I discovered last night that Tumblr now supports ?sort=asc in the inbox, which means I now have quick access to the deep recesses of history. Bearing in mind that this is all unanswered stuff that I obviously didn’t feel necessitated a reply, here’s what I’ve noticed.

• It’s easy to forget that DMs are a recent addition to Tumblr, and once upon a time we actually had to chat via private asks. As a consequence, there are relatively few anons.
• No one was asking for advice. Unless you count “how can I convince you to love me?”
• The absence of advice aside, the tonal range of the asks was almost entirely the same. Which is weird, because I don’t remember them being as desperately passionate as they are today. I guess it makes sense… back then, I honestly wasn’t ready to deal with that intensity of love and admiration coming at me from strangers.
• Thanks to The Great Tumblr Mastectomy of 2018, it’s like a “-deactivated” graveyard in there.
• With that said, it’s pretty cool, seeing that the people at the top of my DMs in 2021 are some of the same people at the bottom of my asks in 2014.

I think I’m gonna answer a few, and give someone a thrill that’s been seven years in the making.