← Backward in time Page 1 of 10
August 19, 2009
...Dear Boss Lady,
When you use that tone like you would like to jump through the phone and choke me, I will get progressively more and more reticent. And when you ask me what is wrong and I tell you that you are being extremely aggressive without reason, it’s probably not advisable to get nastier.
choke on it,
SMM
We don’t usually give life advice, but it kind of sounds like you hate your job. You should quit before she finds your blog and poisons the office water one day.
Reader Mail.
. (very descriptive name!) writes,
What about unfollow firday? [sic] Is there any point to that? No one, especially a teen-ager, needs to know why they were unfollowed. Simply clickg [sic] that unfollow button is enough. There’s no need for this loser project of Ben’s.
We say: Unfollow Friday is like a crude, reader-generated version of Tumbletiquette. It has no guiding principles, no anchoring rules, but it does impose a sort of consciousness on Tumblr as a whole.
The idea itself, taken in abstract and assuming people act politely, is a good one. Often, people post whiny ponderings about why they were unfollowed. Unfollow Friday addresses that, and, we hope, prevents users from complaining they’re losing followers quite as much. Because before, when they asked “why?”, they meant it quite rhetorically, since most are far too sensitive to take criticism. Therefore, Unfollow Friday acted as both a salve and a deterrent.
Do not under any circumstances reblog an Unfollow Friday post about you and cry about how mean and negative people are. If you must comment at all on it, be humble and funny about the whole thing. No one wants to hear you whine about meta issues. Really. No…really.
As for whether teenagers need to hear criticism or not, they shouldn’t even be on Tumblr. There’s enough butthurt ‘round these parts as it is.
The project has somewhat devolved because those very teenagers submit entries themselves, thus diluting the ability to snark-sympathize with a majority of posts. We are aware Ben was criticized for selectively editing posts in the past, but he should continue to do so to prevent undesirable messages getting through.
(Note: Speaking of butthurt, the term Unfollow Friday was coined by brianvan, the Butthurt King to Rule Them All.)
August 14, 2009
...Is it unethical to have ads on your Tumblr?
Assuming people read your shitty-ass blog is completely egotistical. Nobody reads Slartibartpants—I do it because I can’t find anything to do at work. But if someone actually does visit your site why not have unintrusive ads? Why not make a little cash off of posting pictures of Hitler? It’s not art, it’s satire. I’m not putting the McDonalds arches on the Mona Lisa, I’m putting a bumper sticker on a Honda Civic.
Over the course of this argument I have made $2.
We were more talking about the comparing Obama to Hitler theme to your little blog, than making money off of it. The profiting off of an already revolting idea is just icing on the cake.
Reader Comment
Sam asks,
Is importing your Twitter feed bad protocol? Does it clog up other people’s Tumblr feeds with stuff they’d rather not read… and if they did, they’d just follow you on Twitter? What if your main use of Tumblr is as a funnel, so you can gather feeds, and then post a unified stream to your website? Does that legitimize it a little bit?
Importing your Twitter feed is bad protocol. We don’t care how many times David Karp whinges on about how Twitter and Tumblr get together and sing Kumbaya at weekly campfires; he hates Twitter, and so does everyone else, even the people on it. (Nick Douglas obviously excluded, but then again, he’s the only one making money off that thing anyhow.)
If you’re feeding your banal, hoping-to-be-pithy, link-heavy “tweets” (shudder) into your Tumblr, you are diluting the clear water. You are piping sewage in here. Is that what you want?
Yes, they’d follow you on Twitter if they wanted to. No, whatever you said about gathering feeds does not legitimize it.
Here’s what you do: Click a text post. Write <140 characters of text. Pretend you’re on Twitter. Or better yet, just use Twitter exclusively.
We’re back, motherbitches!
Obama Is Literally Hitler is now profiting
Fuck yes. I am a professional blogger, or something.What kind of page views are you getting?
As of 6:00 Tuesday I’ve had 60,000 visitors. Tues Night 20.5k; Weds 30.5k; Yesterday 9k. Today I’ve had 6k page impressions (yesterday I had 12K). I’m assuming it’s going to taper off pretty well as the gag gets old but fuckit, I’m making money off of posting pictures of Obama and Hitler, even if it is nearly negligible.
What? Stop.
Do you really think I’m not going to try to cash in on this? There’s an opportunity for me to make money off of a webpage that has pictures of Obama and Hitler. I wouldn’t possibly want to ruin the pure art of blogging by bringing capitalism into the picture, right? That would totally ruin the ART, mannn.
This site will be entertaining for a week, max. Might as well enjoy the ride.
Oh, well, in that case. Please! Continue your astonishing lack of common sense and decency. We hope you get a book deal out of it. After all, it couldn’t possibly be any worse than the Boner Party book.
Tumblr is serious business, comrades.
We would be much obliged if you’d help us out by sending etiquette-worthy emails to us. The entirety of the Tumblr-fail crowd is quite outside our full purview.
etiquette.tumblr@gmail.com
Obama Is Literally Hitler is now profiting
Fuck yes. I am a professional blogger, or something.What kind of page views are you getting?
As of 6:00 Tuesday I’ve had 60,000 visitors. Tues Night 20.5k; Weds 30.5k; Yesterday 9k. Today I’ve had 6k page impressions (yesterday I had 12K). I’m assuming it’s going to taper off pretty well as the gag gets old but fuckit, I’m making money off of posting pictures of Obama and Hitler, even if it is nearly negligible.
What? Stop.
What a difference pink tutus make…
Julia stayed well after our meeting ended today and we just talked. We talked like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. For some reason tonight, all the stress, anticipation, pressure and guilt I’ve felt this year on a constant basis subsided. I could feel that both Julia and I had stopped beating ourselves up for not achieving the lofty (perfectionist) goals we had originally set out to do with NonSociety.
Long ago my vision somehow got clouded, and I lost sight of what actually matters. Besides the thrill of building and exploring, I lost sight of the people in front of me full of genuine love and friendship. The people close to me that can see things I sometimes can’t see myself.
With that, tonight I saw Julia. I finally saw my old friend again. My Julia. Stripped of all the stress we once felt, all the bossiness that means well, but often comes across overbearing. She stood in my kitchen with dyed crimson hair, no makeup, she was real….she was beautiful. All the name-dropping we once reveled in - gone. All the pressure we once felt - gone. All the fear - gone. Yes, we felt free enough to have a reflective conversation about how much had changed over the last year.
With the perspective of age and a year that feels as fast as it feels long, I could tell that tonight we had arrived at peace. I knew in my heart that we would not only survive the hiccups, the bad decisions and self-doubts of our initial venture. We’d more than just make it through another year; we’d thrive and find a happiness that can only be achieved with vision and hard work.
Yes, we spent a better part of this year doing zany stunts (often very out of character for me). Can you imagine being a grown woman fresh out of working with the staunch suits in finance, suddenly wearing neon spandex in Times Square lip dubbing to “Dancing in the Streets?”
We fought like sisters, three different perspectives. I, most of the time, didn’t even bother to voice my opinion. It was too much effort to exert, while trying to navigate a site in the dark. The hairy times were familial.
Dysfunctional, but familial.
Yes, I admit I was a bad blogger. I put 10% of my effort into writing and the other 90% stressing out about what my readers would think of me. “Would they think my opinions are stupid? Would they call me a luddite?” Sometimes all of my fears would be validated by reading a deprecating comment or a nasty email. Like a friend, I was fearful if my audience REALLY got to know me they wouldn’t like me.
I felt exposed in this new very public digital sphere. Where were the rules? I wanted to be everyone’s friend, but in the end, my content just became a snooze-fest. I became a self-proclaimed “Geekette,” but seriously, what the hell does that even mean anyways? I’m a fan of technology? Who really cares? These days, who isn’t in L-O-V-E with their iPhone?
Yes, our little online experiment was a bit of a struggle for me personally. Partially because I’m a very private person, I’m used to keeping a good game face on no matter what I feel inside.
With that I was forced to either ignore, or try to figure out who was the real “Meghan Asha.” I choose the latter, all while feeling exposed in a public forum. Putting things out online felt like being examined under a microscope. Talk about seeing your imperfections - they were all over this digital space, not to mention viewed by others in real time.
Coming from corporate I had so many judgments on what I was doing:
Did I look like an idiot? Sometimes.
Was my writing shallow? Often.
And videos? Don’t even get me started on my amateur editing.When I quit my job a year and a half ago I thought I had it all figured out. Just because I decided to follow my passion and “live differently” didn’t mean I entirely knew who I was. So often, I took the easy way out this year, letting the business run me, rather than me run the business. I got scared, I tuned out, at points I even lost my passion, wondering how the heck I got myself involved in such an avant garde digital venture. My default is to follow rules, not take chances and adhere to a plan. For anyone wanting to be an entrepreneur this is an awful way to be.
Throughout the year, I often wondered how the heck I signed up for this circus. We used ourselves as online guinea pigs in a pseudo version that sometimes felt like a bad version of the Truman Show, what could possibly come from this?
Actually a lot.
With all the craziness, all the financial pressure, the emotional questions that made me want to disassociate - even with the judgmental emails from readers, friends, and family members - I still wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change the time in our business where we became in love with our own reflections and neglected to see the bigger picture. I wouldn’t change the dramatic dashes to the airport where we almost made our cabbie crash because of our own time constraints. I wouldn’t change dressing up in Three Musketeers costumes that took more than a thousand candy bars to make. I wouldn’t change blogging my life in sometimes the most superficial way possible, looking like a party girl at times, with not a deep bone in my body.
It all was worth it. It was a wild ride.
I lived imperfectly perfect this year. I lived in vibrant colors surrounded by pink tutus, a statuesque blonde and way too many little barking dogs that I’ve since grown to love. Gone was exactly what I wanted to be rid of - the grayness of my cubical, the mundane. Yes, at times I longed for a schedule, for the haven of a 9 to 5. Even for (surprise, surprise) anonymity away from the critical eye of the Internet.
But isn’t it always the case? You never really get perspective until after the fact.
Things are hectic still, but I have also calmed down. I have a clearer more confident sense of where we’re going, where I’d like to take the site, what I want my role to be, and my comfort level being online. I don’t know what happened, maybe I just got past that ever so prevalent quarter-life crisis, whatever it is, it feels good. I’m more than ready for the next chapter; I know it’s going to be a goody.
Thank you for reading and thank you for coming along for the ride…
Let’s cut through the tl;dr:
- dyed crimson hair
- bossiness
- bad decisions
- failed at doing anything with NonSociety
- Love this: “Can you imagine being a grown woman fresh out of working with the staunch suits in finance, suddenly wearing neon spandex in Times Square lip dubbing to “Dancing in the Streets?” thereby saying Julia is not a grown woman (which, obvs)
- “live differently” in air quotes because it is absurd
- fighting (BUT LIKE SISTERS!)
- yapping, pooping dogs
May 7, 2009
...Tumblarity OH NO
So, Tumblr has unveiled another stupid new feature, and, predictably, the peanut gallery is whining about it. Wake us up when there’s another nude picture scandal.
