

The Tumblr Story - j053003
http://www.observer.com/2008/would-you-take-tumblr-man?page=0

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crazydiamond
Their tech support does not seem too good. Many months back I wrote a command-
line client to post/edit/delete etc in tumblr.

Posting an image gave an error (using their API). I forwarded that to tech
support. Weeks later i even wrote to Marco. But no reply from anyone.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
If they're as lean as the article makes out (it is from 2008, so maybe they're
bigger now) then I can understand why.

I have many, many fewer users than that and I'm still overwhelmed with tech
support requests. Can't login, forgot my password, mistyped my email, feature
X isn't working right, etc, etc, etc. Now mind you, most of these are flat-out
user error, not actual bugs to fix. Still, I try to reply and help out with
each one. Usually it involves some hand holding.

I don't know what I'm going to do if our userbase keeps growing.

~~~
crazydiamond
Some of that can go into a FAQ, or even be a link (such as cant login or
forgot password). Much easier to put a link that reply to each person.

However, surely when you've put up an API for others to use, you should have
tested it out. It's not a large API. My email was quite clear too in its
title, that its a bug.

I really know what you mean in that last line of yours!

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
I almost pre-responded to this response, since I knew it was coming.

 _Put it in a FAQ or even a link_ \- There is a link to "forgot password" on
the sign-in page, plus a FAQ, plus an article in the FAQ called "Having
trouble logging in?", plus some smarts in the ticket system to prompt people
who email about logging in with a message saying, "Maybe you should read this
article titled 'Having trouble logging in?'

That's like 4 layers of tech-support between the user and me, and I still get
emails about people needing password help.

Trust me: Any site with a sizable userbase will have a lot of support
requests. You can find ways to mitigate some of it, but the only way to
mitigate all of it is to provide poor customer support.

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crazydiamond
I still really haven't understood in what way is tumblr different from
blogspot etc. Is it just a reduced version of blogging.

There's no size limit. It takes photos, videos, text etc. The only thing is
does easier is login (from your own client or command-line), since (IIRC)
that's unencrypted (which is obviously not good, but acceptable if what you
put up is just some junk notes).

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adg
"So far, Tumblr is growing, but it’s nowhere near MySpace’s 70 million users
or Facebook’s 61 million or even Wordpress’ 3 to 4 million [...]"

Ah, how things change...

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sunchild
Ironically, this little NYC scene (including the author of this article) is
also very incestuous and prone to logrolling.

