First, I would like to congratulate and thank @tumblr for their decision to roll back the most recent @changes in light of the backlash. This was clearly a massive change that had been in the works for some time, and was/is part of a much larger plan to attempt to modernize the site and make it more accessible to users from other platforms, and, I think this is very important, keep it financially stable.
We had it confirmed last year that Tumblr is in sustainment mode. That means, in tech world terms, that they aren't trying to grow massively or make fancy new updates or features for the hell of it. They're trying to make enough money to justify keeping the lights on so the entire service isn't shut down like Vine.
In the last month this site has been flooded with love, adoration, and support for the AO3 volunteers working around the clock to keep that site stable and functioning during outages and major updates, fending off bots, updating crucial infrastructure, adding minor new feature changes, search improvements, all of the things that Tumblr has been doing too, with what we hear now is only half a dozen or so paid employees.
But AO3 hosts text pages only. HD gifsets, a dozen sideblogs, uploading videos directly to your blog even if it takes forever to process? Those server costs have to be insane. And with AI those costs are skyrocketing and only about to get worse.
I have seen a dozen posts float around yelling that if you pay for Tumblr you're a sucker. Very rarely have I seen an equivalent for those posts like the ones that defend AO3 donation campaigns. So here goes mine.
I like paying for Tumblr premium.
The main reason is that I don't have to see ads, and I do everything I can in my life to avoid seeing ads. The second reason is I want this site to not crumble into the aether with no warning.
I rarely ever use the monthly free Blaze feature, but I really appreciate that I can when I need to, on my own posts across any sideblog, or someone else's post I want to highlight.
I definitely use this hellsite enough to want to support it for $0.19 a day.
I know people are upset that the cost raised, and that not everyone can afford the annual discount, but $70 instead of $7 a month is a whole two months off, which isn't just a good deal, but also say to me that Tumblr is prioritizing longer term funds over month-to-month.
The fact the cost raised means that the program was moderately successful, but that they are still struggling to keep the lights on.
My suggestion to Staff is to read your loyal, vocal, and dedicated audience. If you are in maintenance mode, we understand, and we will support you.
To @tumblr Management, as a simple and cheap monetization model based on other sites, I would sincerely suggest there is proof Tumblr users would respond well to a transparency campaign modeled after non-profit entities like AO3 & Wikipedia, with rough estimates of server costs and staff salaries, and an ability to pay/donate more flexibly than a monthly subscription.
Note: There are all kinds of ways to set something like this up, maybe rewards like a system for prioritization on bug fixes and new feature implementation like free users having five votes, premium users ten, and either having the ability to buy more, all filling the collective annual/quarterly budget. While Tumblr is not a non-profit, a sustainment SaaS could work well in the Kickstarter stretch-goal model right now.
So because we're going to be cranky in the coming days, because there's not great communication on what the long term roadmap is yet, and we're all stressed and anxious about one safe-ish spot we have in the world getting threatened, because this shit happens when there's only half a dozen people left to run a site that's fifteen years of chaos on every level and we forget while we're in our little bubbles, let me say it now:
We know we're not always the easiest cats to herd, and working here is somewhat of a thankless job these days. So Thank You @staff, for all you do, and thank you for keeping the lights on.
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