#if people get annoyed they can always unfollow or not look at your blog for a bit

[evil-dsmpconfessions]

Sometimes I'm like "am I being too annoying with twinduo on main?" And I stop talking about them then I get asks questioning if something happened since I haven't talked about them and I'm like "aw hell yeah people like it lets gt back to my sillies" and then im like "what if its annoying" the then-

.

[laura1633]

this championship "battle" is so silly bc lando does not have a single "he is HIM" race meanwhile max has like 40 (brazil 2016 my beloved). if anything lando's most famous race is sochi 2021 and uh. well.

I have had a few asks about Lando so I thought I would answer one with my opinion. I am going to answer this under the cut so that anyone who wants to avoid this can do so.

I also know that I have some mutuals and people who follow this blog who like Lando a lot so I apologise. I totally get if you want to unfollow as I think it's really important to curate your online experience <3

In my personal opinion (as a Max supporter) Lando has not done anything this season that would mean he deserves to become world champion. That may sound harsh but he has had the fastest car for most of the season and has not capitalised on that at all. He has achieved his first race wins and good for him but he just hasn't put what I would consider to be a championship winning run together.

He also seems very put out by the fact that Max is fighting him on the limit. This is a championship battle! If Max had driven Lando straight into a barrier that would be different but running someone wide happens, you get a penalty and you move on! I do not like the narrative being pushed out every time they go hard racing, it's as if Max is evil incarnate and Lando is some innocent bystander to what is happening. (A narrative mostly drive by British media and senior figures at Mclaren)

Max on the other hand made the absolute most of the first few races where he had the fastest car and then continued to win races with a slower car. If the Red Bull had even a bit of pace then there wouldn't be a battle at all - look at Austin where the Red Bull was not fastest but had a fighting chance - Max extended his lead!

I'm not saying this is a train wreck season from Lando, he's been on the podium pretty consistently, I am just saying that with the car he has he should have more race victories.

This is probably very mean to say but it essentially took him having a car capable of winning a championship to win his first race 😬. Whereas, as you have pointed out anon, Max has so many amazing races before he even got his hands on a dominant car.

If Max loses the championship it will be down to the RB20 dropping off a cliff rather than Lando putting in a fantastic performance. That is why I hate the way it is being framed as this great underdog story of Lando chasing Max and reducing his lead - there should not be a lead to begin with!! Max is the underdog here make no mistake about that! It's just that he is a massively talented underdog.

Anyway, I am trying not to hate too much because Lando is getting a lot of hate online already but I have always tried to give Lando a lot of leeway in interviews as I think he is quite uncomfortable when answering questions but there have been a few moments this season where he has done or said something I have found very irritating. Himself and Max are still friendly (or at least as far as I know) but that doesn't stop me being annoyed by certain things 😂

Sorry to rant under your ask anon, its just I have had a few questions about Lando so I thought I would put my opinion in one post rather than fill my page up with anti posts <3

But in short - Max is just that guy, the main character, a generational talent - putting in amazing performances season after season.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Some replies!

Anonymous asked:

Dayummm Azul is BIGGGG LOOK AT THAT BOY! DAYUMMM

Hehe thank you!!

I am happy I managed to figure out how to draw the fishies… Azul is one thicc boy

Anonymous asked:

What do you think of Silver x Kalim? Cater x Leona? LMC + Rook x Idia?

Kalim/Silver is cute but unfortunately too cute to click with us; their interactions are sweet and wholesome, but they don’t really give us anything we look for in ships.

Cater/Leona is hmmm nothing against it, but we’re not invested enough in either of them to ship them, plus we haven’t seen anything from their interactions that would grab our attention yet.

Love Rook/Idia though! We have a tag for them and just posted them a week ago, and I’ll write a hc post about them soon… well, at some point…

Anonymous asked:

🐩 anon has arrived once more to thank you for your absolutely delicious art. I had to come out of twst burnout, it's so hard to enjoy the fandom when it's all self righteous antis trying to police the game as if it's not catered to basically young adults and older. These kids have me baffled, it's as if they believe pixels are real people.

I can hardly stand to look at TWST Tumblr anymore either, they're all so white knighted that you'd think they were paid to be piss babies in circles they don't belong in. It's one of those "Why put yourself in that position to see it, if you didn't want to be there in the first place".

Hi 🐩 anon, long time no see! Thank you for being around and still enjoying my art.

I feel you, it really is difficult when you keep seeing people saying the same type of antis bullshit over and over and over again; even if you become apathetic about it, it’s still very annoying. Mostly because it’s impossible to ignore completely – they love to invite themselves to spaces that aren’t meant for them. That’s like the whole idea. No one is forcing anyone to see anything, every ship and triggering trope is always tagged in some way or another, but instead of avoiding this type of stuff they use the tagging system to shit on certain characters and ships directly, just so you couldn’t look for your favourite thing without seeing their outbursts of unsolicited opinions.

It really is very annoying.

Anonymous asked:

🐩 anon again, but now with one that's more funny and teehee haha random info that I thought you'd think it'd be interesting or funny

On that note, I came here because I started a DND campaign with a group over a twst based campaign. It reminded me of you, which made me invested in the campaign. Now I have a whore serving with 18th century fashion, giving Vil a run for his money. So far, 10/10. He has major Edmund and Idia vibes, wants no part of it, gets shit luck anyways and so far, has slept with Bird Man for Ramshackle funds on a bad roll. Mans is a survivor and we are barely halfway into chapter 1 😭

It’s so sweet that you got reminded of us and got invested… I am very glad you’re having fun! “Rewriting” your negative fandom experience with a positive one and good associations is so important.

Major Edmund and Idia vibes + a 18th century fashion whore??? SLEEPING WITH BIRD MAN??? An icon and a hustler. I don’t know him but I love him already…

Anonymous asked:

Good lord. I had randomly followed a twst blog but then I saw them posting about how even though there is a two year age difference between the third-years and first-years, it’s wrong to ship them because the first-years treat them, especially the housewardens, like idols and apparently that’s grooming. Like, no, that’s you in Delululand and I’m about to unfollow and block. #staytoxicbestie

Yeah they seem to have discovered this idea and now put it everywhere, harassing JackVil shippers and such. It’s one of those moments when I genuinely hope that they deliberately lie and reach because I am scared of the idea of anyone being this dumb.

It does suck that there seems to be more people like that lately, and they don’t even tag their accs with “proship dni” anymore either. Gee I wonder why.

[elvendorx]

Hi! I really like your blog! I was just wondering, how do you manage to find canon-based marauders content? I’m pretty new to Tumblr and while I follow the main tags, I’m tired of the short and shallow Siriuses, activist Jameses, and naive Lupins that don’t seem anything like the marauders I fell in love with. And the hatred for Snape and the condescension towards his fans makes me super scared to interact with blogs since I have posted Snape content on my main blog and I feel like I’d be eaten alive. I’m so overwhelmed! Do you use filters to help you? Or is it just finding and following the right people? Thanks for any and all advice!

hello and thank you! <3

a lot of it honestly is just finding and following the right people. the exact balance of that is personal that it will take a while to feel like you're consistently seeing things on your own specific wavelength but it's definitely doable. i think once you find one blog you really align with, see who they interact with regularly, check out those blogs, then check out who those blogs follow, etc etc. i used to systematically go through likes and reblogs on posts i liked, but once you find a few blogs you really enjoy, you'll end up finding more like-minded people quite naturally. and honestly, anyone who expects you to have the exact same tolerances for different characters as they do is probably not going to be much fun to interact with anyway.

i use filters for things i absolutely never want to see but not everything gets tagged/not everything that is tagged is the thing you don't want to see (so much sirius solo art/gen marauder stuff is tagged wolfstar) but it works and i would recommend it for absolute no-gos.

the main tags unfortunately are not safe spaces anymore and tbh if there's anything worth seeing in there, someone else will reblog it so it ends up on your dash anyway. sometimes i look in the prongsfoot tag but if anything look at anti (ship)/anti (character) tags lol and sometimes finding people who dislike the same things as you is also a good way to find like-minded people - hating can work, kids.

specifically for mwpp stuff, in my broad experience, snape fans are often more comfortable with the morally grey thing so they have solid views on snape AND sirius, james and remus, tho obviously you get the ultra protective stans too. but def follow snape fans if you are even slighty interested in snape, it's a great way of seeing how other pockets of hp fandom function. also, you could have identical views on a character as someone but you love them and they hate them, for the same reasons, and i feel like the joy is in finding the same interpretation, it's very fun and just in life it's good to see different perspectives. i got unfollowed a while back for a snape post i can't even remember but it was like 5 people and honestly the right people will probably be cooler than you think about it :)

so really my advice boils down to:

know what you do and don't want to see

know what you can and can't tolerate seeing (things that annoy you or more serious triggers)

find connections through sources you trust

try finding a mix of people who like the same things as you do/people who dislike the same things you do/people who you might not always agree with in judgement but whose analyses and approaches are objective

and eventually you'll have a great balanced lil circle <3

anyway a few recommendations of people i follow who i think offer great hp ideas:

@remus-poopin @narcissa-black-supermacy @ashesandhackles @urupotter @act-more-like-a-dog-sirius

but also consider anyone i follow/interact with a lot an endorsement! hope u have fun exploring :)

[kissatoru]

for the FINAL time: indicate your AGE on your blog PLEASE

i know i’ve said this so many times that it feels obnoxious at this point, and trust me, i’m as tired of saying it as (those of) you (who this doesn’t apply to) are of hearing it, but i need to reiterate it one last time. honestly, this is more of a rant than anything, but these thoughts have been on my mind for a while and i’ll just be glad to get them out. maybe this is making a big deal out of something quite small, but it wouldn’t have to be if people would actually listen/care.

i want to start off by saying if you’re someone who doesn’t have an age or an indicator of it on your blog, and the title of this post annoys you, you can go ahead and unfollow me right now.

or don’t, because i’m going to block you sooner or later anyway. which i realise sounds harsh, but apparently being polite about it isn’t getting me, or any of the other 18+ only blogs on here who are constantly repeating themselves, anywhere so i don’t care about being polite anymore.

the cheap price of literally nothing but having some numbers in your bio is still too high for some of you to ‘pay’ to read mine and others’ work. like we’re writing stuff you can read for FREE and all that us nsfw writers ask is that you have an age on your blog — yet some people still refuse to do that much. it’s not only disappointing, but also straight up disrespectful. there’s blogs who’ve been following me for WEEKS who still don’t have an age indicator, despite me posting about it regularly and despite it being clearly stated on my pinned post.

believe it or not, i don’t want to block you. some of you are always in my notifications, interacting with my posts, and especially when you reblog mine/my moots’ works, i recognise you, and seeing you makes me really happy! but when i check your blog and see that you don’t have an age on it, that’s telling me you’re seeing my reminders but you just don’t fucking care.

it’s all well and good interacting with me and my posts, but if you can’t even respect the simplest of boundaries, i don’t care whether you’re actually a minor or not. you are obviously too lazy or don’t care about me as an actual person as much as you care about the content you get to see on your timeline.

maybe you have your reasons, like maybe:

you’re not comfortable sharing your specific age. that’s totally fine! you can tell me in my dms if you’d like to. if not, anything from the year (e.g. 02’ liner) or the decade (e.g. 90s baby) you were born to an appropriate age range (e.g. 19-23) etc. will suffice. if you’re unwilling to do at least that, then i’m sorry but my blog is not for you.

you’re new to tumblr and don’t know where, or how to set up your blog. in that case, you google it. yahoo it. bing it. i don’t care. use the internet you clearly have access to and find out. there’s plenty of tutorials, you just have to look for them. or ask a friend or a mutual. you can dm me your age just so i’m aware until you figure it out.

you don’t have time. in that case, i don’t fucking believe you lol. if you have the time to read a whole fic, you have the time to punch in a two digit number into someplace on your blog — or to find out how, and then do so.

some of you don’t have an excuse though. some of you will list literally everything about yourself but your age on your blog?? you clearly know how to use tumblr, you clearly know where to put info about yourself, you clearly have time so... maybe you clearly just do not care enough to do the bare minimum of reading my byf or my pinned post.

also, it genuinely does not matter, nor do i care, where you actually put your age. whether it’s in your bio, your title or a pinned post, as long as it’s there, in some place i can access, it doesn’t matter.

i think i’ve talked about everything i wanted to, so to end this post on a more positive note, i want to thank the people who actually listen. i, nor anyone else, should be having to thank people for doing the bare minimum, but, at least in my experience, when you’re having to block 9 out of 10 blogs that follow you on a regular basis, you can get pretty used to the constant disappointment, and seeing that 1 blog who actually has an age on their blog can be pretty relieving lol so thank you<3

[frostise]

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐎 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆

BASICS

name / alias: venus

pronouns: she/her/they/them

blog type: single muse. multi-muse. non selective. semi selective. selective. mutuals only. private. other (specify)

type of muse: canon. oc's. both. other (specify)

GENERALITIES

tiggers people MUST tag: eye horror. i recently found this out and it's the extremely detailed, slimy kind that looks as if it's going to fall out of the eye sockets. trypophobia as well thank you

interest tracker / checker: i have it and it's mandatory. i have it, it's not mandatory but i'm more likely to follow back / interact with the people who fill it. i have one and i prefer it if people fill it in. i have it but it's up to the people whether to fill it or not. i don't have one. other (specify)

reblog karma: i practise it. i practise it sometimes but i never expect you to send in a ask if you feel too pressured. i don't practise it. i always reblog memes from the source (as in, i will never reblog off your account because i fear it would bother you). indifferent.

rule passwords: i have one and it's mandatory. i have one and it's optional. i don't have one. i send passwords. i don't sent passwords because i have anxiety

ESSENTIAL RULES PEOPLE HAVE TO RESPECT

the basic rp etiquette

i'm a firm believer of keeping your dash a safe, stress free space. i don't mind if we never got the chance to interact and you soft blocked me because of that reason or if you got too overwelmed with reaching out first. believe me, i know the feeling lmfao

don't start drama out of nowhere because of miscommunication or if my muse offended you. they are a villain for a reason. mun does not equal muse. same goes for unnecessary vague posting or gaslighting. i hate that shit

i am a slow roleplayer. don't hound me every minute for replies. this is supposed to be a safe place for me outside of my personal life. i get distracted, i'm forgetful and i'm a human being with feelings

i value communication and politeness. i would appreciate if you're being honest to me without being a dickhead about it. especially if a thread is randomly dropped because you had no inspiration for it. i would understand why that happened and we can start plotting another thread. if i make you uncomfortable then say so, otherwise i would assume everything is fine between us. you're also free to drop me as a rp partner for whatever reason as long as it ends on a good note

i will never practice favoritism! i love writing with you mutuals equally

rp is a two way street. you and i are free to reject a ship or a concept plot. it's nothing personal. we are also here to support each other via liking/commenting headcanons, sending asks ect

IMPORTANT PET PEEVES TO KEEP IN MIND

elitist rpers that only follow because of fancy graphics/tags and have a large number of following as if they were superior to those without it

never assume i ignore you if i'm online. i will get back to you when i have the time for it. i'm mostly here because i have writing to finish or i'm sending in asks

i hate it when people guilt trip me. i won't stand for it

THINGS THAT WILL LEAD TO INSTANT SOFT OR HARD BLOCKING

only mutuals can like/reblog from my account but please don't spam me. it messes up my notifications. non-mutuals using me as a resource blog is annoying and would result in a hard block. i have a carrd for a reason

if you post too much occ negativity. it starts to effect my mood rapidly

i rarely hard block mutuals unless i find out you're a toxic person with heavy evidence against you

DNI personals (unless you're a personal with a side rp blog and we're mutuals then you're fine ^^) i don't want my posts to be reblogged or known outside of the rp community. a soft block will be my first warning, but if you try it again it's a instant hard block. no spamming here

THINGS THAT LEAD ME TO UNFOLLOW

vague posting. if you're not bothered to solve the issue like a adult then i will unfollow you

if you stalk, harrass, bully me or my rp partners

tagging: link is in the header. steal it ♡

[bi-bats]

sorry i think i accidentally unfollowed you instead of asking :// BUT i wanted to ask 14, 21, 24, 25, 41 from the weird asks and i hope you feel better soon!!! sending you all the good vibes so you can kick the butt of whatever's ailing you

lmaooo not gonna lie, I saw the notif saying you followed me and I was like huh. I'm sure we were mutuals (even though it doesn't show that bc of my stupid side blog laws), they must have accidentally unfollowed. 😂😂😂 it actually happens to me all the time dont worry lmaoooo

and thank you for the good vibes!! I was sick literally at the beginning of last week too which is SO annoying I just want to be healthy!! I appreciate the good vibes!! and thank you for the ask 💖💖💖

14. do you love the smell of earth after it rains?

GOD yes

21. something you’ve kept since childhood?

Books! I've always loved to read. I'm rereading Inkheart with a friend right now and it's my childhood copy (it still says "soon to be a major motion picture" so it's probably from like 2007/08) and that is DEFINITELY not the only book I've had since childhood. It's visibly well-loved and is making me want to hug my dad.

I also have my childhood copies of A Series of Unfortunate Events, Percy Jackson, and a few other favorites that aren't as widely known (Myth Adventures by Robert Aspirin is my personal favorite especially since it's out of print now)

24. if we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

also campfire stories and snacks!! and maybe would you rather to get to know each other better! I'm one of those people who plays would you rather in the really irritating way (like, getting really specific about either situation and then also explaining my answer) though, so be warned

25. perfume/body spray or lotion?

I'm a cologne guy actually. Versace Eros Flame is the one I wear and it is like the ONE designer thing I'm willing to splurge on 😂

41. how do you take your coffee?

Oh, I drink it black because I'm atrocious. Batsgf goes into the starbucks like "can I get a trenta cold brew?" and the barista will usually give her a look before going "...is that it?" to which she replies, "oh, it's not for me," and then she orders her drink.

I'm cutting down on coffee though, don't worry 😂

Send me an ask from this list!! I'm sick and my brain is made of soup and I need distracting from my inability to write 💖

[jasper-dracona]

The only thing I ever saw on the internet almost as often as I saw tumblr screenshots was Reddit stories. Plus, yeah, it was a really good resource for getting a question answered, so we saw Reddit come up a lot when we were curious or confused about something. That site of y’all’s was a helpful friend sometimes, and we appreciated that :)

Oh, and the fact that the site was very user-run and functioned on the work of dedicated volunteers is very much a spirit that I think Tumblr vibes with. Like, xkit makes our site function how we want it to, and maybe I’m just too new a user to know (joined 2018) but, as far as I can tell, that’s operated and updated by a mysterious ring of volunteer wizards or something.

But think of yourself here as your own mini-mod! Filter tags related to things you keep seeing but don’t care about, filter tags of things you find scary or gross, filter tags related to political discussions or sensitive topics that you’re not always ready to hear about, block people who post about stuff you don’t like or don’t care about, and don’t feel ashamed to unfollow someone if they’ve stopped posting about stuff you like!

My filtered tag list is pretty long compared to most, other people have blocked a lot more blogs than me, but it accomplishes approximately the same goal of making sure that my Tumblr has stuff I wanna see and is a place I want to go and look at stuff. I know it’s not gonna be filled with unnecessary discourse, or a show I don’t like, or news about something really bad and depressing. It’s gonna be fanart of shows and games I like, positive messages, stupid jokes, radical queerness and helpful advice!

I stopped using instagram after I joined an activism group and made some friends and followed them all on there, because all they would do all day every day was share posts about depressing stuff about big political topics, and how we need to be doing more about this and this and this too, and doing more and more and more and I couldn’t stand to open the app anymore. Never gonna have that problem here and it’s great.

Anyway some examples of tags I have filtered:

#dsmp - ‘cause I could not give less of a fuck

#abortion ban - too heavy to be hearing about all the time

And an example of the other way around: a friend of mine has ornithophobia, fear of birds. But I LOOOVE birds, so that’s kind of a problem, right? Wrong! I just have to remember to quickly add the tags #tw bird and #bird tw so I can reblog all the bird pictures I want without her having to see them, because I know she has that tag filtered!

So yeah, welcome to Tumblr, Reddit refugees! Be your own mod, don’t be shy about filtering, unfollowing, or blocking, and also don’t tell anyone to stop posting about something you find annoying, because that’s what those features are there for.

[aajjks]

This kind of behavior absolutely IS gaslighting. Y'all be coming here onto this blog attacking Alina for fucking breathing. She said she's in love with Jungkook (an expression most of us use for our crushes??? Of course it's not literal, we literally don't know these people and she has said that 300 times, as if she owes anyone an explanation anyway) and y'all called her delusional. She said she still loves him and supports him but got over her crush and y'all tell her she's a fake stan and spam her with stupid asks to stop calling herself an army.

She's always been so sweet and kind, but it's absolutely histerical you expect her to be the same way with bullies who harass her and have been doing so for AGES. I have been here for a while. I have seen her try to ignore hate, try to forgive, then finally get angry, and no matter what she does, no matter what she says, she gets condemned for it. It's not only illogical and entitled but also hilarious that you come here to insult somebody, IN THEIR OWN SPACE, and you expect them to cry and agree with you and just take it and be nice.

Too many of you think that you can say whatever you want to anyone because you're hiding behind a faceless icon. Surprise, your words and actions have consequences, so if you wanna come here and be awful, don't expect to get a hug in return. This is a real person, who has a mental health, who has their own problems, who has every right to get angry and react. Especially since you're all absolutely shameless, cruel, not to mention not very smart — because like I said, there is no making you happy. She's damned no matter what she says or does. Your insults are baseless and you sound like a sad, jobless person who has nothing to do expect finding problems online. If you don't like her or her blog so much, unfollow her and block her, nobody here will miss you, because all you're doing is annoying all the normal readers. Lmao. Sorry you don't get enough attention at home, please look elsewhere.

Idc how mean this was. I am honestly sick of looking at this and if you wanna fight with somebody and get some real attention feel free to @ me. I will gladly entertain you. 🥰

Anyways you don't deserve any of this baby and you're doing great, please don't mind this nonsense. Sending you so much love ❤️

aww I really do love you because you get it. I love you.

[sharonaparadox]

I can’t believe this needs to be said, but it keeps happening, so: if you reblog a post from me and delete the image description, I will block you. I have zero problem if you reblog it from the original poster or literally anyone else just so you don’t have an ID— I don’t understand Why you’d do that, but I don’t actually give a shit what you do with your own blog— but actively making a post less accessible than you found it is super fucked up. If you have any issue whatsoever with my IDs, just reach out to me via ask or messages.

Anyway, important pinned post info: If you haven’t already done so, go to your blog settings (at tumblr.com/blog/[username]/settings), scroll down to the “Visibility” section, and make sure to click the button to opt in to “Prevent third-party sharing”; make sure to do this with each sideblog you have, because this setting is by individual blog and not account-wide. Fuck AI art, and fuck Tumblr for scraping artists’ hard work to use for that shit.

Also, go here to donate to Palestine with just a click of the button.

Below are details about the person behind this blog, since who knows how many people have read my about page (or even have access to it, since apparently a lot of people use the Tumblr app which I’ve heard doesn’t allow you to view custom pages?).

You can call me Sharona (which isn’t my “real” name I use offline, but I’ve been using it since 2011, back when I was 18 going on 19). I’m a white cis woman living on occupied land in southern California. I have a family history of mental illness, though I’m not professionally diagnosed myself. I’m aromantic bisexual (possibly acespec, but I’m not personally interested in looking for microlabels that perfectly fit me).

Pretty much all I do here is reblog things from other people and add image descriptions. I don’t make any of the art you see on this blog and claim no ownership over any of the images. Also, since I’ve been asked in the past: you can just straight up copy and paste my IDs and edit them as you see fit in a reblog of your own if you’d rather have it attached in a separate reblog chain (or add it to the original post if you’re the artist). You can credit me if you want, but I’m literally just describing things others have made, haha.

I don’t have any real “Do Not Interact” list, because, let’s be honest, most people who actually fit the typical DNI criteria just ignore those anyway. I do block people I come across in the wild being bigoted (or just annoying, tbh), and, as stated above, I also block people who reblog anything from me and remove the ID. All that said, if I’ve blocked you and you think I was being a little overzealous with that block button, you can always send an ask or message me (or I guess have a friend do it?) and maybe I’ll see about unblocking you.

I Do Not block people who mass like or reblog my posts! I love waking up and seeing my activity feed filled with one person who’s clearly excited to go through my tags! Also, if you want to add comments to posts you reblog from me or strike a conversation in my inbox or messages, you’re perfectly welcome to! That being said, do not expect me to “follow for follow,” because I get overwhelmed easily if I follow too many people or if someone I am following posts a lot. I have, unfortunately, had too many instances where I’ve needed to unfollow people who were really nice but whose blogs were very emotionally draining for me.

Anyway, if you’ve read all that, here’s my Linktree with other accounts I have. Unfortunately, as much as Tumblr sucks, it’s still the only social media I can even halfway tolerate, so don’t bother trying to reach me on those other accounts.

[jpchathamandfriends]

All right so I've been thinking a bit more about this. You know what might actually work? Crabs. Hear me out. Tagging @staff because I legit think this is a good idea.

First let's consider what people don't like about algorithms in social media feeds. Algorithms take away our feeling of control, turning us into passive consumers of whatever the algorithm chooses for us to see. They're inscrutable, choosing posts based on some occult machine learning model that either can't be comprehended by humans or is kept a jealously guarded secret. They usually are optimized to maximize things that can be measured, like clicks or time spent staring at something, instead of things that matter like enjoyment or dialogue. And they're really not that great at the end of the day, they tend to settle on showing someone the same sort of thing over and over again, and that thing tends toward nazism more often than it really should.

There are benefits to algorithms too! A few of them are beneficial to both users and corporate overlords, and many are beneficial to corporate overlords but hostile to users. With all the nonsense that the overlords of other social media sites are getting themselves into these days, it really makes sense that tumblr users are worried that our own overlords are going to mess things up unrecoverably. Fortunately the benefits in @staff's original post look beneficial to users as well, but a competent evil marketing genius could easily try and sneak something horrible in there too.

So here is my proposed solution!

Don't mess with our feeds at all. Our followers' posts should still come up chronologically like they always have. But, what if there were some algorithm bots that we could follow *if we wanted to*? We'd interact with them the same way we interact with user-created bots: follow them if we want, unfollow them if they get annoying. They'd put posts in our feeds. The user experience doesn't change, there's just more stuff there.

The reason I'm suggesting multiple bots is that I think they should be a) cute, b) comprehensible, and c) stupid. And, d) they should be tumblr crabs. Imagine: There are twenty or so crab bots out there. They all have names, and their profile pictures are the same pixelated crab emoji except all in different colors with a different hat or thing in their claw. But each one has a different algorithm. Maybe there's a green one named Sally The Crab and she has a flower. Her page is titled "I'll bring you pictures of landscapes!" and if I follow her, then whenever it's time for her post to show up on my feed, I get a photo that someone else recently posted, that has been somehow determined to be a landscape photo. Maybe Ivan The Crab shows me literally the most recent post that anyone posted to the site. Maybe Rodrigues The Crab randomly chooses a reblog of a random post that's at least 1 year old and has at least 1,000 reblogs, or Maureen The Crab shows me a random user's 10th post. Or, I can go to any of their pages, and I can see an entire blog full of whatever their specialty is. Or, I can choose not to follow any of them and my user experience remains unchanged.

But here are some very important notes:

- These bots choose different things for different people. When it comes time for Ivan The Crab to post to my feed, he chooses a post based on his algorithm. When Ivan posts to your feed, his algorithm will almost certainly choose a different post. When I go to Ivan's page, it will almost certainly not show me the post he put on my feed, or on yours. In this way, they don't behave like real users - they have the complete tumblr database and API available to them. This way, it's not like winning the lottery when a crab finds your post, and it's much more likely that a given post will end up in front of *someone*.

- I would still like a slider or something to control how often a crab posts to my feed. If I have my slider set to 1/30 posts (or whatever), then on the 30th post I see, one of the crabs I follow will run its algorithm and show me something. I probably won't use tumblr for the purpose of seeing what the crabs have to show me, I just want to see them stop by every once in a while. If I have my slider set to more than 0 crab posts but I'm not following any crabs, I should probably get an error message.

- The algorithms should be simple and comprehensible! "Algorithm" is a scary word these days. In popular culture it really does have connotations of a huge inscrutable neural network/ machine learning model that's trying to influence culture to some nefarious end. Don't do that. Maybe one or two crabs can try and guess posts that I might like based on my likes and/or reblogs, but I honestly probably won't follow those. Instead, go for something that's non-threatening, fun or interesting or a bit bizarre, and easy for someone who's not a coder to understand. It's all about the accessibility and the feeling of control.

- Crab posts should probably be marked specially, like the "Sponsored" or "Blazed" posts are. Just for maximum transparency. Tumblr users are scared of algorithms, and they're not entirely wrong to be scared of them since algorithms tend to destroy community and tumblr is all about community. Please be transparent.

- If I reblog a crab post, I don't think the reblog chain should show that. If someone likes one of my posts enough to reblog it, I don't really want to know whether they found it organically or from a crab putting it in their feed.

- Maybe new users should automatically start out following some crabs - either all of them or a curated selection. Maybe the curated selection should even include a very annoying one, so people are motivated to figure out how to use the unfollow feature early?

Anyway that's what I think :) 🦀

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[starsmuserainbow]

I'm trying really hard to do less OOC because I feel like I'm doing too much of that lately (though then again, without that, I'll just end up being silent for like weeks days on end when I don't manage to write something? feels worse, really), so, let me just throw some thoughts out all into this one OOC post instead.

I love all my chars so much I much too rarely say that. Currently, that's especially Akari, Starlight, Moonshot and Lightning.

I really wish I could draw better - I feel like I just missed out on internalizing some 'logic/perspectives' part at some point and will just forever be unable to do anything other than direct front view at all. I tried to start a drawing recently, and after trying the face like twice, I gave up because it looked really really bad. Maybe starting with the face is also the wrong point to start at, but it almost always is where I start, idk.

I'm trying to get myself a pc android-emulator to use another social media (starts with i and has a camera as symbol) because for some reason the chats over there have certain forms of shared pictures or whatever not supported when you look at it from a computer, also there's more features that the pc version just doesn't have and it's really frustrating and I don't wanna use my phone for it. Also fun fact: the windows store "app" of that media is the same as if you open the website in your browser (when closing it even said something about edge iirc), none of the app features are there, it's really stupid to even have that in your store if I can just visit it in browser for the exactly same result. Wish I could just somewhere say 'just pretend I'm a tablet or sth' to the website so I wouldn't have to bother looking for a emulator. (And I already tried that mobile website view thingie, that doesn't change anything)

I feel like I'm always just, like, attaching myself to others and getting to experience things through those others, always being only, like, an attachment, some annoying little random person that simply clings too hard to that other person that brought me into thing.

I'm trying to keep up writing again, I really don't want to keep having people wait for like a month or a little more. I managed to do it 2 days in a row now, and have something prepared for tomorrow already too, so maybe I'm on a good progress here. Then again, I also kinda had more free time these last 2 days or so bc I didn't feel so well.

It's just so darn hot. Can we please be done with summer already? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the beachy vibes and stuff for my characters and everything, but in person I just never really at all enjoy summer and I just want to stop melting.

When chats are busy, and I say something (which I rarely do) and no one seems to answer to it, I feel so very much like I'm annoying. It's obviously just a brain thing, and nothing actually true, but man I hate feeling like that. It's usually almost impossible for me to try to say the thing again to try to get someoen to answer to it another time.

I really wanna be more active around the dash again. Liking things, perhaps sending things too (if I can get myself that far) - I feel like many of the ppl I see on my dash regularly I have nothing going with and doubt myself that they're even interested anymore even when we're still mutuals, and a part of me goes "you should just unfollow, clearly they're not interested anymore", but I don't want to give up on even more blogs than I already did somewhat recently (some months ago I unfollowed some I think) and I really have to try to find another way to fix this.

I'm so glad I found a way to access the yellow text color again. It'll be so nice to be able to use that again. And yes, I know that that color still looks weird even on my theme, but that's not my fault. All the other colors when used are on the theme in "npf-class:joey" etc, but for some reason this color never is. I tried to contact support about that before to get those into classes too which would allow me to style them in my theme (I'm doing it with some colors, if you see posts on my theme you see what I mean) so they're better readable, but they didn't understand what I meant and I can't explain it properly. Now that I looked at it again, it seems they fixed it for one of the colors - I think it used to be both red and yellow having that problem, now it looks like red styled properly - so maybe it's just not getting fixed bc they removed yellow from being an available color in the editor. Oh well.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Sorry for the long thing.

[catcatb0y]

Now I get it how I probably look when I follow a blog for a couple posts and they turn out to be old af, because I just got a fandom homie following me and uhhhh

Sorry, dude, if you see this I haven't posted about that in months.

I had a huge falling out with the fandom over spoilers and shit to the point where I unfollowed and blocked half the fandom because of how bad it got. I blacklisted the tags, and the only blogs I follow that used to be in those circles don't post any ship content (nor do I for the matter).

No clue why Tumblr is SO dead set on trying to pull me back into this fandom, but I can assure you I don't have any of the content you're looking for.

If you wanna stick around regardless, have fun, but I don't post about or engage with that series anymore and if you dig through my old posts you're gonna find some annoying vents because I fucking hated how people were acting over the spoilers (and I still do some of y'all fucking suck lol), but you know at the end of the day I'm still here to make friends.

For me, individual characters always matter more than shipping, so I really don' tcare about the "canon" status of a ship. I just care if it's respectful to both of the characters in it (which seems to be an unpopular opinion lol), and I just didn't feel like the canon was upholding that of its characters. The final arc (before I left) felt sloppy and poorly done, and everything I've seen past that has been shitty fanservice that I don't want to see or engage with.

So yeah rn I just reblog occasional memes and sometimes document mental breaks. It will probably be a bit jarring on your dash, but idk maybe you already knew that.

[hashtagloveloses]

so are you back on tumblr after a while or you're new? welcome! it's a lot nicer here lately, and, shockingly enough, the website actually works a lot better too, thanks to the hard work of a bunch of very talented people. the mobile app is constantly improving, but if you're on desktop and used to use things like missing e or xkit, the latest helpful extension is XKIT REWRITTEN, which you can go download and read about at @addons that was created by @april, who worked on new xkit back in the day and now works at tumblr itself!

here's some other helpful tips to know:

PLEASE REBLOG THINGS. it's the main form of engagement here. there is no penalizing for spam interaction, most people are not looking at your blog directly, and it is the main way people find you and you find good content to follow. for original content like fanart and fanfic, it also REALLY helps people out. likes are better for like, personal posts, and for storing things for later. also, it doesn't matter if you blog is a jumble of things - it's yours, nobody cares, and that's kind of the purpose of the site

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PROFILE PHOTO, BANNER PHOTO, AND UNIQUE URL (that isnt like a bunch of numbers or something), or else people will think you are a bot and block you. you don't have to do anything fancy, you can use the default tumblr theme on your blog itself, but just make sure you look like a real account PLEASE

DO NOT CENSOR WORDS. much like on twitter, if you censor a word for a trigger, it will do the opposite of what you want - people's blacklist and mute functions won't work if the word isn't spelled out in the tags or the text of the post. also there isn't post suppression here.

Don't like your dashboard? Getting bored? Feel like your community is getting annoying? JUST FOLLOW MORE PEOPLE (and maybe unfollow some. a block and an unfollow are always ok). nobody cares, or can see about your follow ratio, and it'll help your dashboard feel more lively (you'll also not give as much of a shit about petty dramas). the follow limit is 5000 last i checked

keep your comments to the tags (unless it's like....really funny or adding something good? use your best judgement). the tags are helpful for subject matter, but you should also use them to talk as like side commentary!

Close your ask box to anons and don't share personal information if you don't want to. You are under no obligation to share your name, age, diagnoses, history, location, face, and you SHOULDN'T. and the ask box is great but if it gets overwhelming just close it. If you're a minor, maybe say somewhere that you're a minor, but that's it. (that goes for any social media site)

MAKE YOUR LIKES AND FOLLOWS PRIVATE. for the love of god. just protect yourself.

just like any social media site - be critical about the things people claim are true on here. screenshots, takes, facts, can be skewed and you should do extra research before believing anything just because somebody said it on tumblr dot com

DON'T GET INTO QUEER OR NEURODIVERGENT LABEL IDENTITY DISCOURSE. whether you are young or old, on tumblr or another site, things will just get confusing and weird. if you learn something here that makes you feel affirmed, great! but also please make sure your interaction with fellow queers (or other neurodivergent people) is not limited to just this site. get involved with a local or school lgbtq center if you can, get to know queer people in your life or queer spaces if you can. (and if you can't - go read about queer history somewhere other than tumblr. do research, watch movies and documentaries. look into disability organizing and history outside this hellsite). Label discourse is also how many unknowing queers and others get recruited to T*RFy shit unknowingly so....be careful out there.

Don't get guilted into things on your dashboard. You should definitely care about the things people are talking about, but you don't have to know about every ill happening in the world at once to be a good person. If you're feeling lost, or hopeless and endlessly scrolling or feel guilted by people online, pick ONE thing you can do, for people in your local community, and then just make a reasonable effort to stay informed otherwise.

create an original tag for your "original" posts, aka the posts you make that aren't reblogs, so you can look at them later

explore the QUEUE FUNCTION! you don't have to use it, nobody cares if you reblog spam, but sometimes it's fun!

Don't know who to follow? Go follow the tags of things you like (TV shows, movies, musicians, aesthetics, whatever!), and suggested posts will pop up on your feed, or you can go through the tag and follow some people who look interesting

[donnerpartyofone]

Big digression ahead, but: One result of the kind of highway hypnosis you can get from your dash, alongside the feeling that you are seeing ALL of Tumblr, is that the more polluted your feed is with the unintended consequences of following a lot of people, the more you start taking it for granted that there is just a lot of crap out there and you have to kind of passively put up with this because that's just the way it is. Blazed posts and ads go a long way to increasing this sensation, and for me that has meant that sometimes I'm seeing a whole bunch of fandom garbage and uninspired AI detritus and it doesn't always occur to me to stop, look, and unfollow whoever is annoying me.

Without getting into any of the ethical implications of AI imagery, my most immediate problem with it is just that it's ugly. Once in a while I see some images that are amusing in a funny, quirky way, but I just hate the basic image quality. The textures, the colors, and the usual styles that I see are all bad, so even if the concept is interesting I'm just not down. For now, the idea of the mass extinction of analog artists is just as fictitious as the idea of AI art that is powerful enough to stand up to its analog predecessors.

So anyway, this morning I realized that I'd scrolled past a certain image a few different times, and I had been letting it slide because I assumed it was one of those proliferating YA fiction ads. Finally I realized that someone I follow for more academic-type stuff had switched over to AI fantasy images, and I could just unfollow them...but I mean please look at this. I feel a little weird leaving their name in here while I'm being rude about their thing, but it feels weirder to repost their thing without credit, so...

And for reference, here is actual James Joyce, influential author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, and inspiration to countless writers ever after:

I mean why, WHY did they do this to James Joyce? Did the prompt say "please yassify him" or did the program say "according to everything I am trained on, every human always has to look sexy and horny in the dullest way possible, so here ya go loser"? This is totally baffling to me, and from the rest of the blog's content, I promise it is not meant to be funny. I kinda like the pen floating in the pint of Guinness though, they got me with that part.

Tumblr is a funny thing because I think we each have some kind of generality about the character of this platform that we assume is universal, which it really isn't. The other day someone I follow said something about this being the social media site where everyone has tech jobs, and I thought Oh huh, I thought this was the chronic unemployment website! Then I saw a post where someone was saying that she didn't believe that anybody REALLY ruminates on embarrassing experiences forever, she thinks that's a completely made-up unrealistic emo pose and in real life everyone just gets over all their shit in a matter or days or weeks, and several of that person's followers piled on in agreement, and I was like...I mean not only is neurotic ruminating a real and common mental problem, but I definitely thought "everyone on Tumblr" ruminates on their humiliating experiences forever! I thought this was the clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder website.

But anyway this thing happens where you join Tumblr and you follow whoever looks good to you, and then after seeing that cohort's reblogs and interactions with strangers for a while, you can start to forget that almost everything you see is in some way triggered by your own editorial choices, even if indirectly. It can start to feel like what's on your dash is "everything", it is representative of the entire usership of Tumblr. And then one day you find yourself criticizing this conceptual monolith you created, and you start using that hostile, performative Tumblr "y'all" to address the crimes of a mass of people who you imagine to be simultaneously a) attentively following your blog, and b) in opposition to everything you stand for. You think to yourself People on Tumblr are fucking crazy, why are they all like this?, forgetting entirely that the whole thing is chiefly defined by your choices and you are in no way experiencing objective reality.

This diatribe has been brought to you by a blazed post I just saw featuring a wedding photo of a guy in USMC dress blues, where the guy is saying that he wants to make Taylor Swift say hi to his wife for their 10th anniversary but he doesn't know how to get in touch with her, so he has come to Tumblr where he thinks there are people who know how to get the most famous person on the Planet of Earth to do personal favors for randos. This was so divorced from the reality I'm familiar with on every single level, I just sat there staring at the post for minutes trying to pick a reaction to it. And then after that I saw another blazed post of a girl taking a selfie in a fancy hotel, and I found that her entire blog was just stock photos of hot rich people gently making out in luxury settings. And I remembered, ah yes. This, too, is Tumblr.

[queerofthedagger]

So a while ago, my sideblog @arthurpendragonprotectionsquad reached 1k followers. This isn't a post to brag or do a celebration, but it did get me thinking about like... Idk, I guess some things about fandom in general so I'm just going to ramble about it for a bit.

I made that blog about 1,5 years ago; considering that I made maybe 5 original posts on there and otherwise just queue stuff, it reached that follower milestone relatively quickly. When I made it, I had been in the Merlin fandom for about a year. I posted a lot about Arthur on main, and I kept being baffled (and annoyed) by just how much hate I saw aimed at his character, which is how that little spite appreciation blog came about.

Now obviously people can think about characters whatever they want, and I can ignore/unfollow/block, and I'm also not going to fight with anyone over it. What got me thinking though is that back then, I did also get a fair few people, both in asks and DMs, who were grateful for seeing positive stuff about him on their dashes. Some were just happy, others downright told me that they sometimes felt they were the outliers for loving him.

And I could go on a whole thing about proper tagging and how to maybe engage with fandom in a way that doesn't constantly step on people's toes, but honestly looking back on all that, on the love and engagement my silly little sideblog still receives, etc etc -

I think my main takeaway is just: sometimes it might look as if certain opinions or takes are super prevalent in a fandom when, in fact, they are simply the loudest. There are always going to be people who share your opinions and who will be happy about anything you contribute. If I had focused on how annoying I found all the - imo frankly bad - takes I saw when I came into the fandom, if I hadn't blocked a lot and all that, I most likely would've gotten frustrated and moved on to another fandom.

And I'm not like... the most generous person, tbh. I bitch a lot in my private little group of friends, and at least some of my persistence is certainly spite, but it doesn't really matter why or how. I just think there is something to be said for putting out what you'd like to see more of, and about ignoring what annoys you as best as you can, and you'll probably find your people.

Honestly, I don't even know if this sounds preach-y but it's been on my mind for a few days so. You gonna have to deal with it if you made it this far. ❤️