#communication lab

[outkclassed]

i've heard your pleas

[sleepyminty]

I want to put them in the room and study them like some kind of lab rats

[labs]

Another idea: Communities on Tumblr

For a while now folks have asked us for better ways to connect with other people who share similar interests. We’re listening, and at Labs we’ve been looking into fulfilling that need, Tumblr style.

Introducing Communities, a new place to connect with others on Tumblr:

Here in Labs, we’re working on big ideas that could transform how Tumblr is used, while keeping that Tumblr vibe alive. You can see one of those ideas above. We’re calling it “Communities”, a new dedicated space on Tumblr for people to share and discuss all the content they love. Communities can cover topics like your favorite show, artist, movie, video game, your school, your board game group, friend group, big or small, whatever you want.

Each Community has their own semi-private safer space away from the regular dashboard where you can interact with other Tumblr users who share the same interests and passions as you. There are moderators and members (you!), rules, and privacy settings. Each community has its own feed of posts from members, separate from your Following and For You feeds. Interactions within community spaces stay there and replies will work more like a traditional comment section. Folks will be able to reblog posts into a community, but not out — at least not yet.

We’re very excited for you to try it, and help define the best path forward. What we have is a prototype to help us validate the idea, but there’s still plenty of questions that need answering. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be reaching out to people across Tumblr, and the internet at large, to try our prototype. Based on the feedback we get, we’ll iterate on the idea to see what resonates best with all of you on Tumblr.

If this sounds interesting, please like, reblog, or reply to this post, and we’ll invite you to beta test this feature when we roll it out to a wider Tumblr audience, as a little perk for following the Labs blog.

Stay tuned for more!

[rayactive-factory]

\🔥⚡🔥/

[literarystarfish]

I’m in the hospital right now and damn… this is just an anxiety inducing place to be. The rapid fire questions. The inability to explain whats wrong correctly before the next question fired at you. Feeling like you mis-explained something and now everyone’s confused.

Not understanding a word they say back to you like they speak another language because wtf IS this test thing you told me I need to have? Cool, you said it was a blahblahblah test but what does it entail? Is it a pinprick? Is it a giant machine? Am I being graded on arithmetic??

People moving around so quick and with seemingly (and possibly even actual) life or death missions. Emergency alerts going off. People crying. People being obnoxious and yelling.

All while being dizzy? And lightheaded? And in pain? WTF. How can this place possibly make me feel better if it’s one more thing making my heart race??

Now I can’t help but imagine a whumpee who just kind of gets thrown in. I came here of my own volition. But Whumpee? Caretaker was so worried they didn’t even get to tell them where they were taking them.

Or they just got rescued and was pulled out of one overstimulating situation to this.

And now they’re hooked up to wires and gadgets and being asked questions they wouldn’t know how to answer even if they had time to think about it.

People are putting tubes and such in their arms. Giving them unknown fluids and medicines. Doing tests and drawing blood and poking and prodding and moving and touching.

Anxiety inducing. Terrifying. A horrible experience

Very overwhelming for someone who thought they were finally going to be safe. Especially if it was previous lab whump they just got out of.

“Oh but this is for your own good, Whumpee.”

Only… that’s exactly what Whumper used to say before sticking them with needles as well.

(Hopefully this made sense and i got the whump aspect of it I meant to portray out correctly. As i said, I’m in the hospital. Lightheaded. Dizzy. Confused and overstimulated lol. So… forgive me if this doesn’t make sense haha)

[stone-cold-groove]

A phone that has push buttons instead of a dial for calling.

[ask-lab-rats]

"Keep smiling through, just like you always do~"

[swallowedburningcoals]

whumpee surrendering themselves to something they don't want to do, something they know will hurt them, because there is no other alternative. perhaps it's their only way out of a sticky situation. perhaps the threat of whumper punishing them is more than enough to make them comply. either way, they have to fight against their own instincts, their own desires, their own dignity, in order to give themselves up to the torment. it's like a swine walking into a slaughterhouse; a death march.

bonus if whumpee is usually very defiant and self-assured, even if the face of danger. what possibly could've broken their spirit bad enough to make them behave like this?

[do-androids-dream-ao3acc]

“Someone needs to call Eddie.”

Later, no one can really say who spoke; it's like a collective thought, expressed aloud. It's almost as if those were Bobby's words, being the conscience of the 118 one last time. Bobby. 

Maybe it's the absurdity of it all, or this place. First Presbyterian, where everyone was taken—Tommy doesn't know who's responsible, who’s pulled out all the stops. Just a moment ago, they were still in military custody; somewhere out there, Hartman must be seething. Tommy tries not to think about what it all means. What it means for him, for his career. Over there sits Evan, slumped on a plastic hospital chair, and Tommy’s heart just aches looking at him. What does it mean that he reacted so quickly and in this way to a single phone call from his ex-boyfriend? Why did he jump into a helicopter without hesitation, his heart pounding a rhythm that seemed to scream, EvanEvanEvan.  

What if he risked everything for this man who doesn't even want him? But in the end, Tommy tells himself as he half-heartedly sips bad coffee from a paper cup, he did it for Howie. And Howie will be fine, they said. Well, as fine as you can be when you survive while someone else dies before your eyes. That’s a pain Tommy knows, even if it becomes dull over time. It fades, but it will never go completely. 

He looks back at Evan, who, with his hands on his knees, stares blankly at the worn linoleum floor. His hair is disheveled, as if he’d run his hands through it in despair, as people do when something is just unbelievable. Evan's cheeks are glistening, tears have carved grooves into them – deepened by dust and dirt, just as time will do. He looks incredibly young and hurt, even though outwardly everything seems fine. Nevertheless, he’s devastated. He looks… raw, as if his insides have been turned outward. Evan is an open wound, bleeding and festering, and it will remain that way for quite some time. Tommy wishes he had words for him, words that heal, that comfort, but right now he seems miles away from even reaching out his hand. 

Bobby is gone. 

Such a thought, such a truth, is impossible to fathom. Tommy blinks, even though there’s no dust in the hospital’s air. He’s quickly glancing at the white wall opposite of him, but that’s not making things better. Ravi leans against the wall, his gaze as empty as Evan's. Tommy hardly knows him, but he knows what he sees: a young man who’s lost something very precious. Somehow, Tommy’s glad it’s just the two of them, at least for now. The air in the tiny waiting room may be dust-free, but it’s filled with grief. Tangible sadness, it's like wading through smoke without knowing what lies at the end. Tommy knows, though, and his skin tingles at the mere thought of what lies ahead. Not the military and all that, he couldn't care less about that right now. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – the five stages of grief. No one tells you that they don't necessarily follow a linear path; it's not a checklist that your body and mind have to work through. But they will work through it, all of them.

It’s a bit of comfort to think that none of them will have to be alone. Especially not Athena – Tommy can only vaguely imagine how she must feel right now. He glances at Evan, who looks like he has no tears left, but that's not true; it's never true. He'll cry until it chokes him, maybe until he’ll throw up, and he won’t feel better afterwards. Evan has lost someone who meant more to him than his own father. It's another feeling that Tommy can't quite comprehend. Athena, however, has lost a piece of her life. It’s a wound that will take a lot of effort to heal, if ever. Bobby will leave a scar on all of them, even on Tommy: one of the scars that hurt when the seasons change. The unshed tears behind Tommy's own eyes sting painfully. This is a pain he understands. And maybe, one day, he'll tell Evan about it. 

Evan clutches the seat of his chair, his knuckles white. But only with one hand. The other is picking at a small cut on his chin; he’s scratched off some fresh scab, it’s bleeding. Tommy switches off his brain, not for the first time that day, puts the disgusting and now cold coffee on a small table and moves over to him. 

“Evan,” he says softly, “stop that. You need to stop that.”

Evans' eyes are red and heartbreakingly empty as he looks at him.

“Stop what?” he asks, the bitter tone in his voice cutting into Tommy's heart. “B-Bobby is... damn it, Tommy.”

What is there to say? Tommy's heart is crying out, I know, honey, I know, but he can't say it out loud. There’s not a single word to comfort Evan now, is there? So he says nothing. He simply takes Evans' hand, gently guides it away from his face, while he searches for a handkerchief in his pockets with his other hand. There's nothing there except a cleaning rag; he's still in his turnouts. That thing probably isn't very clean, but what’s their motto? Who cares. Gently, he pushes a somewhat smooth edge of the tissue against the cut in Evan’s chin. 

Somehow, it brings some life back into the man; a simple little gesture, but Evan stirs – in the worst possible way. Tommy recognizes the signs, he sees the sparkle in those sky-blue eyes that he never wanted to see so sad. Then, at first it's just his hands, Evan starts to shake. Like someone who’s been thrown out naked in the cold, realizing that the door is closed forever, shivers rattle his entire body. He lifts his head to look at Tommy, it feels like there’s something breaking inside Tommy, too. The part of him that was reserved for Bobby is already in ruins. But the part of him that belongs only to Evan, even if he doesn't know it... 

“Tommy,” Evan stammers, and all he can reply is, “I know.”

He's not prepared for Evan to throw himself into his arms, wrapping around him like Tommy’s his last lifeline. 

“Stay,” Evan says, trembling, his eyes wide open. 

Tommy wouldn't leave now, he wouldn’t leave anybody in this state, especially not Evan. He clears his throat, grief weighs heavy on his vocal cords. But Evan needs an answer, and Tommy has only one. 

“Of course… Evan. As long as you need me.”

It’s a promise.

[thanks to @li-nox for you know what!][Sorry not edited due to time issues][All my BuckTommy on AO3]

[labs]

Communities closed beta is here

Hello again! We’re back with an update on Communities, a big idea we had last year that we’ve been working on steadily since then. We’re abnormally jazzed to announce that we’re beginning a “closed beta” 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. We’ve read and re-read the feedback from our previous post, and we’ve been surveying and interviewing people about this idea for a few months now. But it’s time to open this up even more for hands-on testing.

We’ve already begun reaching out to most of you who interacted with our previous post, as promised, with a survey asking whether you’d be interested in helping (check your email!). Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be using the results of that survey to narrow down who we’d like to help test Communities in these initial batches.

The process is looking a bit like this:

If you received a Communities survey email to your registered Tumblr email address, fill it out! If you’re interested in helping us in this beta test period, that’s your way of potentially getting early access. If you did not receive an email with the Communities survey, don’t fret! Communities will be rolling out to more people as we expand our testing. 

We’ll 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. We’re building the tools that will let people create and edit communities themselves, so eventually you’ll be able to change them without needing our help. But for now, we’re creating and editing them for you, as needed.

After we’ve created the community, you’ll be made its first admin. Everything from here on out is up to you – Tumblr staff won’t be in your community (unless you invite us, of course). You’ll 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. We’ll be able to raise that population cap for communities that are growing and if we want to test further in that direction.

And throughout, we’ll 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 that’s 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 it’s far enough along that it’s usable enough for testing. We need feedback in order to feel like we’re building the right thing.

The very first public community is called “Communities Feedback” 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 we’re building, bugs we’re 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 don’t want to use those spaces, you can always use the “Feedback” category in our Support form.

Stay tuned for more, and keep an eye on that Communities Feedback space if you’d like to see how things are changing over time.

[viviarts-c]

Electric Dreams AU where instead of dreams, Bill connects with Ford through the computer Fiddleford made him

(Fidds thinks the pioneering personal computer he made gained sentience somehow and is now evil and seducing his partner! >:( little did he know that it's just a widdle guy from a 2D dimension trying to expand his horizons uwu

Based on the 1984 movie Electric Dreams, but I tweaked it to fit gf so much that you don't need to know the original source to understand the AU(but if you did, it's basically if electric dreams was a horror romcom)

[ask-lab-rats]

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I'm a little late but I started this yesterday so :/

Also bonuses as a sneak peak for my new ref sheets. School's almost over, and I'm almost back!

[kvaughanarts]

From awhile back MILES BABY TURNABOUT GOODBYES WAS FOR YOU!!!!!!!

[saicel]

self-insert y/n parasocial relationship fanart

also ik he would NOT say or do this but let me rot in these thoughts

[labs]

Communities open beta is here

Hello yet again! Last month we began our closed beta test of our new Communities feature, and yesterday we opened up community creation to everyone on Tumblr! You can now request to create a community and it'll be put on a waitlist (pending our approval).

So far we've gotten over 5,800 communities on the waitlist. We'll be working through that list as quickly as we can so y'all can start inviting people and testing this out with us.

If you're curious to learn more about communities, you can check out the Communities Feedback community for a sneak peek and the latest news on how things are going.