#notes update

WE'VE WON A BATTLE, BUT NOT THE WAR! tumblr has announced that they have listened to the feedback and are reversing the notes rollout. this is great news, but we also need to keep an eye out for future updates as they still believe the reblog feature needs a rework.

re tumblr's notes rollout!!

just got this email from support:

PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE POST THROUGH THIS LINK!! it links directly to @changes reblog of the original post so hopefully they'll hear us out!!

if you need a template feel free to copy/paste this or any other alternative circulating on tumblr! (and be respectful please, otherwise they won't listen to us).

Please stop the new notes rollout. It's gonna kill fandoms. Original creators and artists will stop posting if we don't get the credit we deserve and instead goes to rebloggers. There is a reason why we are here and not on Twitter. We are already struggling to reach people and this is just gonna make it worse. Fandoms are already starving for engagement and this rollout will drown smaller accounts. This will also disproportionately affect minority groups, especially BIPOC and members of the LGBTQQIP2SAA community, as this will make it more difficult for them to see harassment towards them on a different reblog chain and block/report them. I urge you to reconsider.

also please still submit feedback through their online support form! the more ways we can bother them, the better. to submit a ticket, go here and click the "contact support" button on the top right corner on desktop. then select the feedback option from the dropdown menu and fill in the form. you'll get an automated email like the one above. still, reply to that email and ask for a human to review your feedback. a response template for this:

I would like for an actual human being to review and reply to my feedback because with the new notes rollout, @\changes won't be able to see my comment properly and will get lost and unacknowledged. Thank you in advance.

(more info under the cut!)

THE CURRENT CONSENSUS IS; we're keeping the blackouts as a “if you propose another fucked up thing we're going to do these” but we aren't doing any of them as of now.

PRIOR BLACKOUT INFORMATION IS NOW UNDER THE CUT. I WILL KEEP THIS PINNED FOR NOW. PLEASE GET PEOPLE TO CHECK THE ORIGINAL FOR THIS INFORMATION.

I AM NOW MUTING NOTIFICATIONS FOR THIS POST. if you would like answers on anything, SEND ME AN ASK

In April 2021, I moved. It was a four hour drive from my previous home (I do not drive) for the sake of schooling (I was not the one going to school) and as such I needed a new job. This job had my longest commute yet- a thirty minute walk (because I do not drive). I was somewhere I'd never been before, only knowing the two people I came with, and I was scared and nervous and lonely. In that moment, I returned to a place of comfort- Welcome To Night Vale.

I was first introduced to Night Vale in the summer of 2014, thanks to Tumblr. The two days I spent packing for my Sophomore year of college were spent listening to the first two years of this podcast that I immediately fell in love with. It quickly became one of my main fandoms, even though I was a staunch lurker at the time (which is still my default state to this day, a testament to how much the 22 fics I have published on Ao3 have buzzed through my brain). Time passed, I would miss episodes and catch up again. I would be refreshing podbay at midnight then binging as I did classwork. I graduated, I couldn't afford internet, the gaps became bigger and bigger.

Then suddenly it was 2021, my commute was the length of an episode, and I started from the beginning. I would quote along and laugh as I walked, remembering old fanart and memes. The twitter screenshots with the floral background. The unassuming users not knowing a deep philosophical quote was from Noght Vale. How the fact that this happened so much became a meme itself. How long it had been since I'd seen those quotes, those reactions, that community.

And so, I became what I wanted to see. I wanted quotes from Welcome To Night Vale to be shared and spread across tumblr, to reach the corners where no one knew us, and for those people to find beauty in us. Because it is there.

Today, Tumblr Staff has rolled out a change. One that I do not have, luckily (turn off auto update on your apps, folks), but the spirit of this change... destroyes the purpose of this blog. I WANT you all to reblog these quotes, to leave fun tags about other fandoms or real people, to comment fully on the post with your thoughts! I post these quote to SEE that, for ALL OF US to see that.

Instead, I will only be able to see tags if you reblog directly from me. I will only see comments left directly on my quotes. The community, the conversation, the FUN of running this blog... is gone. The point of this blog was not to serve you quotes. The point was to have quotes for us all to share.

This change has fallen during my spoilers break. As I wait for the podcast to reach their summer break before queueing up the second half of the season's quotes, I am left wondering. "Are staff going to roll this back?" "Will running this blog continue to be worth it?" "Am I going to have to stop?" And there's only one answer I can come up with.

I don't know.