Tumblr doesn't let you decline to participate in their Instant Messaging feature. But since I could go on for the rest of my life about all the things I don't like about Tumblr, but I use it anyway because it's one of the de-facto homes of the online Erotic Hypnosis / Mind Control Community, nevermind.
But! I have had a desire for the last few months that I'm still working to realize:
I want to produce more than I consume
I've unfollowed most of the blogs I used to follow on here. That's no slight intended to the people involved, I just don't want an endless feed of porn. And I've decided to stop using the Tumblr IM feature, too. That's no slight intended to the people I've had fun chatting with, it's just not where I want to spend my time and attention right now. I have IRL relationships to focus on, and, like I said above,
I want to produce more than I consume
So I want to use Tumblr as a publishing platform, not a place to look at porn and talk about being hypnotized. I can't make it impossible for people to message me—though I have limited it to blogs I follow, people with whom I've previously had a conversation can still send me IMs. But I will politely decline to reply.
If I could, I'd look for a way to prevent me from messaging others, and there's no systematic way to do that, because the real problem isn't people messaging me, it's what I do with my time when I'm bored and horny. Well, one does what one can.
So if you message me and I don't reply, or I just link to this post, apologies. But this is where I'm at. I'm not suggesting everyone do this (I'm not NOT suggesting it, either), but I want to produce more than I consume. This is one step in that direction.
Thanks for your attention.
P.S. The most up-to-date information I could find about managing Tumblr's IM feature came from here: https://www.guidingtech.com/restrict-disable-instant-messaging-tumblr/