ppl talk shit about tumblr but it’s delightfully ungovernable and chaotic. That has its downsides but watching companies try and fail to control it is amusing as fuck though it’s making the site garbagier than before.
I really think we shouldn’t overlook the impact of xkit here bc tumblr is like the one site where the user base wants and uses the ability to “push back” on site development. Most companies these days just roll out changes to force the user base to push whatever new behavior they think will make them millions and give the users no say. Tumblr does the same except *a bunch of use can push code back* because some awesome people make xkit available.
Like between that and the lack of visible follower counts tumblr really does offer the best at-will low pressure social media experience compared to the busy, forced user experience on other social media platforms.
Tumblr is the only site I know of where this happens regularly:
Staff post: “Here’s a new feature we’ve added!”
Every user reblog: “And here’s how to turn it off”