not in portland

So we're all pissed at the new update as we should be and I've been seeing many people proposing blackouts, which is amazing! But all the dates are different and people might get confused at what's happening when, so I just want to organize every blackout (at least that I saw) in one place.

So far I saw six people with dates.

The earliest one, organized by @yourlocalfandomfriendo begins on March 18th and will last 48 hours.

This overlaps with a second proposed blackout by @veejiez for March 19th.

There is also one on the 20th proposed by @daysleftofsecondterm and another one on the same day from 6AM UTC to 6AM UTC on the 21st by @everythingwsnormalhere.

These three days are all very soon so not everyone may see them in time to participate, but if you are able to participate for any or all of these days, I highly encourage you do. Otherwise there are two more blackouts coming up:

The next one after these will be on March 24th as organized by @aroacesafeplaceforall who suggested doing 12 hours.

And the last one, which I personally have a lot of hope for as it's a major day for activity on Tumblr and a blackout then could be especially impactful: April 1st, as proposed by @darkwood-sleddog

There is also a discord set up by @yourlocalfandomfriendo and @aroacesafeplaceforall for anyone interested in joining in!

SO OVERALL, it may sound like a lot, but no one expects everyone to participate to every date here. But PLEASE try to participate in at least one or two of these, even if you feel it may not do much.

Typical strikes, the ones we hear about all the time, win by withholding their labour for consistent periods of time; that's the power people have at work because that's what's exploited.

For blackout strikes, we need to withhold our attention; the resource we own which is exploited through the selling of both advertisements and data.

My comparison of blackout strikes with regular strikes will be for a whole other post, but for the time being, just know that

withholding our attention is our digital bargaining weapon

Tumblr literally lost 63% of its monthly traffic from 2024 to 2025; they are not in a position to play around with those of us still here.

So PLEASE try participating. We cannot let every decent online space get enshittified with no care or consideration for the communities using those spaces.

The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve. 

Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.

If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.

Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.

As this rolls out over the next few days and you explore it, we’ll keep reading your replies and reblogs, so please keep sharing your questions, concerns, and ideas.

Your creativity has always been the heart of Tumblr, whether you’re the original poster or adding something brilliant in the reblogs, and nothing about this change is meant to limit that.

This new update is, bottom-line, a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes Tumblr the kind of website it is, and will absolutely facilitate people to abandon Tumblr and move to another website. If you do not make changes to the update or remove it entirely, you will be losing your userbase and any profit you currently make.

(edit): This update continuing to be rolled out should be cut down from a few days -- if not completely rolled back. If you want to read and reply to feedback first before implementing any further changes or rollback, then do so and actually listen. If you must take physical notes, take notes. Raise our concerns up the hierarchy of the company, if you must.

If you are unable to completely roll back this update, then please listen to users and implement improvements on the update to make it easier to use and mitigate complaints/prevent your userbase from leaving permanently.

To make things clearer for you, here are common complaints:

Original posts' creators are unable to fully see their notes, and receive any wanted feedback or engagement to the extent they used to.

Regarding just numbers, the creators of original posts will be unable to fully quantify their engagement (likes, comments, tags, etc) and will be discouraged from posting. If they continue to post, then they effectively lose any of Tumblr's worth as a site -- comments will be dead, reblogs will be confusing, annoying or frustrating to engage with, tags will become more difficult to navigate or even use at all.

It adds unnecessary complication for navigation; no one is going to go through the trouble to clicking through every reblog's comments and tags just to see the overall discussion.

The compartmentalization of engagement invites harassment and bullying among users, as original posters are now unable to see the harassment they might get from other users in their notes.

Disabled users are now essentially blocked from any image descriptions made by other users; severely limiting their use of Tumblr.

This new format uses a similar "retweet" design to sites like X/Twitter or Threads. This is the complete opposite of Tumblr's UX re: reblogs, and will confuse current users as well as any future new users.

The website's current design is already being cluttered by the update, making long posts longer and creating more tabs/windows/pop-ups that have to be opened in order to read an entire discussion. This will be even worse on mobile.

The new update defeats the purpose of "encouraging communication" among users and blogs. Reblog chains are now broken up, thus breaking up discussions and cleaving engagement.

Notifications and notes are more difficult to access, see and engage with.

The reblog chain is unique and something the userbase liked using, because you could see everything in that chain while also clicking on and choosing to see an individual's contribution when you wanted.

This drastically changes Tumblr's identity as a blogging website, thus ruining its reputation and transforming it into a Twitter pastiche.

Many users on this site are on Tumblr because they do not want to use Twitter/Threads, and such similar sites due to their website designs, userbase, profit-seeking, and adherence to a purpose as "social media" and not an Internet community site.

Users who use Tumblr for specific purposes (art, blogging, writing, gifs, etc) now have their creativity effectively halved in engagement. Tumblr is one of the few websites out there that still encouraged creative work, and now it is just one of many driving those creatives away.

On the fandom level, once again, communication will be cut to pieces and made harder, and more annoying to do. Fandom experiences will be awkward and less fun, and in addition, will potentially make anything fun or informative for a fandom (such as community events, polls, etc) much more difficult to organize. This new update will drastically impede fandom's ability to be a community.

Due to the aforementioned issues, those who have no incentive to stay will leave and use other websites/media. Those who do stay, will have limited engagement, bemoan the changes, and will not be willing to put up with any further updates of similar intentions, will cancel or refuse to buy any Premium subscriptions and thus, lessen your profit.

In either direction, Tumblr loses its userbase. It loses any profit it may get from user subscriptions, engagement, and eyes on advertisements. It loses any advantages it may have for advertisers. It loses importance for users who were the ones contributing to funding, and thus affects the pay of staff even more severely. Tumblr's loss of identity as something more unique and reblog/blog-centric, also loses its differentiation on the market.

Tumblr will also lose any potential future users, who will be discouraged; they will not create accounts, download the app or be willing to pay for subscriptions if there is nothing differentiating Tumblr from other sites. Especially if this update and future ones continue to make the site buggier and more difficult to use.

LOST (2004-2010)