It’s not the infographics on the page that interest me, rather it’s the trend of emphasizing a user’s popularity on the network. Lamentably, I think this metric will come to define the experience for the next generation of social networks. I fear that the internet’s utility will equate to constant awareness of one’s value, and the play of meaningless games to increase the sum. This in turn will render many networks impersonal and irrelevant. Like a candidate’s bid speech for high school class presidency, I fear my Tumblr dashboard will become padded with ‘popular stuff’ sure to garner votes rather than the intimate, vulnerable and quirky bits that I’ve enjoyed, and define Tumblr’s personality.
I’m disappointed by Tumblarity, and Ashton’s follower count for the same reasons. I liked the Internet better when it was nebulous, and now I’m depressed that it shaping up to be a social pyramid.
i really didn’t want to bring this discussion into my blog but i feel like it’s important. not because i’m on tumblr but because i care about the social evolution of community on the web. this morning, i mustered up enough to echo zach’s sentiment and call-out this new change:
i think i might call bull on this at first pass. not that i really care what a pretty arbitrary # means to an insular community but because it’s self-serving. i doubt i’ll ever care what my tumblrwhatever is because i use tumblr to run my blog.
the number crunching is taking into account supposed “influence” within a community as a way to leverage content. rightfully so, tumblr has the right to do this but i doubt this will help GROW community the right way. is it calculating WHOM the people are that make up these numbers? especially outside the world of tumblr? i don’t think so and that’s the biggest thing about the web. we can cry from the rooftops about metrics, pageviews, uniques, visitors, share of voice, whatever. think about it though - as a number, that is the extent of our definition and, unfortunately, the extent of our perception.
Originally posted as a comment by john ratcliffe-lee on Tumblr Staff using Disqus.
a good visual representation of this argument can be found here.
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