ain't nothing gonna break my stride, nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no, I've got to keep on booping đ”
Communities closed beta is here
Hello again! Weâre back with an update on Communities, a big idea we had last year that weâve been working on steadily since then. Weâre abnormally jazzed to announce that weâre beginning a âclosed betaâ phase of this new feature, which means many of you will get to play with it soon!
We want to build this whole thing together, with as much input from all of you as possible. Weâve read and re-read the feedback from our previous post, and weâve been surveying and interviewing people about this idea for a few months now. But itâs time to open this up even more for hands-on testing.
Weâve already begun reaching out to most of you who interacted with our previous post, as promised, with a survey asking whether youâd be interested in helping (check your email!). Over the next couple of weeks, weâll be using the results of that survey to narrow down who weâd like to help test Communities in these initial batches.
The process is looking a bit like this:
- If you received a Communities survey email from [email protected] to your registered Tumblr email address, fill it out! If youâre interested in helping us in this beta test period, thatâs your way of potentially getting early access. If you did not receive an email with the Communities survey, donât fret! Communities will be rolling out to more people as we expand our testing.Â
- Weâll go through the results and choose a diverse range of community ideas to gather a wide array of feedback.
- Selected testers will receive a second survey with more detailed questions about their proposed community. Very practical stuff, like the name, title, and description, whether it should be public or private, the About page contents, its own community guidelines, and more.
- We will create the new Tumblr community on your behalf using the information supplied. Weâre building the tools that will let people create and edit communities themselves, so eventually youâll be able to change them without needing our help. But for now, weâre creating and editing them for you, as needed.
- After weâve created the community, youâll be made its first admin. Everything from here on out is up to you â Tumblr staff wonât be in your community (unless you invite us, of course). Youâll be able to invite anyone on Tumblr to your community. However, your community will have a population cap to start, limiting how many people can be in it and invited, as a way of keeping this beta test somewhat contained and manageable for us. Weâll be able to raise that population cap for communities that are growing and if we want to test further in that direction.
- And throughout, weâll be asking for feedback, both in some special communities for everyone in the closed beta, and via more surveys and the Support tickets we receive.
This closed beta version of Communities is far from finished, and thatâs part of the reason we want to start opening it up to more of you for feedback. There are a lot of rough edges and known issues, but we think itâs far enough along that itâs usable enough for testing. We need feedback in order to feel like weâre building the right thing.
The very first public community is called âCommunities Feedbackâ for this reason! We want everyone helping us test out communities to tell us about it, so people in this closed beta will be in there by default. We want to use that space to be more public and real-time about new pieces weâre building, bugs weâre fixing, things we know are broken, and answers to common questions. There is an additional, private community for community admins, to help shape how administrating and moderating these spaces will work. And if you donât want to use those spaces, you can always use the âFeedbackâ category in our Support form.
Stay tuned for more, and keep an eye on that Communities Feedback space if youâd like to see how things are changing over time.
Boop Breakdown
Well, you did it. You booped. You booped all over your dashboard with reckless abandon, your finger gnashing away at the boop button, much like a lovely raccoon discovering a glorious half-eaten baked potato. A treasure was presented, and you knew you deserved it. You deserved to boop. Collectively, you booped 142,566,897 times. To repeat: one hundred forty-two million five hundred sixty-six thousand eight hundred ninety-seven boops were had on tumblr dot com the website and the app.
Specifically:Â
- Normal boops: 119,204,929
- Self boops: 12,645,652
- Cat boops: 7,925,241
- Super boops: 2,095,231
- Mischievous, aka evil boops: 695,844
One particularly boopable Tumblr was booped a total of 874,212 times. To be so rich in boops is a blessing. The Tumblr that gave the most boops found it in their heart to bestow 127,073 boops upon those they found worthy.Â
Over 500,000 Tumblrs were booped and booped back in return. And for what? What would drive so many to boop? Does Tumblr yearn for the boop mines? Well, yes. And also the guts, the glory, the prestige, and, of course, the badges. Oh, how you worked for those badges:
- Booper participants: 229,881
- Booper enthusiasts:Â 85,548
- Booper supers:Â 67,571
Hold your heads high, Tumblr. You booped until you couldnât boop anymore. You created incredible fanart, invented a whole new genre of -sonas, and even created your own premium, high-end awards. It was noble, it was boop. We hope you boop yourself, and boop for boop. Boop, boop boop? Boop, boop. Boop boop boop, boop boop; Boop! Boop!Â
Boop,
Tumblr
Boop Breakdown
Well, you did it. You booped. You booped all over your dashboard with reckless abandon, your finger gnashing away at the boop button, much like a lovely raccoon discovering a glorious half-eaten baked potato. A treasure was presented, and you knew you deserved it. You deserved to boop. Collectively, you booped 142,566,897 times. To repeat: one hundred forty-two million five hundred sixty-six thousand eight hundred ninety-seven boops were had on tumblr dot com the website and the app.
Specifically:Â
- Normal boops: 119,204,929
- Self boops: 12,645,652
- Cat boops: 7,925,241
- Super boops: 2,095,231
- Mischievous, aka evil boops: 695,844
One particularly boopable Tumblr was booped a total of 874,212 times. To be so rich in boops is a blessing. The Tumblr that gave the most boops found it in their heart to bestow 127,073 boops upon those they found worthy.Â
Over 500,000 Tumblrs were booped and booped back in return. And for what? What would drive so many to boop? Does Tumblr yearn for the boop mines? Well, yes. And also the guts, the glory, the prestige, and, of course, the badges. Oh, how you worked for those badges:
- Booper participants: 229,881
- Booper enthusiasts:Â 85,548
- Booper supers:Â 67,571
Hold your heads high, Tumblr. You booped until you couldnât boop anymore. You created incredible fanart, invented a whole new genre of -sonas, and even created your own premium, high-end awards. It was noble, it was boop. We hope you boop yourself, and boop for boop. Boop, boop boop? Boop, boop. Boop boop boop, boop boop; Boop! Boop!Â
Boop,
Tumblr
wowblr is actually how i would describe my experience today
Truly a special place
call me, boop me, if you wanna reach me
What a good day to be alive, and to boop
hi everyone i hope you dont mind if i
(hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws) (hits you with my paws)
What is this??
Youâre welcome
hello tumblr
Hi, Tumblr. Itâs Tumblr. Weâre working on some things that we want to share with you.Â
AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Unionâs AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so weâre releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. Weâre also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.
Here are the important details:
- We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner.Â
- We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.
- To opt out of sharing your public blogsâ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogsâ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the âPrevent third-party sharingâ option.Â
- For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc.Â
- Please note: If youâve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, weâve automatically enabled the âPrevent third-party sharingâ option.
If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.
A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:
We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally.Â
A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblrâs parent company) responded to a userâs ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblrâs LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasonsâincluding the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:
- The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.
- Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.
- Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted teamâs ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr.Â
- Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and werenât a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.
- When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblrâs policies, and Automatticâs policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.
Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:
- Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.
- Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.
- Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.
Weâre sorry for how this all transpired, and weâre actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and weâre going to put in the work to rebuild it.
We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Mattâs (and Automatticâs) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.
We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.
â This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.