Tumblr is such a fucking gremlin

Because I was like

“Huh what a random number to give me”

But then I remembered

TUMBLR YOU LITTLE-

Got an email to fill out a survey on the concept of tumblr Premium and related features, and while I'm assuming that I'm not supposed to talk about it too specifically in case some things mentioned in the survey aren't fully implemented, the features listed as possibilities sound pretty solid. Limit increases, monthly benefits (both for the user and as gifts for others), special badges and decorations, etc.

There were no features listed that are already available for free, so they're genuinely looking at offering new features for paid users rather than following in Xitter's footsteps and locking existing features behind a paywall. Likewise, nothing listed would be obtrusive to the current tumblr experience or unfairly favor a paid user over a free user any more than dropping a few bucks on a Blaze already "favors" the person being Blazed. (Which is up for debate, since that whole feature is literally "LOOK AT MY POST, BOY" and is one of the most tumblr things that tumblr has ever done.)

I was extremely leery going into the survey, because "premium" features these days are generally not premium at all, but I'm feeling very positive about the upcoming features now. Overall—and I say this as someone who has worked in webdev and digital marketing, used to pay for icons on LiveJournal for multiple RP accounts, currently pays for ad-free here, and has been doing beta testing for so long I once had the personal email addresses of both the founders of deviantART—it sounds genuinely good! Nothing anyone can't live without, but a good number of fun things that would actually be of interest to the tumblr userbase.

Now I'm just waiting to see how many of the features floated in the survey wind up in the final package, and how much that package is going to cost.

in my bookmarks tumblr looks so fun and inviting, while twitter looks like a shady porn website coming to steal my money snatch my identity kill my family and ruin my life

I need to do a general disclaimer.

I do not follow things celebrities say outside of a queer context close enough to know what their political opinions are unless they do something really egregious and obvious (EX: Mel Gibson, JK Rowling, Jeffery Epstein, etc.) that even I can't miss it. I don't watch TMZ, read gossip magazines, and my social media is basically Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and one hobbyist bboard for a hobby I can't afford and lost energy for but where I have friends so i stay marginally involved. I've never joined Facebook or X(Tw)itter.

I have no idea who said what about what's going on in Gaza right now. I'm not willing to take anyone's word second or third or forth hand that someone said something terrible without investigating it personally, the same way I fact check other claims about wild statements in the media by politicians, or abuse allegations, or what have you, because I don't like how that game of telephone tends to play out. It is way easier for me to go look up assault allegation coverage or coverage of fashy things a politician said an evaluate for myself than to sort out fact vs fiction on a gossip site or my learning how to pick through a Celebrity Xitter. I have a good idea of what news sources for larger regular news are reliable about what and what their biases are than i do for entertainment news, since mostly i just use that for obits.

I can't do it. There are not enough hours in the day for me to do things I need and/or want to do already.

I don't want to do it. For example, I didn't join twitter before it became a neo-NAZI propaganda platform. Why the fuck would I do it now so I can't check what celebrities are saying about something that infuriates me and rips my heart out, which I am already having to strictly limit genuine news intake on. Making myself do something I have ethically objections to (using Xitter) and has a massive opportunity cost and also is really bad for my mental health is a non-starter for me.

This is not a judgement on people who do care what a particular celebrity said about it; it's just a statement that i don't have the mental bandwidth to keep track of this stuff.

I have no idea who's cancelled for saying what right now. If you tell me, odds are I will have forgotten in a few days because there are a ton of things I care about more that I am keeping track of. (Which is more important: me knowing which politicians are saying what and what policies they are espousing or keeping track of what C and D list celebrities are Xitting about it? I know which matters more to me, and it's one or the other).

Think of it as information triage.

Remember also that at last check a few days ago, the things coming out of my queue on the fandom side for TUMBLR went in around the 26th of October. I've been running about two weeks lead time for a while. Even if I did hear about and investigate something someone said, the effort I'd have to put in yanking them out of queue is a big fucking hassle. I could be spending that time on something else, so I generally don't. My Tumblr programming for aesthetic stuff is waaaay behind, which is a thing that happens in early November because I love October, but it wears me the fuck out. So my Tumblr is mostly fandom and politics just generally right now. The hours I would have to spend to research and deal with figuring out who is cancelled and why and weeding shit already in the hopper, I'd much rather spend reloading the aesthetic side of my tumblr queue because I find the sorting process soothing. (I have a whole system involving time slots, season, time of day, special events.)

So please don't @me for not knowing who everyone's angry at right now.

'Swear I'm not making up a guy.

X/Twitter vs. Tumblr

I've seen a handful of folks out there who genuinely believe this is somehow a "worse" site than Xitter in terms of the people who use them and to that I say; that is a very, very delusional take.