#+important

HOW TO TURN OFF GOOGLE AI in GMAIL:

Open Gmail in your browser

Click on the Gear Icon ⚙️ in the upper right

In the General Tab, scroll down to "Smart Features" and UNCHECK THE BOX. It is about halfway down.

Then, right below that is Google Workspace smart features. Click on the "Manage Workspace Smart Features" and make sure both toggles are OFF

EDITS:

@changes (Edit: I already sent this to Tumblr Support under the feedback option. I encourage everyone to send feedback on how bad this feature actually is).

They reversed this. I have a new writeup on their announcement: Be Careful of the Double-Speak in the Update Post.

Reblogs are turned off for the viral posts because I am exhausted by the ableist accusations that my aphasia is evidence of using AI. My communication style is a direct result of my neurological reality and my professional background as a meticulous plotter and retired author. AI was not used to create this or any of my posts, and I will not continue providing free advocacy for a community that polices the speech patterns of disabled creators.

For years, the total note count on a post served as a universal metric of a piece of content's impact. Whether a user liked the original post or a reblog fifteen branches deep, that engagement flowed back to the source. This ensured that the original artist, writer, or editor received the full credit for the viral success of their work.

Under this new system, engagement is trapped within the specific reblog a user happens to see on their dashboard. If a massive, high-traffic blog reblogs a piece of art from a small creator, every like and reblog that occurs through that larger account stays with them. The original creator is left with a stagnant note count on their own dashboard while their work generates thousands of interactions for someone else.

Erasure of Creator Visibility

Instead of seeing one post with 10,000 notes, a creator may now have to hunt through dozens of different reblog chains to find where the conversation is actually happening.

If the notes no longer flow back to the original post, the creator loses the ability to see who is enjoying their work, what the tags say, and how the community is responding.

On a platform where engagement often dictates visibility, splitting that engagement into tiny, unlinked fractions makes it significantly harder for original works to gain momentum compared to the high-reach blogs that reblog them.

Incentivizing the "Big Blog" Monopoly

This system rewards accounts that have already established a large following at the direct expense of the smaller accounts that actually produce the content. It transforms reblogging from a method of sharing into a method of acquisition.

When a reblog functions as its own independent post with its own note count, the incentive to click through to the original source disappears. The platform is transitioning from a collaborative ecosystem into a standard social media feed where the person who posts the content last—not the person who made it—reaps the rewards.

Impact on Collaborative Conversations

Tumblr’s unique culture is built on the reblog chain: a chronological, evolving conversation. By allowing users to like or reblog "any part" of the chain as an independent entity, the platform is breaking the narrative thread.

If engagement is siloed into specific branches, the incentive to add to a conversation is replaced by an incentive to simply own a piece of the engagement. This change doesn't encourage conversation. It encourages the commodification of individual posts within a chain, making it harder for the original voice to ever be heard over the noise of the rebloggers.

The Disincentive to Create

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of this update is the psychological toll on the creative community. When the platform actively diverts credit and engagement away from the source, it destroys the motivation to share original work at all.

For many, the reward for posting is seeing how far their work travels. If that travel is now invisible or attributed to others, the labor of creating becomes thankless.

This system makes creators want to share nothing. If the platform is built to harvest a creator's effort for the benefit of curator blogs, the logical response is to stop providing the raw material. I am one leaning into this category. Without us creators, the curator blogs have nothing to curate.

This is open for public comment until the end of May 19th. Please comment and make your voice heard.

For those who are unaware, there's been ads for a/i chat/bots going around on Tumblr. Specifically for "shapes.inc".

Obviously this is immediately worrying as chat/bots prey on low mental wellbeing, loneliness and someone's desire to interact, to then make them dependant and use their services more.

However, the ads themselves have stopped being quiet about that aspect. Here's one of the most worrying ads (aside the one that legitimately encourages users to make chat/bots of their friends' OCs without their consent, while also trying to claim that its "ethically sourced" - not telling us WHAT'S even sourced here - and therefore "guilt free".)

This is disgusting, plain and simple.

Not only is it directly preying on loneliness outright - it's encouraging a user to make a bot out of someone real without their consent. Not even a friend, no - a MUTUAL. It's encouraging parasocial dependency - just LOOK at what the "OP" is saying here: "RESPOND" "DID YOU DIE?" "PLEASE" "I MISS YOU".

It's not just encouraging parasocial behaviours nor just dependency overall, but encouraging users to breach the others' privacy just so they can pretend they're speaking to them.

Ads like this should not be allowed anywhere. Tumblr needs to get rid of it outright before someone gets hurt.

We are a family exhausted by displacement and life in a tent. We are tired of constant displacement, and the tent is no longer a solution—it does not protect us from the cold or the harshness of life , especially with children suffering every night.🙏🙏

While browsing the internet, I came across an advertisement from a Gazan offering to build mobile homes (caravans). According to my conversation with him, a unit measuring 18 square meters (6 x 3 meters) costs $7,500 to build. It includes an unfurnished bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom, all ready for use. However, $7,500 is an impossible amount for us under these difficult circumstances.

We urgently need a caravan as a temporary shelter until reconstruction begins and we are able to rebuild our home, God willing.

The current cost of the caravan is $7,500.

This post will remain pinned until we are able to purchase the caravan and provide safe shelter for my children from the cold.

I hope you will watch this video and you will see for yourself the situation we have reached.

please please DONATE To every kind and compassionate heart, to anyone who can help or share—after God, you are our hope 🤍

The necessary documents for proper verification have been submitted, and anyone who wishes to verify is welcome to contact me.

Verification ✅️Vetted by @gazavetters ( #533 )✅️

verified by @bilal-sala7 ( #36 ) ✅️