Tumblr Advisor Board
I think it could be cool to put together a board of the top Tumblristas in the world, that could see previews of what's coming up and advise on strategic direction. Who should be on it?
Okay, look. We're gonna do it like this, Matt. I used to work in market research. This one is free, next time I expect a month of free premium and if there's a third time I expect a job.
TO EVERYONE ELSE:
A series of ten reblogs is about to follow, since you can only have one poll per reblog. Please answer all ten polls. If you don't see them all, check the notes (this shouldn't take me long so if it's more than like, fifteen minutes since I posted this one they should all be there.)
1) What is the PRIMARY thing you do on Tumblr?
I mostly reblog others' posts
I write original posts
I make/post memes
I make/post images or gifs
I make/post videos
I run a poll blog
I run a gimmick blog
2) how long have you been here?
Under twelve months
1-2 years
3-4 years
5-6 years
7-8 years
9-10 years
More than ten years
I don't remember
3) how old are you?
Under 18
19-28
29-38
39-48
49-58
59-68
I'm one of the Tumblr grandparents
4) thinking about the recent Tumblr feature release/rollback, what did you find most frustrating?
There was no communication before the fact
I felt like the feature didn't take Tumblr users' wants and needs into account
I felt like the feature showed a lack of understanding of Tumblr culture
I felt the feature would hurt Tumblr culture
I felt the feature would hurt Tumblr artists and small makers specifically
I wasn't bothered by the change
It happened so fast I didn't even know until it was all over
5) thinking about the recent Tumblr feature release/rollback, what satisfied you most about the response?
Tumblr staff responded quickly
I felt like we were heard and listened to
It was nice to see our concerns were understood
I wasn't bothered by the change
It happened so fast I didn't even know until it was all over
Other
6) thinking about features you use on Tumblr, what would you like to see improved?
The recent UI changes to reblogging are too confusing
I'd like tagging to be easier
I'd like to see the tagging system overhauled
I'd like to see the reporting/adult tagging system improved
I'd like a separate page for my communities
I'd like to be able to mark posts as for my followers only
I'd like to see the blocking system improved
I'm happy with Tumblr as it is
Other
7) with the understanding that Tumblr needs to attract new users or convert more current free users to paying users in order to stay online, what do you think of Matt's "top tumblrista" idea?
Absolutely not--this is very famously the influencer-hating site
Absolutely not--this site is too diverse for that to work
Absolutely not, for other reasons
I'm actually liking this poll method
The poll method is clunky but something similar would be great
I think the panel of "top users" would be great
I have no opinion on this
8) if you don't currently pay for use of a Tumblr feature, why not?
I have paid Tumblr features
The price point is too high for my wallet
The price point is too high for what's offered
There's nothing offered that I want
I wouldn't pay even if something I wanted was offered
Other
In the following question, "pre-social media" refers to platforms like LiveJournal, forums, alt.net boards, early MySpace, and similar spaces.
9) thinking about the given definition of "pre-social media," how much do you agree with the statement "I think most tumblr users I know would prefer pre-social media to modern platforms like Facebook and X"?
"Strongly agree" is not strong enough
Strongly agree
Agree
Kind of maybe agree?
Neutral/I don't know enough about pre-social media to say
Kind of maybe disagree?
Disagree
Strongly disagree
"Strongly disagree" is not strong enough
10) do you think Matt should just hire me to do this so I don't have to squeeze it around my break at work?
Yes, this was awesome
Sure, you're not perfect but this was way better than what they've done til now
No, but someone should do this
Honestly I'm just sad you didn't give us nuance/bald/vanilla extract/tickybox
I love the irony that if that new reblog change had actually happened, @prismatic-bell would have been getting all the notes for this post, making it completely useless for @photomatt for any sort of research purposes, because he happened to get reblogged by a more popular blog and would have not gotten all the notifications when people added comments
Like, I hope this clears up why we all hated that idea
This is an excellent point. I genuinely hope @photomatt looks at the answers here and finds them informative even though I definitely could have done better if I wasn't cranking it out in an hour while waiting for my machine at work to come back online.
I especially love that as of right now, almost 70% of respondents agree he should hire me. I'm being wasted in this 90-degree factory, Matt, I have no degree but I do have a good grasp on Tumblr culture and how to generate useful data. Listen to the people 😎
I think the fact that you made these polls in the first place, on your own time, really highlights what sets Tumblr apart from any other social media platform, which is that Tumblr users actually LIKE Tumblr
We don't see this platform as a means to an end, like how influencers use other platforms to make money off their followers and don't actually care what platform they're on, as long as it pays them... we see it as a community we are all part of, and that we want to see improve without losing the community aspect
Every other social media is just using algorithms to feed us non-stop ads, pumping out the most far-right Nazi content, and being completely overtaken by bots and AI. There's no "social" aspect left to most of them.
Tumblr also has a Nazi problem, and dealing with that would be a great change to implement, but aside from that, Tumblr is pretty much the only place you can go and interact with real people, without being sold to non-stop.
Influencer culture is dying out everywhere... this is NOT the time for Tumblr to hop on that bandwagon. It would literally kill this website... no one is going to join Tumblr because it become more like the other platforms that everyone's already sick of, and the more it becomes like Twitter or Tik Tok or whatever, the more current Tumblr users will abandon it, just like they did with every other platform.
Actually, that would make a good additional poll, I think:
What social media platform do you use DAILY, excluding Tumblr:
Twitter (yes I will keep deadnaming Twitter til the day I die idc)
Tik Tok
LinkedIn????
Other????? (are there more??? I don't even know)
More than one of the above
None of the above, and I never have used any of them
None of the above BUT I used to, and have since deleted my accounts
I have accounts for one or more of the above, but RARELY use them
I have accounts for one or more of the above, but NEVER use them
... for the purpose of this poll. rarely means more than never, but less than daily, I guess
I am not a market researcher, but I do love polls lol
I actually meant to have this as a question and then forgot it because I was doing it off the cuff rather than actually writing out and tweaking it ahead of time, because it's a deeply important one. So thank you for adding it.
