#NEUstudent

[neopronouns]

boystudent | mascstudent girlstudent | femstudent enbystudent | neustudent

boystudent/guystudent/manstudent: a gender related to being a boy/guy/man/etc. and a student; a male gender related to being a student

mascstudent: a gender related to being masc(uline) and a student; a masculine gender related to being a student

girlstudent/galstudent/womanstudent: a gender related to being a girl/gal/woman/etc. and a student; a female gender related to being a student

femstudent: a gender related to being fem(inine) and a student; a feminine gender related to being a student

enbystudent/nonbinstudent/nonbinarystudent: a gender related to being nonbinary/an enby/nonbin/etc. and a student; a nonbinary gender related to being a student

neustudent: a gender related to being neu(tral) and a student; a neutral gender related to being a student

[pt: boystudent/guystudent/manstudent: a gender related to being a boy/guy/man/etc. and a student; a male gender related to being a student

mascstudent: a gender related to being masc(uline) and a student; a masculine gender related to being a student

girlstudent/galstudent/womanstudent: a gender related to being a girl/gal/woman/etc. and a student; a female gender related to being a student

femstudent: a gender related to being fem(inine) and a student; a feminine gender related to being a student

enbystudent/nonbinstudent/nonbinarystudent: a gender related to being nonbinary/an enby/nonbin/etc. and a student; a nonbinary gender related to being a student

neustudent: a gender related to being neu(tral) and a student; a neutral gender related to being a student. end pt]

more genderstudent terms!

flag id: six flags of the same format. they each have a frame around the left, top, and right edges; a much thinner frame within that frame; a large rectangle within the frames; a thin vertical stripe near the left edge of the rectangle; four evenly-spaced thin horizontal stripes down the rectangle's length; a thin wavy line between the first and second horizontal stripes and third and fourth horizontal stripes; and a pencil-like shape made up of a long rectangle with a thin triangle at its left end between the second and third horizontal stripes, with its point overlapping the vertical stripe.

in the top left flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark faded blue, the large rectangle is very light sky blue, the vertical stripe is light sky blue, the horizontal stripes are sky blue, the wavy lines are very dark faded blue, and the pencil is gold. in the top right flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark faded turquoise, the large rectangle is very light turquoise, the vertical stripe is light turqoise, the horizontal stripes are turquoise, the wavy lines are dark turquoise, and the pencil is gold.

in the middle left flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark pink-red, the large rectangle is red-pink-white, the vertical stripe is very light red-pink, the horizontal stripes are light pink-red, the wavy lines are very dark pink-red, and the pencil is gold. in the middle right flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark faded purple-pink, the large rectangle is pink-white, the vertical stripe is very light pink, the horizontal lines are light pink, the wavy lines are very dark purplish-pink, and the pencil is gold.

in the bottom left flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark green, the large rectangle is very light green, the vertical stripe is light green, the horizontal stripes are green, the wavy lines are very dark faded green, and the pencil is gold. in the bottom right flag, the outer frame is light brown, the thin inner frame is dark gold, the large rectangle is very light golden yellow, the vertical stripe is light golden yellow, the horizontal stripes are golden yellow, the wavy lines are very dark golden yellow, and the pencil is gold. end id.

banner id: a 1600x200 teal banner with the words ‘please read my dni before interacting. those on my / dni may still use my terms, so do not recoin them.’ in large white text in the center. the text takes up two lines, split at the slash. end id.

dni link

[rumbleroarftw]

Newcomer Campaign

        I deleted the Tumblr app off my phone because it was too addictive. Tumblr is defined as a microblogging and social networking website by Wikipedia. There was nothing physically keeping me so obsessed on Tumblr all day and night, it was the memes, the Woke posts and the occasional artsy and thoughtful posts. This was only based on what I was following. I wanted to be this Tumblr girl who took blog-worthy pictures and wrote deep, meaningful stuff. I, of course, was not. I wanted to be a blog that was funny, aware and aesthetically appealing. In this process, I never fact checked anything before reblogging it and rarely followed original content creators. Because on Tumblr, you are likely to see content that someone reblogged from someone who reblogged from someone else and so on and so forth. I chose to study Tumblr for my Newcomer Campaign because I was a newcomer that quickly became an avid user and experienced everything first hand.

          During my time with Tumblr, I realized it was extremely slow. Part of the reason I committed Tumblr infocide was because it was infuriating how slowly scrolling through it was and because of my obsession, I was also impatient. It was bothered me that I was so affected by it, so I decided it was better to take a break. I propose a campaign that will solve the issues and help socialize and retain newcomers in the online community. I will use Robert E. Kraut and Paul Resnick’s book, Building Successful Online Communities (BSOC) as the main basis of my arguments along with other outside sources. I am arguing that Tumblr’s problems can be solved by the platform itself, without interfering with the user’s free speech that makes the platform so attractive. I will begin with brief descriptions of the two issues followed by my methods to improve on them. I will then reflect and conclude based on the discussion.

Reliable sources: Social Justice Warriors

          Tumblr is a great place to share any type of content including, but not limited to, photos, videos, gifs, articles, links, writings, and is a generally welcoming community. A user can easily learn the ropes without training or initiation. However, it is a common criticism of Tumblr that ‘Social Justice Warriors’ often make the community an unsafe place for writers. Social Justice Warriors (SJW) is a term now used for people who tend to aggressively impose socially progressive views. 

“The online presence of social justice blogging on Tumblr is extensive, spanning over a wide range of issue topics from religion, racism and gender equality to ablism, homosexuality and classism among many others.” (Knowyourmeme)

On Tumblr, such accounts tend to ignore the education aspect of social issues and immediately engage in attacking others instead. It is also common to see a SJW account reblogging and/or commenting on a post that is not verified as legitimate news. 

“The REAL problem with social justice warriors is their superficial mentality. There are many issues that are heavily affecting many people across the world but these individuals detract from many of the real problems but continuing to address and argue about meaningless topics in order to boost themselves in the eyes of their peers.” (Urban Dictionary)

          I have reblogged things in the past that I did not bother fact checking, which may have lead to false, misunderstood or biased information to be consumed by my many followers. I realized later that incorrect and incomplete information could be just as dangerous as no information.

          I think a good way to battle these warriors would be a built in fact checking mechanism or an outsourced embedding into posts so that the information shared on Tumblr is more complete than deficient. Some options of fact checking servers are listed below. Someone who is new to Tumblr may not be aware of this problem. If the newbie decides to write about a subject, they may not receive positive feedback. BSOC (p. 217) claims 

“When old-timers provide newcomers formal mentorship, the newcomers become more committed to the community, learn to behave in it, and contribute more.” 

Since Tumblr is not a particularly hard platform to get used to, formal mentorship is not necessary, but if Tumblr provided the fact checking servers, it would act as an official mentorship in the right use of sharing information.

          An alternative would be the function of verifiability of posts – certain admins could be in charge of this; a post can be shared at any point, but after an admin has fact checked it, it will display a logo like verified accounts on Twitter or Instagram so that readers know that to be real news.

Since there are a lot of things posted daily, users committed to the community could help with this if they received some admin responsibilities and similar to Wikipedia, these users could be thanked and appreciated. Expressions of gratitude can drastically escalate the recipient's pro-social comportment (Matias, 2014). These options are not rude and do not delete shared content, keeping the original share out there; therefore still maintaining free speech and not imposing rules and regulations.

Loading rate: Why is Tumblr so slow?

           If you start typing, “Why is Tumblr…” on Google, you will find the first suggestion to be “… so slow.”

Tumblr is infamous for its “stability issues” that result in mass hysteria (hyperbolically). I had a friend call me at 2AM one night two years ago asking me if my Tumblr was down too – and it was. So why IS Tumblr so slow and how can that be solved, if at all? As someone with little to no knowledge about servers and the Tumblr server specifically, I cannot possibly come up with the best solution. Since the platform requires you to use their server for your blogs, if Tumblr is inaccessible, so is your blog. The way that I tackled this issue for my assignment was to think of it like a businessperson. When dealing with newcomers, recruitment, selection, retention, socialization and protection are the five basic problems that need to be solved, according to BSOC. My solution to the speed problem has to do with retention of Tumblr users. 

“The community should engage in tactics to keep valuable newcomers until they can develop more robust ties to the community (Kraut & Resnick, p. 180).” 

The best way to go about this, in my opinion, would be raising money for Tumblr so it could expand or improve the quality/amount of servers so the users would have a more pleasant experience. I know that I would be one of millions to be willing to donate up to $5 for that cause. Wikipedia pages often display the fundraising bar; Tumblr could do a similar display for users logging in. Tumblr could also allow more advertising, even if it may give rise to some backlash.        

           The donation is something that maintains the users’ power, giving them a minute stake in the workings of Tumblr. In this way, their integrity with free speech is not violated and the content on their feed is not covered in unwanted (advertising) content.

Reflection

           I think my concerns about Tumblr are authentic and widely agreed upon, so they should have solutions to them sooner than later. My solutions for fact checking may be hard to execute, but I think it is vital to deal with. People do not want to be consuming wrong/incomplete/biased information and a big platform like Tumblr should not be allowing it. Since this platform is easy to use for anyone with access to the Internet, it holds some responsibility to its users. Out of the solutions presented above, I think the fact checking mechanism would be the best option because it requires less effort from the people, making it easier for the site to incorporate without too much backlash. However, this may extend the “too slow” problem. To solve which, the donation solution is the best way to go. If advertising is increased, it will allow for excessive sell out accusations, which could be a Public Relations nightmare and may encourage infocide in protest of the act.

Conclusion

           Based on my experiences and research, Tumblr is a fun and easy platform to use but has its fair share of cultural and technology-based issues. Speed and SJW are issues that can be tackled with without exercising official regulations that make users feel unsettled. While my solutions are all in keeping of free speech, they are also keeping the sanctity of sharing truthful information.

Fact Checking Websites:

·      http://www.factcheck.org/

·      https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/

·      http://www.snopes.com/category/facts/

·      http://www.hoax-slayer.com/

·      https://www.opensecrets.org/

·      http://www.politifact.com/

References (not linked above)

http://reagle.org/joseph/2012/05/draft-infocide.html

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/how-to-use-tumblr/

https://www.flightpath.com/blog/2016/10/tumblr-for-brands-pros-and-cons-of-tumblr-blogging-platform/

https://www.dailydot.com/society/tumblr-social-justice-laci-green/

http://freebeacon.com/blog/sjw-tumblr-probably-did-not-care-for-my-pro-empire-piece/

http://sjwhypocrisy.tumblr.com/

http://akatokuro.tumblr.com/post/21628341732/the-real-issue-with-tumblr-social-justice-culture

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Tumblr-so-slow