#the quality is better if you click btw I always hate how tumblr does that

[bi-and-bewildered]

🏳️whats your favourite gif/gifset that youve made? :)

this gifset from season 5 episode 21 turned out so beautiful!! the background is gorgeous and the lighting was already so nice (and they’re such cuties🥺🥺)

[marshmallowgoop]

@kuribo4indahouse replied to your post “[[MOR] Getting my stuff reblogged by big blogs always kinda feels...”

Don't worry too much about tumblr. Tags are weird. People often just won't see things they would like. My tumblr isn't anything to write home about, but sometimes I'm sirprised nobody sees some things I post that I think are of interest. And then snothr blog posts the same thing and it gets tons of notes. I think tumblr's system gives preference depending on several factors. I have like 1200 followers, I guess that is quite a bit but not that much? So your stuff is probably being missed by many KlK fans on this very site, it's weird. :/ 

Don't worry about it. Your coverage of the KlK game is absolutely amazing btw, I think you'd work well as a game's journalist for example...or just media/film journalist.

I hope I made sense lol, I'm a little sleep deprived

You made perfect sense. Thank you for writing all this when you were so tired. I have too much to say to put well in a reply, so I hope it’s okay if I post this as a non-reply. Do let me know if not; I’ll take this down right away.

I agree that Tumblr is highly flawed. If content includes outside links or somehow seems “spammy” by the site, then that content won’t be searchable. You might be able to find the content by scrolling through the tags, but tags aren’t looked at as much as the search—in fact, it’s actually impossible to go through Tumblr tags using the mobile app—and if content isn’t searchable, it will never be recommended to other users, either. 

Because I’m careful to cite my sources (and write a lot, I guess?), the majority of my work isn’t searchable. That means that the only way folks will find anything I do is if they happen to go through tags, follow me or check out my page, or if a big blog reblogs my work. And that’s the thing: Tumblr—and social media in general—is so much about being noticed by the right people.

And if you go to your Tumblr settings, click “Labs,” and opt to enable the “Reblog Graphs,” you can really see this phenomenon in action. 

All you have to do is hit the little bubble icon at the bottom of posts on your dashboard or blog:

For example, check out the Reblog Graph of a recent post of mine that did fairly well:

The orange dot here is my root post, and each of the blue dots represents one reblog. Because I’m a small content creator (and this post isn’t searchable), only four blogs reblogged the post straight from me, whereas 13 blogs reblogged the post from a bigger blog. If that bigger blog hadn’t reblogged my work, it’s likely that none of those 13 blogs would have reblogged my work, either. They probably wouldn’t have even seen it.

Of course, this is just how society works. Joe Nobody’s not gonna make much of a name for himself until he’s noticed by someone powerful and influential who can help make him big. But social media sites like Tumblr hurt so bad because it’s just so clear to see how much you don’t matter unless someone huge thinks you do.

I mean, I fall into this thinking, too! So often I’ll see a post that I think is really good, but it’ll have very few notes, and popular blogs won’t have picked it up at all. I’ll wonder to myself, “Is this creator someone that I shouldn’t be supporting? Is this a repost of someone else’s work that people are ignoring as they should?” 

And... that’s sad! It’s sad that I think this. It’s sad that I’ll have blogs “like” my posts and only reblog them when someone big and popular does—and sad that I catch myself doing this, too. It’s sad that your worth is so decided by a few powerful people at the top.

On a personal level, I’ve had so many doubts and insecurities about my work because I’ll see essays that make similar arguments to my own but garner so much more praise. I’ll see YouTubers make videos on topics I’ve literally written a book’s worth of meta about cite “recommended reading” and never include anything by me. They say that “comparison is the thief of joy,” but comparison is also a way to help push yourself to be better. What are others doing that I’m not that gets them noticed?

Maybe Tumblr isn’t the best place for my kind of content. Maybe I need to start making video essays. Maybe I format my posts badly. Maybe folks have a personal problem with me. 

My frustration is that I’m unsure of my own quality. I know I have a lot to learn and improve on, but I believe in what I do. I cite my sources, I proofread, I strive for accuracy and make sure that I can back up all of my arguments and claims. I’ll spend hours writing and rewriting until I get a post the way I want it, I’ll scrub through tons of video footage to confirm that I’m spelling that word right, I’ll take numerous photos to be sure that the one I’m putting on my post is the best it can possibly be. 

I think about presentation and readability and keep my paragraphs from going on too long. I include pictures and gifs to break up the word blocks, and I think about the placement of these images and the relevancy of them. I think about making my language engaging and exciting, even when talking about more academic concepts, and I’ve worked a lot on improving my grammar and making myself as easy to understand and as accessible as I can. I’ll watch an entire movie or read peer-reviewed journals or papers to make my responses to asks extensive and interesting and nuanced.

Everything I write that’s longer than a few sentences generally takes, at the absolute minimum, two hours of my time (including this!) I’m sure some of my more ambitious posts have pushed 30 hours, if not more.

And some of those ambitious posts? They get maybe 20 notes and not a single comment.

So, I wonder. Am I making content that people don’t like because it’s bad and I need to get better, or am I just doing all the wrong things to get noticed? Or do people—especially the big, influential people—simply hate me?

This is why social media contributes to such poor mental health, and I know I’m far from alone. There are people who work so much harder than me who get so much less for their efforts. There are so many passionate, dedicated, kind people who don’t receive the attention they deserve—such as yourself, kuribo4indahouse!

Thank you for your sweet words. I know I shouldn’t be a game journalist because I’m not really a gamer and that’s not my expertise, but to be taken more seriously and become more recognized as a media journalist or commentator would be a dream come true. 

I don’t know if I have what it takes, but nobody can know. All I can do is keep improving and trying, and even if I don’t “make it,” I love what I do, and I’m very thankful to those who support me.