when they're driving back to Amity, since i vaguely remembered that CC was a midwest city (i briefly thought it was supposed to be the chicago equivalent), and I'm glad I looked it up to make sure LMAO)

Like, it's not even that Danny keeps getting into trouble too while in Central City. Sometimes they're just like, existing somewhere and just so happen to be on Impulse's patrol route. The Flashes are renownedly friendly and I bet sometimes stop to chat with civilians if they're not on their way to a crime site or fight.

The next time Danny sees Impulse they apologize SO bad to him, they're so embarrassed and they feel bad for making him uncomfortable. Bart reassures them, and they're both pink-faced.

Bart asks them what they meant when they said he smelled like Time.

Danny laughs all high and nervous, averts their eyes; "I- uh- I-- ....I don't have an answer to that."

Bart decides to kinda let it be for now, and makes a joke about how despite all those thirst traps, they're rather shy in person.

Which is a fucking mistake.

Because, oops! Danny latches onto that like a leech, and for a split second moment you can see the lightbulb flip over their head. Their averted eyes flick over to Impulse, slightly wide for a quick blink. Then he gets this cocky grin on his face, and then they're leaning close into Impulse's space -- not close enough to be threatening, but close -- and Bart suddenly remembers- no, realizes, that Nova is actually really fucking tall.

They look smug, like the cat that caught the cream. Nova says, voice low but full of impish delight, their eyes glowing; "You watch my stuff?"

Bart realizes he miscalculated. And decides right then and there to throw the rest of the team under the bus; "So does Red Robin, Wonder Girl, and Superboy. Okay-I-gotta-go-bye!" And then he splits.

His phone buzzes in his pocket, its the YJ4 group chat. Its Kon. It's just the message: "BART YOU SNITCH!"

Thanks to @starry-bi-sky I now have another dpxdc idea based on how Danny would meet the YJ group. And for some reason the Weasels are Thirsty.

Fucking Twitter or TikTok.

Punk/Long Haired/Piercings Young Adult/College age Danny accidently being a Cryptid Thirst Trap. Maybe Danny has Zero fucks to give an does one of those Be Careful Who You Call Ugly in Highschool posts.

Like maybe he's doing a trendy tiktok but like the lights go out due to power outage.and his Eyes are Literally Glowing (nothing else can be seen But his eyes) before the tiktok ends.

Possibly him cheekily posting a selfie showing off his new tongue and lip piercings. Possibly the photo is just a close up of his smirking mouth while he sticks his tongue out between the V his fingers make.

Just Core Four YJ crushing Hard on this Civilian Punk Twunk!