tumblr staff adjusting a dial to fine-tune exactly how much they’re imitating twitter while occasionally looking back at their userbase for approval except the userbase is just booing the entire time “we hate twitter” “why do you even have that dial”

this is actually so baffling to me. “Reblog chains is what makes Tumblr unique! So we’re taking it away :)” is how this reads. “We want to keep encouraging conversations! So we’re siloing every single conversation on a post :)”

like. this is almost satirical. this is parody. it’s so fundamentally stupid that it would be funny, if they hadn’t already implemented the fucking thing.

to celebrate the ides of march this year tumblr decided to stab its users in the back

we fucked up

Reblogs in a chain now get their own notes

The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve. 

Soon, you’ll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog’s author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.

If a reblog doesn’t add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn’t lose notes just because people spread it quietly.

Past notes will stay on the original post — we’re only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be… a lot.

This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!

It’s very clear that you all have strong feelings about Tumblr and about this change. We hear you. The passion people have for how Tumblr works is one of the things that makes this place special.

As this rolls out over the next few days and you explore it, we’ll keep reading your replies and reblogs, so please keep sharing your questions, concerns, and ideas.

Your creativity has always been the heart of Tumblr, whether you’re the original poster or adding something brilliant in the reblogs, and nothing about this change is meant to limit that.

If you’d like to talk directly beyond the comments, leave a reply and we’ll follow up with as many of you as we can. We want to work with you to make Tumblr better.

I am going to do my best to be civil about this, because getting agitated helps nobody.

Already we can see that this is making engagement and interaction WAY harder than it ever was. Notes are hidden, comments are hidden, and if you want to see what people (globally) have to say, you can’t, unless you somehow manage to manually chase down every single reblog chain and check the notes.

Clicking on the little bubble to see the comments and reblogs on a specific reblog brings up a popup that is frankly small and impairs readability and useability by miles.

This update is killing the yes-and culture and is now actively discouraging artists of all stripes from posting their art, specifically because they will never get to see all the engagement on their posts anymore. Reblogging from themselves steals the notes. Someone leaving a nice comment on them steals the notes. Imagine going to an art gallery and the artist is there but instead of the artist hearing what you have to say, they are in a soundproofed room you have to enter, and if you say something out loud in front of the art you are now attributed with all the praise because you said something nice first. It’s crazy.

That’s not even touching upon the very real concerns surrounding safety and harassment and the ability to block people you don’t want interacting with your original post, or how this makes it impossible to find out if someone is misinterpreting what you originally said or misrepresenting what you said and/or sending people to harass you for things you didn’t say. And you can’t know, because you can’t see the notes anymore. You can’t block malicious people interacting with your post anymore because you can’t see them. You’re creating more granular echo chambers and narrowing visibility across the board, limiting interaction and misattributing posts and notes that are deserved. It is killed the very core function of Tumblr by removing what makes Tumblr into Tumblr. This update is destroying community in unprecedented ways by making communication nearly impossible. There’s no more yes-and. There will be no more jokes.

As a side effect, posts that we know have hundreds of thousands of notes on them now show stupid counts, like 500 or less. It makes the entire site look MUCH deader than it is. In fact, the original post by Staff has well over 75 thousand notes on it, yet on my dashboard it shows a couple hundred at best, depending on who reblogged it. I’m sure you know this already, but you can’t see the comments if people say something on a reblog that isn’t directly from you, or under someone else’s comment. You can’t see tags that people added on your own post unless they reblog directly from you. Who is this for? How does it improve anything?

In addition, this update also destroys the ability to turn off reblogs, an update that was quite possibly one of the best-received implementations you have ever done. You can turn off updates from you personally, but not from someone else, or not somewhere down the reblog chain. This makes the ability to turn off reblogs basically useless again. What if you don’t want that post to go around anymore? What if there’s misinformation on it that you’re trying to correct? What if it’s something personal that escaped your little circle and you don’t want circulating? Don’t you get a say anymore? Why?

The same can be said for making posts private AFTER you have already posted them. Say goodbye to your privacy if you forgot and someone reblogged or commented already.

I see no upsides to this whatsoever. The update makes the site less intuitive, less communicative, less fun to use. It kills the core collaborative element that is the absolute core of Tumblr. Who is it supposed to benefit?

At the very bottom line, it feels like someone up the ladder doesn’t understand the userbase, and thinks we all prefer a more selfish approach of “those are MY notes” to a communal collaborative aspect. Tumblr IS a community. The collaboration was always the fun part. If we can’t riff off each other anymore, then why are we here?

I think at this point we can all agree that if people are still on Tumblr, it’s because of what made the site uniquely Tumblr, and this update just fully kills that dead. If we wanted to be on Twitter or Bluesky or Instagram or anywhere else, we’d be on those platforms. We are not, because we don’t like those platforms’ format, and bringing us closer to how those platforms operate kills the originality and uniqueness while bringing community, communication and interaction to a grinding halt.

Please roll this update back. It’s awful and diametrically opposite to what people are still on this site for.

We couldn’t have made Goncharov on Bluesky.

I’m amazed by and so appreciative of y'all still posting fic through the horrors because my capability for new words has vanished. without a trace.

I watched an insane amount of TikTok and other short form videos for the story I’m writing right now. I gotta say, afterwards, I found myself picking up my phone and opening the apps, almost unconsciously. I was walking and I thought about watching some vids at the same time. I was on hold to the ATO… maybe some videos.

I also happen to specialise in gambling addiction (although I’m not practicing in that area right now), and all I could fucking think about was how these fucking apps were conditioning me in the same fucking way gambling apps do. To be constantly plugged in, consuming. To not even think about just picking it up and having a look. To feel bored when I wasn’t watching them, to think about watching them when I wasn’t watching them….

That shit is fucking evil.

I deleted it. I’m not exposing myself to that.

That shit will fry your dopamine/reward system so fucking bad you will never read a book or watching a movie again without it.

Love yourself and your potential enough to put that fucking shit away. Watch longer form things that require focus and engagement. Listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Read books. DO ANYTHING BUT CONSUME SHORT FORM CONTENT IN AN UNSTRUCTURED WAY.

If you MUST consume it (I’m sure people will be like ‘but my classmates’ or 'but my own channel’…. etc), do it in a siloed and structured way. 30 minutes between x time and x time on x day. Focus on it. Don’t eat and do it. Watch each short form video to completion. Engage critically with the content. ANd never watch them first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

PLEASE. From a gambling professional, short form videos ping your SAME circuitry and you will fuck up your life and your brain so badly if you don’t put up guardrails for yourself.

all of tumblr tomorrow, march 15th:

what did we do to deserve portal 2. that shit was so good and for what

we got to have this! we got to have a valve game set in the half life universe, and its an enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-again sci fi comedy story about a homicidal ai created to run tests forever and the test subject she catches feelings for!! how is this game real!!!

happy birthday to the only video game ever

people still clown in the notes of this post so reminder that glados was gonna take you on a date and accuse you of cheating. shes not chells mom

I think a lot of writers might benefit from giving themselves permission to get weird with format.

Use second person, drop classic rising action and climax format, write backwards, just sit in a moment, tell all you want and refuse to show, make an entire book that’s just one run on sentence, reject tropes, use all tropes, cliche yourself to death, produce something that’s completely gibberish. Break all the rules of marketability. Become ungovernable.

Write a story that just takes place inside one pathetic little person’s head. Do it. It’s enrichment in your enclosure.

Do the writer’s equivalent of playing with finger paints. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it

It’s the middle of the night and I should be sleeping but listen. Listen. Just get weird with it. Open your soul up a little bit. Like actually don’t worry about it being palatable. I’m serious. Get weirder. Get weirder right now. I’m demanding that you get weirder right now. It’s not your responsibility to make your reader feel good. It’s your job to make art, goddamnit. Make art. Make weird art. Open up your third eye and eat an entire cheesecake.

That one clip of Brennan Lee Mulligan in game changer saying “I can set my own standard for what success looks like, and it always looks like trying your best” has done more for me than therapy ever has

How can he be so cute? <3

my body forced me to take a day off today and my brain is grateful

hey, did you know that the world is a better place because of your creations and art and writing, no matter how niche or how many people see it

i love them so much like actually

their friendship is so beautiful i’m gonna cry

reading “and/or” syntax hits different now that I’ve tumbled head first into Andor

I might drop Clair into Fields of Mistria just because I can

give her the retired-from-fighting, sapphic life she deserves

U dont understand i had to write the first 70,000 words because if i didnt the sex wouldnt be as perilous or emotionally fraught. Which is the POINT.

me, unloading a fitted sheet from the dryer: *squinting* what’s that you’ve got in your mouth

fitted sheet: nothing :)))))))

me, prying open its twisted jaws: na-ah!!! give it to me RIGHT now!!

fitted sheet: *resentfully spits out a wad of 3 very damp dishtowels, a pillowcase, and a pathetically sodden washcloth*

Kudos to this post, I think of you every time I do my fucking laundry

so soft it hurts

god i love poetry

I love it when I stumble across something that combines beautiful creativity with spot on critical analysis and each makes the other infinitely better. This is my sweet spot. Right here.

ahahaha we just got through episode 5 of A Crown of Candy and wtaf AHAHAHAHA 🫠😭

dammit Brennan I was worried about one character as we approached the last few minutes and now I’m worried about ALL OF THEM

good things will happen 🧿

things that are meant to be will fall into place 🧿

THIS ONE FUCKING WORKS. REBLOG IT.

this for real fucking works

another installment of my first time watching Andor rambles below the cut, this time for S2E10 “Make It Stop” (augh please make it stop)

—–

• there is a LOT going on in this opening sequence, so much conveyed without dialogue as Kleya prepares weapons and Luthen says something like they’ve run out of perfect
• Lonni’s been burned?? oh. ohhhh. he got into Dedra’s stuff.
• WHAT DID HE FIND– waaaaaait Lonni figured out that the energy program is a front for the Death Star
• Scarif mentioned~
• Luthen killed Lonni?? I should’ve predicted this but blaaaaaaaaah.
• okay a busy staircase/walkway is an interesting place for a SUPER sensitive information exchange (Galen Erso mention!!), and I didn’t expect Luthen to literally burn some comms equipment
• FUCK WHY IS DEDRA AT LUTHEN’S SHOP
• the way she pulls her hands away from the Nautolan bleeder fascinates me
• I gasped. she pulled out a Starpath unit. is it the unit from Ferrix, from what feels like ages ago?? she knows.
• ah yes, the old “we’re order and you’re chaos!” perspective. Dedra’s been drinking the koolaid too long. not that either of them use good means to reach their ends. but still.
• “there’s a whole galaxy out there waiting to disgust you” DAMN. Luthen knows he’s sunk and he still speaks like this.
• yeah Dedra won’t allow him to die (now there’s some advanced medtech~ haven’t seen a hoverstretcher like that but I figured they had to exist! it’s even fancier than I imagined for Clair’s fic, lol)
• the shot of the watching crowd through the medical transport window, nice (oh no, Kleya, why are you there)
• the raid went badly, Partagaz? they’re combing every square centimeter of the place!
• whew, that safehouse has seen better days
• FINALLY. KLEYA’S PAST. I have been craving this for most of the series now.
• in the present she’s crying, augh. also her hair and clothing give me Leia on Endor vibes.
• title drop from past Luthen?? (impressed how they make him look younger, more a soldier here)
• characters sure bundle up often on Coruscant for a planet with weather control
• Dedra is going to push this too far, isn’t she (issuing orders to clear the entire medical floor? with an entire room dedicated to keeping Luthen alive?)
• what are you searching for, Kleya– oh. medic uniform. I doubt she’s here to rescue Luthen. is she going down too. oh no.
• floor numbers labeled on the outside of the lift that ISB’s taking. convenient.
• Heert’s arresting Dedra?! and she just goes with him? guess it makes sense since she wouldn’t want to cause a scene
• damn, the ongoing Kleya flashback does not pull any punches ;_;
• there are so many windows in this hospital THEY’LL SEE YOU, KLEYA (at least she tries to hide whenever she can)
• the young actress playing young Kleya is incredible; also, fascinating parallels between the past and present here
• again, they’re showing SO MUCH without dialogue as Kleya disconnects Luthen’s life support… gaaaaaah.

ANYWAY my love to all nonbinary folx who don’t want to ‘transition’ in the way binary (or apparently some nonbinary people) understand it because there is NO WAY to reduce their dysphoria due to extreme fluctuating genderfluidity or inhuman/other senses of gender dysphoria

my love to all nonbinary people who are also intersex and have a mix of sexual characteristics that actually affirms their gender and therefore are 'non-transitioning’ but still very much seen as non-cis and subject to all The Horrors of being visibly intersex/nonbinary

I’m sorry some people apparently think being 'non-transitioning’ protects you from hatred and dysphoria, and don’t make space for extremely vulnerable people like you in their theorising.

my love to all nonbinary people. period.

“mwahahaha” could be an evil laugh but it could also be “mwah ahaha” like someone kissing you and then laughing joyously because they love you

being a humanities major who’s friends with stem majors is so funny because you’ll ask your friends what they’re doing today and they’re like “UGH it’s so stressful i have to stabilize the reactor core for my nuclear power midterm and then i have to build the supercomputer from i have no mouth yet i must scream for my electrical engineering homework :/ what about you” and you’re like “oh well i have to read a fun little book and write an essay about gender.” and they still think you have it worse

Being a stem major who’s friends with humanities majors is ALSO funny bc you ask what’s goin on with them and they’re like “oh yeah my day’s pretty good! I only have to read 50 pages for this one class today and half a book for another one. It’s much better than last week where I read three books and wrote a 10 page paper about their overlapping motifs for one class while also researching a niche period of time that our library doesn’t have any resources on. How’s it been for you?” and you’re like “oh I have a lil packet of fun math puzzles due tomorrow.” and they look at you like you’re carrying the weight of the universe on your back

This is your reminder that just because something falls within the skillset you’ve practiced, so you can do it and you don’t find it particularly hard or stressful relative to other things, it doesn’t mean it isn’t actually hard work you should be proud of yourself for accomplishing!

this applies to writing and art, too

brb crying at work because a colleague consistently used my correct pronouns in an email to multiple people

the noble eunuch’s doing better but i’ve been going to the vets so often recently that the receptionists don’t even ask for his name, they just recognise me on sight lol