#not like the search function works on this site

[yamada-ryo]

yamada ryo

nyancrimew

#test #ask #didnt we do this before #not like the search function works on this site

[goldensunset]

can you believe there are people on this site who never use tags… like… in my personal opinion it’s insane enough to never want to organize the things you reblog but for some people they don’t even label the original things they post?? really just indiscriminately throwing every post into the void forever? that is a felony

#my blog is my archive dude i’d go nuts if i could never ever find my stuff again #tagging wouldn’t be quite as crucial if the site’s search function actually worked #but it does not. like… tagging is the only reliable way to find stuff #(even then it can be slightly janky but it’s so much better than not doing it) #like i guess there’s the archive but all that does is show you the entire void at once. still doesn’t help you find stuff fast #peach rambles

[apostaterevolutionary]

You know what would be really funny, is if people came together to have an anti-crab day. A day where every user who joined prior to automattic’s acquisition logged off for 24 hours to show that yes, actually, older user retention is important and you should listen us just as much as new users

The users giveth, the users taketh away

#this isn’t about the sidebar btw I’ve already said I don’t mind the sidebar #I think it could be a better sidebar like the 2014 tumblr layout which was great #but it’s Fine (tm) #this is about live and the new post editor and the apparent avatar removal bs ‘experiment’ #and it’s also about how these big overhauls keep being done meanwhile we can’t have like. a search function that works #or the queue reordering tools that already exist on mobile web applied to any other platform #you know. all the little stuff that’s comparatively easy to implement yet they ‘don’t have time’ for because they’re too busy #with these massive overhauls and ignoring all the asks that go to wip #also I don’t expect anyone to actually do this and I’m sure as hell not organizing anything cause that’s a lot of work lmao #but I think giving them money pre-emptivelt just showed they can do whatever they want and we’ll fall for it #taking away money would be more effective #idk I don’t think current staff are any better at running tumblr than yahoo was #they’re just better at the ‘we’re quirky and relatable just like you guys uwu’ bit #and a lot of us fell for it but I think the illusion is starting to lift #anyway idk it sucks here but all the other sites are either worse or empty so what can we do #(genuinely wtf can we do this nonsense is getting bad) #text #misc #shut up nerd #new layout stuff

[goldiipond]

hate that thing tumblr app does now where trying to post a post with no tags brings up a prompt to add some tags to ‘help people find your post’ and i really hate that it even pops up when you try to save a post to your drafts. like girl its a draft. no one is finding it in there. i might not even find it to be honest

#skye's ramblings #just like. the disconnect between this feature and most the userbase for it to only exist to say 'help people find this!! seek interaction!' #most untagged posts are personal posts/op just saying literally whatever random thought is on their mind. theyre not lookinf for clout #theres a reason i censor popular fandom terms in the tags of my rambles skye tier 2 illness is follower exclusive. i talk a lot <3 #idk i just think its a really funny feature to add to a site where getting popular is widely seen as one of the worst things that can happen #most common thing for someone to do when their post blows up isnt to celebrate the clout its to just delete it/turn off rbs. lol!! #also it pops up when you rb a post without tags too and just. thats not even how that works. come on man #they could mean 'find it' in an organizational sense too but i doubt it and if that is the case um. bmaybe fix your search function first #i dont personally see this window much as you can probably imagine. but it is annoying when im just drafting thoughts to come back to #'ooghhhhh give me tags help people find me' well its cute you think youre special. youare going in the drafts

[dogco11ar]

the fact that i can no longer go to the original post to check the tags and possibly look at the ops other posts in that tag is a fucking nightmare

#like. maybe this wouldn’t be an issue if the BLOG SEARCH FUNCTION ACTUALLY WORKED #every work around i’ve created to make this site workable has been stripped away

[omarfor-orchestra]

I can't find the old headcanons post about the triangle I'm devastated

#i need to tag it but it disappeared #nothing works #@ tumblr staff can you improve the searching function instead of trying to make the site look more like twitter pls

[bleuberrygliscor]

i love how everyone is hating on the new tumblr desktop setup, meanwhile im sitting here, chilling with my split windows on one monitor, noticing 0 changes.

#rem rambles #''but theres trending and other tabs there!'' yeah bud under the 'more' bit...that you loose as soon as you start scrolling??? #dont get me wrong. im not a fan of 'mobile first' design either. but also...are yall on tumblr with...with tumblr fullscreened???? #idk maybe my monitor is too big. but i would die before a window took up more than 50% of my screen at any given time... #call me complacent but i feel like theres a difference between making a site more accessible to new users and making sites homogenous. #like- yeah we got on ok without trending and stuff back in ye olde times but also i left tumblr like twice for several months before i #finally figured out how to use it. sometimes New is an Improvement and we shouldnt like..hiss at anything thats not: #''you use the notably broken search function that only prioritizes popular posts and not new ones and then follow from there'' #because thats how alot of yall got radicalized back then. so was i. and it took years of work to undo that damage. #perhaps - and this is just a suggestion - we learn from our mistakes and dont do that again :) #perhaps -also a suggestion tee hee- staff cracks down on the terfs and nazis and shit on this site. i understand its like stomping #out roaches - you kill 1 and heres 20 more alts- but theres alot here man...

[katoska]

You can do that on desktop. But as someone above my reblog pointed out, people don't seem to use desktop that much anymore

(likely bc it's slow and inconvenient af, esp if you don't know about the extensions, which only contributes to people preferring to like rather than to reblog)

The mobile app requires you to make an account. And going to tumblr in a browser on mobile while not being logged in means you can't read a blog without putting the blog's url in the adress bar - which is inconvenient and you might get kicked out after a few posts. You can't discover blogs by yourself in mobile browser while logged out bc you can't use the search function without tumblr stopping and asking you to make an account.

So naturally, more people get the app and make an account just to be able to look at stuff, where previously people only made accounts if they wanted to actually, y'know, blog at least a little bit.

And I don't have a "stick in my ass about a joke post", I have a stick in my ass bc your screenshots point to these bloggers feeling guilty about not "doing tumblr correctly". Even though "I only reblog stuff if I have something to add, or if I REALLY like it and it doesn't ruin my theme, or if I know it's relevant to my followers' interests" is... perfectly reasonable? Plus people who don't like actually blogging or don't add anything to reblogs do not HAVE many followers, and probably don't care to have them, anyway. Their blogs are cul-de-sacs (lovingly decorated or not) they keep their trash in, and that's fine.

"They are looking for the site to be more algorithm-based bc of shit like this" yeah, and algorithms are bad bc they are designed to make ppl engage with posts that they wouldn't normally choose to engage with or even see. If they wanted more voluntary engagement, they should fix Tumblr's search function (eg it's near impossible to find relevant old posts with it, and finding anything specific is tricky). If bloggers want more reblogs, consistent tagging helps people find the stuff they are interested in. But that's Search, not Dash. 95% of stuff on my dash, I am not that interested in atm. 3% I've recently reblogged from someone else. I don't reblog stuff to give OPs or the people I follow more exposure/notes, most of the time I don't even reblog for my followers; I reblog stuff because I want the stuff (or my commentary on the stuff, in this case) on my blog.

#the reason why people are being asked to keep the reblog chain going isn't bc that's how the site is supposed to work #it's bc the search function is shit and the only way to find anything cool that's older than 3 months is to have it randomly pushed on you #but that doesn't mean it's obligatory to reblog every post you vaguely like/agree with #it means that the tumblr devs need to fix their damn hellsite

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i'm begging you guys to start pirating shit from streaming platforms. there are so many websites where you can stream that shit for free, here's a quick HOW TO:

1) Search for: watch TITLE OF WORK free online

2) Scroll to the bottom of results. Click any of the "Complaint" links

3) You will be taken to a long list of links that were removed for copyright infringement. Use the 'find' function to search for the name of the show/movie you were originally searching for. You will get something like this (specifics removed because if you love an illegal streaming site you don't post its url on social media)

4) each of these links is to a website where you can stream shit for free. go to the individual websites and search for your show/movie. you might have to copy-paste a few before you find exactly what you're looking, but the whole process only takes a minute. the speed/quality is usually the same as on netflix/whatever, and they even have subtitles! (make sure to use an adblocker though, these sites are funded by annoying popups)

In conclusion, if you do this often enough you will start recognizing the most dependable websites, and you can just bookmark those instead. (note: this is completely separate from torrenting, which is also a beautiful thing but requires different software and a vpn)

you can also download the media in question (look for a "download" button built into the video window, or use a browser extension such as Video DownloadHelper.)

#for adblocking--ublock origin is my favorite but adblocker plus is also popular #also i once again highly recommend using firefox especially on mobile #to enable adblock on firefox mobile just click 3 dot menu > addons > addon manager > enable uBlockOrigin #that's for android i assume it's similar for iOS #update it is NOT similar for iOS bc Apple hates you. i'll write another post later #anyway. PLEASE USE AN ADBLOCK ALL THE TIME (except for specific websites you want to support) #your internet browsing experience will be so enormously improved #also on firefox if you want to get past a paywall click the 'Toggle reader view' button as soon as the page loads #(it's on the right of the taskbar. a little rectangle with horizontal lines) #works for most news sites by showing you the webpage text that is hidden under the 'you've run out of free articles' popup #doesn't work for everything but it's worth a shot

[getvalentined]

An open letter to @staff

I already submitted this to Support under "Feedback," but I'm sharing it here too as I don't expect it to get a response, and I feel like putting in out in public may be more effective than sending it off into the void.

The recent post on the Staff blog about changing tumblr to an algorithmic feed features a large amount of misinformation that I feel staff needs to address, openly and honestly, with information on where this data was sourced at the very least.

Claim 1: Algorithms help small creators.

This is false, as algorithms are designed to push content that gets engagement in order to get it more engagement, thereby assuring that the popular remain popular and the small remain small except in instances of extreme luck.

This can already be seen on the tumblr radar, which is a combination of staff picks (usually the same half-dozen fandoms or niche special interests like Lego photography) which already have a ton of engagement, or posts that are getting enough engagement to hit the radar organically. Tumblr has an algorithm that runs like every other socmed algorithm on the planet, and it will decimate the reach of small creators just like every other platform before it.

Claim 2: Only a small portion of users utilize the chronological feed.

You can find a poll by user @darkwood-sleddog here that at the time of writing this, sits at over 40 THOUSAND responses showing that over 96 percent of them use the chronological feed*. Claiming otherwise isn't just a misstatement, it's a lie. You are lying to your core userbase and expecting them to accept it as fact. It's not just unethical, it's insulting to people who have been supporting your platform for over a decade.

Claim 3: Tumblr is not easy to use.

This is also 100% false and you ABSOLUTELY know it. Tumblr is EXTREMELY easy to use, the issue is that the documentation, the explanations of features, and often even the stability of the service is subpar. All of this would be very easy for staff to fix, if they would invest in the creation of walkthroughs and clear explanations of how various site features work, as well as finally fixing the search function. Your inability to explain how your service works should not result in completely ignoring the needs and wants of your core long-term userbase. The fact that you're more willing to invest in the very systems that have made every other form of social media so horrifically toxic than in trying to make it easier for people to use the service AS IT WORKS NOW and fixing the parts that don't work as well speaks volumes toward what tumblr staff actually cares about.

You will not get a paycheck if your platform becomes defunct, and the thing that makes it special right now is that it is the ONLY large-scale socmed platform on THE ENTIRE INTERNET with a true chronological feed and no aggressive algorithmic content serving. The recent post from staff indicates that you are going to kill that, and are insisting that it's what we want. It is not. I'd hazard to guess that most of the dev team knows it isn't what we want, but I assume the money people don't care. The user base isn't relevant, just how much money they can bring in.

The CEO stated he wanted this to remain as sort of the last bastion of the Old Internet, and yet here we are, watching you declare you intend to burn it to the ground.

You can do so much better than this.

Response to the Update

Under the cut for readability, because everything said above still applies.

I already said this in a reblog on the post itself, but I'm adding it to this one for easy access: people read it that way because that's what you said.

Staff considers the main feed as it exists to be "outdated," to the point that you literally used that word to describe it, and the main goals expressed in this announcement is to figure out what makes "high-quality content" and serve that to users moving forward.

People read it that way because that is what you said.

*The final results of the poll, after 24 hours:

136,635 votes breaks down thusly:

An algorithm based feed where I get "the best of tumblr." @ 1.3% (roughly 1,776 votes)

Chronological feed that only features blogs I follow. @ 95.2% (roughly 130,077 votes)

This doesn't affect me personally. @ 3.5% (roughly 4,782 votes)

#tumblr dot com #tumblr staff

[fantasykiri5]

Listen, I love Artfight, but I am so pissed that the user and character search functions are locked behind a paywall. I GET that the site runs on donations, but actual search functions are like. BASIC accessibility features, they should NOT be locked behind a donation. I can’t even figure out a way to submit any kind of ticket about it, it’s fucking stupid

#and they DO exist!! I went to the fucking dono page today and theyre mentioned as a perk to donating a certain amount! #I shouldn’t be getting this frustrated about it but dang nabbit it’s irritating!! #working search functions are like the most basic shit you should put on a site like that #you can do OTHER THINGS to get people to donate that DONT include locking ACCESSABILITY FEATURES behind PAYWALLS!!!! #im fucking tired man. what if someone doesn’t have the money to donate huh. what then #it’s just shitty. and I’m annoyed about it #kiri rambles #artfight

[deer-butch]

hey instead of bullying or scaring you into switching to firefox, let me tell you why i LOVE firefox and how my online life has improved significantly since installing it

- the setup process is easy, and even fun! if you’re using tumblr rn, you can handle it, and if you’re the kind of tumblr user who likes customizing your blog or tinkering with xkit, you can have a lot of fun personalizing really granular settings and picking themes and extensions and everything, it’s very customizable and i happily spent like 2 hours getting everything perfect.

- you can use a command line entry tool to change specific settings right from the search bar! i did this to make firefox stop auto filling my email information since i use a different password locker (which you should too! try bitwarden!), and it was easier than digging through a bunch of submenus for a setting i wasn’t sure existed. you can just turn shit off!

- there’s a preset theme called aurora that’s purple and VERY pretty

- once you get ublock origin and as many other blockers as you’d like set up, no ads, anywhere, ever! streaming sites, youtube, all the basics, totally no stress and no compatibility issues for me

- in browser screenshot and picture in picture functions!! holy shit i use these every day, the PiP is especially helpful, it replaced an extension i used to use on chrome and it’s leagues better and works on all video content pretty much

- overall better downloads management imo, it’s a lot easier to get to your downloads and find them later

- better bookmark system, with the ability to organize your bookmarks with searchable tags and assign them a shortcut you can type into the search bar to go to

- containers! you can have two accounts to the same website open in two different tabs and switch between them without having to switch accounts. also gives firefox the ability to contain facebook and their trackers, so you can click that party invite link without feeling like you just let mark zuckerberg into your house

these were just off the top of my head, i love firefox a lot and actively enjoy using it, which i never felt with chrome! please download firefox!! you will not regret it!!! where’s your fucking rage!!!!!! go!!!!!!!!!

#buck speaks #firefox #i’m also going to make an extensions starter pack post because with like #10 extensions firefox becomes the best browser ever #i constantly just forget that ads exist #and get confused and annoyed when i have to look at them on other peoples computers #HALF OF YOUTUBES HOMEPAGE IS ADS? #crazy #anyway i’d get the firefox logo tatted i love her sm

[appalachianapologies]

There are many new friends on the archive, and many are young and have only known social media, which is why I wanted to say something!

Ao3 does not have an algorithm! It isn't a social media site, it's an archive.

Posting fics on Tumblr isn't the same as posting fics on Ao3

Ao3 is like a giant virtual bookshelf, and everyone is able to add their own stories to the bookshelf, all stored with different tags and different fandoms. Works are automatically sorted by newest to oldest, but filters, looking at bookmarks, and using the search function can change that.

Certain works are not pushed to the top like social media posts. More kudos and reads don't push a single work to more viewers by some algorithm. Unless otherwise filtered, works will be at the top of the page based on how recent it was posted.

Smaller fandoms get less views, less kudos, less bookmarks, and larger fandoms get more simply because of the number of people inside the fandom.

Ao3 is a giant virtual bookshelf- there is no algorithm, and there is no man behind the shelf pushing certain books forward.

Happy reading, and if you'd like to have more people notice a fic, why not share it with them! Send a dm to a fandom friend and it might turn into one of their favorite fics!

#ao3 #archive of our own #organization for transformative works #i have admittedly only been a member of the committee for a couple of years BUT ive been a member on ao3 since i was much younger #and it took me a hot second to understand how ao3 works; so i wanted to write a lil post about it after seeing this comment #no shade or blame to the person who wrote this by the way! #after being on social media so much it's a completely understandable mistake and i totally get it #and in fandoms populated by younger ppl typically it's even more understandable! #so absolutely no hate no shade no passive aggressiveness #but i do think it is important to learn how the archive works #so if you'd like to share this it would be greatly appreciated! <3 #okay have a good day sorry this post/tags became so long haha

[ms-demeanor]

Continuing to announce the launch of my website. Hi, I made a website it's ms-demeanor.com

I want it to be an organized place where people can find things that I've written. I'm slowly porting over my useful tumblr posts so that people can view them in a more helpful format than "long thread on a website rarely used by anybody except die-hard obsessives."

So far you can see things like what specs to look for when buying a computer, and how to make your computer meaningfully faster.

The Death Book, the De-Googling pamphlet, and "how to write an essay" are linked on the PDF resources page.

The site is a work in progress that I'm continually adding to, and it's set up with the format of "ms-demeanor's blogs but make it wikicore."

I'm not going to stop using tumblr until they drag me out, but I want people to be able to find the stuff I've made on tumblr over the years without having to deal with tumblr's terrible search function.

[traegorn]

So there's a thing that a lot of tumblr users don't know about -- older ones because it didn't used to be like this, and newer ones because... they're new?

Anyways -- one of the biggest pains of Tumblr is that finding old posts can be hard. The search is terrible, and is overall useless. The easiest solution to this has always been that you can go through your "archive" -- for example here's mine: https://traegorn.tumblr.com/archive

Notice how that URL starts with my username. Longtime users will be like "Of course it does. That's your Tumblr URL." But here's the thing -- a lot of new accounts don't have that. Like, if you type it in (minus the /archive part) it kinda works still -- but it redirects you from username.tumblr.com to tumblr.com/username. And from there, the archive function does not work.

You see, to make your "Tumblr Blog" an actual, well, blog you have to turn it on manually now.

To do that, on the web, go to your blog settings and find this one:

Turning on "custom theme" will enable your blog to function and give you all the features.

Now there are reasons some folks might not want to do this. First off, that does mean sites like Google will be able to spider your blog and things can end up on public searches. If you don't want your Tumblr activity public do not turn it on. That's a choice I leave up to you. But, like, also... I've seen Tumblr accounts ostensibly set up to promote people's works but not have this turned on making the audience they're trying to reach less likely to find them.

But this is a thing that used to always be on. I found out one of my old sideblogs had it turned off that I never wanted it to be set that way. The choice is yours, do what you want.

I'm not your mom.

#tumblr

[hadoriel]

Where do people put doujin scans nowadays? I haven’t read doujin since 2010 (Hetalia) on LiveJournal so I have zero idea where people put scans and translations now

#personal #like I assume some people put them on Twitter but that's hellish to find isn't it? #I know some old booru sites still function but I'm out of the loop on if any are worthwhile to search #I ask because I've seen some SxF doujin previews by artists on Twitter but they're obviously only previews and I can only read like a quarte #*a quarter of any given Japanese comic #I mean if I'm desperate I'll get out my kanji dictionary but if somebody's already done the work lmao ;;