withoutanyname

"You gotta see it to believe it, my dudes."

-ao3 being down due to an outage bc of a literal political attack is fucking pissing me off. please go to @/omarsbigsister on tik Tok, sign her petition and email your senators bc this is fucking ridiculous and if you think conservatives attacking ao3 is a one time thing you are deluding yourself. they're going after fandom spaces first and then it'll be any and all queer media. if this worries you and freaks you out and makes you sad, sign that petition, read the kids online safety act for yourself so you actually understand what's happening, and just do what you can. this stupid fucking law is being backed by both parties bc 90% of the people running the US are either bigots or fucking dumbasses. and even if you're not in America ao3 is based in America so this policy is going to affect it regardless.

-the fact that I'll never get to find out what project X37 is on inside job is, you guessed it, fucking pissing me off. what the fuck Netflix. cancelling another amazing show with nothing else quite like it.

yeah i understand why despite his homosexual swag hes still drowning in bitches

https://twitter.com/AO3_Status/status/1678468065070030856

The culprit (as with a few other DDOS attacks recently) is Anonymous Sudan, a group that is likely Russian, not Sudanese. The ‘reason’ they gave–that AO3 is “full of disgusting smuts and other LGBTQ+ and NSFW things,” is thin and probably not completely legit, though still legitimately concerning.

The AS claim: https://twitter.com/FalconFeedsio/status/1678397195039526912

Reporting on AS: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-28/anonymous-sudan-does-group-behind-microsoft-cyberattack-have-ties-to-russia (you can use archive.ph to get this one, 12ft doesn’t seem to work)

As noted here, https://twitter.com/honeyskeleton/status/1678449598703050769:

DDOS protection is expensive especially for a high traffic site like ao3. And it’s uniquely vulnerable as an independent site without ads or other corporate support. SPECIFICALLY targeted bc of its queer works and yet ppl will still complain every time they ask for donations lmao 

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

This post is, in the nicest possible terms, corporate-speak bullshit. It lacks insight into its own current userbase, how that userbase interacts with the site on a daily basis, and seems very focused on a term I'll borrow from Folding Ideas: Line Goes Up.

It does not speak to research done on how your users actually use this site, or what they want from it. Time and time again, the users of this site have stated they use it over almost every other socmed out there because it isn't an algorithmic mess focused solely on shoving as much content on people as fast as possible by guessing what they like. The potential introduction of an algorithm to the dashboard is an unnecessary change. In fact, it's ridiculous. Tumblr is remarkably easy to use.

Your post states:

Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

This is factually untrue. When I first joined this site in 2009, I was taken through a screen that asked about my interests and I got to pick 3 of those interests. It then showed me the top blogs who posted things related to my interests and I followed some of them. This gave my dash content. It was a lovely little tutorial on how to use the site and how to make it a place that felt like me. Somewhere along the way you seem to have stopped doing that, and thus your new users are apparently 'confused'.

The addition of 'only serves a small portion of our audience' is a rank falsehood. There's no way around that. If I published such a blatant lie in my line of work I would expect to be brought up on it immediately. That 'small portion' of your audience is your core userbase. The people who've been here through all the nonsense various iterations of higher ups have put us through. They're the ones you're trying to market your Emporium at with merch for memes from 2013-15. They're the ones you've been begging to fund this site so it can stay open, but as soon as whomever it is higher up decides that 'we must be like everyone else' you abandon them. I've been on the internet long enough to know that's a mistake. Countless sites have tried it before you, and countless have failed.

we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content

You already do. If you reimplemented the 'here are some blogs related to the interests you picked' as an option on sign up, then you really wouldn't have this issue. I can only assume the 'higher ups' have an opinion so low of their userbase that it's easier to infantilise them to the point of 'they can only find content if we give it to them using their data' rather than 'people know what they like and will outwardly seek it'.

I'm already bombarded on my dash by 'tags you might want to follow' that have nothing to do with my interests and I am unable to remove or curate. If an algorithm is implemented the 'tumblr is a place where you curate your content' ceases to be, since you will have forced content onto the userbase that they have no way of controlling or 'curating'. It is in fact the opposite of what you claim it will do. Your users are not idiots. Do not treat them thus.

We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Never once have I thought that about my curated content on my dash. I would have left a long time ago if that were true. You know what does feel stale and not relevant? The godforsaken EcoAmerica stuff I am unable to get rid of or hide. I just have to see that same goddamn promoted post over and over again and I'm sick of that, but not what I personally put on my dash. Funny that.

Finally, 'retain and grow our creator base'. Honey, I'm not your 'creator'. I will never be your 'creator'. That corporate bullshit doesn't fly here. I'm here because I want to be here and I'm here for fun, which I think is something your higher ups are forgetting. This site isn't about content creators or socmed influencers, and I've no idea why you think it is. Whomever you've bee asking for feedback, and it clearly hasn't been the current users, isn't putting you on the right path.

#what is sarcasm, btw?