Staff, let’s talk

primarybufferpanel:

sacrificethemtothesquid:

winjennster:

lilyvonpseudonym:

keyofjetwolf:

docholligay:

Tumblr, I have an idea. You’re desperate to monetize this site. I get that. Running websites costs money, I know how the world works.

I am desperate for you to create a website I can use effectively.

I was on livejournal back in the day, and they had a thing called “paid accounts.” The free account was always free, but the paid accounts had special benefits.

If you offered paid accounts, I would buy one. I would give them away for giveaways. I would give them to my friends as gifts. I had a paid account back in my LJ days!

I think 25-30 dollars a year is fair for the amount of entertainment I get off this site, considering that tumblr, inc, does not make the content but serves as a vessel. That works out to 2.50 a month at the high end, which is more money than you are making off me currently because I use an ad blocker because we are at war. (Previous to you taking replies away, I actually didn’t! Because again, I understand how costs and money work) But also low enough that I think you’d be surprised how many takers you’d get.

Let’s stop fucking with each other and just turn this into a monetary exchange. I’m tired of the horseshit. You need money, I need a fucking useable fandom website. Leave free tumblr accounts as they are, I don’t care. But here’s what I want in a paid account.

NECESSARY:

  • I want replies back. No ‘we’ll get around to it’ no ‘replies are coming.’ I want them back the day you run my Paypal. You have the code, don’t even tell me you can’t turn it on for a particular blog, because you did the exact thing with messaging. 
  • I want to be able to upload videos direct to tumblr that are longer than 6 damn seconds. Give me some storage space. 
  • Custom themes or some bullshit, I don’t actually care about this but other people might
  • No ads for paid users

I would LIKE:

  • To create a button where I can decide to make a post rebloggable or not when I create it.
  • To have a quick dropdown when I ask a question so I can ask it from a sideblog.
  • Fanmail back

Now, I am not a great fool, and realize there will be GREAT HUE AND CRY if you try to establish this. I don’t care. And you shouldn’t either. First of all, there’s great hue and cry every time you do literally anything. Secondly, the people who will complain the loudest are very likely already using an adblocker, because we are on the internet and savvy to it, and you are not making money on them anyhow.

And please don’t insult me, tumblr, by telling me it’s about ‘the love of the site’ or some crap. The changes you’ve implemented are designed to make this more of a look-reblog-move on site where things go viral and advertising can easily be slipped in, versus a conversational place. But I am telling you, ‘I will give you money to stop fucking with me’

Let me give you money. And stop fucking with me. 

@staff. Cash for services. We’ll both be happy.

In the optimistic event that someone actually takes a look, here’s my list.

As a paying user I would NEED:

  • Replies back. Actual replies. At minimum, exactly like they were. I would happily accept them larger though, say the size of a question reply box or an Ask.
  • A Tumblr-side blacklist tied to my account that filters on the server end so the content I don’t want to see never hits my dash. That blacklist filters on mobile as well.
  • Better communication about things happening on the development side. By which I mean any communication at all.
  • No ads for paid users.

As a paying user I would LIKE:

  • An increase in post limits.
  • Post-level control over what is or isn’t rebloggable.
  • Some quality of life improvements offered by Xkit (like say tag bundles), if only because there’s no reason they don’t already exist I mean come on.
  • An easy way to export/back-up posts. JUST IN CASE SOMETHING MAY HAPPEN TO SOMEONE’S BLOG AT SOME POINT PERHAPS I DUNNO.
  • A way to organize the Ask Box, my god, please.

I’m not hard to please, I’m really not. You want money, I want to stay here. I fail to believe there’s not some way to make both our dreams come true.

I agree with all of the above, and would gladly pay for a membership if these features were available to users. Please start just asking for our money instead of sabotaging the social media aspects of your social media network to try and sell my content to advertisers.

Agreed. I’d be one of the first to hand over my dough. HOWEVER - my paid site should work on my phone and tablet too. I shouldn’t have to pay more than once.

One of the first purchases I ever made with my shiny new debit card was to upgrade my LJ account. It was worth every penny. 

I am 100% in agreement on all of these points.  

@staff are you listening? Have credit card. Will pay for actual proper functionality.

An open letter to the Tumblr Staff from the blogger you just screwed over

clockwork-mockingbird:

bookwyrmshoard:

miraniel:

Okay, staff, I am super freaking pissed about the update and here’s why. 

I cannot read your new format. 

I’m not trying to be whiny or nitpicky or over-dramatic. I can appreciate that you were attempting to make things look more organised/less confusing/whatever. I also expect the new format is a great improvement for people who have screen readers. That’s great. That’s fine. 

I just cannot freaking read this. I have dyslexia, and my dyslexia is set off by pictures, bold, italics, anything that is more “interesting” to my brain than plain, unadorned text.

Like this monstrosity:

Look at it. Just look at it. The pictures get in between the lines of text, there’s distracting colors and pictures everywhere. The names are bolded when they’re really not the most important thing. Looking at this, I see everything except what I’m supposed to see, that cheesy series of puns. (No pun intended.)

You literally couldn’t have made a worse format for me if you’d tried.

The thing is, your format was what made me really like Tumblr in the first place. It was super clear who was writing something new, because look, there was a freaking line pointing right to it. Unless someone started writing in all caps or bold or whatever, all the text in a post had the same amount of emphasis. Finally, SOMETHING ON THE INTERNET I COULD READ.

And now, now I can’t read any of it at all. 

So yeah, I’m pissed. 

Like, I know that you’re not going to change it back, because you never seem to listen when anyone on your site complains about anything. I’m not sure why I bothered writing this to you guys, given your track record. 

But now’s your chance to prove me wrong. Seriously, the least you could do is give us an option here. You’ve still got the old code. Just stick a button somewhere to revert to the old format so I can enjoy my text posts in peace. 

Sincerely, 

Dyslexic Blogger

SIGNAL BOOST because I really hope Tumblr pays attention to this. I’m sure Miraniel’s not the only Tumblr blogger/reader in this position. 

*raises hand* yes hello I have this issue as well. thanks.

TUMBLR UPDATE WHAT THE FUCK

SOMEONE MAKE THIS STOP.  THIS IS UPSETTING.

*PERFORMED BLOOD RITUAL TO SUMMON THE STAFF TO EXPLAIN THEMSELVES*