Tumblr says it’s going to “fix” its “core experience” to appeal to new users (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by trashhalo@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Tumblr plans to make changes to appeal to new users and improve growth. The post states that Tumblr is currently difficult for new users to use and curates content poorly. Tumblr aims to improve how users discover and sign up, encourage frequent engagement, and boost creators' ability to attract audiences. Specific changes mentioned include updating the confusing reply and reblog system to make conversations clearer and removing duplicate reblogs. Interestingly, the post does not discuss Tumblr's plans to integrate with the ActivityPub protocol. Tumblr has had a turbulent history but has stabilized under its current ownership, though some long-time users may not want a more optimized social feed.

There's a soft spot in my heart for Tumblr. I hope they find their way and become a bigger player.

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[-] heliodorh@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Discord: "The biggest problem: our current usernames can often be too complicated or obscure for people to remember and share easily."

Tumblr: "The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use."

Why does everyone think we are collectively too stupid to figure out how to use the internet? Like holy crap.

Yeah, I know these updates are geared toward a very specific audience, but I'm allowed to resent that, lol. Stop infantilizing users; we are not stupid.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 year ago

Because a lot of users don't want to learn how to use a system, and a lot of users are stupid.

You might not be stupid, but you probably aren't the typical user.

[-] Toribor@corndog.uk 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why does everyone think we are collectively too stupid to figure out how to use the internet? Like holy crap.

Normies are not very tech savvy and they are completely unwilling to deal with even the most minor inconveniences. Most people just want to open their mouth and have someone dump some internet in there. "Having to curate an experience" is not something many people are willing to do.

[-] Deestan@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I question:

People who are unwilling to put in a mild amount of effort to understanding something.

Are they going to improve or impair healthy online discussions?

[-] ryan@the.coolest.zone 1 points 1 year ago

Nobody wants to say it aloud because of the legal implications, but the majority of the internet is literal underage children. Like, probably over half of Discord users are actual kids who are vulnerable to being scammed when an account dupe of their favorite YouTuber friends them.

This has the effect of making the average user quite stupid, because they're too young for intelligence or wisdom - but as long as they sign up and promise they're 18 ("really!") then they can be advertised to.

[+] PotentiallyAnApricot@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately, this is what always happens when you entrust your content to a corpo. Is there no fediverse alternative to Tumblr?

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i don't think there can be. tumblr's draw isn't any features it has (apart from maybe homepage customisation, but you get that with a website) it's the features it lacks (algorithms, etc). and it's the community, which was curated by a lot of coincidences at the right time.

you'd need to get everyone to up and move at once, with the ability to reblog posts from old tumblr. i think it's unreplicatable

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

all these features and lack of featurs you can get with fedi software. The need for your friends to move so you can move is understandable, but eventually Tumblr will become so painful to use, the decision will be made for you.

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

nah, i don't even really use tumblr because it is so painful to use. actually, it was their link shortener that was the last straw^[and the fact that they convert every bleeding image into a webp]. i'm just saying i don't think it's a site that can ever exist again.

reddit is just a link aggregator, that's easy to recreate. twitter is just individual paragraphs, as long as there are people any site will work. tumblr is so broken that it's used exclusively by people who started using it in the 00s, when it was popular, and never left. they're not really what i'd call friends, more monkeys in a zoo to laugh at. but as it's so broken and opaque to start using, it was never marauded by children; so everyone on there is in their 30s but pretending they're not.

it's a coincidence that can never happen again, as any alternative site would first be used by techie early adopters, who would be on average younger than most of the tumblr userbase. maybe we'll get another tumblr in 10 years though

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

and the fact that they convert every bleeding image into a webp ↩︎

TBF, that's actually good. .jpg and .png are ancient and .webp is way way better. The fault is not .webp, it's browsers and clients which stubbornly refuse to support it.

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i personally have had no compatibility issues with webp - i would just rather my image formats are not owned by google, really. i would much rather use jpegxl, but chrome doesn't support it because it competes with webp and we couldn't have that, could we.

but also it's that webp only works if you convert to webp manually, i find. their automatic conversion just ruins the colours (particularly on pixel art). plus, i do actually prefer png. i can edit what i want in a hex editor, whereas i can't seem to do that with webp.

i have a browser extension that refuses webp, so i get served png where possible; but i can't make sure that images i upload are served as png for others

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

i personally have had no compatibility issues with webp, i would rather my image formats are not owned by google, really. i would much rather use jpegxl, but chrome doesn’t support it because it competes with webp and we couldn’t have that, could we.

I mean, why do you even use chrome if google is your problem? :D

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i don't.[^1] but like it or not, chrome dictates what the internet does now. there's no point in sites hosting jpegxl images if ~3% of their users will see it, and there's no point in firefox developing a decoder if no sites host jpegxl. so even though it's objectively better, and is highly supported by non-browser programmes; it has no recourse for gaining traction on the web

[^1]: an 88x31 button reading "same shit, different arsehole" with the internet explorer, chrome, and brave logos in fact, i loudly decry it to anyone who will listen. but the number of non-chromium browsers i can count on my fingers.

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

I had no idea that Chrome dropped support. Classic corpo shit https://www.phoronix.com/news/Chrome-Dropping-JPEG-XL-Reasons

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

yeah exactly. that's why i don't like webp. i've nothing against it as a format, i would just rather use image format that's not backed by said corpo

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

just out of interest db0, did this thread in any way change your opinion on webp?[^1] i'm just constructing a pet theory on internet discussions

(sorry to necro an old thread, and i'm sure you have other things on your plate right now; i'm just interested)

(also completely off-topic; i'm surprised your blog still has the wordpress favicon. i would have thought you of all people would have changed that)

[^1]: or tumblr, for that matter

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Yes ofc. I'll switch to the new jpeg as default as soon as feasible

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

well that's better than i expected[^1]. thank you for answering!

[^1]: (although worse than i'd hoped; i've stopped using webp altogether, even though it's objectively better. i think jpeg-xl will be available on chrome soon after hd-dvds are playable on playstations)

[-] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

All of us in the tumblr community are fuming, the only reason why tumblr has survived all this time is because it is different from other corp social media. If they follow through with their plan to turn tumblr into a twitter/tiktok copy, I will move completely to the fediverse equivalent (Calckey is almost perfect, if just needs to let me follow hashtags)

[-] wowthatsawful@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I've been using Tumblr since 2014ish. I dunno, man. I think it's fine as-is. I see exactly the content that I want because I subscribed to it. If I wanna get *crazy * I can use that For You tab they added recently. I hope they seek out feedback from its current userbase before they go making any drastic changes.

If Lynda Carter can learn how to use Tumblr after leaving Twitter, other folks should be fine (no shade, she's just older).

[-] cousinofjah@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Well of course Wonder Woman can.

[-] fleece@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago

I really wish they’d give us an update on that ActivityPub support. It’s been so long since they’ve even mentioned it

[-] george@midwest.social 0 points 1 year ago

Here's a Masto post from an ex-employee:

Thinking about making a "I was part of the Tumblr activityPub federation project ask me how it ended" t-shirt and wear it on my PFP here.

The CEO posted this reply to Twitter, acknowledging that Meta had beaten Tumblr to the Fediverse.

Here's a screenshot of a post suggesting it's not a high priority.

[-] Atiran@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

And that’s why corporate media will always suck.

Does this feature help our users? Yes, but does it make us more money? No. So we’re not doing it.

[-] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 2 points 1 year ago

Welp, it's fucked.

And I was just thinking of re-joining after my brief stint with it circa 2013

[-] AuroraRose@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah I used Tumblr religiously back in the "glory days". '09 to '15. Aged out of it but it'd be nice to have another platform to get content from, I especially miss their fandoms. So many wonderful, talented, creative people post great stuff but I find it hard to FIND them these days.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Tumblr's problem, at least when I stopped using it 10 years ago, was that it was kind of an SJW hellscape. The most toxic of toxic activists made their home there, and it was a profoundly unpleasant Internet experience. They'd have to pay me to use their site again.

[-] Stormyfemme@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

By that same logic reddit was a harbor of alt-right and other shitty people but if you curated your experience with it you could mostly avoid it. Similarly so with tumblr in my experience.

[-] prole@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe they never should have gotten rid of the porn...

[-] Mustafaalbazy@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago

Who still uses tumblr 😄

[-] wildeaboutoskar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

More folk than you'd think! We had an influx of Reddit folk recently (wasn't expecting them to be embraced as much as they have been, nice to see)

[-] a_random_fox@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

I use it

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023

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