Plannin' On It

The new fan mail ‘feature’ says a lot about Tumblr.

frageelay:

It’s pointless (given the existence of the askbox), its style is dated, the way it works doesn’t even make sense, and it adds zero value to the existing user experience.

Is it overstating the point to add: “Unlike missing-e”?

I can think of about 20 other features that would benefit the user experience (particularly on the mobile apps), and none of them involve handwriting fonts and fake paper backgrounds.

Agreed. My guess is the askbox system really wasn’t built for messaging, which is how a lot of us were using it. So, they built a messaging system. I have no problem with that, though I think the better solution would be beefing up the existing system.

But why give it such a silly interface? That’s the part I don’t get. Keep it simple.