Tumblr removed access to RAW images (and why you should care)

In case you didn't know for a long time there was a URL hack that allowed us to grab the highest-quality images from Tumblr. We called these "raw" images specifically because the URL hack involved changing the "1280" number at the end of an image's URL to "raw". I'm sure any veteran uploader knows this.

Well now that access has been suddenly and unceremoniously removed...you can test it yourself by going to this link:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/6194c0fccbeed6d705f94a571f1f8424/tumblr_otunei3rmG1uy441zo2_raw.jpg

Access denied...this means every image from Tumblr will be capped at 1280x1920 and compressed...meaning a good amount of the images you see on this site will probably have a significant drop in quality.

I encourage everyone to make tickets to Tumblr support asking them to bring back RAW images: https://www.tumblr.com/support

Also like/reblog this post: http://thoughtfulcyclefire.tumblr.com/post/176920969607

Thanks, and hopefully we can bring back RAW images if they see enough people care!

Dyrone said:

meaning a good amount of the images you see on this site will probably have a significant drop in quality.

Getting a bit closer to the common Twitter JPEG post, at least.

...we can bring back RAW images if they see enough people care!

>implying that Tumblr gives a shit about the majority of its users

http://rule34.paheal.net/post/view/2677319

RAWs aren't coming back.

Already made a ticket two days ago. Their response was the generic "it's gone because it's gone, we don't give a shit about your opinion".

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to let me know your thoughts about downloading raw image files.

Your suggestions and feedback help to guide us as we make additions and improvements to Tumblr. I’ll make sure to pass them along to our engineering team.

Let me know if you think of anything else to add!

Thanks again,
Jay,

Tumblr Community Support

Someone also started a twitter to try and bring attention to the problem: https://twitter.com/MakeTumblrRaw

My last post was snagged off Tumblr, post #3223122. There the artist used the png format, so at least compression artifacts are avoidable.

OOZ662 said:

Getting a bit closer to the common Twitter JPEG post, at least.

Not really the same thing. Twitter recompresses all images to a lower quality JPEG with a maximum width and height of 2048px or 4096px. Tumblr generally keeps the file format the same and recompresses JPEGs with a higher quality setting than Twitter but with a maximum width of 1280px and a maximum height of 1920px.

AngryZapdos said:

>implying that Tumblr gives a shit about the majority of its users

http://rule34.paheal.net/post/view/2677319

RAWs aren't coming back.

That entire thread and the possible culmination that it lead to screwing over all the users on Tumblr really couldn't have made me dislike Patreon artists even more then I do already.

pc88 said:

That entire thread and the possible culmination that it lead to screwing over all the users on Tumblr really couldn't have made me dislike Patreon artists even more then I do already.

Let's not imply hating on sub-minimum wage artists is the moral thing to do here. This guy was petty in a way I've never seen before, especially since he could've just solved his problem by resizing his images before uploading...

Unfortunately for us, I don't think many people will notice or care. I browse Tumblr a decent amount and still have never heard of grabbing raw uploads outside this website. Not even any of the guides I read about the site's compression mentioned it.

tapnek said:

Not really the same thing. Twitter recompresses all images to a lower quality JPEG with a maximum width and height of 2048px or 4096px. Tumblr generally keeps the file format the same and recompresses JPEGs with a higher quality setting than Twitter but with a maximum width of 1280px and a maximum height of 1920px.

Different forms of feces made from different methods are all still feces.

I just finished dropping off this suggestion to Tumblr support.

Simple (ok, for me), just like DA and Flickr, give the account holder the ability to allow or forbid access to the full uncompressed image.

I'll see if they'll go along with it.

Tumblr management has shown time and time again that they are incompetent and have no idea how to run their site (safe mode is the second most recent example of their ineptitude), so I wouldn't bet on it.

g3gen said:

I just finished dropping off this suggestion to Tumblr support.

Simple (ok, for me), just like DA and Flickr, give the account holder the ability to allow or forbid access to the full uncompressed image.

I'll see if they'll go along with it.

Knowing Tumblr, they'd probably hide such a setting in a clusterfuck of submenus and have it turned off by default.

However, in spite of the overwhelming probability your suggestion won't do anything at all (or even be received by a real person) I still wish it the best of luck.

Of course. Like any site, they pay the bills, take the risks and get to do whatever they want.

Although I know I have zero leverage in their decisions, at least I'll know I spoke up.

I did get a reply from "Chris" who works at Tumblr and thinks it's a good idea.

"Thanks for taking the time to contact us about RAW images. This format is no longer supported on Tumblr but I like your idea about letting the creator of the image decide whether to to make this format available or not. I'll forward your email to our product and engineering team as a feature request. Your suggestions and feedback help to guide us as we make additions and improvements to Tumblr."

"We collect all feature suggestions and feature requests and pass these on to our product and engineering team who make the final decisions on which features to integrate (and at times, bring back). Please note that due to limited resources (we are a very small team), we are not able to reach out to users individually about feature requests. However, I recommend following our Staff https://staff.tumblr.com, engineering blog https://engineering.tumblr.com/ and support blog https://support.tumblr.com/ to stay in the loop of the latest developments. Have a great weekend :)!"

So, did get an answer. Now we'll see if it is approved.

Thanks for your persistence. Lads you should still send a message expressing concern if you haven't. Chances are once they move on from this they will not revisit it so now's the time to get your word in.

I have done my part. Let's hope that it will happen.

So have people just stopped caring about this? No one's figured out any other loophole or anything? Just "settle for low quality"?

Sideswipe said:

So have people just stopped caring about this? No one's figured out any other loophole or anything? Just "settle for low quality"?

There's nothing any of us can do. Multiple people (including artists) have contacted them back when they changed it, but if Tumblr doesn't want to make them available because of bandwidth concerns or other reasons there's nothing any of us can do to make them change their mind.