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Roll it Back

@changes , @staff, @tumblr

I know I've posted on both of your recent posts as a comment, but I really want to put this out into the wider Tumblr world here, and expand on my thoughts beyond the length of what a comment would allow me to.

Additionally, because I cannot trust that y'all will see what I reblog from your post if I reblog something and it starts making its rounds, thanks to your new roll out, I just have to tag you in this separate post!

So, for that reason alone, y'all NEED to fix this.

You NEED to roll this back.

This is not a: "Oh. Sure. We are listening. Yes. Yes." *nod* *nod* "We hear you, but we're doing this anyway kind of an issue."

This is a safety concern for multiple users.

WHY THIS IS A SAFETY ISSUE:

This was one of the last sites on the internet that had a decent, not perfect, but decent, blocking feature on which folks in the 13-17 age group could actually rely. That made this site one that, for the most part, was accessible, useful, and helpful for them to educate themselves on terminology, social issues, and develop their own opinions in a decently SAFE environment.

Now, why was that?

**BECAUSE** of how the block feature worked!!!

If someone in that 13-17 age group was followed by a creep, a bot, an unsavory blog, etc., there was a mostly secure feature that would allow them the security of their posts/ their blog not being able to be interacted with in any capacity.

(One of Tumblr's better features.)

With this new roll out each blog now owns it's reblogs.

Once someone reblogs with a comment, and some folks are saying even with tags???

The OP has lost control over their own original post!!!

Thus, if a minor's "I am freshly learning how to voice my own thoughts in the world" opinion post sounds a little too spicy, and some nut case were to reblog it. That adult, because generally it's an adult with too much time on their hands, who disagreed with them can start a reblog chain bashing them without the young person in question even knowing about it!

Furthemore, that adult could block the minor, after starting the reblog chain, and continue to reblog the thread with anything from trash talk, to obscene language, to additional forms of harassment. This could lead that person's mutuals to then flood that minor's inbox based on the followers of that adult's blog.

You've created the most perfect and fertile ground for cyber bullying I've ever seen!

Additionally, this could happen to not only the young folks on Tumblr, though that should be your biggest concern, but this could and, likely, will affect ANY vulnerable group:

LGBT+ users, though, particularly trans users

disabled users, particularly those with intellectual and cognitive impairments - WHO STILL DESERVE TO USE THE INTERNET

POC users

mentally ill users

as well as just the general population of the site at large

INTERFACE ISSUES

Secondarily, this is a huge interface problem for what people actually use Tumblr for and will pose significant interface issues.

Most people use Tumblr for one of two things:

Collaboration

Community/ Boosting

Collaboration Issues:

Having all the notes be connected to the Original Post, helps users collaborate within fandoms to build theories, challenge each other, create memes, and share thoughts on various head canons presented within fics and art.

Additionally, the old reblog system fosters a spirit of academic debate and discourse - for better or worse, yet, always needed - even beyond fandom.

The old reblog system allows for a spirit of communal discussion in which everyone learns and benefits from one another's knowledge by providing those who might access the post in the future the ability to see the discussion on the topic through the "reblog chains" in the shared notes.

("English side of tumblr," "Science side of tumblr," "History side of tumblr" ... I remember when that was still a thing. You'd call for help from the "experts" - both based on special interest and those folks with degrees- and receive an answer to your question via reblogs.)

Tumblr has never been about how many notes you, personally, can get, or counting "upvotes," or whatever.

Tumblr has always been about a spirit of collaboration that comes from discussion - academic, The Discourse TM, fandom rambling, and everything in between.

Even the greatest memes on this site have been collaborative. None of them would have happened without the unique way the reblog feature and the notes were set up.

We can no longer see, or create, the masterful beauty of ... I cannot believe what I am about to type ... Kung Pow Penis.

Even the meme about "color theory" - in both it's separate iterations - yellow or red - would not have happened without people building on each other's reblogs in ways this new system would not allow.

"Look at this graph," and the unholy number of subsequent additions, would not exists without the old reblog feature.

However, that goes for any number of my favorite Tumblr memes that are too numerous to list, or even remember, until I run across them.

Everything about Tumblr has run on the idea that additional notes should be about expanding on the thoughts of the Original Post, engaging in the discussion with the original poster's thoughts, or expanding on or emphasizing some part of the original shit post.

No one shit posts with the intention of their post blowing up.

But, it's kind of funny to watch when it does.

(Like that one random post I made about Phantom of the Opera and literal Opera. I made that little semi-academic, semi-shit post for my own amusement, and it's easily the most notes I've ever gotten. However, the posts I actually work on? I'm lucky if one mutual reblogs it.)

But, Tumblr thrives on shit posts. We've always known this.

However, that brings me to my next point.

Community & Boosting:

A lot of artists, poets, writers, etc start here.

The way they start here is by having some bigger blog comment on their stuff in a reblog giving them compliments, advice, constructive criticism, and tagging friends in the reblogs so that they can also help give comments, compliments, and advice.

(Tumblr is like our own little virtual Montmartre.)

But, like ... yeah ... actually ... I'm gonna run with that analogy ...

(Note:

If only for the purpose of this thought experiment, at least, we're assuming Montmartre is the Internet, and the painters could be international. Additionally, for the purpose of this thought experiment, I'm basing my analogy on the size each artist's blogs would have been when they were alive and painting. I'm not basing it on how well know they are to the general public now.)

So, if Paul Gauguin reblogs, in this current updated reblog system, a piece of art from say ... Vincent Van Gogh's and Mabel Pugh's (North Carolina, Post-Impressionist Artist) blogs, with some kind of comment on style or whatever on each piece, now, because Gaugin has reblogged these works, and he's a "bigger blog," suddenly, his commentary gets all the notes because he's the "greater artist" and the "bigger blog."

However, you know who's NOT seeing any of the engagement on Gaugin's feedback reblog, and, thus, any of that possible additional feedback, or seeing the criticism - constructive or destructive?

Those original artists!

You know?

The ones who made the work he's commenting on?

The current reblog system would make it almost impossible for artists (or poets, or fic authors, or other writers, or crafters) to follow reblogs on their own work to receive feedback and engage with their audiences!

Situations like hypothetical example above would dramatically affect "smaller blogs" that produce more "niche" content, or blogs for "smaller" fandoms, or people who, for whatever reason, don't have as large of a following.

Returning to the hypothetical of Gauguin and Van Gogh, this new update could, AGAIN, leave disabled/ mentally ill folks open to possible harassment! (They were roommates at the time of Van Gogh's first psychotic episode.)

So, for people who know each other IRL and have falling outs? This could lead to potentially disastrous situations because, once again, people now "own" the posts they reblog!

Therefore, if someone really wanted to, they could start posting completely unrelated comments about the OP in reblog chains further down the line. However, OP may not be able to find these comments either due to being blocked, or being able to locate them in time to do damage control.

However, the lack of ability to see feedback, or the potential for harassment, doesn't just have to be about art. It also can be about poetry, fic, original writing, crafts, or really anything.

It could be about the dumbest OOC AU that "I pulled off the dusty shelf in the back part of my brain and it would still suck not to be able to see any of the engagement/ collaboration on it.

Thus, if anyone "profits" off anything in the new update, it's the person who "adds" some random thing to a thought that isn't their thought. Then, the person who added something gets to rack up a bunch of reblogs and engagement without the person who gave them the starting point getting any of the "credit" THEY deserve.

If you're that concerned about receiving your own reblogs, likes, notes, or other engagement, make your own post, tag the OP, and/or link their post to your post so they still get credit, and start your own chain from YOUR blog. Then, your thought really does belong to you!

But, make your own ORIGINAL post on your own topic if you really want the notes to yourself that bad.

No one has ever stopped anyone from doing that.

However, the reason no one really does that is because of my first point: People on Tumblr value collaboration and conversation.

It's how we have done and do everything on this site as well as how we wish to continue to do everything on this site.

We want to boost people's posts WHILE being able to comment on them, discuss with one another, and be silly.

We want to be able to volley thoughts back and forth.

So, what do we want?

We want you to roll this back.

CONCLUSIONS

We want Tumblr to be safe and collaborative for all it's users.

We want to see Tumblr remain a community where we can support each other by actually reblogging each other's work with feedback and commentary.

It is an interface concern.

It is a safety concern.

So, ROLL THIS BACK.

Whatever conceivable thing you think this is going to fix - make for better and more targeted ads (no idea how that would work), have people receive some kind of an ego boost from seeing their section of a post increase in notes, or whatever you're thinking, it's NOT going to work.

It's not helpful.

It's not going to make you money.

It's not useful.

It's only making people angry.

Please, reconsider, or risk having people either log out permanently and/or fully delete their blogs.

Thank you for your time.

I know you're probably getting spammed with people who are angry, pissed off, and just trolling you with memes right now - and there's a part of me that can't deny that you kind of deserve it - but, also, if you want that to stop?

Fix it.

Roll it back.

To the folks who see this and want to engage/ vent with me, I've turned reblogs off because, right now, they're not very helpful. However, please, feel free to reply & like.

#tumblr #tumblr update #roll it back #tumblr staff #tumblr issues #tumblr app #writers on tumblr #artists on tumblr #this is terrible #like no one asked for this #pip does life

Guys...

With the new update you know how cooked we are? I didn't thought it was thatt bad... But now i see it. I hate it, it is that bad.

THE RP BLOGS. THE ARTISTS. PEOPLE WHO JUST COMMENT AND WANT TO SEE CONVERSATIONS.

I hate "X". So much. And this small and good site slowly it's becoming twitter. I am here because i don't like twitter. So please roll it back.

@tumblr @staff. You can see how no one is liking this. Roll it back i beg.

#tumblr update #Please roll this thing back tumblr i swear.#roll it back #now. right now #save tumblr