disclaimer: these thoughts are my own and not necessarily the position of Anti Software Software Club LLC or other members of @staff
GOD FUCKING DAMN IT ARE YOU KIDDING ME COULD A SINGLE PLATFORM THAT I USE PLEASE JUST CHILL
i'm sympathetic to aspects of it. i have seen firsthand that it can be really fucking hard for users who are used to an algorithmic timeline to find ways to populate their feed. things like "looking in tag pages" are something that has to be explained for a lot of new users. it's tricky to build a platform that goes against what people are used to, and it's tricky to teach users how to use what you've built. it's a bummer that this is how it is! but sometimes this is how it is.
but also. you do not solve that by throwing away EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE for the last decade. you don't fully back away from everything your current users have come to expect to become something they absolutely Don't Want.
it's unclear if this is about their Overall Product Strategy, if the default feed will be replaced, or if this is just how they think about changes to the existing algo feed. this is an unfortunate aspect of communication which i am also sympathetic to, since things that feel obvious to you aren't necessarily going to be to others, and communicating it all well is hard!
anyway: i want tumblr to do well. i have used it for over a decade and have generally liked my time. it's sad to see them edge towards a visible rake like this.
also as funny as it is to see other platforms take themselves out and crown us First Website via attrition, i think i'd find it a lot funnier if it was someone else's problem.
