It’s not quite the end of Tumblr, but when management is supposedly sending memos with the Lord Tennyson quote about having “loved and lost,” it doesn’t look like there’s much of a future.

Internet statesman and Waxy.org proprietor Andy Baio posted what is “apparently an internal Automattic memo making the rounds on Tumblr” to Threads. The memo, written to employees at WordPress.com parent company Automattic, which bought Tumblr from Verizon’s media arm in 2019, is titled or subtitled “You win or you learn.” The posted memo states that a majority of the 139 employees working on product and marketing at Tumblr (in a team apparently named “Bumblr”) will “switch to other divisions.” Those working in “Happiness” (Automattic’s customer support and service division) and “T&S” (trust and safety) would remain.

  • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    They’ve also added features no one wants. For example, the recent “Tumblr Live” nonsense, which is basically Twitch meets Shorts. It’s at the top of your feed and you can’t permanently turn it off - you can turn it off for what was a week, then a month. They wasted money and time to get that feature going, one that you know cost a lot because hosting video isn’t cheap, when NO ONE goes to tumblr to look at random cam girls.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      8 months ago

      Lol, never used Tumblr, but that sounds terrible. I hate how they want to change all social media to the exact same thing, instead or leaving us with different choices.

        • slaacaa@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          It’s about aiming for the lowest common denominator to maximize user number and engagement. Autoplaying short vids in a feed that you didn’t curate - all things optimized to trick your monkey brain for one more scroll or one more click. Works on everybody from children to elderly.

          • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            Except in Tumblr’s case, no one goes to tumblr to watch videos on the first place, and the way they have it set up is awful. It’s at the top of your feed, and you have to tap any of them to watch them in anything larger than a tiny square.