Welcome to Work in Progress! Tumblr’s official ask box, where we try to answer as many questions as we can about Tumblr: what we’re working on, hope to work on, or even your suggestions! We hope it can be a little halfway between staff and you fine folk, the community.
Please note if you’re experiencing an issue/glitch/bug on Tumblr, do not send here at WIP—please file a Support request instead of sending us an ask.
tgcarahart asked:
Tumblr labs addition maybe
Whilst using tumblr I have amassed quite a large following 40K+
I don't have the time to prune all the dead and barely active
accounts. ideally a tool is what is required, that has moderation
type filters that let the user specify the range of activity or there
lack of to remove. As a healthy forum runs on people posting often and the dead wood being removed.
Answer: Hey there, @tgcarahart.
We would love to build more bulk-action tools on Tumblr as a core platform improvement! Gardening your following and followers are one of the areas where that would make a lot of sense. However, we’re not sure yet where it fits on our priority list, but it may be a part of our plans next year. Stay tuned to @changes blog for updates on that.
In the meantime, if you want to do this kind of thing yourself and dip your toes into some programming, you can leverage the public Tumblr API to do exactly what you want. In fact, we just published an example of how to get a list of who you’re following based on activeness and mutual status here. You could probably tune that to do what you want with a little work! We’d love to have more examples in that repository.
Thanks for your question, and we hope this helps!
azraelreaperx asked:
Is there a chance that the mobile app could let you upload images from cloud sources (Google Photos, OneDrive, etc)? I don't want to have to download an image just to post it on mobile.
Answer: Hi, @azraelreaperx!
So, what we can say first is that this is not supported right now, but we appreciate your question.
But we do have another suggestion. It is almost certain that if you are on a mobile device and have Tumblr installed, you can use the app’s Share function to post to Tumblr without having to download the image. Why give it a go and see what sticks?
And remember, if that Share option isn’t there, or isn’t working, please file a Support ticket and let us know!
We hope this is of some help, and thank you for your question. Keep ’em coming, folks.
shahrishi asked:
Realizing that Tumblr users can easily follow my posts, I'm considering how to engage users without accounts. I seek auto email subscription tools to encourage visitor interaction without mandatory sign-ups. Platforms like Medium and Substack offer such services, yet lack theme customization. On the flip side, Webflow, Wix, and Wordpress allow theme customization but lack email subscription options. There's a notable gap, and I believe Tumblr, with its focus on creativity, could bridge this.
Answer: Hi, @shahrishi!
As it happens, we, too, don’t dig anything that prevents non-logged-in people from seeing content on a network either—but it’s also true that requiring an account more often has helped Tumblr grow a fair bit in the last couple of years, so there’s a balance we’re trying to maintain. However, easing up that login wall is unlikely as things stand today. But we do have a suggestion. A loophole, if you will.
We would remind you that every blog on Tumblr has an RSS feed that’s free to use and doesn’t have any login wall—just add /rss to any blog URL, i.e., https://cyle.tumblr.com/rss.
We understand this is probably not exactly what you’re looking for, but maybe in the same direction. We hope it helps either way—and thank you for your question.
oikawabi-sabi-deactivated202401 asked:
hiya guys! i sent an ask a while ago, and i know you get a ton of them but some of my asks haven’t been going through so i figured i’d resend it just to be safe!
is there any chance you could make it so the accent color stays the same instead of darkening it? i know it’s supposed to be for contrast, but a lot of the time it actually makes it worse. for example, the accent was supposed to be the same tone as the light yellow of the title but the ask box was darkened and i think it makes it a lot harder to read to be honest:
hope you all have a great day, thank you for your hard work!
Answer: Hey, @oikawabi-sabi!
Thanks for getting in touch here. So, we can confirm that this is indeed intentional to try to ensure contrast stays acceptable. But you’re right that it doesn’t always produce the best results (like in your example). We’ll look into it and see how we can make the adjustment algorithm better.
We will be back in touch with updates as and when we have them. Keep an eye out on @changes for any updates, and here at @wip. Have a lovely day!
b-a-n-d-e-r asked:
since the only way to use a gif in chat now is to use the tumblr gif search function: can that function please only share THE CHOSEN GIF rather than telling people you are sharing a whole post and linking to a whole thing you have neither seen nor chosen to send someone? there's not even a way of previewing to make sure it isn't something weird rather than just the gif you saw and selected or of deleting if it turns out it is! gif search should let us simply post a gif, please. I understand you want to link back to the creator but maybe just link to their blog? Please at least present it differently rather than telling the message recipient you have sent them a post in the same way it would if you had shared a post with them by choice; it's confusing and weird. Clicking a gif should result in the gif appearing in the chat by itself, nothing else
Answer: Hey there, @b-a-n-d-e-r!
Thanks for reporting this to us! We agree—it’s a little weird that it says you’re sharing a post when you’re just sending a GIF. We’ve logged the bug, and we’ll get it fixed at some point. Sooner rather than later, we hope.
For all the latest on this one, keep a close eye on @changes, or indeed here at @wip!
julyzaa asked:
Will you guys fix the problem with editing answers for asks?
And also when will Live be gone for good?
Answer: Hey, @julyzaa!
Two questions need two answers.
Firstly, we are glad to say that the issue with editing answers was fixed as of Android 32.7, which just went out to y’all in the last week or so.
Secondly, the Live question. Tumblr Live is due to be shut down on January 24, and you can find out more here. There will be more information to come here, but that’s the long and short of it for now.
Thanks for your question, and have a good day!
bloodyboybreakdowns asked:
also sorry to send 2 asks basically at the same time but would yall consider making it possible to sort activity by groups of ppl as well as by type of interaction? (like make it possible to see interaction from just followers, maybe, or just people youre following)
Answer: Hello, @cowboybreakdowns!
So, those aren’t supported right now, but we appreciate you mentioning them. And we must add that, while it would be cool to do so, alas it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
But we do have another suggestion. You could build this yourself via our public API if you were so audacious. 👀
We hope this helps, and thanks for your question. Have a lovely day!
bloodyboybreakdowns asked:
is there any chance of prev tags returning anytime soon? everyone i know is really unhappy that they were removed, and the site just doesnt feel the same :/
Answer: Hey there, @cowboybreakdowns!
We have good news for you here.
Yes! As it happens, we are indeed working on adding a way to get to the previous parent post when viewing a reblog.
We hope to have more updates with you soon on this one. Keep an eye out on @changes for the latest, and thanks for your question!
theno1simp asked:
Is there any way we could have a color wheel/hex code for text instead of doing the html thing?
Answer: Hey, @theno1simp!
Maybe someday! We can certainly say we like this idea a lot, but can’t promise much more beyond that at this time.
Thanks for your question, and please do keep ‘em coming. And don’t forget, you can catch bi-weekly updates for new features, changes, and bugs we’ve resolved over at @changes.
If we have news on your suggestion, that will be the place to find it.
ecstaticallyelectrifying asked:
I'm not entirely sure how to word this so apologies if it doesn't make any sense lol but if I look at the trending tags I usually end up seeing a specific post from the 5 or so previews that show up underneath the tag in the search tab that interests me, so I click that post and get taken to the generic tag and end up having to scroll through the tag to find the one post that caught my eye. Admittedly I usually don't try too hard to find the posts but most of the time I don't even find them and just go back to my dash. I wish clicking on the post under trending topics would take me to that actual post in the tag.
I'm hoping that makes sense but tldr I wish if I clicked on one of the posts that are previewed under trending tags I'd get taken to that actual post within the tag (or just the post itself if that's the only way to do it) instead of being taken to the beginning of the tag.
Answer: Hey there, @ecstaticallyelectrifying!
No worries here, we understand what you are asking.
Perhaps, once clicked, it could open a feed with the specific post on top—as you see on Explore, when clicking on a post from the 3×3 recommendation grid below a post. Leave this with us, in any case. We’ll take a look into it and post on @changes if we have any updates to share. Thanks for getting in touch!
