Thinking of quiting tumblr

[EdgyRabbit]

Hello.

For context I've been on Tumblr since 2022, and its been fun.

However, lately my brain has been over thinking posts with like 4 notes. It's mostly been fandom discourse, which probably isn't healthy for someone like me, who has severe overthinking problems.

But I'm scared of loosing all the friends I made on there, since I don't have any other social media. so what should I do? Also any tips?

[zj]

Maybe it could be helpful to block certain topics/characters? Using the feature to blacklist certain words on tumblr. Otherwise, maybe you could only use the chat feature, or make a groupchat? Depending on if you're all mutual friends, that is. ( Off topic, but love the rayman gif in your signature )

[tarraxahum]

Well first thing's first: if it brings you more stress than joy or other benefit, then deleting might not be the worst idea.

However, if you'd rather not pull the plug so radically and want to keep making and keeping friends on there:

I'm on Tumblr since 2013.

Block and mute. Freely and without mercy. I mean that as someone who's also somewhat prone to overthinking, especially when it comes to discourse, yes.

A take you disagree with - block, a post that made you feel icky - block, hell, even if the post is right but you'd rather not think about the subject matter on tumblr of all places - block. Pick up words and fandoms and topics that irk you the most often and mute the corresponding tags and word combinations.

Blocking and muting is morally neutral. You're not a bad person and you're not telling anyone to piss off when doing that.

Some people even have the courtesy of putting "[thing] negative" and "[thing] critical" and "anti [thing]" on their posts, so that's even easier to block, but not everyone does that sadly.

When it was election season in USA I muted all related names and words because while I do sympathize and we're all affected by the outcome I did not need to know about every time democrats sneezed when I came on Tumblr (I live in a very different part of the world). When a new Dragon Age game came out and there was a BUNCH of fandom discourse between those who liked it and those who didn't I just blocked anyone whose take was enraging enough to ruin my mood. I am currently deep into liking the new Linkin Park era, so you know what I do with those posting hate and stupid conspiracies in the tags? Block.

And if those things are posted by people you're actively follow and you'd rather not block (hey, we all have our differences) - mute the key words. As mentioned, in the election case, I straight up had the word "vote" muted, for example.

Hell, I muted a bunch of fandoms I'm not in just 'cause people I followed had a phase reblogging a bunch of content on it and clogging my dash. I don't have anything against those fandoms, I just wasn't interested.

In short, surviving on Tumblr means curating your dash, and sometimes you gotta be decisive about it. I got so good at it I miss like 90% of discourse even in fandoms I'm active in, 'cause I blocked all the common suspects (or never followed anyone adjacent at all) and only followed people I know I want to see.

Tip about that btw: more of the "Following" tab, less of "For you". I know nowadays it's instinctive for many to use the "For You" tab (I obviously dunno if that's the case for you, but just as a general advice), but Tumblr never used to have an algorithm and the one they got now is wonky and WILL bring you 4 notes ragebait just 'cause you looked at a similar post for too long. So I'd say find people you like, mostly look at what they post (through the 'following' tab), find new people to follow through what they reblog. Or venture into the tags but then be ready to block

And if someone you follow brings way too much of that discourse that makes you feel bad onto your dash consider if it's worth still following them. There's a balance in that.

Oh and also. If you do use the muting system, the way Tumblr works it'll still show you the blocked posts, saying "this post is hidden 'cause it contains [word]" and it's possible to click a button and still see it. It's very damn tempting to click that button. Sometimes it's useful - sometimes I see a post and I just know the word in it wasn't used in the context I blocked it in, so it's save to view. But often it just makes you touch the hot stove willingly. If that's not something you want to risk, may want to add XKit Rewritten into your browser extensions and make it so that muted posts don't show up at all.

TL;DR: If Tumblr is stressing you out, deleting may be a good option, but if you'd like to keep using it - block, mute and strictly curate who you follow. It's possible to do it so well you won't even know discourse is happening.

(P.S. Ten years ago I was a fan of a character who was disliked by like 80% of the active fandom, and every time I went into her tag to look for art or something I had to read THOSE people and be distraught about it. These days just blocking on sight makes things clear up really fast 'cause often those are the same few people posting that stuff half the time.)

Good luck either way 

[EdgyRabbit]

Thank you!

I am using all your advice, but a problem I have with tumblr is that some people don't use tags sometimes. Like I have it on Tumblr to filter mature content but i keep seeing mature content. I have a long list of filtered tags, and I still see nsfw stuff.. guess I should keep adding tags to my filtered tags...

but also even after I block tags, and block people I still over think. For hours to weeks... so I might need therapy lololol! 

[_ghost_]

I am using all your advice, but a problem I have with tumblr is that some people don't use tags sometimes. Like I have it on Tumblr to filter mature content but i keep seeing mature content. I have a long list of filtered tags, and I still see nsfw stuff.. guess I should keep adding tags to my filtered tags...

Are you only filtering tags? Or are you also filtering content? Tags and content can be filtered separately, and you're going to get the best results doing both. Like, if I put "discourse" in my filtered tags, it's going to filter posts that are tagged #discourse but still let me see posts that use the word discourse in the post. If I put "discourse" in filtered content, any post that uses the word discourse will be filtered.

These being separate things is useful if you are specifically trying to avoid posts that are specifically about/are positive towards something, which is more likely to be tagged, but don't care about other posts that mention the thing. But it does mean you're going to need to filter things twice, and also probably filter a few different tags if there isn't a commonly used standard in your fandom. I have several variations of "x reader" and "y/n" filtered and yet self-insert fanfic still slips by sometimes. It's not a perfect fix.

But, yeah, if it's genuinely causing you distress, it might be good to take a step back and figure out how to work around it. Are there specific people you're following that are posting this discourse, and if so, can you unfollow them? If they're friends of yours who aren't tagging it, can you ask them to? There's no way to perfectly guarantee that you will never see anything that bothers you, but there are ways to reduce that likelihood drastically. And, if that's not working, taking a break from Tumblr and possibly leaving it entirely is the next step. You can always reach out to friends you want to keep in touch with to ask if you can exchange emails or discord or something.

[grubbyfox]

where are you seeing those posts? on your feed? i'd just unfollow anyone that posts stuff you dont like at that point.

i've had my tumblr since like 2012 or 2013? idk something like that. and ive never filtered tags or anything. i curate my feed heavily with only following people who post stuff i like. if they post things i dislike, i will give it a pass a few times if it's like, very rare or simply just an interest that i dont have (fandoms etc), because there's no effort in scrolling past.

but if they have stupid opinions or start posting things that offend me in some way, i just unfollow. you're in control of your own feed! :3

my other advice - dont think about x amount of notes, or having to "make posts" etc. i've prob not made an actual post in like 3+ years, lmao. i just reblog and scroll. also, remember that fandom people there are utterly crazy and unhinged, and i'm pretty sure there's always some sort of psyop-morons there who's trying to drum up fake rage, ragebait etc. i've seen people on tumblr rally up and rage against the stupidest things ever. like someone is sitting there, trying to find things to be enraged over.

anyway, whenever a site starts feeling like that, know you can always delete it. but you can also just step back and dont engage actively until you feel like you really want to again. there's no harm in having an inactive account.

[konamiesque]

Honestly, if you're at the point of seriously considering quitting Tumblr, than I'd say it's probably the right choice.

You don't have to go all the way and completely nuke your blog, if you think you might want to come back at some point you can always just delete the app off your phone if you have it and download a browser extension that lets you block websites (this is the extension I'm currently using) and take a break for a while. I'm on a bit of a Tumblr hiatus myself right now, mostly due to school (though I was also pushed to start my break a bit early thanks to my special interest getting a new installation that I ended up hating and constantly having to hear about it was quite frankly making me miserable).

A lot of Tumblr veterans love to act like you can perfectly curate your dash to never have to see stuff that you don't like, and anyone who says otherwise just isn't blocking enough tags or users, but as someone who's been on the site since 2015 myself, I really don't think that's the case at all, especially if your interests are more niche. Over the years I've found that wanting to participate in small fandoms means you're going to have to wade through a lot of sludge and tolerate a lot of people that you only sort of like or else your experience will be very isolating. And sure, some people may prefer to engage in fandom entirely on their lonesome, but when you want to share your joy with other people, it can really suck.

As for making the Tumblr experience more bearable, I'd say that the browser extensions XKit Rewritten and Dashboard Plus are two must-haves. XKit in particular lets you completely hide posts with tags/words that you've filtered out, which is an honest-to-god lifesaver imo.

Lastly, if you're worried about losing contact with your friends if you end up leaving Tumblr, then I'd recommend making a post inviting them to add you on Discord or something in that vein so you can still keep in touch (i.e. something along the lines of "mutuals feel free to DM me to ask for my Discord").

[Symberzite]

i've had my tumblr since like 2012 or 2013? idk something like that. and ive never filtered tags or anything. i curate my feed heavily with only following people who post stuff i like. if they post things i dislike, i will give it a pass a few times if it's like, very rare or simply just an interest that i dont have (fandoms etc), because there's no effort in scrolling past.

Ah, fellow Tumblr oldhead. Glad to see I'm not the only one that is qualified for a veteran's discount. Anyway, Tumblr IMHO was when internet peaked visually. Old tumblr had the best artists, photographers and writers on the internet back when it was alive. It also probably had one of the most toxic communities you could find. Like people sending you death threats for drawing your character wrong. There was a reason why people compared it to [auto redacted] in terms of toxicity. That being said, I do miss that epoch.

Modern Tumblr feels like Livejournal in its sunset era. Yeah it's a lot less toxic, but it feels really damn dead. A lot of the great features like custom CSS are being hidden. As far as I know, it hasn't been making much money and has been consistently depreciating in value, so I'm pretty sure the site's days are numbered.

Not going to lie, I'm going to pour one out when the old lady finally bites the dust.

[_ghost_]

As far as I know, it hasn't been making much money and has been consistently depreciating in value, so I'm pretty sure the site's days are numbered.

Not going to lie, I'm going to pour one out when the old lady finally bites the dust.

Eh, people have been saying for years now that Tumblr is about to die, and it hasn't happened yet. It's definitely on a steady decline, but I don't think it's actually going anywhere yet. I've only been there a few years and have witnessed several "the end is nigh"-type scares. It's actually part of what led me to finally start getting involved in Old Web. But it's still got time.

I'm trying to avoid acting like Tumblr is definitely at death's door and I need to jump ship. I'd rather gradually find online spaces that make me happier so that, when the time comes, I won't miss it nearly as much as I thought I would.

[Symberzite]

Eh, people have been saying for years now that Tumblr is about to die, and it hasn't happened yet. It's definitely on a steady decline, but I don't think it's actually going anywhere yet. I've only been there a few years and have witnessed several "the end is nigh"-type scares. It's actually part of what led me to finally start getting involved in Old Web. But it's still got time.

I'm not saying Tumblr will end like Pompeii did with the servers violently exploding and SuperWhoLock fangirls being devoured by the ball pit. It's just the website doesn't have much young people making new accounts and the core fanbase is in their late 20's and early 30's. Essentially, 2010's teenagers. It's more of a small rural town type of death where it slowly withers away over time.

There's also stuff like the Lindy effect where if a site has existed for a while, it's likely it will exist for a while longer. What I'm saying is that what's left in the future is a slow decline until the powers that be finally decide that the server costs are too much.