#i just got a notif in my activity that i've been tagged in someone's follow forever from like..2019 💀💀💀

[zevrans-remade]

💀

[ohbother2]

Hi everyone,

I know it's been ages and some of you have probably seen this notification and have hoped that this means the fics on this page will be updating, however, I've got some bad news.

This blog was a joint account between two friends who loved creating silly stories of some of our favourite characters in our free time and gushing over character details with one another. Beyond tragically, my friend, the co-runner of this account, passed away a few months ago. Obviously, I'm keeping the details private, but it was sudden and unexpected.

I know this is a shock to all of you, and not what you were expecting to hear after such a long hiatus. Understandably, I've not been active on tumblr, particularly this account, since. It's felt incredibly wrong to login to this blog and even attempt to re-read some of the stuff posted or your comments/tags, especially without her to talk to about all your lovely messages. She really did love reading them, and we'd call for hours to laugh and talk about your kind messages.

Although I acted as what you'd call the 'face' of this account, actually posting, reblogging, commenting and following others, she was integral to the heart of this account, to the ideas and writing and editing that made this account what it is, and I don't want to continue posting heacannons/one-shots/any kind of creative writing on this blog without her. This was our passion-project, and a massive chunk of it is now missing.

I just wanted to let you guys know what the situation with this blog is and why, and I wanted to give a massive thank you from both of us for being the most supportive, kind-hearted, and tight-knit community we'd ever had or seen on Tumblr before. The fact we even had fan-art made of our writing goes to show how dedicated and incredibly talented this fandom is, how supportive and just genuinely excited everyone is to hype each other up and lift each other and appreciate all our passions. It's genuinely insane, and so rare in modern internet spaces.

Regarding the future of this account, because I don't want to leave unfinished fics floating around the website, and for personal reasons, I will be transferring all fics/one-shots over to AO3, marking them as incomplete, and 'orphaning' them. I've really debated this decision, and I believe it's the one she'd be most happy with. I'm just giving you guys fair warning, I'll wait a few weeks before I actually do anything. I don't know if I'll delete this blog, I'm rather attached, but I won't be active for a while.

Probably most importantly, if anyone wants to take our ideas or our unfinished fics/one-shots and complete them/edit the story/adapt our head-cannons/incorporate them into your own fics, please do. I think it'd be nice to inspire and help other fic writers, and see the ideas carried on in whatever way you guys choose. Everything on this account is effectively 'orphaned' already, so feel free to do whatever you want with it :).

This is getting long, but I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent in requests, funny comments, little anecdotes, and witty one-liners into our messages/asks, both that we did and didn't respond to, especially lately. We planned to do a great return to this blog after our exams responding to them all/clogging up your feeds. Someone even called us their 'favourite niche internet micro celebrity', and we both found it hilarious.

There's no gofundme or anything like that set up. Sometimes, things just don't go as we plan and there's nothing we can do. If I've learnt anything from this godawful situation, it's that you should do whatever you want as soon as possible. Don't wait to join that club. don't wait to take that trip, don't wait to watch that show, don't wait to visit friends or family, don't wait to begin doing a hobby that you think you'll love. Anything can happen, and the only time we know that we have for certain is now. (Master Uguay was right in Kung Fu Panda after all).

I won't be active for a while, but I'll check in to see how this post is doing now and again, and I'll probably post again just before I begin taking things down.

Thank you guys, and I hope you don't dwell on this post too long.

[it-lives-within-the-dark]

Look, I'm not a Sebaciel shipper. I'm not an anti, but I just read the manga and enjoy what's going on without reading too much into it (I'm also old and come from a time where the master word was "ship and let ship"). And I can tell you, the antis are fucking annoying (it was not that bad in the beginning of the manga/and then anime.... I daresay it was almost non-existent, Sebaciel was almost a given at the time). They're the ones spamming the tags with their hate when I just want to look at fanarts, gifs, edits, analysis, etc.... I swear, I see the Sebaciel posts and it's (most of the time) not those posts written in big font about how a part of the fandoms is crazy or should die or whatever else (and those hate posts can be several times a day, it's exhausting). I could have send it to an anti but they would have dismissed this message as a Sebaciel sending them hate or something and hurled more insults and I'm not in the habit of talking to walls. Anyway, you guys are chills and I'm going to finally blacklist the anti tag, never thought I would see the day.

Hey Nonny!

I agree, it's horrible what fandom spaces have turned into. I gotta say, when I fist saw the notification for an anon ask, my first instinct was that I had finally annoyed the wrong person and gotten my first anon hate message. How happy I was to be proven wrong, but I'm also sad because that is what the current state of fandom has done to us.

I've been in fandom for a long, long time; I grew up reading and writing fanfic in the don't like don't read/no flames/ship and let ship era. However, this is really my first time being an active participant in a fandom community and it sure is...something. But that being said, I also sort of get it. Because I too very nearly fell down into that moral purity cesspool about 10 years ago. It's so easy to fall into when that's what you've either intentionally or unintentionally surrounded yourself with. I was lucky to notice before I got too deeply entrenched in it and stopped looking at that kind of content.

The antis would say differently, but I don't care how someone reads/interprets Sebastian and Ciel's (canon) relationship as long as they have evidence to back up their claims; literature is subjective but that doesn't mean you get to say whatever interpretation you want and have it be valid. (Fanfic is another thing entirely - do whatever the hell you want with them and have fun).

Anyway, all this to say: good for you, Nonny, in taking the appropriate steps to curate your online fandom experiences. Life is too short to purposefully expose yourself to things that upset you or make you angry. I think more people could stand to follow your example.

[inafieldofdaisies]

WIP Wednesday | This one is different and no doubt would be long but there are important things to address

This midweek we're talking about as Joseph would say, the snakes in our garden(s), or one snake, depending on how willing you're to believe those two people have just met and are so similar, that everything they do is just a big coincidence and not actual blantant stealing of ideas.

I was first faced with the accounts on Novemeber 13th, two follows at once early in the morning, I didn't think much of it, happy I was getting FC5 mutuals in my notifications instead of bots. I followed them back and got on with my day until late that night I began to notice the first patterns of both accounts potentially being run by the same person when their posts began popping up on my dash. There were mistakes, ways of behaving when posting that stood out to me and would no doubt stand out to you as well as you examine all the things I've managed to gather (I won't exactly be pointing out some tells because as far as I can tell they're not aware of them and I refuse to teach them how to scam people better next time). Months back and ever since really I've been dealing with someone I will not be naming in this post, who was consistently targeting my ideas - from stealing paragraphs and inserting them in their fic to moving onto copying smaller things once I caught their sampling, which then escalated to them literally renaming their already established OC into Sabrina once they believed I wasn't paying attention to them anymore.

The same methods I noticed within those accounts, starting with @ladyofedensgate-xo posting a new FC5 OC reveal that evening with Alycia Debnam-Carey, a character by the name of Harper Montgomery (remember that name). After the whole rename thing and suddenly days later being followed by two new similar to each other accounts, one that was out of nowhere picking the exact face claim I have for the leading heroine of my WIP gave me a pause, made me look deeper into the profiles. Both had no prior activity before November, followed the same list of people, a huge chunk of my mutuals and people I would mention in my tag list for games and writing posts. There were multiple things popping out as behaviour, posting and formatting that inevitably led to me blocking both, suspecting the person that had previously stolen from me was making a return under new identity.

Then me and some mutuals got to talking, turns out, this isn't the first time those 'two' people had infiltrated a fandom and began introducing OCs that would resemble other people's or went as far as to copy things from others. Last time they went by @little-wolf-seed and @ladyofedens-blog, claiming they were two sisters and they were being stolen from, only for both to delete their accounts shortly before the new ones debuted. History does repeat, one of the accounts (same @ladyofedensgate-xo) was deactivated by the next day, November 14, only for a new one to emerge immediately, a carbon copy of its predecessor: @angelofdarkness-things. I got a follow from them again, immediately sending them to blocked, while still keeping an eye out for what was happening.

My attention was grabbed by a Pinterest link AngelOfDarkness had in her pinned post, leading to boards upon boards of OCs (I'm taking large numbers) ready to be deployed, potential back-ups if they get caugh and have to start a new. All boards were created at the same time, with two Pinterest profiles only following each other: breannamarie1220 and alexisdawn10206 (Again they'd go as far as to make posts about just now becoming friends and AOD offering to write for Red Queen and how we should all take that offer, cementing the claim they're different people. Now, I ask: have you ever seen two different people, strangers have pretty much the exact same accounts when it comes to appearance?)

I begin looking at each board, frowning at awful casting choices and race swaps of canon characters, only to be faced with multiple names of my own characters being split and shuffled around and multiple of my faceclaims (those they could figure out) appearing as their to-be-debuted OCs. A list, that would be followed by screenshots (and just in case, either of the them decides to suddenly start changing faceclaims after this post or deleting: everything has been documented, so don't expect a swift exit like last time, or people easily forgetting you).

Sabrina Donovan | by faceclaim: originally they had Alycia casted as a Maya McCoy (last name sounds familiar? Maybe because they literally separated another mutual's Deputy's name in two to give to their characters), only for it to be moved to a Valerie Montgomery (Montgomery again. HM) in the early morning hours today.

Mercedes Sibley | by faceclaim (or what they deemed close enough to her actual fc) given to a Jazmine Stone, a lookalike model by the handle emblu was picked to drive confusion, imo.

Oliver McKenzie | BY NAME and FACECLAIM: now here it gets hilariously bad - they actually mashed Oliver with John's last name prior to joining the project (Duncan) -> Oliver Duncan (Oliver McKenzie debuted as a character in my AU of John Seed as John Duncan). Dylan Riley has been given the face of Boyd Holbrook (Ollie's fc).

Leslie Parish | by faceclaim to an Adam Lancaster.

Oakley Moore | on October 26th I announced her full name Oakley Elizabeth Moore and how her nickname is Lizzie -> Lizzie Palmer in a board. At one point they shared an edit of an Oakley lookalike , for once not tagging an OC (which is unusual for them), so I won't be shocked if she gets casted next as the 'newest OC they can't wait to introduce'.

Smaller characters that are reoccuring in my wips: Both of John's closest Chosen: Mathias Bennett (last name for two characters for each Pinterest account, one is misspelled, which they often do to claim it's not the same name) and Brother Wyatt (first name) -> Wyatt Reed; Both of John's named clients, one is Owen Montgomery (both of his names picked like apples, Montgomery again. HM.) -> Harper/Valerie Montgomery and Owen Palmer. The character that drives the AU and John is in charge of defending: Nathaniel Mooney (even listed as character on my AO3) -> into Nathaniel Graham.

I've noticed MULTIPLE MUTUAL'S OCs NAMES also being ripped off on some scale (so my advice would be to check out the boards yourself), @socially-awkward-skeleton had her Chosen OC Caleb Winters pretty much stolen: exact faceclaim -> Kaleb Rhodes (is he a Kardashian? Now, that would be an interesting headcanon.)

Honestly, at this point, a better question would be which OCs they didn't get to... and the weird creepy behavior continued with saving headcanons into boards (Mer's white dog, Oliver's K9, Sabrina's entire aesthetic, her tattoo - exactly two butterflies, which are everywhere you look - in bios, names, board titles). Having Sabrina's nickname her father had for her and would literally call her in every single one of her memories (Monkey) -> Monkey in their bio only to edit out both the butterflies and Monkey just a couple of hours ago (did you realize you're a carbon copy of your alt Pinterest or? "A strawberry shall fix it! Fool 'em.", she told herself.)

Then the situation only got worse and up the creep-o-meter.

I was notified of something concerning by @adelaidedrubman , who earlier had also been followed both on her main and side blog she uses for reblogs: After getting a strange ghost notification on an blog she doesn't even use and has no activity on, let alone that many followers, she can only see 4 of the 7 people following her. Unblocking the previously mentioned shady accounts, she gets this:

Somehow, both had discovered an account out of use and followed it. An account belonging to the person they had previously followed and been blocked by.

I truly personally believe they still watch my blog and what I post (which btw, whatever your name is: if only you put that much effort into writing your own fics and coming up with characters, headcanons and names instead of stalking multiple mutuals in hunt for ideas...).

Once I finally decided to update my pinned post on my blog with new gifs (which take hours to edit sometimes) of Sabrina, they suddenly pinned a snapshot of one of the exact same gifs to their Valerie Montgomery board. Hours later they reblog the other gif they could find and CHANGE THEIR LAYOUT TO MATCH SABRINA'S SIDEBLOG-> Alycia in the icon and butterfly in the header (my header has been up since April 25, I made it specifically for her blog). Both icon and banner are now changed, one could only ask why even select the previous ones to begin with, if not to fuck with a person you've been targetting.

Now we move onto how they describe their OCs as headcanons, who one of them loves to tag with "Do Not Steal" (Who's stealing here, honey boo? None of us that you've set your sights on have given you any type of permission since you make it a big deal to have it). Little examples in the screenshots below, they have snippets for other characters too, so chances are someone would recogize their blorbo being put in a wig and renamed.

As I'm writing this post, Alycia is still a faceclaim to Valerie (tomorrow she might be moved to a third faceclaim with how they've been behaving), they constantly change things around (despite claiming they have this clear idea of their OCs) and act like they're being stolen from by tagging everything with "no stealing", deleting posts that could make them look suspicious (including the ones I've pointed out of the gifs featuring Alycia and matching my own edits of the scene), taking claim of simple headcanons like Jacob owning a cabin and horses being ridden in Montana, while also mass-following mutuals from multiple fandoms like FC5, COD, Mortal Combat, RDR2, the list goes on and on. They're looking for a place to take root, the next person to leech from. If you're tagged in this, they follow you (and they have been picking OCs names from people they've followed before) and your content, ideas, characters identity might be next on their list of OCs they gather as pokemons. Beware and if they do deactivate after this... well, it won't be as easy to disappear this time around.

To the two Swipers that can't stop swiping: Don't mistake the kindness of the fandom(s) and its people for encouragement to be shady and turn people's happy places into hell. True intentions shine through with time, you can sense when someone deeply loves their characters and when they only push them out like they're on a conveyor belt to gain exposure and false validation for someone else's creativity. This is something you both can't fake, no matter how many times you reemerge as a new person.

In Jacksfilms' wise words, "Stop Stealing."

@corvosattano @florbelles @cassietrn @voidika @theelderhazelnut @onehornedbeast @direwombat @jillvalentinesday @henbased @madparadoxum @josephslittledeputy @trench-rot @g0dspeeed @redreart @purplehairsecretlair @laindtt @mrdekarios @nightbloodbix @simplegenius042 @aceghosts @stacispratt @clicheantagonist @wrathfulrook @strafethesesinners @strangefable @unholymilf @josephseedismyfather @shellibisshe @macs-babies

[roomwithanopenfire]

fandom ask game: 2, 12, 13, and 15

Thanks for the ask!!! (from this ask game)

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

I feel like every time someone asks me about headcanons I literally forget every single head canon ever. Tbh I'm so open to most head canons out there I'll always give them a shot. Most the time when I read anything you say about the Mage I have an initial slightly skeptical "hmmm" reaction before being like "yeah, i can buy into that actually"

12. compliment someone else in your fandom

There's SO many lovely people in this fandom who I could compliment but I'm going to compliment @run-for-chamo-miles!! First of all, Elle's Snowbaz is so soft and lovely, and I love just how real their fics feel. The sorts of details they highlight are just lovely. Every single one of their works that I've read, I've loved—and I definitely plan on slowly making my way through them all <3 (EVEN the RWRB ones, I'm coming for those). But in addition to their writing, I have to compliment them for being so nice and welcoming! Elle was one of the first people who commented on my very first long fic back in 2022, when the only part of the fandom I interacted with was reading and writing fanfic. I remember going onto their page and seeing how much stuff they'd written and being like "wow this super experienced fanfic writer is reading my stuff!" 😭 Pretty sure they were one of the first people I followed on Tumblr and they roped me into Six Sentence Sunday at the end of last year, which was the push I needed to be active in this fandom—which has been so much fun!! They are literally so nice all the time in tags and reblogs and it always makes me smile to see them in my notifs. (Also, Elle, how do you make replies to comments SO NICE? literally cheesing reading your replies to my comments on your fics💗💗💗 You've got to be one of the sweetest people ever!)

13. your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

I don't know if I've done enough events to know my favorite. I've only done big bangs and fic exchanges. I had so much fun doing the COBB this year and I'm doing a mini bang for the stranger things fandom right now, and I just think it's so fun to make something with someone else. Also the one fic exchange I've done was also so fun—to write a fic with someone else in mind is so cool. Honestly, I just love the idea of fandom events and the community it brings!!

15. the character that always makes you smile

I can't pick, I love too many characters. Baz and Simon for the basic answer I guess 😅

[smartylina]

respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

roleplayer name: Yaz

roleplayer pronouns: She/Her

muse name(s): Malina ♡

preferred communication: Discord mostly. I hate that Tumblr doesn't give me any notification for new messages.

experience: Okay, listen...

I wasn't a serious roleplayer until 2019 when I decided to join a Spanish Disney RP group on Wattpad as Malina. It was fun but it wasn't so active; on top of that, I had two Kuzcos that abandoned me, which made me give up and lose motivation since no one else wanted to write with me, so I just got 5 months of experience in the RP world. However, I've been writing fanfics since 2013 for different fandoms (mostly anime) on Fanfiction.net, Wattpad and AO3 and wrote a ton of drabbles for ENG/ENS that never saw the light of day.

I'm relatively new with RP terms but I'm learning each day!

preferred roleplay type: Multi-para, Novella but I can totally write banter and crack stuff. My replies are sometimes long, but that's because I love describing characters' actions and thoughts.

pet peeves & dealbreakers: I'll be telling you in DMs if I have some, but I'm normally chill.

best time to write: On weekends I have tons more free time. Saturday and Sunday night to catch up with my replies on Tumblr. I work as an English language teacher with kids so my energy is super drained during the week. However, if someone wants to talk, I'm on Discord every day.

are you like your muse? Not so much. I am like her when I turn into a stress monster haha. But I'm quite shy and silent with new people online.

tagged by: @boombambaby ♡♡

tagging: @mostpeculiarmademoiselleetmsieur @inventressyasmine @hifimuses @streetwisetemptress

[xavigav]

Making My Own Tumblr Year In Review

So tumblr is not doing the individual years in review for 2023 like they did the last couple of years :(

This is the first year I’ve really been active on Tumblr and used it as my primary social media, so I was really sad to hear that. But then I decided…why not do it myself?

I posted 1837 times in 2023. That’s 5 times per day.

1748 (95%) of my posts were reblogs, and 89 (5%) of my posts were original.

Blogs I think I reblogged the most? Not in order.

@yipeewahoo

@hoodie-sys

@94erz

@namchyoon

@heybaetae

These are just based on me cmd-f'ing my blog using the names of blogs I remember reblogging a lot. It's probably wrong.

My top 15 most used tags (not 5 because i love tagging and want to show more):

#bts - 1045 posts (yeah obviously)

#bts pics - 803 posts (yeah obviously x2)

#queue attack my heart - 691 posts

#memery - 312 posts

#namjoon - 308 posts (i am so mentally ill)

#hoseok - 167 posts

#jungkook - 166 posts

#seokjin - 138 posts

#jimin - 138 posts (i wrote down seokjin's tag first so i put it higher)

#yoongi - 119 posts

#fic & writing - 108 posts

#taehyung - 103 posts

#bts birthdays - 99 posts

#serious posts - 92 posts

#namjoonposting - 59 posts (my favorite tag)

By the way this was so fucking annoying to do. The archive does not show how many posts you have in a certain tag. For every month I counted the amount of rows in a tag, multiplied it by 8, and added in any rows that didn't quite get up to 8. Then I added all those months together. I had to do that for every tag. Tumblr why is there no easy way to see the number of posts in a tag.

My top 5 posts of 2023:

5. Luffy Tab - 20 notes

Still can't believe we just. got a luffy tab. i just woke up and had a luffy tab

4. BTS Post Search - 27 notes

As it turned out. the poster changed their name to something else so that's why i couldn't find the post from tumblr user soupmoths -- they were an entirely different person. oopsie

Also I ended up being able to reblog it! Someone tagged me!

3. 3D Rant - 32 notes

This post got me my first hate reblog <3

In case anyone is wondering. I still agree with everything I said here.

2. Porn - 99 notes

Not doing the big link preview for this one since that on its own is kinda nsfw. Minors don’t click that link.

But yeah. That makes sense.

Even though there’s only 5 reblogs people find it semi-frequently (especially the past few days, no idea why), so I guess it’s spreading somehow? Which makes me happy :)

The Reddit Post - 2.1k notes

Obviously that was going to be it lol, over 20 times the amount of notes than anything else. My notifications were Dying.

Also, this stuff wasn’t in the actual Year in Review(s), but I’m adding them in for fun.

I liked 21k posts in 2023.

I followed 426 blogs in 2023 (not including the accounts I unfollowed).

I gained 69 followers in 2023 (excluding porn bots and regular bots). Nice.

I started 4 blogs on this account, 1 main blog and 3 side blogs.

I gained 15 mutuals in 2023 <3

All this data was as of December 18th, 2023.

[stevetown]

On The New Tumblr Desktop Dash

I've been using the new Tumblr desktop dashboard for a few days now and I have some Thoughts that I thought would be useful to put out in to the wild. Most of the reaction I've seen has been...abnormally harsh about this UI update, so I think it would be interesting to actually go through the changes and point out what I like, what I don't, what I think could use some improvement, and maybe break down a little about why those Twitter comparisons are way off the mark.

More below the fold, but the tldr for me is - I think it's great! At the end of the day, I feel like I use the desktop version of Tumblr more and more since the change. Whereas before I used to just pick up my phone and refresh the app, now I get a hit of dopamine flipping over to the Tumblr tab when I need a work break.

The change is clean and logical, and as someone who came to Tumblr a year ago and still never quite grokked what all the icons at the top meant, having them spelled out is much nicer than guessing what they mean, even for someone who has become more familiar with the site. And to be clear, from what I can tell that's the goal of this change - to make it easier for newer people to use Tumblr and find their way around. Despite all the hate this change is getting, that is an unabashedly good thing.

The Left Nav

It's really, really clean. The old dash had a lot of unused space on the left, it makes sense to carve some of that out to have a menu that actually lays out what each icon means. The font size and style is comfortable without overcrowding. It just feels more...confident? Like these are the features Tumblr has. Use them! It's also just a more familiar web browser experience for anyone who has been using web apps since the dawn of email.

The badges also fit much nicer with the left nav. They don't float above an unclear icon, they're right next to what it says on the tin. You got 20 new posts to read, buddy. 5 new notifications. 1 anon ask. It's just better on my eyes.

I do understand the gut reaction that things are "too" cluttered. One of the first things I did was snooze Tumblr live and that helped me out a lot. Just removing all of the noise of live tags and loading-in thumbnails of people I'm not interested in watching went very far. It brought the post content further up on the screen.

A little before and after snoozing Live:

Explore

I didn't even know what Explore was used for before. It was a compass icon. I think I thought it was some kind of search? I can't remember if I ever clicked on it before. Explore is much more interesting to me. It makes me curious. For a site that struggles with getting new users to find new content, it's a beacon that says "Find some cool new stuff!"

My problem with Explore is that clicking on it...doesn't get me much. The landing page just takes me to a feed from @todayontumblr that almost never has any content that I'm interested in. The "For You" tab on my regular dash is where I go mining for new blogs, along with "Your Tags." If Staff finds this change leads to more Explore click-throughs, I'd love if the tab itself get some love and made it a hub for finding new content easier. Maybe mixing up a feed of any tags you're following, trending posts, and other algorithmically sorted goodies that I'll want to take off the shelf and put in my chronological dash. I want it to be a place with the goal of encouraging me to follow new blogs.

Live

The transition to the Live page doesn't feel good to me. You're taken to a totally different kind of page, and the UI jumps all the way to the left. It feels like you're going to a separate site. At least when you snooze Live it also removes the menu item. That's really nice! But I'll save Live thoughts for another day.

Activity/Messages/Inbox

I never knew how much I suspected these things were a bit redundant, but I'm glad now that they're separated and labeled correctly. I don't have to remember what the face icon/mail/lightning bolt all mean or why they're different. Things are much cleaner in that regard.

I don't really care for the popups when you click on them. Those do feel cluttered to me, like I'm going to lose sight of my dash, or the notifications. I don't have much UX advice here, other than to say I think I prefer how the Inbox is handled, where you're just taken to a full page view of the page. However maybe another solution would be how the Account and Settings icons are conducted...

Account/Settings

This is the section that sold me on the new dash. On the old dash, I found navigating the Account and Settings options...ephemeral. I was afraid I was going to lose my place if I didn't find the menu I needed. Here, having them slide out as a drawer, keeps me in place and lets me orient myself easier. It's made exploring settings overall frictionless. I've changed dash palettes like ten different times just because I could and it was easy to find. Maybe something similar for inbox/messages/activity would make the UI feel more consistent and less overcluttered-feeling?

I do notice that the Account dropdown adds a new scrollbar which makes things like the t logo and badges jump to the left. That can be a bit disorienting.

TumblrMart/Get a Domain

The Get a Domain menu item is fine, but TumblrMart feels like it needs some love. On a new refresh, clicking the icon loads for a total six seconds before the mart pops up. By this point, if I wasn't intentionally testing, I would have just moved on. Again, I also just don't like pop-ups like this. Feels loosey. Much prefer the full-spread domain page you get.

Create

This is maybe my least favorite change. Every time I switch to my Tumblr tab, I see it in the bottom left and think it's the "Where were we?" button. When I do want to create a post, it feels like I have to travel far to get to the button, and then I have to travel again when the dots come up to select what type of post I'm making.

I wonder if just tucking it at the bottom of the menu under "Get a domain" would be better? Or at the top of the menu? Not sure. I feel in my jellies there's a better spot for this one.

On Twitter

If I can address the most frequent criticism I see on this site, which is that @staff are trying hard to "ruin" Tumblr by "turning it into Twitter," I understand that gut reaction.

But I'd encourage folks to think about that for a minute. UIs change, and a left-aligned nav is extremely common for a reason. Since the dawn of email, menu navigation has been relegated to a left sidebar. Twitter is not "burning to the ground" because their nav bar was on the left. Having a left sidebar means literally nothing in the grand scheme of what makes a website what it is.

What, truly, has this nav update changed? It does not change the functionality of the site at its core at all. It doesn't change what you can post, how you can post, what content you find, reblogs, or tags. For a site that struggles with new users "getting" the site and finding their way around, this nav change makes it much easier to settle in with something a bit more ubiquitous to the modern browser-viewing experience.

Thus leading me to believe the only reason people hate on this change so vehemently is they don't want to see new users or any effort at all to attract them at all, and I think that's exclusionary crap. Knock it off.

Change is Scary!

That said, the change is scary! Having your muscle memory interrupted isn't fun and can take a while to get used to. Every change has a growing period. I get that. For me, I got over that period fairly fast, but I recognize this process is different for everyone, especially those who have been around here for a lot longer than I have.

The change is also open for valid criticism. There are usability and likely accessibility concerns for sure. Staff needs time to iterate, and they need to know what problems are actually worth fixing and addressing. "I hate it turn it back" doesn't help anyone - it doesn't help Staff, and it doesn't help new users who are trying find a new place on the internet to call home after *shakes fist at the rest of the internet.*

I really like this change as a starting point, and I can't wait to see it iterated on further.

And on a small end note, if you also have thoughts and opinions that you want to tell Staff, please, please, please remember there are other human beings on the other end of line.

[autumntouched]

I have an unpopular and probably a controversial opinion, but as a fanfic reader, I honestly believe Tumblr is NOT a good fit for posting fanfiction, let alone multi-chapter fics when it comes to engagement of readers for a number of reasons.

First, there is how hit or miss Tumblr can be with posts not showing up in the tags correctly or not getting notifications when you're tagged. Heck, there are several blogs I follow on here that even though I have it turned on to be notified any time they post, I've yet to get a notification when they do.

Second, there's the difficulty of trying to find the first chapter/previous chapter/next chapter of a fic if the writer didn't bother to link the chapters together in some way or use a dedicated tag. I've come across way too many fics on here where I had to spend an inordinate amount of time digging through the writers blog to find the next chapter because they didn't provide any links or even use a dedicated tag for their story. After awhile, I don't care how good a fic is, having to deal with stuff like that will quickly turn me off a fic.

Third, there isn't a unified & connected tagging system here like there is on AO3. I know I'm probably missing some really good fic because it's been tagged in a different way than how I search on here. Also, I hate that fics I don't want to read keep showing up in tags I'm searching because I can't filter out tags.

So with all of that, as a fanfic reader, I much prefer to read and follow fics on AO3. In fact, the only reason I even started to read fics on Tumblr was because for the first few months after TGM came out, Tumblr was really the only place to find TGM fics. Before TGM, I never read a single fic on Tumblr.

And as a fanfic writer, I also prefer to post my fics on AO3. The few times I've posted my one shots on here (in an active fandom), I got very little engagement. And I tagged those fics six ways to Sunday and even reblogged & reposted them a few times.

But on AO3, I have fics I wrote TEN years ago still getting kudos & bookmarks when fics I posted a year ago on here will never see the light of day again unless someone decides to spend a day going through my blog or I decide to reblog/repost them because the tagging system on here either shows you the current stuff or the most popular stuff when you search a tag.

Plus with AO3 I know a kudos means someone read and enjoyed my fic even if they didn't leave a comment. I can see when someone bookmarks or favorites a fic and I can even see how many hits each fic has. I don't have to manage a tag list or run a second "library" blog because on AO3 someone can just subscribe to my fic or follow my account & AO3 will automatically send them an email when I update a fic or post a new fic. I don't have to use a million tags because a dedicated group of tag wranglers makes sure similar tags are connected.

So yeah, I know how much it sucks when it feels like you're just posting into the void on here when all you're getting is likes. And I know there is still a large number of new users on here who think likes on Tumblr work the same way they do on all the other social media sites when they actually don't and that it feels like we're shouting at a brick wall anytime we try to explain that to the new users. But at this point, I feel like fic writers on here are just beating a dead horse with every "ENGAGE WITH MY FICS OR ELSE I STOP WRITING" post I see.

You can't force people to engage with your content. Those who want to will & those who don't will continue to do so and shame posts aren't going to change that. In fact, every shame post I see makes me not want to engage with that writer. Just like us as readers have no right to demand you write & post more, writers have no right to demand engagement of readers.

And if not getting enough engagement makes you want to stop writing, then that's on you the writer and not on us, the readers. Would people miss your writing if you stopped posting? Probably. But that's your prerogative and you shouldn't try to make people feel guilty about YOUR decision.

Fair point about the difference in platforms. There are pros and cons to each, and I think it's also fair for writers to weigh what works for them. AO3 does not have PMs, which makes it way less functional for me to engage as openly as I would like. The readers who have taken the time to get to know me understand and respect that is why I am here and not always on AO3

Talk to Me as an intentional multi-chapter fic is on AO3 for its better functionality for that format and is here on tumblr for anyone who didn't catch it on AO3 and so people drop into my dms to chat about it

This though: "Just like us as readers have no right to demand you write & post more, writers have no right to demand engagement of readers."

Asks are readers asking for writers to write and post more. And yes, writers voluntarily open their asks but that does not preclude wanting some kind of feedback for the effort they put into provide those stories. I am writing it because I LOVE the collaborative writing process of sharing ideas and getting to write something that will make someone happy. When people tell me exactly what makes them happy, I have the chance to give them more of that. I am asking for something that makes me a better writer for what they asked me for

Also, just to recap what's going on widely, readers ARE demanding that writers write and post more. That's part of the frustration people are trying to address

The Hannix Football Rivalry AU Series was "born" on tumblr (and was never meant to be a multi-chapter fic). It exists SOLELY because of reader requests, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a different level of engagement for that or want people to acknowledge you as the writer in their asks or to ask for feedback to ensure you're on the right track for making people happy

Yes, there are people who comment on and reblog everything I write. And while I deeply appreciate it, that is not at all what I expect or am asking of anyone. Just every now and then letting me know where your head's at, what you're feeling would be nice.

And this is MY controversial opinion, and I am only speaking for myself here. I'm on tumblr to engage with my readers. To me, fanfiction is a community and a relationship. That is what's meaningful about it to me. Knowing what people feel and think. I am here to write for you but also still want to feel like a person doing that. If any readers don't want to have to even consider who I am as a person or have a conversation about how I feel, I'm very comfortable with them no longer reading my work or waiting until I decide what to migrate to AO3. There are enough people in my life who only care about the work I do without caring about me as a person that I don't need that energy in a space I've created for myself <3

[bluewinnerangel]

I KNOW! I was literally like the least thing they could have done was follow us 💀

Aaaaand I'm going on a rant now. People don't really view tumblr users the same way they do accounts on platforms they are active on themselves... I think over there they understand it's nice to see a notif come in and so they do the same for others, meanwhile tumblr is some other plane of existence where we do not require the same treatment and a post can sit on 2 reblogs but have 40K likes on someones instagram on your explore page (this actually happened to me)... and the amount of times I've seen a completely deepfried screenshotted post of mine that's been taken to twitter then to instagram over to a tiktok and then part of a youtube compilation post, one that would sit on less than 100 notes, one that got who knows how many interactions each step of that journey, and none of that response ever reaching me, while I made it. (not to mention the follow button is visible in the screenshot more often than not) Also. I'm out here writing posts first of all mainly for myself but in a way tailored to my bubble, tailored to you, to the people I see in my notifs. You're in the back of my mind when writing it, the fucking tiktok horde isn't. If someone grabs that and runs with it.. it's not meant for twitter or tiktok like I haven't written it in a way for that .. bubble.. to understand, it's for my tumblr friends who I know will have context. Like there's a baseline of understanding in this place that's not there on other platforms. And I try to spell some things out sometimes just in case it'll reach some new people, other times I'm just shitposting for my friends yk. So don't bring it somewhere it just brings up questions in a pool of people not capable of answering it without notifying the person who wrote it, leaving it up for interpretation out in a void of "WHAT" and "I-" and "HUH"'s like that's just a bit frustrating when it's your words yk. (ok that got sidetracked)

But to get back to the post in question, this might be where they got it from by the way.. i mean .. its.. nice to see the peoples reactions? 💀

Anyway to anyone taking screenshots of posts on here and taking it to other platforms: Just fucking interact with us. Ask Us If You Can Repost. Some people don't mind the reposting, others you're making very very uncomfortable. Because exposing the @ of someone's blog they consider their safe space to an audience they don't know is scary as fuck, especially because there's an anon ask option on this hellsite. Like the thing is you're possibly sending anon hate our way. EDIT: And this does not mean repost anyway but cut our @'s off because then you're cutting off the source and not crediting and that's even worse. I'm just saying some people don't want you to repost at all for this reason, please don't fucking repost without credit. Anyway the point is if you like a post enough to repost it, follow OP and reblog (that like button doesn't do shit. reblog.) the post on tumblr because that's a free happy serotonin boost for OP and the person you're reblogging from. Even if you have a tiny account and nobody will see it, OP does in their notifs and that makes them happy and that's the only thing that matters k. write your response in the rb tags if you want. If you do have a blog but it doesn't fit your content make a sideblog if you have to. Even if it's got 0 followers, on tumblr you can't see that, and it doesnt matter. All that matters is you give OP some interaction and make them happy, instead of .. this. A fking rant post before noon.

[phoenixborn]

9, 10, 11, 12, and 14?

Spicy mun asks

9: What has been the biggest mistake you’ve made since you started RPing?

Maybe that on an another site before coming to Tumblr I wrote smut when I was a minor. Before the witch hunt begins along with callout posts: I learned 75% of my English through reading fanfictions then roleplaying. NOBODY during that time told me it was forbidden and I was like it's fiction, it's not even me who is having sex in the story so I didn't see any problems with this. I'm Hungarian. Here the age of consent is 14. Before Tumblr, I had no idea that people can get into legal trouble because of this and when I learned about it at first I thought it's a joke. Those who I written with also knew my age, I never made it a secret. Now I've grown up and realized long before this is indeed a mistake & I made all of my blogs +18 even to interact with due to my muses nature, backstories, topics.

And of course I have not and will not write smut with a minor.

I would like to add that I don't feel assaulted or exploited because of my inexperience and probably most of my past roleplay partners were minors too. The irl sexual harassment was much worse & impactful than writing stories with sex in them.

10: What’s something you really hate seeing on your dash that seems to be popular with almost everyone else?

I don't think there's a thing like this? If someone's writing doesn't entertain/excite/inspire me I simply don't follow. So my dash is perfect💖

11: What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to RPing?

Tumblr's inconsistency with notifications hands down. I get notifications of being tagged in something literal months ago. Or that my ask got answered. So far I haven't noticed a delay with reblogs.

Oh and people who shit on female OCs because, idk think before even reading the info that they are self inserts and only want to fuck the canon characters. That's not why I slowly built up a historical noble house woven so deep into Hungarian history, not why I spent more research for my pirate blog than I did for my literal matura exams combined, not why I watched hours of singing explaining by vocal coaches, not why I studied Scott Adkins' borderline impossible movements which are not CGI.

12: What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to the fandom you RP in?

As @winters-club has touched on the subject, those who are 'You MUST portray this character's CANON sexuality otherwise it's ERASURE and you're a terrible/homophobic person.'

Especially if those people actively harass writers instead of minding their own fucking business.

The most common victims of this are those who write Vaggie (also how come that I haven't seen many complaints that Alastor fucks when he's supposed to be asexual? This is NOT an attack on any Alastor muns, you write him however you want, I just noticed this.), Winter is not the only person I know who had a struggle with it. Curate your own dash if you don't want to see it, don't follow people who dare to defy canon, block tags and don't harass them. And as a bisexual who only felt romantic desire towards women irl, I find myself not giving a flying fuck. It's called creativity and so what if the writers want to explore other possible romantic plotlines? Let me tell you a secret: there's no erasure the slightest. Why? Because the sexuality of the character in question is CANON. A few independent writers on a site will not change that.

14: Without naming anyone specific, have you ever avoided someone simply because they RP with one of your RP partners? If so, why?

I didn't and don't avoid anyone just because they write with my rp partners. I actually don't even understand this question, everyone is free to interact, be friends with as much people as they want, it's not a choosing game and two people go to a separate corner to play.

[gayerthanthee]

'get to know me' tag game

Rules: answer the questions and tag people you'd like to get to know better.

Tagged by: my recent friend @heyheysey who shocked me in the notifs when i saw her actually tag me-- i really need to get used to having mutuals :O

Tagging: @raineyclouds @screaming-garbagemouth @mizuraisu @yourlocalmusicalprostitute and this is a desperate one but also @bohemian-napsodyy pls come back bby, i hope you're safe. i miss you so bad <33

also, there are some parts where i mention and talked about gender dysphoria & crisis, and death of a loved one. if it's triggering pls go on and don't read.

What do you prefer to be called name-wise?

Cas or Xan (like sah-n)

When is your birthday?

january 9

Where do you live?

the Philippines

Three things you are doing right now:

watching videos about genderfluid people

contemplating about the places I'll be in the future

downing 3 cups of water before bed (hydrating is sexc. do it pls.)

Four fandoms that have piqued your interest?

marvel - my childhood sweetheart, but i've only become really immersed during 2016! not as active anymore about it though.

queen - i always heard my parents play songs before year '90 when i was young, and what really stuck with me was listening to this band and their many songs and concerts. i joined the hype when the movie about them dropped at 2018. not much active anymore on that too.

bnha - i always saw this around but?? i only got in sometime last year or mid 2018 and religiously went binge-reading the manga during the highs of pandemic because distracting yourself from self-deteriorating thoughts is sexy. take it from me.

haikyuu - this was a random one. i knew this longer than bnha because it's popular but it wasn't as interesting to me before. but then i saw that many of the blogs i follow like hq too and then they make content and then the rest is history. i started maybe last month, haven't read the manga yet but i weirdly know things already.

How has the pandemic been treating you?

everything is constantly crazy thank you for asking. wouldn't have it any other way though.

A song you can't stop listening to right now?

Forget You by CeeLo Green

How old are you?

(UPDATE: yeah i now feel uncomfy sharing this info but yeet it's gone now srry)

School, university, occupation, other?

hope i was extra enough to excel the first semester in senior high. self-learning is difficult when you have all the time in the house to ✨succumb to vulnerable thoughts✨

Do you prefer heat or cold?

i prefer the heat. although a cold environment is really convenient especially in our country, i prefer the warmth because of the comfort it brings, along with keeping me grounded.

Name one fact others may not know about you:

I haven't exactly coped over my uncle's passing and I don't know if i did anything about it. i remember the times he was healthy and feel regret each time because i was such an ass of a kid to him back then that i think i made his life harder than what he actually deserved. he messaged me a along time ago and because i was constantly mad at him, i just left it on read, no more after that. everytime i see the conversation, it makes ny chest gape even more. i was so much angry back then that i didn't treat him as i should because yeah there were times were i was nice or neutral and helped him a lot and made him laugh a bit but still. wow im shaking just typing this. i now message him every once in a while even though he's gone. like a delusional way to connect with him even though it's too late.

Are you shy?

not much, no. I may worry about what someone significant to me may think about me though. but otherwise i'm chill and tired 25/8

Pronouns

she/he/they. my sex is female and it feels so right being genderfluid but i feel like i'm just too influenced by my country's homophobic tradition and society norm for me to accept myself? it's really tight here, I haven't even come out yet. being an Asian is hard.

biggest pet-peeves?

people commenting on my 'femininity'. pls drop it, i'm not comfortable being told i look better in a dress and i should act more womanly-like. i will manspread while also maintain good hygiene thank you very much. it's not because i may identify as male, but because gender roles is a big joke, okay? like sure this is my sex but i can also be a good boy or look sleek in a suit. it's confusing but it's not that hard. dresses are nice but they're not for me to wear just because i'm 'a girl'. is it obvious I have gender dysphoria??

What is your favorite "dere" type?

don't actually have one. they're all equally cool, i just don't have a preference. tsundere's are more above for me though.

Rate your life from 1-10, 1 being crappy and 10 being the best it could be.

it fluctuates from 4 to 7 like my gender. life is a wheel. you're on the low and it all goes up from here, but then you'll also be grounded and the cycle goes again.

What's your main blog?

this, @gayerthanthee , I have sideblogs but they aren't really relevant? i don't even remember why i made them?

List your side blogs and what they are used for:

homemade-genius - oh i did this because i tried to be funny and make some jokes. apparently i do not even have the ENERGY and MEMORY to post in it, so what made me think I even have humor too??

cas-xx - ick did this when i used to simp for some guy back in junior year. i still cringe to this day—not because i made a sideblog, but because i actually?? had the guts to simp for a straight cis-male who was also materialistic and firmly believed and follows gender-roles? it always makes me bleaurgh.

Is there something people need to know about you before becoming friends?

please consider that while i'm not picky with my gender, i still do not like being considered a female only, and because of society norms. we the gays are OUTSIDE the society norms. i would always rather being called handsome over beautiful. also pls consider i have gender dysphoria and crisis. it's crazy.

p.s. it's long overdue and i'm real sorry. i had to shut off from the world to finish my tasks and projects. and now i'm finally done!! thank you sey 🥺 this is my first time being tagged in a get to know me!!

[agallimaufryofoddments]

Hi, I've talked to you a few times on the subreddit and I've really admired your dedication to the fandom and patience with questions. I also really like your fanfiction. I've been in the fandom since around 2014, but most of my "Baccano Friends" are people I know irl that I got into the show. Do you have any tips for making friends in the fandom? Sometimes you just wanna wax poetically about Maiza or Huey at length to someone else who understands

I recognized your blog name immediately. Welcome to Tumblr and the Tumblr-based Baccano! fandom! This is where many of the active content creators congregate, a good number of whom have read or are familiar with the light novels. In short, you’re definitely among “people who understand.”

Small fandoms like this one are also not only inclined to notice new faces, but actively welcome them; the more people who can contribute fresh content, the better, eh?

Let’s start by reviewing the basics of Tumblr. Tumblr is a platform that hosts people’s blogs. You can follow people whose blogs catch your interest so that their posts will appear on your dash. Once I post this reply, I will follow you; you should receive a notification (which you can check in your activity log) informing you of this.

My full response is under the cut on account of length (typical), but honestly, it really all comes down to engagement. How can a lurker make friends on a social site if they don’t participate? On Tumblr, you put yourself ‘out there’ by creating content and/or engaging with other people’s content.

Summary of the tips below the cut:

Follow people so that the content they post and reblog appears on your dash. People will in turn follow you if you post/reblog content in their bailiwick. It’s a two-way street. Also follow the #Baccano! and #Baccano tags! Checking out tags is often how people find new content and new people to follow, so remember to tag your own content accordingly. Note that only the first 5 tags on a post are indexed for Tumblr searches.

When it comes to fan works (fanart, fanfics, gifs), the creators of fan works love knowing what you think. Share your thoughts via a reblog, reply, and/or in your tags (ideally try to leave proper comments/reviews on fanfics on AO3/FFN or in a reblog).

Given Tumblr’s bias toward visual content, fanfics can especially depend on reblogs to increase their visibility.

Practical tip: use tags to categorize your posts; this will be helpful for others and for you to sort through posts on your blog. Including misc. thoughts in tags is common practice on Tumblr, by the way, and a large number of people will actively check tags for comments.

Engage with other people’s text posts. When you reblog someone’s headcanon, theory, analysis, appreciation post (etc), don’t be shy--respond to the points being made, and add your own. Participate in discussions! Discussions aren’t just Reddit’s thing.

Reblogs don’t show up in tags; original posts do. Writing your own posts (creating content) is the other big way of putting yourself out there. People who follow the Baccano! tags will encounter your content, and, if they like it, might be inclined to follow you.

I think you’ve already picked up on this, but sending people asks is a good way to get to know them and introduce yourself! You can get a sense of people’s favorite characters or likes/dislikes from their content, and people usually like talking about their faves, so I’m sure Huey fans would be pleased to receive Huey asks.

Not everyone is necessarily comfortable with receiving instant messages from people they’re not familiar with (IM was only introduced as a feature a couple years ago, IIRC); they might say as much in their blog description or about page.

On that note, write a blog description/’about me!’ Let people who visit your blog know who you are. You can choose a blog theme for additional customization (I have an ‘about me’ module on my blog proper), but the basic description should suffice.

Although some people never develop their blogs in ‘site-form’ (i.e. choose a theme besides the default dash version), many others do, so don’t forget to check out people’s blogs as external sites; they might have tag indexes, links to featured content, and other fun stuff you wouldn’t know about if you only ever access their blogs via the dash.

Liking content is nice. Like + Reblogging is better. Reblogging with tags (practical categorization + a remark or comment or two)? Better still. Replies? Good. A tagged reblog in which you directly respond to the person’s points and add additional thoughts of your own? 

Now we’re talking. Literally. If you show interest in what others have to say--and have a fair bit to say in your own right--they’ll reciprocate. Contribute, engage, share.

(Oh, before I forget, I suggest you make use of XKit, a browser add-on that enhances Tumblr much in the same way RES enhances Reddit. I think XKit has had some issues on account of Tumblr updating the dashboard, but still, it has a lot of helpful extensions that make my Tumblr experience better.)

(Of course, most blogs don’t exclusively post about one subject; unlike Reddit, where you curate subjects that appear on your home feed according to subreddits, Tumblr’s dashboard displays user-chosen content; content that the individual you follow has created or reblogged.)

Step 1: Follow people whose content you enjoy and want to see more of.

You can like posts, reblog posts (publicly share posts with or w/o adding your own commentary), and reply to posts (comment on a post without sharing it). You can also tag posts.

Tags are helpful ways to categorize your posts. An organized tagging system will not only help you find specific posts on your blog, it can help others who want to see specific content you’ve reblogged in the past. The main tags for the Baccano! fandom are #Baccano! and #Baccano. You can follow those tags for ease of access. 

One aspect of Tumblr culture is that tags aren’t only used for categorization purposes; you commonly see people including little quips or thoughts or comments in tags that, for whatever reason, they did not want or feel the need to write as an overt reply or ‘formal’ reblog response.

I’ll come back to this use of tags soon. First...

“Do you have any tips for making friends in the fandom?”

The most succinct answer would be, I think, engagement. Well, if pressed, I’d say content creation and content engagement, but ‘engagement’ is the fundamental facilitation of friendship.

As we’ve already seen, you can engage with content (visual or text) through likes (most passive) reblogs (semi-passive w/o commentary, active w/contribution), replies, and tags (quiet engagement). As you’ve discovered already, you can privately, directly engage with people via sending them asks or instant messages. 

(Note that ‘asks’ predate instant messaging on Tumblr by many years, and not everyone will be comfortable with receiving surprise instant messages from ‘strangers’. Sometimes people will specify their preferences in their blog description or ‘about’ blurb.)

Sending people questions like you’ve done to me is a fine way to get to know them. Most fans love talking about their favorite characters, so sending a Huey-based question to a Huey fan will probably go over well, hah! Sometimes people will reblog fandom-based ‘ask memes’ (posts that contain pre-written questions from which anyone can choose a question or two to send); if you see someone do this, shoot them a question!

(Don’t take it personally if they don’t immediately respond, or, uh, ever. I’m not saying this because I have a few ‘ask meme’ questions in my inbox and drafts that are, um, a few years old, ah hah ha...if someone doesn’t answer, I guarantee it’s simply because they’re busy or they forgot.)

(OR because Tumblr simply did not deliver your ask. This has been a longstanding issue with Tumblr; I’m not sure if it’s less of an issue these days, but I’ve had to deal with this issue on both sides multiple times in the past: both as someone whose asks were not delivered, and as someone who did not receive asks others said they had sent.)

Speaking of ‘about’ blurbs, I suggest writing a blog description. Let the fandom know who you are! Passively liking posts might catch people’s radar in the sense of, “Oh, this person has liked several of my Baccano! posts--perhaps they’re a Baccano! fan?), but it’s not quite ‘putting yourself out there’. Nor is reblogging without commentary, or even tags.

For visual content like fan art, gifs, and videos, I encourage you to reblog and try to leave a nice comment or two in your tags, or even as a reply or in the reblog itself. I don’t think anyone expects a person to ‘comment-tag’ on every piece of fan art they reblog, but making a general effort can go a long way.

For fanfiction, I highly encourage you to reblog it and, as with fan art, at minimum leave a comment or two in the tags. (I especially, however, would encourage above all else comment/review on the fanfics you like on AO3/FFN, or, if you’d prefer, in the reblog.

I think people underestimate how often creators of fan works will check the 'notes’ on their own posts. Hell, I’ve delved into the notes + tags of other people’s fan works (or other content) just to see what others have to say.

People have thanked me/expressed appreciation for compliments on their fan art before (via tags, or replies, or reblogs), so--yeah, assume by default that people check or notice.

Similar to how fanfic writers will refresh their inboxes in the hopes of comments or reviews (I speak from experience), I might return to check new reblogs of my fanfics (but sometimes also meta posts!) to see if the rebloggers said anything in their tags (since most don’t actually review or comment on the fics). Anyway.

But the fandom on Tumblr isn’t only producing fan works. You may have already stumbled upon some of the headcanon posts, theory/speculation posts, analyses, and discussions (reblog chains) they’ve subsequently spawned. (Tip: you can check the notes on a post to see if any interesting additional commentary was said in the reblogs. I recommend doing this!)

Engage with those ideas! Put forth your own! Don’t be afraid to jump into a discussion (chain of reblogs) and share your own thoughts. If you love someone’s headcanon--heck, if it inspires you--say so, bounce off a few additional thoughts. If you disagree with an opinion or ‘take’ or whatnot, I think the fandom is capable of handling respectful debate. 

Find an analysis or write-up compelling? Were there specific points someone said that ‘blew your mind’--they had an insight that never occurred to you, made you see a character in a new light, and so on? Let them know. Have thoughts you’d like to add? Add them.

(Edit: Lest I forget, there’s also the news/canon material side of fandom: where fans share updates on Narita’s status, share official media or merchandise, and translations if available. Reblogging these sorts of posts is a helpful way of spreading the good word. Let the translators know their efforts have not gone to waste and you appreciate said effort. Also respect their wishes; of the fan-translators still active in the fandom, I known none who want the fan TL pdfs to be publicly circulated now that there’s an official release.)

This is where I’d encourage content creation in your own right. You follow people whose content or thoughts you’d like to see more of...but this is a two-way street. Now, I’ve followed people who do mostly reblog Baccano! content without creating their own content or even commenting on the content they’re reblogging--because, you know, small fandom--but it isn’t reblogs that appear in the tags you’re searching for. Only original posts appear in those tags.

So you can put yourself out there by actively engaging with people’s posts (reblogging with additional commentary or thoughts, replies, don’t forget tags)...but writing/creating your own posts is another major way of putting yourself out there. I’m sure people will be interested in what you have to say, and I’m sure you have interesting ideas or interpretations (etc) to be shared.

It can be as simple as talking about your favorite characters (why you like them, what you think about them; different users on Tumblr have different favorite characters, as you’ll get a feel for the more you engage with their content), sharing headcanons, sharing your interpretation of certain scenes. Just as you’ll 'get to know’ people through their content (favorite characters, arcs, what they like/dislike), they’ll get to know what you like in turn. And hey! They’ll probably follow you back.

Unlike Reddit, Tumblr doesn’t ‘lock’ posts after a certain amount of time has passed. I don’t think you have to worry about necroposting (i.e. feel like reviving old discussions or responding to old posts might be ‘weird’ or ‘bothersome’); these ideas were posted publicly for the purpose of people seeing them and (presumably) engaging with them. Just as fanfic writers might be delighted to receive comments on their old fics, Baccano! fans probably are more inclined to welcome new insights/fresh engagement with their content than eschew it.

Small fandom, after all. New faces are more likely to be noticed than in big fandoms, but usually in a good way; we like having new people to contribute to the content pool, haha. You’ll start recognizing certain urls simply by spending time in the fandom; the same people are likely to pop up in the notes.

Basically, if you engage with other people’s ramblings, they just might ramble back. Heh. Despite Tumblr’s bias towards visual content--fanart, gifs, memes, videos are all easy to digest on a dash, easy to engage with and reblog, it has text-based content and discussions just like Reddit. Both sites thrive from user engagement; no matter what site you’re on, you won’t make any friends as a lurker.

You also shouldn’t have to worry about gatekeeping or anything of that sort. We’re too small a fandom to survive gatekeeping, so thus far I’ve not seen much of it. Luckily for you a high number of us have read the source material, but not everyone is caught up to Vol 22 (or is necessarily familiar with the other media)--and that’s fine. Just be respectful when engaging with content and when expressing your ideas, and you’ll probably get along with people fine.

Welp, at this point I stopped writing my response to go write a summary above the cut. ...Did I just essentially repeat myself, but in bullet point form? Oof. Forgive me, but I can’t afford to spend more time editing this down...

[supernaturalkickparty]

I was tagged by @ambrina thank you bb🖤

1. Why did you choose your url?- my original url was a mashup of my name and with Supernatural ending and Walker beginning it just felt right to mash those names up and yeah cordellwinchesterwalker

2. Any side blogs? Naaaah this my main.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr? Lord knows I had two different accounts a long time ago about 10 years ago and I was locked out of them and they got deactivated.

4. Do you have a queue tag? Nah idk how to use it tbh.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? Ok I somewhat remember the year, it was around season 6 that I heard of Tumblr and a friend convinced me to make an account and yeah I've been on Tumblr since Soulless Sam.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp? It's Jared/Cordell smiling and I'm a sucker for Jared smiling. He's a gorgeous man.

7. Why did you choose your header? Because well ILYSMMBB that's why.

8. What's your post with the most notes? Oof I want to say it's the one that has a stillframe of Jensen talking about the Batman movie he's doing and he just has this look and yeah. I have a picture attached that says "I have never wanted to suck a dick so badly before in my life" and like it's true lol

9. How many mutuals do you have? I have no clue but I love every single one of them🖤

10. How many followers do you have? No clue. Like a lot? I really don't know but I welcome all.

11. How many people do you follow? Tons! Lol I don't actually know if I'm being honest, I never check. If I see that they have similar interests I just hit follow.

12. Have you made a shitpost? Who hasn't ? Lol

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day? I always have it open but I don't stay active on it. I have a toddler so I'm always running around chasing him and Im popping up on here reblogging, and messaging back when I can.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? No. I don't like to fight. I know some blogs have blocked me for some reason and I'm like whoa, what did I say? Or what did I do? And I won't lie it bugs me at first and then I'm like they don't owe me anything and I don't owe them anything.

15. How do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts? Unless it's a signal boost to help someone, or if I'm reblogging someone's fics or art, I really don't NEED or feel the need to unless it's important.

16. Do you like tag games? Dude yes! I love tag games, anon games, anything! I'm home all day with a toddler and have zero interaction with adults so I really do appreciate it when someone tags me in stuff and wants to talk. It sounds pathetic probably but it makes me happy people think of me.

17. Do you like ask games? Look at #16 lol

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous? Every single one of them gorgeous motherfuckers! I mean we all got put on a blog list lol that's something.

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? Every single one of them😘😘😘😘 they're all amazing and lovely 🖤

Ok I'm gonna tag some people. No pressure to play or anything this was just really fun to do. @j2-are-eternal @sammysnaughtygirl @ghost-go-roasty-mctoasty @sweetaspiesammy @mollmom @retiredsamdean @fandom-hoarder @starrose17 I feel so horrible I can't think of Tumblr names because the moment I see y'all post something on my notifications I just click. But anyone can play along if they want!!!

Blog Tag

I was tagged by the amazing and marvelous @rainbow-motors

1. Why did you choose your url? - my name is Ambra and ambrina is a nickname. I chose it because I was young and I thought Tumbr was gonna be a temporary thing, so I said let's be very basic with the url. I was wrong but the url stuck, and everytime i think i want to change it I can never go through with it. I'm lameeeeee.

2. Any side blogs? - nope, this is my only messy blog 😬

3. How long have you been on Tumblr? - Since 2011, my first post was around this time ten years ago. I'm oooold! I haven't always been active though, I took a very long hiatus from 2016 to November 2020, the finale brought me back! (✿ ♥‿♥)

4. Do you have a queue tag? - nope, i don't use the queue that much so i don't have a tag for it.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? - I was convinced to join by some dear friends in the supernatural fandom, it was the new thing all cool kids used, it was shiny, there were pretty gifs and wincest shippers and I was hooked! 😆😆

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp? - Jared and Jensen were such cuties and i love that picture 😍😍

7. Why did you choose your header? - Jensen Snackles needs no explanation! (♥ω♥*)

8. What's your post with the most notes? - an oldie it was made 9 years ago and it still gets notes to thid day!! 😳😳😳😳

9. How many mutuals do you have? - I actually cannot say, but if i have to guess around 60-70 mutuals.

10. How many followers do you have? - apparently a lot, but most of them are inactive nowadays or they have left the fandom so the number is not realistic.

11. How many people do you follow? - 110 people!

12. Have you ever made a shitpost? - probably many of them (˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵)(˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵)

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day? - it depends, of it is a slow day, i probably use it several times, if it is a busy day, probablly just in the morning before work and in the evening before i ho to sleep!

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? - I tend to not partecipate in fandom dramas, not anymore, and I usually don't engage with rude people, but I can't stand bullying so i had small fights and arguments, we are only human after all 😅😅

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts? - I usually ignore them, 😳😬

16. Do you like tag games? - yes! i love them!! I like getting to know people! ❤

17. Do you like ask games? - yes i love them too! even if sometimes i'm too shy to ask 😳

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous? - all of them!! they are all awesome (✿ ♥‿♥)

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?- yes yes yes, they all are precious unicorns and i love them all! ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ(´･ω･`)😍

I tag:@co-dependent @cordellwinchesterwalker @brotherlyloving@wincest-endgame @prince-of-elsinore @dragonardhill@cloudesworld @thelightattheendofthistunnel @sweetaspiesammy @jarpadandjensens