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fyi things like insulin, hearing aids, wheelchairs, glasses costing money at all is a form of structural ableism

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EMERGENCY COMMISIONS

I'm currently in a dangerous situation. Russian government proclaimed LGBTQ+ an "extremist" movement this year. In 2013 they banned "gay propaganda" to minors then in 2022 to both minors and adults but queer people were still allowed to be queer. Now we can't be queer or else we will be chased and put in jail for being who we are.

I'm scared and stressed right now. People I can't trust know that I'm pan and trans, and I can't get a job, right now I only can afford food. I need to urgently run from my country because organisations helping queer people are close to be banned so I'm opening emergency commissions and donations to get visa and leave as fast as possible.

My price list:

Every dollar is helping so if you can donate, please do. I really need help.

My ko-fi

My boosty

Contact me via tumblr's DMs, Ko-Fi or my discord: mropudont. If you don't have money, please consider sharing this post. Thank you.

More examples of my works are under the cut:

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I know I talk too much in english and spanglish (lol) and my main language to communicate with people is just... Random noises ("boo!" is one of my fav)!

My native tongue is spanish and I wanted to have that main language in this, my blog, but thing happened like people talking in english or having more info and/or content in english

I cannot magically do those things spanish, can I?

Also also, I think using english can attract more audiences but- Here is my dilemma

I want to express myself with my native tongue!! I want to make a zine just for telling random things to random people and the way I feel is right is with spanish not some broken english or spanglish (although it would be funny because my brain most of the time is just broken spanglish)

So, spanish will be

Así que nada, haré la zine (¿el zine?) en español y a joderse para traducir ;w;

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New zine I released for ABQ Zine Fest earlier this month! A little guide to mobility aids for those new to them and those without adequate healthcare and guidance. This zine is also great for folks who want to learn why disabled people may use some mobility aids over others ✨

This is angled at ambulatory disabled folks, and ideally you have a doctor or healthcare professional who is helping you get the proper mobility aid for you, especially if you need a wheelchair. BUT this zine can be helpful for folks like me who do not have insurance approved mobility aids or functional doctors.

All illustrated by me :)

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Free Trans Resources public spreadsheet

Please reblog!

As promised in the comments of the binder master list, I'm now compiling a more all-encompassing free resource public spreadsheet! So far I've got resources for binders, packers, STP devices, gaffs/tucking underwear, gender-affirming clothing, some DIY gender-affirming gear, and some resources on how to clean that gear and how to clean up makeup spills. I'll try to keep expanding things, and feel free to request a type of resource or a specific location in the comments or in an ask! (I can't promise I'll be able to find anything, but I'll do my best! <3)

The spreadsheet is called "Study sheet" to make it more inconspicuous in case someone you'd rather didn't catches a glimpse of the title. Do please note that once you're on the spreadsheet it is very obvious what the content is, so only view it when it's safe for you to do so! <3

(Also here's a post I made of spreadsheets with the same resources but under different names)

Before you click on the link to the spreadsheet:

Some links to videos on how to conceal and delete your history for those who need it (blue text indicates a link)

How to Clear your Youtube watch history (kinda loud at the start and actual info starts at about 1:33

How to Remove Shared Files from Google Drive

how to activate incognito mode on an Iphone , on an Android phone and on chrome on a computer.

And How to delete your Google activity history

Remember to delete your Youtube history after watching!

*Edit* I've added a new section for miscellaneous resource requests to serve as a semi-temporary place for more niche topics that I get resource requests for. If I get more requests for them or find more resources related to the topic I'll make a new separate section for them, but otherwise they can just stay there.

Remember: y'all can comment, tag, or if you want/need it to be more discreet you can send me an anonymous ask. I may not be able to find what you want, but I won't judge you <3

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warning for discord users

If you're on the app, immediately go to your dms and then "add friends". After the latest update they allow your contacts to find you and have that option turned on by default, so make sure it's unchecked!

This is very obviously not great for a multitude of reasons, but especially for people in vulnerable positions who do not want people in their contacts to see who they are on discord and/or know they have discord in the first place. I've also tried finding out if this is a thing on desktop but haven't been able to find any mention of it, so either it's not a "feature" (yet) or they've hidden it. Either way, stay safe, and turn off finding friends via contacts!

[ID: three screenshots from the discord app with circles around the buttons to press to get to this "feature". 1: the messages/DM button, 2: the "add friends button", 3: in the add friends page, the "allow contacts to add me" checkbox. /END ID]

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Hey! I’m gonna assume you guys like using Tumblr correct? What about AO3? TikTok? Or any other platform that fandom spaces thrive? Then you need to give a fuck about the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

KOSA is a act currently being talked about in congress that is labeled as a act that prevents minors from seeing 18+ content. It being labeled as that seems okay and good, yes, but that’s not what this bill is about.

KOSA, if put in place, will make so the attorney general of each state gets to pick which platforms will be banned in their state. And this doesn’t been censorship of minors, this means censorship of everyone of ALL AGES.

“My attorney general wouldn’t ban this sites.” Yes, they might not. But don’t think about yourself right now. MILLIONS of people will be without spaces to escape too. Millions of people will be without access to websites that allows them to talk to people. Millions of queer people wouldn’t be allowed on to places they were originally welcomed.

“Okay? But they’re only trying to ban nsfw content?” And what do all republications see as nsfw? Queer people. Especially trans people.

KOSA is just another bill that will allow nation wide bans on topics such as sex, gender, sexuality, and more. This act does nothing more except erase queer people from online spaces, and further pushes the anti-trans beliefs (and genocide) circling our country right now.

Y’all need to give a shit about this bill like you should still be giving a shit about the RESTRICT ACT (which still hasn’t been turned down yet btw).

This act opens the door from any site such of tumblr and quotev to be banned, to YouTube if your AG doesn’t like it for ANY reason. And don’t forget, VPN’s can only do so much, and the government already wants to ban those.

What can you do? CALL YOUR FUCKING CONGRESS REPS. EMAIL THEM. I don’t give a shit, all I care about is this bill that doesn’t speak for the people getting blocked and not being put in place. Bills like this further push our nations descent into facism. And if there’s a way to prevent that, we better fucking do it.

KOSA

CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL MEMBER

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PSA: bot comments are taking over ao3

The above examples have been provided with the authors' permission to demonstrate what these look like.

Basic rundown:

They are all 3 sentences long

Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation

Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever

No mentions whatsoever of character names, settings, situations, or anything that could be tied to the story

The usernames may be identical to people who exist on ao3, but the name is not clickable, and no profile is associated with it EXCEPT when you directly search for that name. What this means: the comments come from an unregistered (not logged in) reader, bots scrape the site for real usernames, attach that to the comment, and post

Please spread the word about this so authors can filter comments and report them accordingly

There has been some speculation about why this is happening at all, and the best guess is that this is a feature that AI-training story-scraping tools are implementing to try and make their browsing traffic look legitimate

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Btw much as I love to make fun of twitter and reddit's business decisions, I have 0% trust in tumblr's management to not go a similar route so this is your gentle reminder that you should regularly go to your blog settings to export your blog. That's a fancy way of saying you can download a backup of your blog so if everything goes down you'll still have a backup of your posts & convos.

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Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

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.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

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FYI requiring the use of glasses or contacts in order to see is, in fact, a disability. If you require medicine in order to remain alive (diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, autoimmune disorders, etc), you're Disabled.

A minor disability is still a disability.

The disabilities can be temporary (broken bones, sprains, illness, etc) or permanent.

Many people can work while Disabled, many cannot.

You are under no obligation to share what your disability/disabilities are. The only people who well and truly need that info are your doctor(s), caregiver(s), the government if you're applying for assistance.

If you live long enough, you'll become Disabled by default because you're Elderly.

For the abled: you are just one bad day from joining our numbers. Remember, helping us is beneficial to everyone.

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im expecting a lot of "pride month is over, now it's time for wrath month" posts. that's cool and all. but july is disability pride month.

pride month is when you're SUPPOSED to be angry. it's a celebration AND a riot. that was the best time to get angry. second best time is now. but it's not wrath month. let disabled people have this.

please get angry with us. please fight with us! we are both losing our rights, if we ever even had them to begin with. please don't talk over us, especially during our own pride month.

did you know over 10,000 people die a year while waiting to be told whether or not they can receive disability benefits?

did you know while being provided disability benefits, disabled people cannot have more than $2,000 total in their bank account? the average rent for an apartment in the united states, as of last month, is $1,995. per month.

while they want to kill queer people, they want to kill disabled people just as bad. please look out for your disabled friends and family. please look out for those of us who don't have friends and family. those of us who are out on the streets.

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could just be me, but it feels like the way that the staff account clarified that the dashboard wasn't going back after making it sound like it was was done intentionally so that we would feel less bad about the other features in the post that actively clash with what people currently want. yes yes it's all well and good that the chronological dashboard isn't going anywhere, but what about the part about sending emails when push notifications are turned off? or the part about potentially removing duplicate reblogs from your dashboard? (actually, depending on implementation, the entire section about reblogs/replies sounds concerning to me.) the way that everyone immediately decided everything was fine feels almost like a planned thing to distract us from the rest of the post is what I'm saying

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Ah, guys, just to be clear, I realize most of you probably know this but I’m seeing it framed….weirdly, so – 

Tumblr is not $30M in debt. You can’t get Tumblr out of the red by giving them $30M. I mean you can, for a bit, but Tumblr is operating at a $30M deficit. That means yearly, Tumblr is spending $30M more than it earns. 

None of this is to say we can’t have a Crab Day and try to get that $30M covered, sounds like fun! But that just means Tumblr breaks even for the current fiscal year. Tumblr has investors that want profits (or, well, I guess it’s Automattic’s investors, but regardless they want profit), so in order for it to continue operation, it has to either become Genuinely Profitable Very Quickly, or it has to do a fundraising round of some kind and get even more investors on board, which is really just kicking the problem down the road a year or two. 

And either way, the extremely slick and semi-alarming pitch Tumblr is making about all the changes it’s going to make to increase engagement and such is still going to be necessary, because that’s where the money is, unfortunately. I don’t like it either (my favorite bullet point from that pitch is that they will email people who have their notifications turned off, because sure, that sounds like it won’t annoy anyone who like me was already overly inclined to be annoyed) but like. Baby needs a new pair of shoelaces.

None of this is to be alarmist or anything, I just got a bit worried about all this talk of $30M in debt, because this is not a one-time deal. 

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as someone who is/has all three i can confirm chairs will be the death of me

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I'm so queer that my spine isn't straight either

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is it just me or is NASA weirdly aggressive in their article about black holes?

can a black hole destroy the earth?

no, you idiot.

black holes aren’t planet gluttons, you bitch.

and the earth isn’t some weak-ass planet that would just fall in to a black hole like a sucker.

and that dumbass sun that we’ve got isn’t big enough to make a black hole like other stars.

you fool.