Tumblr - Home of Fandom 17+

Tumblr has been a place I’ve come to for years to express myself. It’s somewhat my secret outlet. Having an app available is super convenient and I honestly prefer to use the app versus a desktop. If there wasn’t an app available i probably wouldn’t even use tumblr anymore. It’s extremely annoying when you’re in the middle of using the app and it crashes out of nowhere exiting you out the app. It seems like every time you guys update the app to fix bugs etc. there’s just another bug that’s created. How difficult can it possible be to finally get this right. Don’t update the app if you’re not sure it’s absolutely going to fix the problem. Sometimes posts are missing from my blog or others. I can’t even refresh my notifications without it freezing and me having to exit out he app and enter into the app again just to see new notifications. I can’t even view my drafts on one tab without exiting out my blog, which was one of my favorite features. Now I have to go to settings to view my drafts which is INCONVENIENT! Would be 5 stars if I didn’t have to exit the app 20 times a day just to use it. Using tumblr shouldn’t be a job people. Fix it or you’re going to lose people’s interest in a great website.

This app has so many issues that have yet to be solved after at least a year or two of them existing. Despite the messaging system, which I’m sure has been critiqued plenty, inconsistently and unreliably updating or not updating while you’re using the app- you also can’t click on asks or even keep track of your asks in any way through the app. If you want to go look at one of your apps, you had better be keeping constant track of whoever asked it because all you’re going to get is a notification, and clicking on the notification (if it was answered) only takes you to the person’s profile. The app will randomly crash for seemingly no reason, even while under little to no stress. The double-click-to-like feature doesn’t work unless you tap a large body of text or an image and even then, it may not register properly (maybe user error but still inconvenient). You also can’t keep track of submissions in any way unless you just miraculously remember- I think you get notified but I don’t even think you get that much. Aside from all this, there’s a myriad of other functionalities and nuances that are almost entirely unimportant (like how if you click on a person’s name that’s attached to a post, it’ll take you to a dedicated page with nothing but that post and a couple other posts from that person’s profile below it). This was a poorly-thought-through review but I think it covers most bases. Otherwise, it works enough.

I’ve reviewed before but gave it the same rating. Before Tumblr was a mess because of their bad coding — crashing after a little while of use, GIFs and images refusing to load almost constantly, videos not playing correctly, the list goes on.

But the new algorithm for detecting NSFW content to be “kid friendly” when it was never meant to be a website for kids is lazy. Staff are condescending and don’t listen to the user base. Not only that, but a large portion of users are here for nsfw content. I understand that there is legal trouble and it’s not necessarily tumblr’s fault, but what is their fault is not doing anything about actually illegal content and instead punishing everyone whether they were involved or not. Porn bots are still rampant, neo-nazis and white nationalists and pedophiles are still free to roam while artists and content creators suffer greatly from the way this algorithm works. Up the age requirement to be on and keep your safe mode thing, it wasn’t perfect but it was way better than getting my post removed for having a single pixel of skin tones visible on a selfie or a piece of innocent fan art.

The only reason this isn’t one star is because I’ve been using this site for years and years and it is honestly my favorite social media platform. It’s niche, doesn’t invade your privacy, and has a lot to offer within its user base. It has so much potential wasted by a terrible management.