As you all have noticed, we now get flooded with “Recommended” posts from Tumblr on the mobile app. And as you all have noticed, these recommendations have no respect for your actual topics of interests (for that given Tumblr account, that is). To make matters worse, we now get so many of these recommendations that we get to see very little posts from the blogs we actually chose to follow and are eager to see. And here’s an obvious example.
To begin with, I don’t think that my interest in nude men is a huge disclosure. But let me bring this fact forward for clarity’s sake. Frankly, I think anybody who follows my blog understands this, but in case there’s any doubt, my publicly browsable likes should make this crystal clear… Yet, for the last three days, every single time I fire up Tumblr’s app, this is the first post I see, happily recommended by Tumblr :
Seriously ?Is that the only recommendation Tumblr can come up with for a gay guy whose blog features nude men gloriously masturbating ? That’s a massive algorithmic fail, Tumblr !
Please understand that I’m not allergic or opposed to seeing girls. That’s not my point here. Not at all. My point is : this picture is a galaxy away from this account’s subject matter. And I’m sure that this is painfully obvious to anyone. Except Tumblr, apparently !
Worse, for a site that purports to pride itself on being open to diversity, queerness and everything, I’ve seen very little gay recommendations ever since this fiasco has begun. I have seen, however, my fair share of anime, ice-cream cones and bacon-laden hamburgers (as if I actually cared). And now this.
As they stand, Tumblr’s recommendations feel like a demonstration of bad faith. Because my reblogs for the last 6 years, the blogs I’ve followed over this same period as well as all my likes would make it exceedingly easy for an honestly purposed algorithm to bring up pertinent suggestions.
Either that or this algorithm was written by a group of incompetent fools that should be ashamed of themselves.
I’ll admit that it’s a bit awkward to make this post when I’ve been radio silent for so long. But given that tumblr’s new “adult content” algorithm has managed to flag Kwan Yin and several infants, it’s probably time to shut down this tumblr.
Please find me as gracedpalmer at twitter, mastodon, and pillowfort, where I’ll try to post more art soon. If you still keep up with it, you can also find me as gpalmer at deviantart.
My main website is gracedpalmer.com
Tumblr’s been great and I thank you all, but this is just silly.
My apologies if you sent me a message and I haven’t responded….Tumblr’s inbox message system doesn’t have dates, and I can’t see if/what I replied….so if you send me a message please give me some type of time frame/date indication as to when you sent it so I can track my life.
