PSA: GIFs not playing automatically?
About two weeks ago Tumblr silently made an update to "respect" the Windows accessibility settings for disabling animations, and in the process spare themselves from having to automatically load GIFs on the dash. Instead you would see the word "GIF" over the image and have to click on it to play. This did not apply to WEBP files or custom themes, which is why you might see it inconsistently. It took me awhile to figure out all this, and I started needlessly converting a lot of my GIFs to WEBP to get around it.
Anyhow if you're a Windows user, and you're still having the same problem I was, it's a pretty easy fix.
Windows 10: Open Settings > Ease of Access > Display. Turn on the Show animations in Windows option
Windows 11: Open Settings > Accessibility > Visual Effects. Toggle Animation Effects to On.











