48hr tumblr blackout proposal

tumblr mobile has seadily become near unusable these past few updates. not just from a user experience perspective (which is important enough in itself) but also from an accessibility perspective.

examples include the new way the image viewer works (if you can call it "working"), the tumblr live button replacing the profile button, and that newly created blogs will be forced to have their main dashboard tab be the 'for you' page.

the demands of the protest would be along the lines of:

• reverse the recent image viewer update
• scrap the new users 'for you' page default setting
• let us turn off tumblr live indefinitely
• increase efforts against spam / porn bots
• make reporting abuse and hate speech as easy as reporting as reporting spam
• let us go nuts show nuts again... for real this time
• commit to improving usability and accessibility, and listening to users!
• (suggestions welcome!)

to protest against these usability issues, and inspired by the recent reddit blackout, i propose a 48 hour blackout (where you don't use tumblr at all). preferably of both mobile and web (since web has problems too) but mobile is the focus here.

I suggest the 48 hours between the 30th of June to the end of the 1st of July.

this marks the end of pride month (for the "queerest place on the internet") and the start of disability month (since accessibility is a massive issue here).

tumblr office is in San Francisco, USA, so the times and dates will be calculated using their time zone (PDT).

you can find out the times and dates for your timezone here.

i can't afford to blaze this post so please spread it around as much as possible! protests only work if significant numbers show up!

tumblr rejected the blaze campaigns for this post because they know it would hurt them. let's make this an indefinite blackout - it's the best way to get results.

(so the blackout would be from June 30th onwards)

@one-time-i-dreamt @i-am-a-fish @lizluvscupcakes tagging some larger blogs to hopefully get the word out more

Posting a reminder today (and another tomorrow) that I will be doing the 48 hour blackout.

This blog (aaqp) runs on a queue but I’ll participate in the blackout as such that I won’t log on. I’ll pace the queue down for the time being and my other 5-ish blogs will be dormant also.

This will not actually be effective. The reddit band was effective because reddit fundamentally works differently than tumblr does. We're not going to cost them any money by simply not logging on.

This post explains it better than I could:

https://www.tumblr.com/xxlovelynovaxx/720581952873316352?source=share

especially @/orbleglorb

tumblr wouldn't be affected with a blackout like reddit would. reddit relies on volunteers to run all of the subreddits and, basically, run the app. they can shut down their spaces (and the entire website/app) if they want to. tumblr doesn't work the same way. it would probably be more effective to give one-star reviews in the app store, stop blazing posts/buying checkmarks/etc, send asks detailing problems to official blogs like wip, etc. a blackout won't have the same effect, and, like sillyfunny is stating above, would isolate people during disability pride month.

and @/suspicious-whumping-egg

Yep. Boycott tumblr products! Don’t buy ad free or crabs or whatever, don’t buy the merch, don’t buy dashboard checks, use an adblocker, don’t blaze posts, all of that. What they care about is MONEY, not users. So many disabled use tumblr to connect, and a blackout would hurt us more than anyone else because many of us have limited access to irl connections whether that’s due to lack of accessibility, being housebound or bedbound, being immunocompromised in an area where not enough people are vaccinated and masking, or anything else. And yeah it’s super insidious that the proposed blackout would not start until disability month, because oh no, we can’t ruin pride month!! Get a grip and support us disabled people. I’m not gonna spend a cent on tumblr but I’m not participating in this blackout. It’s not gonna work and it’s going to hurt disabled people more than it’ll hurt tumblr.

I also BETTER not see anyone shitting on disabled people who refuse to lose one of the few points of connection they have with community, often that they depend on for income to survive, for not participating in a blackout that is fundamentally ineffective and not designed by people who actually know how to organize and take collective action.

Like the users above said, Tumblr literally doesn't care about users. I remember the MASSIVE blackout over the por/n ban, and it took years for even the most MINOR of palatable, family-friendly censored rollbacks to occur. Those weren't due to the blackout. Every blackout that has occurred has changed nothing.

And I, for one, am not going to leave Tumblr while I'm in the middle of dealing with a shady shitty landlord and dealing with serious chronic illness and trauma triggers for a lovely ideal that simply will not carry out that way in practice.

To be clear, I'm not judging the people above or who have reblogged this. It's not morally wrong to freaking want to take action or even to believe an idea sounds good and not realize it won't work (it's also not anything to do with intellect - it's literally something you won't know at all without learning it from someone who DOES know).

Just... during the beginning of disability pride month? Cutting users (many of whom are disabled) off from other people and resources? Sorry, no.

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