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Tumblr has recently (actually, not so recently any more) disabled commenting on their platform. My partner is part of a relatively close running community that

Tumblr has recently (actually, not so recently any more) disabled commenting on their platform. My partner is part of a relatively close running community that used to use Tumblr to connect with others, give/receive encouragement about their runs, and so on. Since they disabled comments (with some half-hearted promise about bringing them back, well, sometime) hardly any of her friends post any more. Since, as this article says, Tumblr's business model is depending on people using it, removing comments (in favor of pushing people toward reblogging) seems ill-advised.

s_kilk 11y ago
This is a problem. Tumblr the Community are at the mercy of Tumblr/Yahoo the Corporation. My partner is also a user of Tumblr, and according to her much of the community are dissatisfied with the direction the company is heading. Actually, now that I think about it, the strategies outlined in this article are more likely to strangle both Tumblr and Yahoo than save either of them. I'm almost tempted to start working on the-next-tumblr and see if it's possible to tempt all those users over to a platform better suited for their needs.
6stringmerc 11y ago
Very interesting to me, because I'm working on a personal essy/reflective article about 'communities' online relating to message boards vs. commenting system. I never was a Tumblr user so I've got a quick question - were they using an in-house type commenting system or something like Disqus? Thanks for sharing the info about that change in context of this, it's helpful.
- theOnliest 11y ago
  They were using an in-house thing; some blogs also have Disqus comments enabled but nobody really uses them, as far as I can tell. (Even when they did, they were outside the stream of native Tumblr replies, and didn't show up in users' dashboards.)
  - 6stringmerc 11y ago
    Got it, thanks. I've been trying to categorize and review the different approaches. If it's not too much trouble to reply once more, was there any form of 'moderation' involved in the grand scheme of things? Like a flagging system for bad posts or some kind of behind the scenes 'review' process where comments/posts violating terms/conditions/standards would result in deleting a post or eventually banning an account? Thank you for your time!
    - theOnliest 11y ago
      I'm honestly not sure (I don't have a Tumblr myself; I just read my wife's blog!) I think that probably users could block comments from people, or have some kind of moderation over their own, but I'm not sure about flagging or any system globally.
caractacus 11y ago
Why would they do this? Remove comments? Unless trolling and racism and abuse were an overwhelming problem on the platform (and I don't believe they were any worse than anywhere else) why would a major platform built on user engagement deliberately disable comments?
- lmm 11y ago
  They push people to reblog instead, which results in more overall engagement. (Probably because it makes it much easier to stoke flamewars, but that doesn't show up in the metrics...)
- theOnliest 11y ago
  Beats me. The announcement about them disabling it was in late October (http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our-dust-hey-you-know-the-reply-feature http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our-dust-...), and on Nov. 4 they confirmed they were coming back, eventually (http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david-wizardries-can-tumblr-make-it-so-we http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david-wizardries...). There's been no movement since then as far as I can tell. I think they want the reblog to be the primary form of engagement, but that's silly for a lot of things, because the entire original post shows up in the reblog by default. For a running community (just one example), that's pretty lousy: you don't want to clutter up your own blog just to say "That's really fast, congratulations! Keep it up!" to a dozen other people.
adnzzzzZ 11y ago
>Since, as this article says, Tumblr's business model is depending on people using it, removing comments (in favor of pushing people toward reblogging) seems ill-advised. They've recently added a chat system. http://i.imgur.com/Aw8EEvh.png http://i.imgur.com/Aw8EEvh.png It's the smiley face in the middle. I don't know if it's default yet but I have it right now and it works fine. The only difference is that in a chat system comments aren't public, but if you're giving other people feedback this works fine. I think this is a good middle ground between the network effects they get with reblogging and just being able to give people feedback without spamming your followers.
- theOnliest 11y ago
  I knew about the chat, but it's not really the same thing at all. That's as if Facebook removed the ability to comment on posts, but said "Oh it's cool, we still have chat!" It works ok, as you say, if you just want to say "Great job," but it's not the same use case.

s_kilk 11y ago

This is a problem. Tumblr the Community are at the mercy of Tumblr/Yahoo the Corporation. My partner is also a user of Tumblr, and according to her much of the community are dissatisfied with the direction the company is heading. Actually, now that I think about it, the strategies outlined in this article are more likely to strangle both Tumblr and Yahoo than save either of them. I'm almost tempted to start working on the-next-tumblr and see if it's possible to tempt all those users over to a platform better suited for their needs.

6stringmerc 11y ago

Very interesting to me, because I'm working on a personal essy/reflective article about 'communities' online relating to message boards vs. commenting system. I never was a Tumblr user so I've got a quick question - were they using an in-house type commenting system or something like Disqus? Thanks for sharing the info about that change in context of this, it's helpful.

theOnliest 11y ago
They were using an in-house thing; some blogs also have Disqus comments enabled but nobody really uses them, as far as I can tell. (Even when they did, they were outside the stream of native Tumblr replies, and didn't show up in users' dashboards.)
- 6stringmerc 11y ago
  Got it, thanks. I've been trying to categorize and review the different approaches. If it's not too much trouble to reply once more, was there any form of 'moderation' involved in the grand scheme of things? Like a flagging system for bad posts or some kind of behind the scenes 'review' process where comments/posts violating terms/conditions/standards would result in deleting a post or eventually banning an account? Thank you for your time!
  - theOnliest 11y ago
    I'm honestly not sure (I don't have a Tumblr myself; I just read my wife's blog!) I think that probably users could block comments from people, or have some kind of moderation over their own, but I'm not sure about flagging or any system globally.

caractacus 11y ago

Why would they do this? Remove comments? Unless trolling and racism and abuse were an overwhelming problem on the platform (and I don't believe they were any worse than anywhere else) why would a major platform built on user engagement deliberately disable comments?

lmm 11y ago
They push people to reblog instead, which results in more overall engagement. (Probably because it makes it much easier to stoke flamewars, but that doesn't show up in the metrics...)
theOnliest 11y ago
Beats me. The announcement about them disabling it was in late October (http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our-dust-hey-you-know-the-reply-feature http://support.tumblr.com/post/131951272032/pardon-our-dust-...), and on Nov. 4 they confirmed they were coming back, eventually (http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david-wizardries-can-tumblr-make-it-so-we http://support.tumblr.com/post/132577661107/david-wizardries...). There's been no movement since then as far as I can tell. I think they want the reblog to be the primary form of engagement, but that's silly for a lot of things, because the entire original post shows up in the reblog by default. For a running community (just one example), that's pretty lousy: you don't want to clutter up your own blog just to say "That's really fast, congratulations! Keep it up!" to a dozen other people.

adnzzzzZ 11y ago

>Since, as this article says, Tumblr's business model is depending on people using it, removing comments (in favor of pushing people toward reblogging) seems ill-advised. They've recently added a chat system. http://i.imgur.com/Aw8EEvh.png http://i.imgur.com/Aw8EEvh.png It's the smiley face in the middle. I don't know if it's default yet but I have it right now and it works fine. The only difference is that in a chat system comments aren't public, but if you're giving other people feedback this works fine. I think this is a good middle ground between the network effects they get with reblogging and just being able to give people feedback without spamming your followers.

theOnliest 11y ago
I knew about the chat, but it's not really the same thing at all. That's as if Facebook removed the ability to comment on posts, but said "Oh it's cool, we still have chat!" It works ok, as you say, if you just want to say "Great job," but it's not the same use case.