So I was just watching Strange Aeons new vid about the tumblr Blaze Feature this morning during breakfast, and something very clever about it occurred to me: you can’t see Blazed posts if you’re using an unmodified ad-blocker(I mean: presumably you can find the Blaze element and unblock that specifically, and you’d be fine but shushshushshush: Give Me a Second Alright?!?).

So: Blaze isn’t JUST a way to monetize aspects of tumblr users enjoy; it’s also a very subtle, no pressure, all-upside-way to ENCOURAGE users to stop using adblockers on tumblr; if you don’t, you can’t be randomly cursed by other users, afterall. And they released it After releasing a no-ad subscription feature, which(OK this next part’s just assumption I could be wrong about it) presumably still shows, or allows you to enable, Blazed posts; also-also making it an even-subtler way to encourage users to buy subscriptions!

It’s SO SMART, you guys :> :> :>