The Problem with Tumblr - Transparency and Moderation.

The Problem with Tumblr - Transparency and Moderation

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: April 2024

NOTES: In April 2024, Tumblr published a site-wide survey seeking feedback amidst the intense wave of bans against Black, Palestinian, and transfem bloggers. I shared my responses and the survey makeup in accordance to the survey T.O.S., and wanted to make this process transparent.

SO WHAT IS TUMBLR’S SURVEY?

I’m not sure if this is something people are seeing site-wide, but the Tumblr staff is asking users to sign up and complete a survey regarding feedback, prototype-testing, and such. You may have seen this banner at the top of your dashboard:

I recognize, after giving them my blog information, that it is very unlikely they will reach out to me for such matters despite giving my consent…

But seemingly unlike Tumblr’s staff, I value transparency! So, I’m going to talk about what’s on there, and what I personally responded with.

Some quick disclaimers:

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

The survey itself is pretty standard in terms of engagement and feedback. It is hosted by Crowdsignal, which is Automatic’s own platform hosted under Wordpress (re: you use a Wordpress account, or it is highly encouraged to use said account, to create a Crowdsignal account). It features type-box responses, as well as a few typical Likert-scale questions.

As for the content, it begins standard. As the company states they wish to gain a wide array of responses, the first group of questions is pretty straightforward: When did you first join Tumblr, when is the last time you used Tumblr, how often do you use Tumblr, etc.

There is an interesting question, Question 4, asking users to rank their average activity on Tumblr. The activities are things such as reblogging posts, liking posts, sending direct messages, etc etc., and has a ranking system from “Never” to “Always”, with a “Not Sure” option for those who aren’t sure how to rank.

Then, we start to get into the meat of the survey a little. At least, for vocal little assholes like me. The next question is “Which of the following purchases have you made on Tumblr?”

And questions structured like this one, with multiple choice boxes and an “Other” type-box… Allow for feedback. So I gave some.

In response to being asked about my purchase history, I selected “None”, then used the type-box to respond with the following:

I refuse to financially support Tumblr until the company and its employees uphold the promises made by themselves, and in accordance with the NYCCHR Settlement regarding blatant discrimination against its userbase on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as their less-investigated biases against BIPOC bloggers, particularly those that are Black.

There’s a few more standard selection questions regarding the method(s) one uses to visit Tumblr, as well as what interest areas (e.g., fandom, gaming) you interact with. They also ask about how many primary accounts and sideblogs you have…

Then they strike again. The first question asking for a solely written response is summarizing the typical activities one does on Tumblr. The second, however, is much more intriguing:

“If you could change one thing about Tumblr, what would it be and why? If you would not change anything, please explain why.”

There are… many things. But they asked for one, so I gave them one:

If I could change one thing about Tumblr, it would be the site moderation. Users have brought the seeming lack of moderation to attention time and time again, only to be met with waves of discriminatory moderation application. Appropriately filtered content gets deleted, or a blog banned, whilst hate speech and active harassment campaigns (particularly against LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals) are not only allowed to remain on the site, but often allowed/approved to be Blazed.
Time and time again, too, the website’s staff has promised that things would be fixed. Time and time again, including in the window following the NYCCHR Settlement, the site staff has not only not made any notable work on fixing these rampant issues, but has doubled-down and blamed its userbase for a lack of financial support.

In short, the moderation system. And this should be a surprise to nobody that follows me, as I’ve posted time and time again about how… poor, this system is. Whether it was my own experiences, or the experiences of those who have since had to rebuild their platforms, or who have had to outright leave the site due to the incessant harassment campaigns.

And then there’s another small lull in questioning, which asks about the search functionality. Personally, if I were one to design this survey, I would have swapped Questions 12 and 13… But I acknowledge that 1) I have recency bias in discussing the moderation system and 2) it’s possible that whoever is on the metrics team creating this survey simply is unaware that this may be (or is, depending on the crowd) the hottest issue on Tumblr. But I digress, let’s jump to Question 13:

“How satisfied are you with the current system for reporting harassment on Tumblr?”

Now… If you’ve read this far, you know my answer. If you’ve followed me for more than a day, you know my answer. So I will let the survey response speak for itself:

The current system for reporting harassment is comical at best, and adversarial at worst. There have been many times that I have reported hate speech, graphic depictions of violence, and similarly harmful content, only to receive no follow-up / to see that the content is allowed to remain. This includes things found in tags, on the dashboard, and through the site’s Blaze campaign.
Yet, I too have seen posts about queerness (posts not sexual in nature, nor depicting anything else violating the ToS) be censored, removed, and flagged for being “inappropriate” for the userbase.
At the VERY LEAST, I believe the system could be better if there were actual communication between the staff and the user, and if the report form were easier to locate. Reddit’s moderation system, for example, works effectively not only in properly removing harmful content, but in communicating that these reports are being received and acknowledged.

From here, there aren’t many options for feedback. The survey’s focus shifts into the prototype-testing side of things. Determining what devices the user has access to, if they’ve been involved in prior research interviews/focus groups, if there’s interest in these programs, etc etc.

So I fill it out accordingly (showing interest in providing feedback via virtual tests and sharing screens), give them my preferred email (not the one I use for Tumblr, but the story behind that is long and boring, and I’d rather forget it), age range, and my blog name.

Hello poor staffer who has to vet me! I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at your CEO.

And then you can receive a copy via email, if you provide it again. As someone who values transparency (and receipts), I would recommend doing this regardless of if you give in-depth feedback or not.

It’s just nice to have a copy of the information you provided, as you may be asked to recall it upon being selected for any future communications.

In short, Tumblr has opened a channel for feedback and I do encourage people to give that feedback, regardless of if you’re interested in the prototypes and interviews and whatever. You are a user of the platform. You have a voice; let it be heard!