No One Said It Would be Easy | Another Tumblr Post About Tumblr

Another Tumblr Post About Tumblr

As with all places/spaces that have human beings in them, Tumblr has its good points and its bad points.

However, it has some problems that are unique to the online world. Namely, the cloak of anonymity that some people choose to hide behind when they hurt, harrass, slander etc other people.

It is a well known psychological fact that if people feel anonymous then they naturally fear consequences less and thus any anti-social instincts they have lurking in their hearts are more likely to be acted upon.

The real problem, then, is not really the anonymity - which can be a blessing for people who feel like they can’t share their real thoughts and feelings with folks who know them in real life - is it the perceived lack of consequences for bad behaviour.

That is why some social media sites have been very successful in combating that type of bad online behaviour by putting systems in places that either help people protect themselves against online harrassment and harm, and/or that actually hand out consequences that make the assholes think twice (i.e. banning problem users, having formal harassment complaint channels etc).

Tumblr is not perfect from a technological POV. I would love if it had certain features that would make the experience more user-friendly.

However, all of those things pale in comparison to the fact that almost every day, I hear about someone being treated badly by someone else on this site - only because there are virtually NO features or systems in place to protect Tumblr users from the “bad guys.”

To me, this is unacceptable. Tumblr’s staff needs to realize that, at the very least, they should provide better privacy protection features to its users (as in, the ability to have a fully-functional password-protected main blog).

I know Tumblr is not really known for listening to the needs of its users - but this isn’t just some nice-to-have feature, IMO. It’s what needs to happen in order to enable all of our friends feel safe here. Without it, more and more people will eventually just leave/delete, so it makes good business sense for them, as well.

I have NEVER asked for re-blogs or this kind of assistance from anyone on Tumblr in my life - but if you agree with me on this, kindly reblog (with your thoughts added, if you wish) and/or if you know of ANY way that can make the folks at Tumblr listen to this suggestion, I’d be very appreciative.

co-signed

(Source: incognito-jewels)