Yay! I feared I would be the last one — such as on the New New Twitter that’s still an urban myth according to me — but then of course the Missing E Destroys message popped up. And I think I need to speak out a bit.

1. This is way more of an intrusion of privacy than Missing E has been guilty of (which to my knowledge is none.)
2. False information is nobody’s friend even if it seems like it at the time.
3. You wanted people to do things with your API. That some would want to use what you provided in a more serious fashion would come as no surprise. Some people make sites that showcase all green photos posted during the last 24 hours and some want to improve things they don’t like on the dashboard. Seriously. Clue by four, people.
4. My only contact with support was when I reported a dashboard bug — one easily repeatable on several browsers and two computers. I had to describe it to three different people despite everything was quoted in the emails and after that I was told that they “won’t offer support on custom themes.” That’s not support. 
5. Some of the people who work at Tumblr are nice and I like them. I also like many of the users, this is what keeps me here despite the growing close-mindedness of the platform.
6. I’m an obnoxious asshole as well as stubborn when it comes to things such as these. Had it been possible I would right now have installed two or three instances of Missing E. That’s just me though.

The future is not bright for ‘Missing e’

missing-e:

Whether or not I have grounds to justly disagree with them on this, the fact remains that under the Tumblr Terms of Service, they are well within their rights to delete my Tumblr blogs as a punitive action should I continue to distribute the extension. They have informed me that this is the course of action they will take should I not acquiesce to their demands.

I attempted to discuss options through which we could work together on making Missing e something they would accept, but after initial positive statements, they seemed fairly averse to the idea. Their intent is for me to stop distribution of Missing e in any form.

Their concerns range from a perception of an increased support load due to “issues” with Missing e features to a desire to dictate how the Tumblr interface is presented to all users. Even after my commitment to them that I would not permit any feature that removes their content or modifies it in any way that would prevent promotional content from being visible from users, they still would not change their position in any way.

I have requested that the request be given in writing so as to (hopefully) clarify the position and their reasons for choosing the option of deleting my blogs as a solution to their “Missing e problem”. Whether or not any satisfaction or understanding for any Missing e user will be gained from this remains to be seen.

In the meantime, within a respectable amount of time after the official request from Tumblr arrives, Missing e will be shuttered once more. Either that, or I am forced out of this community.

Classy move, Tumblr. Real fucking classy. This really doesn’t feel like the same place as it did even a year ago. Still love the product despite everything, but damn, they don’t make it easy to be liked.

Hi Tumblr! That lightbox viewer that’s used then one click the dashboard high-res link? It’s really usless. Often the high-res is shown smaller than the regular dashboard image which is such a stupid fail I have a bit of a loss for words. (I think the lightbox is rather clunky with photosets too but I’ll let that slide.)

Latest thing on the tumblr dashboard EXIF bug has made me laugh and cry.

You may need to edit and test you custom HTML to work with the new EXIF feature? Unfortunately, we can’t provide technical support for HTML customizations. Given our large number of users, we just don’t have the resources. My apologies.

This on a dashboard bug. I get that several people are involved reading and handling the support tickets, but really, reading through them shouldn’t be that hard considering it’s all quoted in the mail. The civil tone I liked, but it doesn’t help when it ignores the subject completely.

It has been quiet though since I answered this with colour-coded images of the dashboard. Hopefully it’ll be fixed. Sometime. Or there will be more questions that has nothing to do with it as soon as the time zones catch up.

So I reported the dashboard photo EXIF bug that hindered reply/reblog/like on the post below to be clicked unless said photo is expanded. Replicable in Chrome, Opera and Firefox.

And follow-up questions I get back from support? Of course it includes “Does restarting your computer and your modem/router help at all?” I wonder if they read the email I sent before they sent out the canned follow-up questions. Somehow, I doubt it.

Amazing.

Annoying thing on dashboard: that sometimes you have to expand the post above just to be able to click reply/reblog/like. Not entirely sure when it happens but it appears to be first post below photo posts that full-fill some criteria. I almost couldn’t like a clip with Anthony Bourdain in a children’s show.

Points about the new dashboard.

• The top. Thumbs up. That you can move and have the most used tumblrs next to the dashboard link, that’s great — although it’s probably horrible for people with lots and lots of tumblrs.
• Moving queue and messages off the dashboard? Eh, yeah, that’s not going to make people forget to use those. Those need to be up front. Really.
• Bold saved tags. Fail to see the benefit of the super-attention to those.
• The search forms split up and on relevant pages. Sure. Good. Just make it better by actually finding things.
• The green Following bar and that clicking it just goes to the dashboard and not people you follow. Still idiotic. Made no sense before with the hidden gear icon, less so now.
• The slightly larger notifications and icons — great those. The smallest icon size was useless for anything.
• All in all, despite the bad ideas behind some of the changes, the overall feel is that it’s good. The old design was clonky at places and not especially open to new functions.

In order to keep sanity, the hide follower on the dashboard frontpage is a great userscript. The en masse drop in followers don’t affect the brain that makes you question yourself. Which is odd since I think I would like some lesser number there anyway. The brain is nothing if not fickle and illogical. Think the main fear is that people who stop reading are those I like. Abandonment issues that amok, the social web is not always a good thing.