#do aesthetic blogs still exist on tumblr or do i have to post that one bit of really dumb clone high fan art on here lol

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

Image Descriptions and Accessibility in General on Tumblr for New Users

What are Image Descriptions

Image Descriptions are text following a picture explaining what’s in that picture. They are primarily for blind/visually impaired people with screen readers and visually impaired people who can read text but have issues with pictures.

They also help people who have trouble:

focusing on/understanding a picture

reading text on images (ex low contrast, weird fonts, etc)

getting images to load

Without image descriptions posts are not accessible to many people, so if you can it's best to include a description or alt text every time you post an image.

Alt text vs image descriptions

Image descriptions are written in the body of the post itself, and have some kind of text before and after, to explain that what's coming up. They typically begin short and concise, but can expand to more detail.

Alt text is added to the image itself, and is what is read by screen-readers (which will otherwise just say "image"). There is no need to add any explanation before the description so you can just say "a description of the image". Alt text can only be added by the original poster, by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the image and clicking 'update image description.' It is typically short and concise.

On tumblr, alt text is currently available on web by clicking on the alt button (or via new xkit - accesskit - move alt text to captions below image). On mobile, alt text is available in some versions of the app through clicking on the alt text button. Image descriptions are visible on all posts, although if you put them under a read-more, that makes them less accessible. (Thanks to @911described for helping with this section)

How to Make Image Descriptions

Awhile ago I made this general guide. I learned from examples, so here are descriptions made by a bunch of different people. I've also made templates for a lot of common images you'll see on Tumblr.

Other Concerns

Gradient or all caps text make most screen readers read out the word one letter at a time. In addition, these plus text that is bold/italicized/underlined, in colors other than black, or in weird/fancy fonts are difficult for many people to read.

How Filtering Works

You can filter out both words/phrases and tags in the filtering section under the general section in the settings. When filtering out words from a post, it will look at both the text of the post/reblog chain and at the url of op and the rebloggers. When filtering out tags it will look at the tags of the specific post on your dash, and at the tags of the original post.

Tagging for Common Triggers

Don't sensor trigger warnings (for example don't tag suic!de) because then people who have them filtered will still see it.

Tagging for Flashing Lights

If you post a gif or video in a post that flashes, you should tag it with something like "flashing lights" and Not "tw epilepsy" because if any of the tags in the original post contains the world epilepsy it will show up in the epilepsy tag, which is dangerous. Check out this post from @photosensitive-despair for more info about tagging photosensitive content.

Tagging for Unreality vs Misinfo

Things that could trigger delusions/psychotic episodes/etc should be tagged with unreality. This includes:

content that has existential themes related to reality/things not existing (example: a philosophy such as solipsism, do not look up the term if unreality stuff is triggering for you)

extremely surreal content(example: sometimes content such as weirdcore/dreamcore aesthetics can fall under this umbrella but again this is very subjective)

content that reinforces or encourages common delusions(example: that one "im living in your walls" meme)

Things like rp blogs and fake/edited tweets should not be tagged with unreality, unless they contain triggering content. Consider tags like "fiction" or "misinfo." See this post for more info.

Edit:

Addition from @mindflamer

You can look through the reblogs of a post to see if someone's already written a description. There is a button to see just comments vs. comments + tags which makes it easier. Scroll through looking for brackets [], ID, or Image Description. This is great to do if you can't write your own IDs for whatever reason, so that you can at least spread the version of the post that's described if there is one.

If you're not able to write IDs consistently, some is better than none. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You can use the tag #undescribed to make it easy for those who need them to filter out those posts. Similarly, if you primarily tag triggers but can't for certain posts, you can use a separate tag on that to be filtered such as #untagged.

Please, if I forgot something, sound off in the notes and I'll update this post with it

[yarrayora]

Idk how to explain properly, but I’m a really big fan of the dynamic you portray between Marcille and Falin. I’ve always loved . idk how to say.. divorce? trouble-in-paradise? arcs/portrayals that look at problems in otp, and yours is super interesting. Sorry if this is weird just wanted to say :)

not weird at all! im flattered, thanks!

i wasnt really into farcille at first, mostly i was just impressed an f/f ship managed to be the fandom's no1, basically proving that when two female characters in a mostly male dominated cast are allowed to bond with each others and be their own characters people will latch on to them

mostly though aro touden siblings is still my no1 and even back then i didnt care about shipping because any type of romantic relationship in dunmeshi is less interesting than the potential of political intrigue the worldbuilding set up (yes, even chilchuck's failing marriage is less interesting to me than how living in the dungeon was safer for the orcs than being neighbors to human civilization) (shocking, i know)

but it all changed when i saw the daydream hour about marcille thinking falin looks cute in feminine clothing while falin herself is obviously uncomfortable with it

i can't sleep. i have to think about this. i have to think about how it's their first love and their first relationship and one is going in blind while the other set up her expectations based on a harlequin romance novel. they are NOT in the same wavelength at all and neither of them are particularly good at communicating their intention, with falin who grew up a convenient kid because she thought it was the least she could do for her family and marcille who frankly speaking was used to being treated as someone superior back at the magic school

thank god kabru exists because who else is going to give them a real advice for their very real relationship? chilchuck will be like "okay just break up" while not seeing the mirror to his own relationship with his runaway wife. senshi, wise as he is, is never in a romantic relationship. laios would be like :((( you guys are fighting? and gets stressed out on his own which makes it even more stressful to the girls. namari is like. "i, uh, please talk to kabru."

anyway theres also the bonus comic about falin inviting marcille to watch daltian clan's opera adaptation and while there is something to say about marcille thinking the humans playing elves doesn't fit her aesthetic (and the difference of societal expectations of dressing up as a different race in dunmeshi universe compared to in ours) all i can think of is that in modern day au where daltian clan has a movie adaptation marcille has a tumblr blog where she posts Hate on the daltian clan movie tag and calling it criticism which it is but also not the place, girl, go to rotten tomatoes for that

falin also has a tumblr and she and marcille had no idea the other is a tumblr user. falin made a post like "just watched daltian clan with my gf i get why shes really obsessed with it now" and marcille, against her better judgement replies to the post like "really sorry that you were misled by your girlfriend like that, you should read the novels instead, it's way better."

laios who sees falin looking shocked at her phone asks whats up and then after receiving the answer says "wow sounds like a real jerk! just block them"

anyway thats my modern day farcille when there's no high fantasy problems involved

[mirkwoodest]

My hard to swallow pill is that you aren't owed reblogs and if your stuff isn't being reblogged, either your stuff isn't being seen or it's not resonating with people. While like/reblog culture on tumblr might be different than it was in 2014, people still reblog stuff. Posts still blow up. Including fanart. Including gifsets.

2014 was also the era of reblog-or-else posts, those horrible aesthetic ~click for more pastel grunge~ links, and "competitions" that included a requirement to follow OP and reblog shit. Aka, clout chasing. That culture died and the result is a like/reblog ratio that isn't what it used to be, but tbh I prefer this.

"Artists will leave tumblr/you are failing gifmakers" the artists and gifmakers obsessed with numbers and clout left years ago. If you're still here then you must realize on some level that what exists here offers something beyond that just maxxing your engagement. In my experience, you get smaller, close-knit, talkative engagement here. Additionally, you DO sometimes have huge viral posts that ruin your notifications for days at a time. This still happens regularly.

I'm not going to argue with the advice "if you love something and want more of it, reblog it!" because that's great advice, but will never stop rolling my eyes and unfollowing people who complain and blame current tumblr culture for not giving them big enough numbers because you either

Don't have a big enough audience/community yet/anymore

It's not resonating enough for people to want it on their blogs, which is not their fault. You can't get mad at people for not wanting to hang stuff up on their walls, even if you worked hard on it

You're prioritizing bigger numbers over building community/rapport. This is just not a good website for that anymore. Maybe that makes you want to leave. Okay. The people who stay are the ones who get tremendous joy from gathering in their huddled micro-communities, making what makes them happy, and passing it around their little circle together. That persists because it brings a different kind of pleasure than the kind of engagement you get on other platforms (although to reiterate, posts blowing up is a thing that obviously continues to happen here)

Obviously if you work hard on something and it doesn't get the response you want, that's hard. I don't mean to belittle those feelings, but the woe-is-me "back in my day / you're all at fault for society's decline" type posts have GOT to stop.

You're just using this website wrong.

[educating-bimbos]

The Pinned Post 2

new pinned post because tumblr hid my old one from my view so I can't see, edit it, or reblog it to add an addendum. I only have a few things to add, so I am just going to copy and paste it.

Who is Educating Bimbos?

My name is Nicolette. I am a technical artist, musician, and an outdoorsy type of gal. I enjoy the finer things in life, and I fancy myself a traditional woman and a bimbo. I don't really enjoy mindlessly obsessing over labels, but if it helps people gauge where my brain is at, I am pro-patriarchy, in favor of traditional gender roles and dynamics, an ex-feminist, and before all else a believer in one's ability to exercise personal freedoms. My beliefs, mannerisms, and presentation attract the ire of feminists, born-again-religious types, and any number of anti-fun douchebags. At the end of the day, just remember that behind this silly blog is a silly person.

What is Educating Bimbos?

It is a blog and small community of bimbos looking to learn more about and express a traditional lifestyle. It is also about people who may not be familiar with or comfortable around things like BDSM get a nice and soft introduction to it without being exposed immediately to the idea of how people can enjoy things in a pseudo-sexual context. At the end of the day, it is a blog and community where I and other like-minded people can express silly ideas without the fear of being lambasted by people seeking to harm others.

Where is Educating Bimbos?

Educating Bimbos can be found in one of these two places.

Why is Educating Bimbos?

Well for a while I was annoyed by the lack of communities that focused on a kind of "hyper-feminine" aesthetic while also promoting more traditional ideas. There was also the issue of communities that have tried this before of devolving into bigoted and abusive communities that would do everything under the sun to create an insular and ToS breaking community. I spoke with a friend of mine who runs a similar community a while ago and she inspired me to give this a shot. Now - close to 3 years later - I have a steadily growing community that pulls from all corners of ideology, cultural, ethnic, and interest level and the discord has been almost completely drama-free in its whole existence.

When is Educating Bimbos?

I am alive and doing silly stuff all day, every day. Except when it is nap time in which case I will be in the realm of dreams.

What's an ex-lesbian and why do you call yourself that?

For a number of very personal reasons, I have decided to call myself an ex-lesbian. I did this of my own volition, and I was not pressured into doing so. For a long time, I had thought of myself as a lesbian, mostly because of socialization and how all the girls around me were so might as well follow suit. I experienced a number of harmful and traumatic events when I considered myself a lesbian and it effected how I view myself. After a while and talking to some friends who I trust dearly, I came to the realization that I am not a lesbian and that it really isn't a thing I identify with the same way others do. I am still trying to come to grips with that given I only relatively recently had that realization. I also feel that people use that term in bad faith to harm people and to push bad narratives and ideas so I thought "hey might as well try and take back what should be an innocuous phrase."

In short, I think an ex-lesbian is just a way of identifying one's sexuality similar to asexuality or demisexuality. It is not that I am one sexuality or another, it's that my sexuality is defined by my experience and coming of age.

I have had a number of people confront me about this, talk to me about it in sincere curiosity, and even attack me. I welcome anyone who is curious or has a genuine contention to come to me in DMs, I am not a mean person, and I will love to talk honestly and respectfully. I find that disagreement is not grounds to discredit or avoid befriending people, I hope you can do the same.

Further questions for Educating Bimbos?

If you find that these questions are unsatisfactory in any regard, or you wish to try your hand at doing what I do, follow these two links!

Ask me anything!

Ask me anything you want! I have some personal rules with regards to what I can and cannot upload, but this is generally the best way for me to answer any question you may have. I also have anonymous asks enabled just in case you are shy.

Submit a post!

If you think I should be made aware of something, post something, or if you just want to signal boost something try this. So far, I have no real rules or expectations so do whatever you want with this button.

[magpiefngrl]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "magpiefngrl"?

Hey, anon!

Oh fave fics! I love talking about fics and books, though I feel I talk about fics everyone knows and have nothing new to offer, esp since I've not read much in the last 2-3 years. Still, narrowing it down to 10 is super hard, so I've looked at my bookmarks and chose the ten fics that I've reread the most.

1. Bound Skerry by Frayach (drarry, M, 2.3k)

I've read this a hundred times and I'll keep coming back to it. Possibly my most read fic. The reason it's one of my Forever Fics is the prose. Absolutely stunning writing.

2. House Proud by astolat (drarry, M, 23k)

The original House Magic fic and the best one. I particularly love the hints of dark faerie magic, the horror elements and the brilliant worldbuilding. Astolat's prose is super readable and the pacing is excellent.

3. with exactness grinds he all by thistle_verse (drarry, M, 6k)

An aching fic with beautiful, lyrical writing. I've reread this so many times.

4. Art in Life by northofallmusic (tofsla) (wangxian, T, 2k)

I feel I'm repeating myself but this has excellent prose and it's aching and tender and made me feel all the feels.

5. Out of the Dead Land by orphan account (stucky, M, 63k)

OK so this hasn't stood the test of time because I finished it a few days ago, but WOW. Absolutely brilliant. I'm not even a stucky fan or anything. But I kept thinking about it when I was doing other stuff and I set aside the books I was reading so as to finish this. Now it's days later and it's still on my mind. I can't remember the last time I had a book/fic hangover. A very angsty fic and a fantastic exploration of Bucky's trauma. This is by one of my top authors of all time, who's now orphaned everything.

6. Mr Webster's Wager by Fahye + orphan author (same one as above) (Ash/Webster, E, 27k)

Now we're getting into the horny fics. This one is based on a KJ Charles short story which is the best romance short story ever written in my not so humble opinion. This takes the original story and the horniness of that scene and expands it into many horny scenes. It's masterful, very very hot, and just a fantastic fic.

7. Unhook the Stars by jad (drarry, E, 70k)

One of the first drarry fics I read and one that made a huge impression on me. Super kinky, lots of sex scenes, I've reread this a LOT.

8. IDK My BFF Hermione? by lettered (drarry, E, 19k)

Extraordinary. Phenomenal. It will always have a place in my Top 10. Also, very filthy, which is a huge plus in my book.

9. a better happier st sebastian by halsinator (Jonathan Strange, E, 6k)

Another one I reread a million times. Stunning prose and vibes and beautiful yearning. I keep coming back to it.

10. live from new york by varnes (wangxian, E, 87k)

A masterpiece, a classic of wangxian, this is a Saturday Night Live AU, which is such a bizarre choice for an AU--and yet it works. I don't live in US, I have never watched SNL, but I adored the fic.

I've left out a ton of favourite works and authors I adore, but for more of my faves, my AO3 Bookmarks is the place to go.

I have to say, this exercise has been quite illuminating: I don't think I've ever had such a clear glimpse of what makes me tick. In short, sublime prose, an aching, yearning mood and/or filthy porn.

*****

As for my username, here's the story: I joined tumblr a gazillion years ago (way before I got into fandom) and my first blog (still exists: @magpie-x ) was mostly what you'd call an aesthetic blog. I'd reblog cool pics and quotes and occasionally post a personal post about my life. I named it magpie because it was a place where I collected everything shiny, like a magpie. I rarely used it after a while tbh. Years later I read The Raven Cycle and fell heads over heel with pynch and knew that the only place I'd find fans was tumblr. I got into the nascent TRC fandom and soon I needed a space exclusively for fannish posts. I created a sideblog called magpiefangirling and when I later got an AO3 account I shortened the name. Years later I got into drarry, I became very active on tumblr again, and the sideblog wasn't enough so I deleted it and created a brand new blog with my AO3 name.

In short, magpiefngrl, means magpie being a fangirl. It was a random decision but it has now shaped me and I think of myself as Magpie in fandom spaces, and even chose that as my pen name for my future original romance books.

[rogerzsteven]

Off My Chest

I don't know if you know (at this point I'd be surprised if you don't), but I've been living hell for the past 4 days.

Two big earthquakes hit ten cities of Turkey on 6th of Feb, 4.17 am (one city being the city I live in and one being my hometown + where my relatives and family friends live), and the aftermath is devastating to say the least.

I am hurt, I am tired, I am mentally exhausted, I am upset, I am scared and sad and always on edge in case something happens.

Some of my relatives lost their homes, some of my aquaintances, family members, friends lost their lives, and there are thousands, thousands of people still stuck under the rubble, either dead or waiting for someone to find them under the rubble.

If, they are able to be found.

My hometown is dust. The places I've spent my childhood no longer exist. Everything is wrecked.

The supplies aren't enough, the weather is freezing and help is too slow.

Death toll is more than 16,000 and rising, and at this point I can't help but to think I was just at the right place at the right time and it was luck.

When I first started reblogging those donation posts about Turkey, I had high expectations of the possible traction in general, but mainly of the fandom I'm currently in. I thought this fandom was in unity when I used to see blogs, many blogs reblogging the posts of the ones in rough condition asking for help, whether it's individual or for a good cause. Because that's what fandom means, right? A community to support and lift each other up on good and bad days. To show that we are there for each other even if it's through the screen.

I was wrong.

I was not expecting the immense lack of support from the fandom that is supposed to be big, helpful and full of 'activists'.

Not only have I barely seen donation/support posts appearing on my dash from people I follow or my mutuals, but the ones I've seen are reblogged from me by the same handful of people over and over again.

Don't get me wrong, no one is obligated to reblog or show support, life goes on and people move on, but isn't it hypocritical when the same blogs who are very much outspoken and active and even accuse others of staying disinterested when it comes to fandom discourse or situations that have direct impact on them in one way are now completely silent and act like nothing is happening when it comes to something like this?

My people are DYING. And you care about— what, polls? Fandom speculations?

Good for you.

Is it too much to reblog a few times so others can see it? Would your blog's aesthetic get ruined?

Or do you just not give a shit and only show your performative side when it gets you likes and followers?

I see all of you, and I will not forget this.

I don't think I will post donation posts as frequently as I did before from now on because I want to feel some sense of normalcy on tumblr but before I go, since there is a handful of mutuals/ online friends who kept reblogging my posts, I would like to thank them individually from the bottom of my heart.

@monsterrae1 @swiftiediaz @buddierights @prettyboybuckley : You guys. The support you guys have shown from day one. Every day. I love you. You pure souls.

@kananjarus : You. YOU. I have no words. I want to cry just thinking about what you've done. No words are enough.

@copyninjakura : You are a good hearted person. I love you. Thank you for your constant check ins and reblogs.

@rxdscarf : Not once you've let me down. 5+ years of friendship and I am so grateful. I am lucky.

@skyhighrollins911 : You've always been there to see how I am and how things are. Thank you, I love you so much.

@stagefoureds : Sabahın köründe beni telefonla aradın ya, sen muhteşem bir detaysın.

@bievanbuckley : The Greek to my Turk, ben seni sevdiğimi dünyalara bildirdim.

@ricoka : You're not in the fandom, but thank you my girl.

@spotsandsocks & @the-likesofus : Thank you for being concerned about me.

@buddiefication : We've been following each other for what— days? You don't even know me, and yet you kept reblogging each post from day one. I am so thankful. Thank you, friend.

@alyxmastershipper : Again, from day one, you kept reblogging each support post. THANK YOU.

@jobairdxx @swiftiebuckleys @mandzuking17 @thebestbooksaround @allysghostinthemachine @scifiromance7 @daughterofbuddie @maybeicanbesaved @colonoscopys @verylazyanimal : Thank you for reblogging many times.

[kaiserkisser]

mutuals appreciation post <333

hello, everyone. this is my end of year mutuals appreciation post to thank each and every one of you here, who has put up with me enough to be friends with me. I simply can't put it into words how much I love yall and how much im grateful to all of you for being here, but I'll still try. I wish all of you a very very happy new year ❤

@delusina kaz, thank you. thank u sm for everything. you were my first mutual and i love you sm for that. almost all the friends i have right now, they're thanks to you. i still remember sending you cat pics every week in the beginning (im sorry i forgot to continue that 😭) and you and vi are the reason ✿❀ anon exists <3 ilysmm <333

@floraldresvi VIVI. ILYSM. ik ive already sent you a new year ask but still i can never express my appreciation for you enough <3 thank you sm vi for literally always being there for me, and i hope i can return the favor whenever you need :) i lovelovelove seeing you in my notifs :)) also baivi rules <333

@chosokisser mai my bbg my love /p again, ive already mesaaged you, but still, im so glad i have you in my life. if you need absolutely anything, if you just wanna talk to smn, or anything, ill always be here. in fact, we can even commit arson together if you want :DD and remember that me and choso adore you to heaven and back <333

@haithamvoid again, thank you sm for being friends with me. <33 im literally so glad for the day i opened tumblr to find mai forcing us to socialize XD we seem to have a bunch of shared interests and i remember the times we sent each other a bunch of kaiser (and gojo??) pics ehehe (also if you play genshin then on which server-)

@damyoujackson uhm thank u sm for being my irl bestie. I mean it. honestly i dont think ive actually had a friend i clicked with as much as i did with you in a long time. ik its probably not easy putting up with someone weird like me so erm tysm.. in all seriousness im really glad we're friends <33 ( we do NOT talk abt this in school OKAY.) (<- me being awkward)

@noomon you are an absolutely amazing, warm and pleasant person to be around! (And i love your aesthetic too omg) anyways you're very caring and nice and i always perk up whenever i see you in my notifs or inbox <33

@mikacynth mikaaa its been agesss i hope you're doing alright and uni is treating you well </3 again, one of my first mutuals that i interacted with bc you were a 'mutual in law' of mine hehe :) you're also an awesome and fun person to be around, so remember that me and kaeya love u <333

@yinyinggie yingg! You're such a big blog, so thank you sm for interacting with me! you're totally wonderful, and im so glad i got to participate in the ebg hosted by you hehe that was SO much fun <333(and it hurt my heart too but nvm-) anyways ilysmm <33

@alexisomnias aaah alexisss we dont interact much these days but still, i love you so so much, you are someone i always love seeing on my dash or in my notifs <3 and i adore alekav too its so cutee <333

@kitorin omg yes soutaa you're another person who shows up on my dash often and i love that you do <3 i hope you dont mind all the times ive tagged you in smth ahshshdhb i also always smile whenever i see u in my notifs so thank u smm for being moots with me <33

also to @ilyuu @m1shapanda @supernova25 @chooodles @camvrin @meidnightrain we havent interacted much this year, but ive loved seeing you guys often on my dash so i hope we interact more this next year <333 please dont mind me tagging you dhshsh

Happy New Year to all of you!!!! I hope you all have all the joys of the world and that all your wishes get fulfilled, because you guys totally deserve it 💕

I found a little something too here that i wanted to share with all of you since i thought you guys might like it <333

[amemenojaku]

What about Reimu for the character ask meme....

I just did Marisa now I have to do the most important woman in the world

General opinion/How much I care about them: GIRL OF ALL TIME. My blog is a Reimu love zone ONLY and no slander will ever be tolerated. Her impact on nerd culture and on the internet as a whole is unparalleled... (ok Miku is up there too but they're sharing the throne) She embodies the series so well and I love her so much for that. It's so good how each new installment offers a different perspective on her personality... it makes me a bit emotional to think that we've never seen who Reimu "really" is. I'm particularly interested in her role both in the current setting and as the latest in a long line of shrine maidens, and how she feels about it all. Of course I also love her silly moments and her carefree side and her desire to just live :) She makes me feel happy and then when I think about her more deeply she makes me feel like there's still an endless amount of things left to do with her character and of fanworks to create which is the best part of Touhou to me!!

A ship I love: Reimari is my favorite for the reasons I wrote in the Marisa post, but in general she's the character I most easily enjoy pairings of. She bounces off others really well and there's a bit of everything for everyone, whatever the genre you prefer I think there's a good Reimu pairing for it! Some other characters I love seeing her with are Yukari (can't go wrong with a classic, the aesthetic is immaculate and it's good food for thought), Seija (this one is uhhh. a lot. don't really have the space to detail it here), Alice (either pure angst or pure fluff like there's no inbetween lol), Akyuu (they are THE SAME and IT HURTS!!!)...

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Her friendship with Shinmyoumaru is really important to me but since I already talked about it at length I'll say Aunn! It's super cute and I love to imagine doggie Aunn snuggling up to baby Reimu when she sleeps, even though Reimu isn't aware she exists... Another excellent addition to the Reimu solar system. This girl desperately needed another pet

The NOTP: Oookay the fandom's gonna burn me at the stake for this but I don't like reisana very much anymore. It's cute and I used to enjoy it quite a lot but stuff happened and now it's just there I guess. shrugs

My biggest headcanon about them: There's so many... I think there were mementos or diaries of the past shrine maidens kept somewhere in the shrine and Reimu found them. She's hidden them somewhere else so they wouldn't be taken away or damaged by anyone.

An idea for a fanwork I would like to make/see about them: I want to make a collaborative Reimu zine with other artists/writers SO badly... I definitely think it's possible to do it on tumblr but I've already ran a bunch of events for the community and it requires energy that I don't have anymore. Maybe one day!

Something that makes me think of them: Japanese indie band chouchou!! Here's a few songs I associate with Reimu specifically: dawn and sign 0

[smolfangirl]

Saw a poll about why we came to Tumblr and that made me flashback to my Tumblr origins and you're never going to believe this

The short answer: the German Federal Agency for Civic Education

Now you might be thinking why the fuck would a German federal agency be the reason you use Tumblr, and I'm procrastinating doing my thesis so I'll tell you the long version:

I'm in high school. There's a big annual book fair in spring that I've heard from. The Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Bpd, said federal agency) will be there too. They've provided materials for classes before, and I know they're trying to be cool and cater to The Youths. (Which worked surprisingly well on me. They had free magazines and info booklets. They were *good*.) At the book fair, they hand out free planners that don't actually suck like most free planners do holy shit. I've seen someone else use them, and of course I need to get my greedy little hands on this planner if it's the first thing I do at a book fair. (I don't actually remember who showed them to me and my sense of time sucks, but I suspect @hummingbooks. Please confirm) So I'm at the fair, and I make sure I get myself a fun free planner. It's useful, it looks good and it's mine! Throughout the planner there's tidbits of information, fun facts, quotes, tips and most importantly to this long-winded story - a list of websites the staff of a German Federal Agency wanted to recommend.

And on this list?

A random Tumblr aesthetic blog. I'm sure there was a second Tumblr blog on that list, one of those early 2010s meme cards blog, but I can't remember what it was about.

So I went and checked this "Tumblr" out. It looked cool, I liked this aesthetic blog, actually, so I kept going back to it. It took me a while to register, because I could look at the blog from my laptop and stay up to date this way, but eventually, inevitably, I signed up. Not on this blog, this one came into existence years later, but I still have access to my first one. I even became mutuals with that first aesthetic blog. I wonder if she knows her blog was posted in a free student planner by the BPD...

Anyway, that's how the German government is responsible for this girl's Tumblr obsession

[can-of-pringles]

Your OCs have just made tumblr accounts of their own! What are their usernames, and what things do they blog about?

Good prompt.

Arline Lanes: (I honestly don't know what her user would be) but I think she'd be a quiet lurker mainly, and reblog aesthetic related stuff.

Silas Petersson: I think his username would be something punny like @/thatrocks (which is usually related to music maybe but also could refer to rocks) Also not that active, but would reblog and post stuff related to music and also geology. Maybe the occasional Moomin posts.

Arith: @/werewolf-of-london (similar to if he had an insta) Doesn't really have original posts often, just likes to reblog stuff. Media, fandom, music, etc. His interests.

Iriel: @/constellation0ftheheart or @/oh-deer I think she'd create it and then kinda forget about it and only reblog stuff when she remembers it exists. I think she'd mainly reblog stuff about her interests but also occasionally post pictures of the animals she fosters sometimes or her horse.

Kaia: @/salt_and_sugar_babe (same as her insta) I think she would reblog aesthetic fashion stuff and other aesthetic stuff but would also slightly use it as a diary and post about her life. She doesn't care much about people finding out because no one would believe she's telling the truth (and she doesn't have a lot of followers anyway)

Odel: @/cinnamonrollsoul (similar to her insta) Would reblog a bunch of pink aesthetic stuff or cute stuff in general.

Marigold Rosales: @/flowerglass (play on hourglass) Would use it to post pictures of her gardening stuff. And reblog other stuff related to her interests.

Rosie Rosales Maximoff: @/rosieposie or @/duck.duck.rosie (her insta) Would post about (big surprise) ducks and also share her drawings and creative stuff. Also reblogs fandom stuff.

Allison Dahir: @/allie_waves (the same as her insta) Would reblog stuff about rollerskating, iceskating, surfing, and being trans. Also a lot of memes.

Lee Quinn: @/leebeansharkqueen (came up with the user when she was way too young to be on tumblr and still kept it all this time due to nostalgia reasons) It's practically canon that she used to have a tumblr come on now. Such a little fandom queen. Posts about all her favorite fandoms and stuff. Also I'm sure she's dabbled in writing fanfics.

[inky-thoughts]

"not reblogging posts slowly kills this site and discourages artists and writers from creating and/or sharing their work" and "you can use reblogs and likes however you want" can exist silmulatenously and can both be true.

yes, if you only want a specific type of posts (political, art, aesthetic gifsets, idk) on your blog, you do you. there is, however, the option to create sideblogs and a lot of people use them! hell, my main blog is where I post my art and reblog works by fellow artists. I also have a sideblog where everything else that I enjoy, find important or funny, gets reblogged to. I even have a blog I specifically created to collect resources, tips etc so I have an easier time finding posts again that I find good to have at hand.

don't get me wrong, receiving a like as an artist is nice. it's a sweet notion. however, especially on this site for a very long time, likes have been not much more than a private bookmark for the user. there's a multitude of ways to utilise the like function, but the artist won't know what you personally use likes for. a lot of us use this site for a decade or more, so only leaving a like always has the implication that the work isn't considered worthy of sharing around, and it stings after a while. it even makes creating art harder because is the time and effort you put into it even worth it?

yes most artists create for the sake of creating! but it is still disingenuine to ask of artists to create and especially share their work for virtually nothing in return. most often an implied "deal with this later only to forget it even exists".

yes you can do whatever you want with your blog. we don't even ask you to reblog every single post that comes across your dashboard. tumblr is about curating your experience.

but please be empathetic towards artists and writers. it hurts to read "why doesn't your stuff have more notes?!?!?" while nobody follows through and reblogs your stuff, the single most best way to give posts notes on this website and share them around.

it's nice that you find cool stuff on your "for you" page, the thing that is actually influenced by likes. but, realistically speaking, how many use the "for you" page, especially on a regular basis? how many go into art- or writing-specific tags instead of fandom-specific ones (yes imagine that, there's a bunch of people on here who don't majorly draw fanart or write fanfics)? how regular is that?

if you truly want to help creative people on this website, please consider reblogging their work. it's hard enough as it is.

[rabbitindisguise]

how tumblr works:

An example using this sideblog to explain how tumblr works- as a frequent poster- is that I regularly hit post limit (250 posts a day) and have 191,203 posts in total and only 25,000 likes (which are hidden). Most of these are reblogs from people I follow. Having a popular blog means having a lot of followers.

there are five forms of interaction on tumblr

three of them (reblogs, likes, and replies) are collectively called notes and are collectively counted under a post as total interaction

reblogs share the post, with all attribution and a direct link to everyone in a thread and notes going to the original poster, with followers

followers is how a post that is reblogged can get more notes and sometimes go viral by being seen by other people who choose to interact with a tumblr blog by following them

likes can help to prevent things from going viral/being seen by others, or show additional support for a reblogged post, and are often used to interact with personal vents and posts that would not be good if gone viral

replies can help to prevent things from going viral/being seen by others, and still allow interaction with: the original poster, someone in the replies/reblogs/other users on the website using the @username mention feature

asks can be publically posted (always with anonymous) or privately answered, and is directly communicating with the person who runs the blog- these are often used for questions that might be helpful to be published if answers like questions about a post, commissions, and other things

direct messages are private and directly between two tumblr users

on posts, the squiggle between two lines adds a cut/read more to shorten long posts like below and can be clicked through to read the rest by clicking "read more"

main blogs are the url that people can reply with and like from, sideblogs are blogs that can't be replied from or liked from, fandom blogs make up a significant portion of this website, with some others like personal blogs that post things that might be about someone's day or a journal type thing, aesthetic blogs that mainly reblog or post photos of a particular topic/theme/mood/visual similarity, discourse blogs that will have a lot of interactions about topics that get heated, and stealth blogs that are sideblogs of people who know they have controversial opinions or don't want to connect them to their main account (TERFs often do this to recruit young women through their main account)

viral posts are defined differently from person to person and generally everything over 50,000 notes in total (likes, reblogs, and replies included) is considered a viral post (some posts have one million or more notes)

reblog bait are posts that say things like "reblog with your favorite food and where you live" and people will say these things in the tags or in a reblog, and askmemes are posts with a list of questions or prompts that will invite followers to send into the askbox of the poster (which is where asks are received) and can be answered publicly with the response (it can be polite to link back to the original ask meme and/or include the prompt with the response)

posts that go viral unexpectedly are considered to be escaping containment as they were not written with the intent to be shared with thousands of people

"put it in the tags" or "don't reblog this" are typically only semi-serious (a joke) because reblogs can be turned off entirely now so may be left over from a time before that feature existed, or from an even earlier time when lots of comments would indent the post into unreadability

post limit is about 250 posts a day and exclusively affects reblogs

a post with mostly replies and no likes signals that people don't like the post, a post with a lot of likes and no reblogs is often personal, posts with a lot of reblogs and no likes might be reblog bait

a section of tumblr devoted to a topic can be shorted to something-blr, like writeblr, bugblr, petblr, etc and generally doesn't apply to fandoms or aesthetics

blocking tags, unfollowing, and blocking blogs are all methods to limit interaction with things that someone finds uncomfortable or they don't want to see, and for example I've blocked blogs that post a lot about silverfish because I find them creepy but sending messages to the blog about it would be super rude and I've unfollowed people for similar posts and blocked the tag "silverfish" (this is not actually true but it works well as an example)

this is honestly all I can think of at the moment feel free to add stuff in the notes

[liz-allyn]

how can I get my fics to get attention like yours do? working your ass off and then getting 20 notes sucks. and I’m trying to become a better writer and honestly crave the validation like you get from your followers. hopefully you’ll see this! Obsessed with S&V

Hi my fellow 🖋️!

Thank you so much for your comment, and thank you for thinking so highly of me!

answers for fic writers after the cut

So honestly? I don't know how to get followers. This blog has been running since 2021, and I only started writing fic < 1 year ago. I've become so much more well known (ha) in the TASM fandom because I've hung out here a long time. I don't have a secret to engagement or understand how tumblr 'works' that well (ie the algorithm that social media sites use to decide what to put in front of you). There are still people I freakin' worship on this site who don't interact with my fics at all, haha. AND flip side, some of the best writers I've ever seen are on here and their fics have less than 100 notes. I have learned that persistently I'll look over into other peoples' yards and be like "fuck. how did they get 4K followers?" or like "wow, she just posted this yesterday and it has over 1k notes."

as for working your ass off and getting 20 notes—CAN CONFIRM: that sucks. some fics I wrote for fun. some fics I wrote for the creative challenge. but pretty much on all of them I've left a little piece of me, of my soul and the lessons i've learned in my meandering partial journey. blood on the keyboard. and those fics? the really great ones (or ones just as good as sugar and vice)? they still don't have many notes.

But I will acknowledge that my following dramatically increased when I started posting S&V. I think I had ~900 and that blew up to 1.5k. There are a few factors in this:

Always post fics with fic art (with gifs! if possible) - This is the number one thing that draws me to read fic. I like art that looks cool. I also have been playing around with Canva Pro for 3-4 years (it's my fav) and I'm animation-adjacent as a day job, so pushing myself to think about graphic design has been really good for me. I find it fun to come up with a whole aesthetic for your story, whether it's a mood board or a color scheme (I usually have 'branding' on the brain). If you don't want to play with fic art, at least find an appropriate gif. Use the actor's face. I also think the gif search on Tumblr sucks balls but it's really worth it to have the right gif.

Pay attention to the hashtags of other popular fics in your fandom - when I started paying attention to notes, this was the best advice. I was using all kinds of tags that made sense to me, but weren't effective. In the web version of Tumblr, I can search for a tag and see how many followers it has. It's significant if #peter parker x reader has way more followers than #tasm!peter x reader. Also trends come and go, tumblr has their hotboy of the month and it rotates. there have been months were TASM Peter was non-existent in the last year, and months where we're getting *fed*. Pro tip with tags: I have a separate Google Doc with a list of hashtags that I copy and paste to save time. After a while, you should try reblogging with different hashtags

Use a spelling or grammar checker - I'm not a grammar fac*st but if I open a fic and everything is misspelled, almost no punctuation is used, and I have to work really hard to understand your story, then it's not going to go far. (With respect to writers who post work in English, and it's their second language). I never pay much attention to the occasional misspelling or grammar mistake, but when it looks like you sent your fic via text message or tinder chat, I just can't. I personally use Grammarly, but I also hate it and think it's buggy and overpriced. If anyone else has a better option that works with Google Docs, let me know!

Never write your fics in Tumblr's post editor. That has nothing to do with engagement but that shit is buggy as hell.

Avoid putting too much text up front before the fic. I put author's notes at the end. I try to keep summaries short. I try to focus on what someone absolutely needs to know to understand this fic, and I *mostly* try to avoid apologizing to the reader ahead of time for what they're about to read, for it being too long, for it being weird, bleh bleh bleh

If you're writing a series, make people reblog to be tagged. I've seen lots of people do taglists and then they give up because it's a pain to manage (and it is), plus you have a bunch of people that go "add me to the taglist!" or "next part, when?" and they didn't even reblog what you've already written. I think that's been one of the really big factors behind S&V's success

Make navigation as easy as possible - this is web design 101 (which I flunked repeatedly), but a masterlist is good to have. If you're in a series, a link back to the previous chapter + next chapter is good to have, I've also recently started putting a link back to the masterlist. people that know more things about stuff than me told me that you want to make things as simple as possible for viewers to get from one page to another. (that's why youtube links are shit on tumblr, even videos are meh, but GIFs work so well and attract so much attention). this is a visual site, so big images or headings or links with color help to draw the eye's attention.

Write what you want to write. Because you really need to gain enjoyment from writing, and it should never feel like you're a content factory. Do this 9 out of 10 times. The 10th time, write what people want to read. My first mob fic was These Violet Delights which I thought was so smart, and I was so proud of, and I planned this whole series out for. But also I tag things accurately, and some people (even my moots) are uncomfortable reading about those topics. Then when I started S&V I was extremely self-critical because I didn't want to write something filled with tropes and cliches. And then I sort of got off my soapbox and let S&V be its own thing, full of tropes and cliches, because they're popular for a reason, and they're fun to read, and it's okay to have candy for dinner every once in a while. And I've been able to pivot my plans and create something I'm pretty proud of.

It does help to stay consistent in the fandom you're writing for. Either by writing or reblogging other writers. Just don't make yourself feel like you're a slave to Tumblr and you must stay active at all times f o r e n g a g e m e n t. Everyone should take breaks when they need to.

Don't listen to my advice because no one knows how to hack tumblr. There are some posts that have sooooo many notes and I'm like 'why?' Meanwhile, my heart's been ripped open in LED pixels on screen and sometimes it passes by.

I hope that this was useful! And if not, I'm sorry for the long post. I look forward to reading your fic (whoever you are), and feel free to tag me when you write your next thing!

💜

[mobiused]

If each loona member had a blog what do you think they would post? Who would most likely actually have a blog? <3

Heejin - just runs a fitblr blog off of queue Hyunjin - obsessively interacts with straycatj Haseul - one of those agony aunt style blogs like if kristina100000 was Yeojin - i feel like she'd run a concerningly simpy fandom blog where she's like just actually in love with a fictional character in classic 2016 kinnie fashion Vivi - made a tumblr for like daily life studyblr/wanderlust/dark academia/her own fashion & selfies & modelling in like 2012, got a life and stopped using it in 2017 but her posts still make the rounds in present day, is sometimes credited for inventing an incredibly niche madeup fasion genre that only exists on tumblr that's like a hybrid between gyaru and scenecore, and has no idea of her impact Kim Lip - uses it like a twitter user who migrated and doesn't know how tumblr works aka no reblogs only likes Jinsoul - proshipper who argues with 14 year olds Choerry - runs one of those aes icons & banner finder blogs and responds like scarily quickly with the perfect banner every time Yves - an account thats excessively committed to doing a bit, most followers, hilarious at first but slowly teeters into corny eyeroll territory over about a decade of blogging Chuu - normal blog user except she runs a billion side accounts including but not limited to: liminal space aesthetic blog, hello kitty ketamine user aesthetic blog, yandere aesthetic blog, yuri manga screencaps blog, incorrect[fandom]quotes blog Gowon - Runs a gothic lolita fashion blog with her own pics getting like 50k notes and her sardonic replies to simping anons also go viral. Makes a stable income from people tipping her posts. Hyeju - has a wolfkin/therian blog and reblogs like dark and edgy rabid dogs or whatever and azlyrics screenshots of the worst songs you've never heard... like you'd assume she was a 15y/o then you open her account and she's like 22 and you're like you have got to be kidding me

[giants-club]

In which Arilin says pointed things about open source, open data, and social media

N.B.: As I was writing this, an entirely different kerfluffle started about Meta, Facebook's parent company, working on their own ActivityPub-compatible microblogging service. While that may be a field of land mines topic worth writing about, it's a topic for a different day.

Cohost's recent financial update revealing they are running on fumes can't help but bring to my mind what I wrote back in December:

[Cohost is] still a centralized platform, and that represents a single point of failure. If Cohost takes off, it's going to require a lot more money to run than they have right now, and it's hard to know if "Cohost Plus" will be enough to offset those costs.

I have a few friends who are Cohost partisans. While its "cram posts into 40% of the browser window width" aesthetic is claws on a chalkboard to me, it's easy to see why people like the service. They have the nice things from Twitter and Tumblr, but without the ads and the NSFW policies and the right-wing trolls and the Elons. They don't have the annoying things from Mastodon---the nerdy fiddliness around "instances" endemic to any such service, and the prickly, change-resistant and mansplainy culture endemic to Mastodon in particular. They even have a manifesto! (Who doesn't like a good manifesto?) Unfortunately, what they don't have is a business model---and unlike the vast majority of Mastodon instances, they need one.

To the degree I've become a social media partisan, it's for Mastodon, despite its cultural and technical difficulties. I'm not going to beat the federation drum again, though---not directly. Instead, I'd like to discuss "silos": services whose purpose is to share user-generated content, from tweets to photos to furry porn, but that largely lock that data in.

Let's pick two extremes that aren't social media: the blogging engine WordPress, and the furry story/image archive site Fur Affinity.

WordPress itself is open source. You can put up your own WordPress site or use any number of existing commercial hosts if you like.

WordPress has export and import tools: when you change WordPress hosts, you can bring everything with you.

WordPress has open APIs: you can use a variety of other tools to make and manage your posts, not just WordPress's website.

Fur Affinity is not open source. If FA goes away, there won't be another FA, unless they transfer the assets to someone else.

You can't move from another archive site to FA or move from FA to another archive site without doing everything manually. You can't even export lists of your social graph to try to rebuild it on another site.

FA has no API, so there's no easy way for anyone else to build third-party tools to work with it.*

Cohost is, unfortunately, on the FA side of the equation. It has no official, complete API, no data export function, no nothing. If it implodes, it's taking your data down with it.

Mastodon, for all of its faults, is open-source software built on an open protocol. Anyone with sufficient know-how and resources can spin up a Mastodon (or Mastodon-compatible) server, and if you as a user need to move to a different instance for any reason, you can. And I know there are a lot of my readers who don't dig Mastodon ready to point out all the asterisks there, the sharp edges, the failures in practice. But if you as a user need to move to a different Cohost instance for any reason, there is only one asterisk there and the asterisk is "sorry, you're fucked".

I've often said that I'm more interested in open data than open source, and that's largely true: since I write nearly everything in plain text with Markdown, my writing won't be trapped in a proprietary format if the people who make my closed-source editors go under or otherwise stop supporting them. But, I'm not convinced that a server for a user-generated content site doesn't ultimately need both data and source to be open. A generation ago, folks abandoning LiveJournal who wanted to keep using an LJ-like system could migrate to Dreamwidth nearly effortlessly. Dreamwidth was a fork of LJ's open-source server, and LJ had a well-documented API for posting, reading, importing, and exporting.

To be clear, I hope Cohost pulls out of their current jam. They seem to have genuinely good motivations. But even the best of intentions can't guarantee…well, anything. Small community-driven sites have moderation faceplants all the damn time. And sites that get big enough that they can no longer be run as a hobby will need revenue. If they don't have a plan to get that revenue, they're going to be in trouble; if they do have a plan, they face the danger of enshittification. Declaring your for-profit company to be proudly anti-capitalist is not, in the final analysis, a solution to this dilemma.

And yet. I can't help but read that aspirational "against all things Silicon Valley" manifesto, look at the closed source, closed data, super-siloed service they actually built in practice, and wonder just how those two things can be reconciled. At the end of the day, there's little more authentically Silicon Valley than lock-in.

------

*I know you're thinking "what about PostyBirb"; as far as I know, PostyBirb is basically brute-forcing it by "web scraping". This works, but it's highly fragile; a relatively small change on FA's front end, even a purely aesthetic one, might break things until PostyBirb can figure out how to brute-force the new design.

[hellhoundlair]

hiiiii is ur name hellhoundlair because the hell hound lair is where are the puppies are at?

REAL TALK i originally chose the url hellhoundlair bc i wanted to have my blogs desktop theme to be a recreation of the website hellhoundslair.com from 1x17 hell house. the url hellhoundslair with the s was already taken by a now inactive user, but i actually like hellhoundlair better anyway.

im putting the rest under the cut because this post got long, but there are a few assets i made under the cut that are free to use for yourself if youre planning on making your own canon replica blog!

i spent ages trying to put together that website banner. i cant find the gif version i made that had text glow like how it looks in the show, but i also spent ages trying to hunt down that font. the things i do for a supernatural blog. i never got up to attempting to do that glitchy lens flare effect.

i did this and attempted to customize a theme enough to kind of resemble the original website but i ended up scrapping the theme because it was ugly. who knows though, maybe ill try to hellhoundslair.com-ify my blog theme again because its a really fun idea and id like to do it in a way thats maybe a little less faithful to the show but maybe a little more aesthetically pleasing!

(fun fact! the hellhoundslair website was once real! nowadays it redirects to the cw website but it used to host like 12 scary ghost stories. it was pretty shit. it also looked nothing like it did on the show. you can still visit it on the wayback machine)

i also tried to make my tumblr theme resemble sams laptop desktop from ye olde interractive supernatural point and click type website but it was also really ugly and not well done lol, but heres some assets i made for that!

[the blog background! made hd using waifu2x and elongated to fit modern computer screens. blank spot in the middle for the posts to go]

[fake desktop icons! very low quality and kinda shit because i figured theyd be small so no one would notice imperfections anyway]

the original website these assets are made after doesnt exist anymore and cant be accessed via the wayback machine either, probably because it was 100% consisted of flash player shit (rip) but i adore how it looks (i especially love the interior shot of baby, which looks nothing like a 67 chevy impala) and would also love to see it be remade!