A PSA for those who want Tumblr to add a more restrictive blocking feature that prevents users from even viewing their blogs.

See, that’s not viable because there would have to be a a way to discern the blocked user from the thousands of people who view your PUBLIC blog. Sure, an IP ban can work, but that’s easily bypassed by using another device or using a proxy.

I mean, you could accept that yourblog.tumblr.com is on the public web that can be accessed by anyone regardless of your beliefs, but that’s too hard.

What Tumblr can do is make a visibility setting between public and private blogs. A login-only blog. People signed out of Tumblr are confronted with a log-in page and must sign in to see the page. If the user is on a blocked list or has no account, then the page won’t load and boom, you’re happy.

Of course, this can be worked around by making an account, and it makes your blog harder for other people to discover. But hey, that’s the idea.

Tumblr, hire me.