when we A/B test something, it means that one group of people has the new thing, and one group of people has the old thing. this youtube video is a very quick way of explaining that process, i suggest watching it first here.

in this case, with the new navigation layout, our hypothesis is that the new layout will be more easily understood by more people, meaning we’ll see more engagement with the navigation items themselves. like literally, more clicks to the things we now have labels for, when before they were just an icon. and the fact they’re in a place that’s become more standard across the internet: a left-aligned sidebar.

ideally, that will lead to better retention of new users, and even an “aha” moment for people who have been on tumblr for a long time but never really looked at those different destinations. i’ve been on tumblr since 2009 and even i’ve found myself clicking on the inbox and activity more than ever, with the new change.

for us to see the change as a “mistake”, we’d need to see statistical evidence to contradict that hypothesis, which we’re already tracking automatically for everyone in the test. we’d also need to get an overwhelming amount of feedback to contradict any positive gains we do see. sending in negative feedback daily won’t do that.

so if you want the whole thing to go away: we need to see a negative behavior change in potentially millions of peoples’ behavior. that has happened before! we’ve rolled changes back that caused that negative reaction. that’s the whole point of these experiments.

and if you want to send us feedback about how the experience is negatively affecting you: please, please do!!! despite the statistical evidence, we want to know if there are accessibility concerns we missed, usability concerns, design considerations, etc etc, because that’s why we’re running this as an experiment and not just launching it to everyone. that feedback is really important to us, as long as it’s constructive.

so to people with this update: stop using the site, which is what i'll be doing as of now.

because there's no OTHER way to use the site than 'click' on the new things. if they're only counting engagement and people using the new stuff, then you HAVE to stop using the site, completely.

if you have this update, i suggest sending feedback and then not using tumblr at all or at the very least, typing in the url of what you're trying to reach which is what i've been doing since the changes are that unwieldy. for example, i just go /inbox instead.

but really it seems like the only thing that will work is to stop.

If someone tells me they’re queer I believe them. If someone tells me they’re straight I believe them. This isn’t that hard

What so like a cis het allo person can just call themselves queer now?

What problem, exactly, are you so concerned about? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but queerness is still very much marginalized, it’s not as “trendy” as people try to act, and straight people aren’t tripping over themselves to call themselves queer. And if you’re worried about being “tricked” by “infiltrators”, like, you know those people can just say that they’re gay? Like they can lie? They’re not going to try and “sabotage” queer spaces by saying “hey I don’t have any marginalized orientations or identities but I’m still totally queer”, they’d just say “hey I’m super gay, love people of the same gender”

What, concretely, are you worried about happening? What’s the worst thing that could happen due to inclusivity? Because the worst things that can happen due to gatekeeping are very well-known, and I’m much more scared of that

It’s less that it’s trendy and more like, I like having my queer-only spaces. Also queer is a bad word. All our words are bad words. They aren’t oppressed, and for a cishetallo to use a slur as their identity feels a little demeaning to me. Like I dont hate them of course but the A was never for Ally . It’s not queer to be normal

Interacting with them is cool and having them at pride I’m not opposed to but as a person who’s queer it does feel like they’re kinda dressing it up

Im gonna be honest Ive never seen people like that but like, I’m allowed to not like it

I’m not going to distrust and exclude people because of a problem you made up. If someone tells me they’re queer, I believe them

“When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time” is a really popular thing to say on Tumblr when we’re talking about people being assholes or whatever, but people never seem to follow that through to the logical conclusion of actually believing people when they really tell you who they are.

What queer only spaces are hets lying about to get into? Like it is either straight girls being openly straight at gay bars or conservatives dressing up as woman to say “ooooh, if I SAY I’m trans then you have to do whatever I say, right? Call me Princess Lovely Tits! I’m very smart at owning libs!”

Like, I’ve NEVER gone to a queer nerdy event and seen anyone “obviously cis” trying to get in. Why would they?

Also, to the original Anon-

“if you have no criteria for being queer, how can you say anyone isnt?” That’s it! You got it! That’s the fucking point!