#and exhausting

It's not even - like, my posts don't get a ton of engagement anymore bc I'm not actively posting anything that would merit any particular level of engagement, but I still have fun interacting. I just reblogged a post the other day about the sexy workplaces and that post was so fun / funny bc of the collection of the tags people added that OP not only was able to see, but screenshotted and reblogged to share, which in turn garnered more engagement, and it was just ... users having fun with a random poll, being weirdos, using tumblr the way the good lord intended.

Even a post like that, if it were made after this update instead of, like, a week ago, wouldn't have gotten those same responses / engagement. None of us would see the tags anyone else added; OP certainly wouldn't, nor would OP have been able to engage by reblogging the version with the tags.

And that's just a random example of a no-stakes post that speaks to the kind of fun you could still have on tumblr that you can't have anywhere else bc no other social media works like this.

I'm not writing fic anymore, but the past month or so I have been trying to ease my way back into some kind of fandom engagement with an ultimate goal of returning to fic. And as much as I love AO3, it's an archive, not an active social media site - the only way my fics have ever gotten any traction at all is bc I was able to promote them on tumblr. When you take away tumblr as a resource for self-promotion among writers, artists, etc, you take away the potential for so much engagement, the thing that fuels those of us who do things like write fic. Not even to mention the loss that will be felt from artists who actually rely on commissioned work to make a living (or, if not a living, at least a side hustle).

I just am so tired of more and more things constantly being taken away from regular ass people who just want to engage in entertainment and connection and how every new "update" on everything is done with the intent to drive more profit by taking away some core thing that made the site fun / useful in the first place. I'm so disappointed in what the internet has become - it's constant marketing, branding, engagement not for growth and support for creatives but for "clicks" and "likes" and the illusion of engagement bc the latter is what dictates the bottom line. And while I understand that the companies who run these websites need to profit from them in order to keep them going for us to use, I hate how "profit" has become synonymous with "soulless" bc the tools of change are aimed not at making things better for the user base but at making things streamlined for the shareholders.

And none of that is addressing or even acknowledging how AI has devastated creative spaces with no signs of stopping.

I'm just sick of all of it. They [social media, generally, but I'm specifically talking about tumblr again] ask for feedback when they launch these changes / updates, but the "feedback" is always ignored, bc it's more often than not criticism from the user base who doesn't want the shit they keep forcing on us. Nothing ever gets rolled back, no one ever says, "We made a mistake and upon realizing that this thing will alienate our loyal users, we've decided to scrap [insert unpopular stupid new feature/update here] and go in a different direction." It literally never happens bc they don't give a shit.

The feedback form apparently crashed last night on tumblr, or so I gathered from the posts I saw (I think it's back now, though). Apparently from people sending feedback that they hate this change, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of notes on the original post (which, ironically, tumblr probably can't even see bc who knows how many threads it's fractured into with everyone's additions, lmfao). Will tumblr listen? I wouldn't bet on it. We'll hear crickets at worst, empty platitudes at best.

So, idk. I really don't. And I always have used the internet as escapism - not social media specifically, since I'm from before social media was a thing, but for interaction, for creative and fandom things, for indulging in writing and art and music and all the things. I've watched my access to that escapism get dismantled bit by bit, as more and more of the internet becomes not just generally restrictive and censored but increasingly homogenized to fit into the narrow parameters of the Algorithm Overlords. Between this and AI, I've about lost hope completely. This shit is fucking bleak.

I'm just venting, and also tagging @changes @tumblr @staff for the hell of it.

If they actually roll back this change bc they listen to the userbase, I will literally eat my hat. I don't even own a hat. I will purchase a hat for the sole purpose of consuming it. I swear on all that is holy that I'll fucking livestream myself eating said hat, if this change/update gets cancelled. Bon appetit, motherfuckers.

Blessed be the actual creatives

My agony

In the continuing saga of A Lot of Bad Things Have Happened to Us this Fall, we had some sewer back up in our basement. Turns out that the pipe running out of our house connecting to the city pipe was misaligned. This was causing things to get stuck in the pipes and back up into our basement. Thankfully, the back up was not horribly severe, but nonetheless, the pipes needed to be repaired. 

DH decided this was a DIY kind of job. H was thrilled to have a mini excavator in our yard, and truth be told, he did most of the digging. The hole was massive, and took the afternoon to dig. Definitely not the two hour project DH predicted (I told him it would take at least two days).