The thing that distinguishes Tumblr shitposts from shitposts on other social media platforms isn’t the content, it’s the register. The hairpin code-switching between very formal and very vulgar speech – the kind of speech that will use the words “increasingly” and “fucktrumpet” in the same sentence.
It’s the Homestuck accent
Thank you so much! This is the absolute worst way you could’ve described this type of speech
The thing that really annoys me most about that terrible post about tumblr converting GIFs to mp4s is that the quality loss isn’t from the conversion of GIF to mp4 is when you took the h264/h265 video you started with, and turned it into a GIF!
If I could just upload the mpeg4 video or a webp file as an animated image to begin with, there would be so MUCH less loss in quality!
This is bad. Tumblr is the only mainstream site left where you can post GIFs and they’ll continue to be GIFs – well, sort of, as Tumblr previously tested and implemented turning GIF into GIFV with the same purpose, and it decreases the quality of the original GIF file. Turning them into MP4 videos is even worse.
GIFs are GIFs. They’re not videos. Creators spend hours making a GIF that will look good as a GIF, not as a video.
I hope I don’t need to explain to anyone why continuing to screw over creators is bad for a site like Tumblr, whose continued existence depends on creators not giving up on it, and why gif-making is important to fandom existence.
I for one will not continue to make any more gifsets if I know they’ll just be turned into MP4 files. It’s disappointing to spend my time making something and watch it become ugly once it’s uploaded – and that’s what is already happening without the MP4 conversion.
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Don’t bother sending a support ticket! They will tell you to do what I’m about to tell you:
Send an ask or submission to @wip – the official “work in progress” blog of Tumblr where people can send in suggestions.
Their ask box is open every Monday from 6AM to 6PM EST.
The conversation isn’t over, guys, but it’s important to be a part of it. If you’re a creator or support creators (and you should), then set an alarm on Monday and go send them a message.
Actually I did some more research into the samples and I’m wrong about the VP8 vs MP4 part: They’re using VP8 lossless.
However, this means, OP still isn’t right about:
1) “decreases the quality of the original GIF file.”
It’s a lossless conversion between gif frames and VP8 frames. As long as it gets the decompression correct, the composting on the previous frame correct and the frame delay correct it’s going to be indistinguishable. (webp is better since it generally compresses better. Remember everyone complaining about the mobile app? File sizes are a part of this.)
I WAS going to say: “this doesn’t mean there’s any difference between a GIF and a webp file. Because there’s a quirk in the way gif delay is calculated you can’t have a gif with a frame delay under 20ms delays get changed to delays of 100ms.”
But I just tested it and the delay converts correctly:
The frame timing is exactly 1:1 between webp and gif
2) “you can post GIFs and they’ll continue to be GIFs“
No, they’re webp files. They’ve been webp files and not gifs for almost three years now.
