#algorithmic content on the dash

[vilevampire]

I'm going to fucking scream the amount of blatant misinformation on tumblr staff's recent posts is going to make me pull my hair out

[dotsz]

I might be just stupid but I swear every year tdov has at least trended on twitter but now literally all I see ever r really right wing talking points, cryptocurrency, and absolutely no mention of lgbtq issues going on despite how many people are talking about it on the daily . is anyone else’s algorithm just fucked rn lmfaoo

[beemovieerotica]

here's a take you can cancel me for: it's exhausting when transmasc spaces require censoring of any mentions / discussion of pregnancy or periods under the premise of not wanting to trigger people. because I'm sorry but if you are specifically in a space that exists for the discussion of the unique issues facing trans men / afab people then you cannot prioritize your own discomfort to shut down normal everyday conversations. you cannot hold your inability to regulate your own social media consumption over someone discussing their own body, not yours, because you have framed dysphoria as the universal hallmark of the trans experience and cannot fathom when a trans masc person would be glad or excited about the prospect of getting to have their own child, and other people are sharing in that joy. there are servers and chatrooms for people who are not comfortable discussing any aspects of what the vast majority of adults experience where you would be welcome to talk about sanitized topics.

[conspiracydawg]

the sad fact of the matter is I've turned on post notifications for too many people. it's gotten to the point where I avoid checking tumblr on mobile because it takes like an hour to get through all of them once a day. but you're all good blogs and I don't want to miss your posts... what's a man to do...

[galindatopland]

person only following blogs that spent their 2021 blogging about dean winchester being female coded: has anyone noticed that NO ONE on this site cares about women?

[celestialgloaming]

hey @staff , why is there a post from someone I don't follow on my dash. With like, zero explanation. No "in someone you follow liked" or "in your orbit" it's just there. I don't have the algorithmic dash setting on, and even if I did that's not meant to show me accounts I don't follow, only change the order of the posts.

[tentglitch]

Struggling to not absolutely tear through the soul eater tag rn... I need more of my blorbos but I'm only halfway through rn 🥲

[damnedance]

as y’all can tell i am still revamping this bad boy here but—lemme just stop and have a laugh at how things changed, i mean does anyone here remember the hype of callout culture??? like, it got to a point if one farted too loud there would be a callout posts full of people claiming to be victims of it the next day…obviously there were times it was genuine, and the few times it was something serious, it was really good and important to get the word out to protect the rpc, but??? most of the time?? just a bunch of fully grown adults with hairy asses going woe is me?? and from an anthropological point of view, it is fascinating how brightly this custom burned only to die off real soon, never to be spoken again ..or at least i havent seen it being discussed as of late, but then agian the fandoms and people i engage with are pretty chill. tbh, serious stuff still needs to be discussed but i will say it is so much better now we dont get fully grown ass adults behaving like school bullies online

[jessiarts]

I've been curious about this for awhile now, and with a re-surge of the "hey you know you tumblr doesn't have an algorithm and you need to reblog things here if you want to see more of stuff and/or support creators" posts I think I'll finally make a poll to test a theory, Which is that: 1) Where you came from before tumblr has a heavy influence on if you reblog posts or not and 2) That the decline in reblogs has come from a influx of users from other social media over the recent years who were conditioned to interact with 'content' in a "more passive consumption, less community-interaction" way. So, whether you reblog posts or not- I want to know where you came from before tumblr

[Clarification: For the purposes of this poll, "do reblog" refers to if you often reblog the posts that you enjoy. This doesn't mean that you reblog every single post that comes on your dash- just that you reblog posts more than you hit the Like button and/or you regularly also reblog posts that you hit the Like button for. If you rarely reblog (i.e: you exclusively hit the Like button on more posts than you reblog, and/or have an empty blog), then please choose "don't reblog"]

Also, obligatory, "Please reblog for larger sample size" Because: science

[eggshellsareneat]

Alright, I think I like tumblr now.

A pun post crossed my dash, and I reblogged it with an equally bad pun in return. A couple of my followers find it funny, it's a good day for everyone.

That was on July 7th.

Virality on Reddit was entirely algorithmic. You could garner a couple crossposts, but the success of a post was entirely dependent on whether or not it hit r/all--the main page of Reddit. If your post does that, it's immediately exposed to 10x the number of people and immediately gets upvoted.

On my pun post, I get a couple reblogs. And those reblogs get a couple reblogs--nobody really adds any content to the post, it just gets a couple reblogs here and there.

There's a specific chain of reblogs that I'd like to focus on. The most popular post on this chain has about 25 reblogs on it. Half the posts have three reblogs or fewer. Five posts in this chain have just one reblog total.

But the reblog chain keeps going. And going. It breaches containment many times over. And finally, after a chain THIRTY SIX posts long, at 9:30 AM, July 22nd this morning, it hits a popular account.

99% percent of the people who have seen the post--virtually unchanged from how it left my dash--have seen it because it was curated by 36 different people. That's insane to me.

None of those 36 people know that they're part of this chain. They saw a post, reblogged it, and moved on. If any one of these people had not reblogged, the post would have a fraction of the impact it has.

And yet, after two weeks, the post has effectively hit the main page of tumblr. It was picked up, only because people liked it enough to show it to their followers. There were no algorithms necessary.

You really, truly, cannot get this on any other website.

[breelandwalker]

Just want to quickly remind newcomers to the tumblr witch community - This Isn't Tiktok.

Notes aren't a definition of success here. We don't have an algorithm that bumps things to the top of the dash based on popularity. And yes, it's ALWAYS the memes and shitposts and fandom stuff that gets the attention, compared to that long post about the current moon phase you spent an hour writing. (Trust me, I know.)

You're curating your own experience here. Liking posts is fine, but it's commenting and reblogging that kickstart meaningful interactions and help the posts you enjoy reach other users. Tagging posts is fine, but it's not a guarantee that your post will do numbers and tagspamming will get you blocked.

Yes, tumblr is by and large a fandom space, but that doesn't mean that's all there is. And unfortunately, expecting it to work like other social media platforms is only going to lead to disappointment.

If you want to interact with the community and start discussions, REACH OUT TO OTHER WITCHES. You can post in the tags all day and night, but if you don't make a direct effort to engage with other users by commenting, reblogging with commentary, or asking/answering questions, it's not likely to get you anywhere meaningful.

Consider this an invitation to browse my posts, check out my tags, and get in my inbox - and do the same for other witchy creators whose content you vibe with.

I'm glad you're here. Let's talk about witchy stuff. 😊

[antimony-ore]

You need to feel your anger/sadness to experience happiness properly or you are just ignoring a feeling that will bubble up into other aspects of your life

[sreegs]

once in while i'll get a "mature content" tag on something on my dash and i go ahead to look at it and it's just, a clothed person in a slightly demure pose. there's no focus on the ass or genitals or boobs or whatever. once in a while i'll even see mature filters for text. and this tag was added by the author it wasn't flagged.

y'all gotta stop self-censoring. it's self-defeating and shows you're happy to step far back from the line in the sand companies are trying to draw. i've seen more provocative things in looney tunes than some of the shit i've seen marked as mature by the author.

"but i dont want to see that on my dash" don't follow them. end of discussion

using the mature content label on nude people is fine. but honestly i wouldnt bother. id just let the stupid algorithm figure it out. make them do the work, don't self-censor

this applies to places outside of tumblr too

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Hi, I've noticed more and more posts getting labelled as potentially mature content even why they are not? Including the post ab the cute lizard u rb? What is happening

Via informational osmosis I have picked up that apparently Tumblr is using an auto-flagging algorithm that seems to just stick 'mature' on anything with a lot of flesh tones in the picture. Last time they did that we kept getting things like "mature" bare sand dunes so yeah it's not going great. I have no reliable information though, this is just what I've picked up skimming posts on my dash.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[housecow]

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think the disordered eating section mentioning feedism is new.

Also, I don’t seem to be seeing all the mature content warnings that everyone else does.

Tumblr does have a thing where you have to go into app settings to turn on what is essentially “view mature content.” On my iPhone, the setting isn’t in the actual app, but in iPhone Settings > Apps > Tumblr.

i also went looking for that section in the guidelines and couldn’t find it—this is the link to the page i searched, coming straight from tumblr. it says it hasn’t been edited since last year.

however, i have absolutely noticed the mature content warnings. there have been more and more popping up on my dash, and even though i do have mature content enabled, those posts are literally just not viewable.

another thing i’ve noticed (and others have corroborated) is that this tends to affect non-white and non-cis feedists more than others. i’ve posted full boob w nipples and everything and haven’t gotten more than 2/3 flagged posts (which i usually delete) since creating this blog in early 2023–on the other hand, i’ve seen several creators deal with constant “mature content,” flags, sometimes even having to remake their blog because of them.

this isn’t to say you’re not a part of those spaces, but you must remember tumblr is largely not algorithmic in what posts shows you. you curate your own dash here and you may just not be seeing these things, lol.

unfortunately, this shitty moderation is a common thing tumblr has been known to do. since 2018 there have been waves of shadow bans and flagging, it’s possible that it is happening again now. just stay on top of things, change settings if needed, and support your friends in the community. 🤷‍♀️