#WHAT IS THIS NEW TAG SYSYEM

[silantryoo]

people after they see jimin in lal absolutely gaslighting and manipulating you: 😍 😍 😍 😊 like they do NOT spot red flags at all.

ONG??? LIKE ITS BLARING RED? A FIRE HAS ERUPTED? HELLO?

[aroacefaq]

A guide to a discourse free AroAce blogging experience

As many of you’ve probably experienced, it’s difficult to avoid seeing the ace discourse and aphobia on tumblr these days while being involved in the aromantic and asexual communities. This guide will highlight some of the steps you can take to keep yourself safe from harassment using tumblr’s built in features, some extensions you can use to make it even safer, and some blogs we recommend following for a positive Acespec and Arospec blogging experience! 

As always, our own blog will remain 100% discourse free as well. 

Part 1: Tumblr’s Built in Features 

This section will cover things such as the tumblr search sysyem, what to do if you’re being harassed, and how the tumblr privacy and block features work. 

Unfortunately a lot of acespec and arospec specific tags tend to get cluttered with harassment and anti-aspec posts. While some of that comes from aphobes posting in tags that are supposed to be safe (such as “asexual positvity” or “actuallyaromantic”), with the way tumblr’s search system works, aphobes don’t even necessarily have to tag their posts. The tumblr staff explains it fully in this post, but in short, even words that are mention in a post, even if they aren’t in the tags, can show up in a search. The good news is that you can opt out of this by adding a # in front of your search. That way, posts tagged as #greyromantic will show up in your results, but posts that only mention the word but don’t tag it won’t. While this doesn’t guarantee that you won’t see aphobic posts while searching tumblr, it will filter out untagged discourse rants. 

The flip side to this is that aphobes and discoursers searching on tumblr can find even your untagged posts. Thankfully you can actually keep your own posts out of tumblr’s search engine. As explained at that link, turning off “allow search engines to index your blog” applies to tumblr’s search engine as well. By selecting that setting, you will effectively stay invisible in the search engine, both when people search by # or by mentions. 

Another feature that can save you a lot of hassle is the block feature. If you come across an aphobe in the tags: block them. Even if they haven’t interacted with you, block them. There are even block lists out there that’ll save you the distress of having to come across a blog first. A blocked user cannot interact with you or your posts in any way, in fact they won’t even see your posts on their dash or in the tags. So if you see someone being particularly nasty, the best way to keep yourself safe from them is to make sure they can’t find you at all. You can block users from your settings- scroll to the bottom of your blog’s settings and you’ll find a space to type in users to block them. There’s also a guide here on how to block several blogs at once (for chrome and firefox). You can also block people from their blogs if they have the mobile theme (this is the only way to block people on mobile). 

If you’re already receiving harassment though, there’s several things you can do to stop it. My first advice is the same as before: block them. It’s not admitting defeat, it’s not a show of weakness: it’s the easiest way to protect yourself. When blocking people isn’t enough, make sure that your private messaging is set to mutuals only, your submissions are turned off, and anon asks (or even asks in general) turned off. The last two will prevent blocked users from simply logging out and then interacting with you that way, while the first is just a general way to limit interactions. If this is not enough and people are still harassing you then temporarily set your blog to private by giving it a password (this applies only to the blog you chose for it to apply to, and is not account wide). Once they’ve moved on (and they will, I’ve had to deal with them before myself) you can return your blog back to normal with just a single button under your settings. Note you will need to be logged into desktop tumblr to do this. 

Keep in mind that you can also report people for their behavior, especially if you’re a minor, or their messages include death threats or suicide baiting. 

Part 2: Beyond Tumblr’s Features 

This section discusses how you can go beyond tumblr’s features using extensions such as the new xkit or tumblr savior. 

While tumblr does have several built in features to deal with harassment, there’s even better ways you can keep yourself safe. 

The first of these is an extension called tumblr savior, which is available for firefox, chrome, and opera (a similar extension called Washboard does the same for mobile devices). The long and short of it is that both extensions are blacklists. Add a tag or a phrase to the blacklist and any posts which mentions it are automatically hidden, being replaced by a notification, which you can click on to see the whole post, e.g. if you trust the person who posted it. You can even set it up so that you don’t get a notification on your dash for hidden posts, or that you get notifications but it doesn’t show the tags, etc. You can block whole phrases using this feature, so if there’s ones you commonly see used you can filter them out. 

My personal recommendation however is to download the new xkit which is available for firefox and chrome through that link. Make sure you download the new xkit, since the old one hasn’t been updated in several years. This extension lets you do all kinds of things with your dashboard, including it’s own blocklist (which functions about the same as the others) and the ability to block specific posts. This is a feature that can be super helpful especially if there’s an aphobic post that gets passed around by people who don’t understand that its aphobic without going to the op’s blog (such as that “the A in stands for all star by smash mouth” post that was going around a while ago). Not only does this feature, called “Postblock” prevent that post from showing up in tags, it also keeps it from showing up on your dashboard. This is a great addition to tumblr’s already existing block feature, allowing you to block not just a blog but a specific post as well. 

Part 3: Blogs to Follow

Lastly, this section will list discourse free pro-acespec and arospec blogs that the mods here recommend, including a bit of info about each one. Some of these blogs are aro or ace specific, while others are LGBTQ+ blogs that include aspec individuals. All of them are discourse and aphobia free though, and are a great place to start finding a safe inclusive community!  Many of these blogs also frequently promote other aspec inclusive blogs, including advice blogs and positivity blogs, making them a great starting place to expand your following list from! 

Our own blog aroacefaq, as mentioned before, is 100% discourse free, so if you don’t follow us already, give us a try! 

goodpositivitylgbt is aspec inclusive (several of the mods are aspec) and has a zero discourse policy, which you can read about here. They make custom positivity posts as well as reblogging positivity made by other blogs. 

letters-to-lgbt-kids is another aspec inclusive LGBTQ+ blog with custom positvity messages, styled as letters coming from “your tumblr mom.” 

a-positive is an aspec specific positivity blog. They do not respond to discourse/ aphobic asks as explained here and are as such also safe to browse! 

queerlobby makes custom moodboards, including for aspec people. When asks are open, just send in a request! No discourse here either since the focus is 100% on moodboards, so relax and browse their tags. 

theasexualityblog is a blog specifically about asexual and acespec experiences, positivity, humor, etc. They have a “happy stories” tag for bad days, and even have a block list of aphobic blogs. 

aspecpeoplearebeautiful is a blog dedicated to posting and reblogging aro and ace spec positivity! 

asexualartists posts about (to no surprise) artists who are also asexual. This includes all kinds of artists, including youtubers, fine artists, writers, etc. It’s a great place to find people who post creative acespec content. The artists talk about both their art and their asexuality, including advice they have for other acespec individuals. 

aromantichelp is an advice blog for arospec and aro individuals. They also have links to some great resources on their blog! 

asexualadvice is not currently active, but their blog has a lot of answered asks and resources that can be helpful regardless! 

splend-aros posts “Daily Affirmations” which are positive posts meant to encourage and support arospec people on all kinds of things! At the same time, they also reblog positive posts. They have stated in their FAQ that they are not a debate blog, so they should be discourse free! 

affirm-ace-ions is the same concept as spend-aros but for acespec people! Daily Affirmations on all kinds of acespec related topics. They describe themselves in their about page as a safe space, and as such they post primarily positivity. 

haveaqprsuggestion is a blog all about positivity surrounding qprs and aspec folks! 

You can find even more blogs in our resources tab which can be accessed either through that link or directly from our blog. This post also has a list of aspec friendly blogs, however we cannot guarantee that they’re all discourse free, since it’s not our list. If you have any aspec positive or informative blogs you’d like us to add to that page, feel free to send us the link! You can also check out blogs we reblog from for other starting points! For privacy reasons, we did not include personal blogs on this list (so they wouldn’t suddenly be flooded with followers), but we do reblog from them.