...please don't let this be an Ordeal ™.

(Reblogging to add something I initially just had in the tags—

To be clear: It's not worth being worried about yet. We have no details. But this does look like something Aunt Triple P would've kept an eye on, so that's what I'll do. The askbox is open if you guys hear more in the meantime.)

I know it’s been a little while, but I’m back with an update on this: Tumblr is increasing the price of its yearly ad-free/premium subscription from $39.99 to $69.99 starting from whenever your yearly renewal date happens to be.

(I first heard about it when this post crossed my main dash—though I think the date mentioned in the post may not apply to everyone. Based on the help documentation, it seems like the date is a case-by-case basis sort of thing.)

A quick rundown on Premium and everything it entails—

Back in July, Staff announced that the ad-free option was becoming Tumblr Premium. (Apologies for not covering that when it happened, by the way; life got pretty hectic.)

According to the official help documentation, this means there’s now a slew of perks bundled with ad-free: one free Blaze and TumblrMart item per month, early access to new features, and higher limits on posts and video lengths.

If these things don’t sound like something you’re interested in, it’s important to note that there’s not a plain ad-free tier anymore; the bundle is non-optional and seems to be the cause of the price increase.

TL;DR: The yearly ad-free is option is about to see a huge price increase since it’s now part of a bundle.

Tuesday, June 25th, 2024

🌟 New

🛠 Fixed

🚧 Ongoing

🌱 Upcoming

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

Wanna support Tumblr directly with some money? Check out the new Supporter badge in TumblrMart!

I know I’m a week or so late to the party again—but here’s a reminder to be careful what exactly you monetize!

This right here? Not advisable at all—as Aunt Triple P has talked about before, if The Mouse (or another corporation) decides to take legal action against you for making money off of their IP, you’re on your own.

Plenty of people take commissions, but (and I know I’ve said this before) this is also the reason AO3 won’t let you directly state “hey, you can pay me to write fanfic for you” or link to a payment platform—it can lead to major legal trouble.

Be very, very careful with what you’re publicly monetizing. TL;DR: Fanworks only fall under “fair use” as long as you’re not making any money off of them—so having someone pay to access fic or art posts could land you in a lot of legal trouble if the copyright holder decided to come after you.

Tipping is going away on June 1, 2024

Hello, Tumblr! (And a special hello to our Tippers <3)

We introduced Tipping back in February 2022 in response to your feedback, and it’s been a great addition to many communities on Tumblr. We do love to launch features that bring you joy, and Tipping was a part of that effort.

Unfortunately, Tipping hasn’t seen the usage we’d hoped for. So, in order to focus on the things that really make Tumblr Tumblr for most users, we’re shutting Tipping down on June 1.

Have you tipped someone in the past, or is Tipping enabled on your blog? You don’t need to do anything; the little Tipping icon will automatically disappear from blogs or posts with the feature enabled, and you’ll no longer be able to Tip creators or receive Tips. Any money you have received from Tipping will be paid out to the account you registered with via Stripe by June 15.

While this will affect a very small number of you, we know that those of you who do Tip do so with great admiration for your Tumblr peers, and we’re sorry to be taking this away from you. We hope you can find other ways to show your affection and gratitude for your fellow users: You could gift someone a badge you think they’ll love or Blaze the post you’d otherwise have Tipped, and that will surely make someone’s day. 

Please contact Support if you have any questions about this change. Thank you, as always, for coming on this journey with us!

I’m about a week late to the news, but—

Holy hell, it finally happened. (For anyone wondering why it didn’t get much use in the first place, our dear Aunt Triple P made a few posts back in the day RE: the legal issues monetizing fan content can pose—some of these are about Post+, but the tip jar had many of the same inherent problems.)

TL;DR: Fanworks only fall under “fair use” as long as you’re not making any money off of them—so having someone tip you on fic or art posts could land you in a lot of legal trouble if the copyright holder decided to come after you.

...please don't let this be an Ordeal ™.

(Reblogging to add something I initially just had in the tags—

To be clear: It's not worth being worried about yet. We have no details. But this does look like something Aunt Triple P would've kept an eye on, so that's what I'll do. The askbox is open if you guys hear more in the meantime.)

staff: our april fools joke this year is a silly feature that doesn't really do anything but give you a button to boop other users! they have to opt-in first though :)

me:

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

We can opt out all we want but the cat is out of the bag. Ten years of data had already been scraped in some form and possibly sold but definitely on the market.

To quote John Lydon/Johnny Rotten, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

We can't change what has already happened but you can help change the future. Opt out, use Nightshade and Glaze on your photos. Poison the well, poison the datasets.

Now if anyone wants to make thing interesting? Opt in on alt accounts and really salt the fucking earth. May I recommend theme days? Werewolf porn Wednesdays? Terribly incorrect facts Thursdays? Fuck you matt Fridays?

The possibilities? Endless.

A Petite Reprise -

It can't really be left to a simple shitpost. That would be too easy. The subject demands a better explanation. Now others have explained, pontificated, and discoursed the subject much better than I ever will but I still feel the need to add to the chorus. There's been a deep slow rot set up in tumblr and the past couple of days proved it.

Dear Fearless Leader decided the best course of action in dealing with a trans user's concerns and frustrations with her SFW selfies being arbitrarily content labeled was to completely nuke her account and permaban said user. To add fuel to the fire, there was a few other users nuked in the crossfire. Also trans for the record.

Which is odd considering the fact that loads of death threats, neonazi propaganda, and so on was reported then ignored but a cartoonish threat directed at no one but the powers that be requires immediate action.

Damning still is deleting evidence of his actions.

At this point I'm not surprised. Us trans folk have been saying there's something definitely wrong behind the scenes for a while and poc users have been saying it even longer than that. People have come out to share their frustrations and their Fearless Leader nightmare stories. No, I'm not surprised.

I'm disappointed.

Fearless Leader has enough cash to throw around on vanity projects that hemorrhage money with his name plastered where he can get it and still manages to fuck it up. This little venture should've been an easy sandbox with users truly easy to please yet you treat it like kitty litter. Even Donald Trump has dedicated fans but our guy here can't seem to buy support anymore. And that is truly sad, isn't it?

I pity the fact you couldn't even own up to your bullshit and decided alienating a user base dedicated but vulnerable in favor of your ego. You could've been a hero but now we're all beginning to see who you truly are.

Fearless Leader has now taken to Twitter to further harass the original permabanned poster. Also, there's a very good chance tumblr is making a deal with a data scrapping/AI company.

Matt, buddy, put the phone down. You're making it worse and it's getting real fucking ugly. Or, continue to post and threaten to stop funding tumblr again. Whatever makes you feel like the bigger man.

Happy Out of Touch Thursday everybody!