Lucky Flannel

It's not a sudden plunge, there's no bad news or anything really that set it off. It's just a steady weight, heavier and heavier, until it bends my spine and slumps my shoulders, and I think

I want to write, but I have nothing at my fingers right now.

I should at least play a game, but there's no joy in the thought.

I could revisit an older game, but there's no cure in those pages.

This will settle, and last and press until it's done, and I'll do all the things I've learned over the years. No big decisions, no major changes. Nothing is as bad as it feels right now, nothing is as absolute and unchanging, it's just a moment. It's gonna suck, but it's gonna pass.

Put your feet beneath you, and take your shower, finish your chores. Do the things that need done that don't have any joy in them in the first place, cause now's the time.

This place matters, and our goal is to keep Tumblr thriving for a long time. That means Tumblr has to keep evolving. There are things we know could be better. You probably have a list too. Some of it will be easy to fix. Some won't. That's exactly why we want to work with you.

The Tumblr User Panel will be a group of people on Tumblr who'll work with us over time to give feedback on how this place works today and where it's going. We know we have to earn your trust, and we want to change how we build features and include you more in the process. We’re looking forward to shaping this together.

If you're interested in joining: https://tumblr.survey.fm/tumblr-user-panel-interest-survey 

Here's what you probably want to know:

Why a panel instead of just listening to everyone?

We won’t stop reading tags, comments, reblogs, and support tickets, but a panel helps us paint a more complete picture before we build, and go deeper than a reblog thread allows.

Who are you looking for?

A mix of experience levels, devices, countries, posting habits. People who've been here a decade and people who showed up last month. 

Will everyone who fills out the survey get in?

No. We're keeping it small enough to have real conversations. If you're not selected, it's because we're balancing across a lot of dimensions, not because your response wasn't good enough. We may expand or rotate members over time.

Will critical feedback affect my account?

No! We want your feedback and criticism, and that will never result in any action against your account. 

Can I leave?

Whenever you want. No penalties. 

The panel will be private, and not nearly as diverse as is being assured here. People who directly admit to being on it might get shadowbanned or ghosted.

The panel won’t give feedback, they’ll be provided changes framed in a way to make them look better so the panel members can build up positivity about changes, likely alongside official posts bringing them up.

It’ll be less like a community endeavor and more like an unpaid internship, except it’s not likely you can put “tumblr focus group” on your resume when you go looking for work.

And look, I want to proven wrong. I do. It would be great if tumblr understood the assignment, if they could grasp that leaning into what makes tumblr Tumblr would be the best way to bring people back. (Stop trying to ban porn, sex workers, and mature content, stop treating queer existence as mature content, and fix the damn tags before you fiddle with anything).

But based on empirical evidence and historical data, I’m not all that thrilled about this. But I also refuse to let it doom and gloom my day, I just got done saying in an earlier post today that nothing digital is permanent.