#foldingideas

[cum-rade]

[cybergoth-damsel]

A lot of the conversation around tumblr's "financial defecit" has started falling into very binary camps of "if you like something. support it!" and "poor people need money more than tumblr", and I'd like to posit a secret third thing.

For starters, this old Dan Olson video is illustrative on the general pitfalls of interacting with platform owners as if you have shared interests:

I don't think enough people recognize that the interests of the Owners will always be at odds with the interests of the people who actually like using a blog website. It doesn't matter if the people who make tumblr have good intentions, or if they're "lifetime bloggers", etc. At the end of the day, their priorities will always be to find the most inexpensive path to growth.

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In the present, the most inexpensive path to growth is the Content Trough. A tiktok/twitter "feed" of "content" that never ends and keeps you scrolling - seeing more ads - producing more data so that it can target the Content Trough more accurately. This is why tumblr wants to collapse reblogs, to lead people down algorithmic feeds. The current approach to Social Media Platforms is low-effort, quick reading media that people can generate a "hot take" on and move on.

It's approachable as a direction because users from other sites are already familiar, and higher-ups like it because it doesn't require any new ideas and comes with baked in statistics. Half of the reasons that tumblr is fun to use and good are also the reasons its unprofitable and outdated; and it'll always be more appealing to them to court new adopters than old bloggers.

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Basically what I'm trying to say is that we can't make tumblr profitable and good. Obviously the site tanking means it'll go away as a living platform, but at the end of the day it could be better than the entire history of the site becoming illegible and inaccessible as the format completely eats itself whole trying to look like Twitter.

The 2020s have seen capitalism completely cannibalize the internet as it fails to produce the infinitely climbing line its so desperately seeks, and this is no exception. The well has dried up. If you're looking for someone to blame it's not other tumblr users, it's the structure that only allows social spaces to exist for the sake of profit.

[pyrogina]

Inspo Series Parts 3 and onward: Ive been watching a lot of youtubers, video essayists, streamers and debaters while in quarantine and decided to draw my favourites in a series.  

Dan Olson AKA Folding Ideas | Jim Stephanie Sterling AKA Jimquisition Isma Pug | Shaun (skull)

Dylan Burns | Xanderhal | Denims Vaush | Lance AKA Serfs Times | Shoe0nhead

Bonus: The day I finished inking and went to color, Stephanie changed their hat+glasses and i had to redo them to match, so here is the old one...

[sleepymoritz]

i think this is one of the funniest responses to a republican ive ever seen

[claudiacanginiart]

Not all my clients send me physical samples of the images I worked on so I am overjoyed the times when I receive them. Plus, these #stickers are gorgeous. Thank you so much @foldablehuman.bsky.social !

[thatmiraclecupcake]

so true bestie

[spiderhungry]

Minecraft, Sandboxes, and Colonialism | Folding Ideas

Clickbait title: OOPS! Did I Do A Colonialism In Minecraft?!This video has been "done" for a while now, but I had a lot of trouble finishing it owing to a li...

Iiiiiiinteresting.

[liquid--coke]

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Fantastic analysis done by Foldable Human on male gaze and how Sam Witwicky of Michael Bay's Transformers films is a representation of how straight white men view themselves. I highly suggest his videos for in-depth film and game analysis. #transformers #samwitwicky #foldablehuman #foldingideas #chezapocalypse