Once again, Tumblr manages to succeed via just being honest with their users.
I made a post back around April fool’s about the crabs being so popular because the joke was that every other website tries to trick you into clicking things so they can make money from your clicks and what if instead a website just asked “please click this revenue generating crab. It is there to generate revenue. In return you will have clicked on a crab. Nothing more.” And the answer to that question was “people will frantically click on that crab. They don’t hate the idea of the website getting money, they hate the idea of being profited on against their will”.
So Tumblr implemented actual revenue crabs. “For this much money you can fill your or someone else’s dash with virtual crabs. This will have the effect of there being crabs on their screen.”
And people will buy those crabs. Because yes you’re spending money on something stupid and useless but it’s being sold to you as “hey you want something stupid and useless?”, which is a nice change of pace from every other site trying to make itself out to be something more than what it is.
Twitter is floundering with the checkmark system because it’s being sold as “confirm that you are someone important and who you say you are is true”, which it isn’t at all right now because anyone can buy one. You’re buying a useless checkmark that only says that YOU think you’re important. Or, more often than not right now, you are intending to trick other people into thinking you’re someone you’re not.
Meanwhile, Tumblr just said “Consider this double check mark. It does nothing. You will be marking yourself as someone who paid money for a meaningless checkmark and sometimes it will randomly turn into a bunch of crabs, making the site harder to use”. And the userbase is like “Well sure, that sounds delightful.”
The point is, despite what all the marketing and advertising people have tried to say, painting trash gold and trying to pass it off as something better is almost never as effective as just saying “hey you want this trash?”
I love fictional detectives so much and I think the most important thing about them is that they’re kind of a freak but in a deeply, deeply likable way. Columbo will walk into your pool in socks and shoes while figuring out a clue. Blanc will explain the structure of a murder mystery with a donut. Poirot is 5'4 and would rather be shot than have another tragedy befall his beloved shoes.
This is also exactly why I hate BBC’s Sherlock, because his character is just Steven Moffat throwing every unlikable idiosyncrasy he can think of into one character while grabbing my shirt and yelling “Is he cool yet? Is he cool yet? Is he iconic yet? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? Is he quirky and crazy?”
Just a reminder that on the web version of Tumblr you can turn off infinite scrolling in your dashboard settings.
And you should.
(also turn off “Best Stuff First” if you’re sensible)
Inifinite scroll uses the same idea as gambling- variable reward. You’re on the hunt for the perfect post that gives you that dopamine hit but the idea that that perfect post might be the next one keeps you scrolling to infinity
Tiktok does this EXTREMELY well which is why I had to uninstall it. It’s so easy to get caught in that feedback loop ESPECIALLY with an algorithm involved
i just walked past the apartment beneath mine and through an open window i could hear my downstairs neighbor crying faintly while the song jolene played in the background and im just like… bitch are you okay…?
I actually ended up going back downstairs to check on her and brought some leftover cookies I baked this afternoon. she’s very sweet and going through a Breakup Mood™️ after being cheated on. she’s coming over to my gf and I’s annual bad movie night on Friday and she even let me pet her cat named Clarence
my gf thinks it’s funny but very fitting that our downstairs neighbor was able to summon a concerned lesbian just by playing jolene while crying about being done dirty by a man
reblog to summon a concerned lesbian in your hour of need
