good stuff

Welcome to the Tumblr Café! Have you been here before? Today we’re announcing our newest dish: The Reporting Meatballs. 

Now when you see a post containing something that shouldn’t be on Tumblr—like spam, hate speech, or other violations of our Community Guidelines—you just tap the meatballs menu (●●●) in the upper right-hand corner of a post and follow the appropriate reporting flow. Our Trust & Safety team will be notified and zap away anything that doesn’t belong here on our platform.

People who create spambots or abuse any online platform in the interest of non-genuine social gestures are really good at finding new ways to develop and implement their spam. It’s what they do. We are constantly evolving and expanding the ways we find and eliminate the spam in response to that. You can read more about our process over here. Surfacing this reporting flow is just one way we’re continuing our efforts. While you’ve had the ability to report spam for years, it was a bit hidden under the airplane icon. This new button makes it a little easier to report the bad stuff you want off your dashboard.

Oh, no. Oh, dear. We have awful news. We accidentally added group chats to Tumblr.

Group chats are a place for you to connect with other people on Tumblr to discuss things that are important to you—like long Furby, or your favorite fandom.

It’s terribly upsetting, but this is going to make it even easier to connect with like-minded people and find new communities you might not know existed.

We have no idea how this came to be

Each group chat can hold up to 100 members. To make matters worse, you can create and join as many group chats as your beating heart desires.

The only good news we can give at this time

Group chats must be a friendly and welcoming space for everyone. When you create a group chat, you become the sole owner and are responsible for how it is run. You alone can invite new members and accept or deny incoming requests to join. Just remember: group chats are publicly viewable, and while only members may participate, anyone on Tumblr can see its contents.

As the owner of a group chat, you possess the power to remove any member or message you feel needs to be removed. However, you do not need to be the owner or even a member to report a violation of our hate speech policy or other aspects of our Community Guidelines. Reports will be properly dealt with by our Trust & Safety team.

Phew

We hesitate to tell you this, but to learn more about how to use group chats, head on over to our Help Center. It’s full of tips, tricks, and helpful information. Disgusting. We’re so sorry.

You’ve been warned. We can’t protect you from the truth any longer.

tumbl

Facebook has 35,587 full time employees,

Good news: You can now add alt text to every photo and GIF you upload to a post with your Tumblr iOS or Android app.

What?

Alt text! It’s a textual alternative to a photo or GIF, so anyone who uses a screen reader will know what you’ve posted. If you post, say, a long Furby sitting on a couch, you might provide alt text that says “a long Furby sitting on a couch” so anyone who needs to use a screen reader gets to join in on the fun. Keep it short, keep it descriptive. 

How?

Easy-peasy. When you add an image or GIF to a post or reblog on Tumblr in the iOS or Android app, you’ll see a meatballs menu (●●●) pop up in the lower right-hand corner of your image or GIF. Tap it, then select “Add alt text.” 

Why?

We’re continuing our efforts to make Tumblr more accessible in accordance with the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. They’re an initiative that sets standards for accessibility for people who may need assistance using the internet.

There’s a big change coming to your Tumblr experience…but only if you want it.

We’re introducing the Color Palette! It’s giving you the power to control the color of your dashboard (and the rest of our blue space) in your iOS and Android apps and on mobile web.

You can currently choose from three options:

True Blue, our default color scheme.

Dark Mode, for when you want to turn down the lights.

Low-Contrast Classic, our new low-contrast color scheme, complete with an old familiar blue so many of you love.

To check it out, just go to your settings in the app by tapping the silhouette icon, visiting “General settings,” and selecting “Color Palette.”