Don't Do That.

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.)