Tumblarity is fucking stupid. I’m sorry, but it is. I don’t mind the personal stats, but creating “competition” among bloggers is about the dumbest fucking idea since Joel Schumacher put nipples on the Batsuit.
I hope you all like fantasy football. Because basically that is what Tumblr has now been reduced to. Everyday you can log on and see just how awesome you’re doing. We may as well do a $20 buy-in now and see who is the most popular at the end of the year. Woo-fucking-hoo.
I can’t help but think that this is going to do nothing but turn away new users and not allow new bloggers to get comfortable and find their own way, because they will be more concerned with being popular. This goes beyond liking or re-blogging or even popularity. It will prove to be the opposite. If your number number should go down, you will be reminded of how unpopular you are, or how much the content that you love sucks.
Imagine being a new user who is unsure of how they want to use this new tool and has yet to find their voice. Don’t you think it may be a little disheartening for the first few weeks as they see their popularity refuse to grow? And don’t you think that these people will be tempted to do one of two things either:1. Quit or 2. Pander to everyone hoping for a rise in popularity?
Well I don’t know about you but I don’t want either of those things to happen to anyone. After all, your blog is supposed to be the no judgment forum where we can finally say what we want to say. We spend enough time each day being judged and censored and looked down upon for our beliefs or our senses of humor. We don’t need to log onto here and see EXACTLY how unpopular the stuff we like is.
And it isn’t going to make better content. I follow the people I do because I already dig their content. Sure, I’m not going to like everything they post, but fuck it, thats the beauty of this. The most “unpopular” views have spurned the best debates and have led to the most interesting, thought-provoking content on this entire fucking thing, and now we will basically punish people for having those opinions? It seems awfully counterproductive to me.
Can we just be allowed to be real? Because guess what? I get enough of endless amounts of phony bullshit on a daily basis. I want transparency. I want people who don’t give a fuck. I want people to say what they mean, even if it isn’t so popular. I WANT YOU TO BE YOU. But now I fear that some people might forget that. They will have a daily reminder of how “good” or “popular” they are. Well fuck that.
I cannot fathom how anyone could see this as an improvement to Tumblr. As a matter of fact, I would say its the worst thing thats happened to Tumblr in the short time that I’ve been here.