#this is my personal vent. I am going to leave it rebloggable for my own reasons but this is off the cuff

[overelegantstranger]

i sometimes see people saying that [essentially], size inclusivity has gone too far, people should let designers design for the body they Can design for rather than making poor attempt at fitting a larger body.

and if we were in a vacuum, and this was in complete good faith, I would kind of agree. there's nothing wrong with knowing what you don't know, and sticking to your own skills.

but it's not really in good faith (most of the time) and it's not in a vacuum. Many indie pattern designers didn't learn design formally; the body they've learned to fit is the one they've practiced fitting the most. Because of fatphobia, that's most likely a slimmer body, and because of a lack of formal training, there's no reason to believe that these example designers actually can fit a slim body better than a fat one, as opposed to knowing how to fit their body vs other bodies.

It's also I think about a certain level of industry standard, which, from a non-industry perspective, is much less codified in knitting than in sewing. In knitting, there is often pushback in some circles against a standard-ish size chart, against technical editing and test knitting, and against a reasonable price for labour*. It's as if, in some circles, an agreed approximate standard that you should aim at reaching over time is an imposition on these poor designers who shouldn't HAVE to design for "specialist sizes" or "nonstandard bodies" (even though a 60" bust isn't exactly "nonstandard"). Note: it's also important to be inclusive to smaller sizes, but i generally see this perspective aimed at larger sizes.

like, i do agree that a person needs to know the rough ways they deviate from the expected sizing (wider or narrower shoulders, a shorter or longer torso, etc), because size charts can only capture a small cross-section of people and knowing where your body is specific and individual helps you to get the fit you want, but that is NOT the same as expecting a certain standard of size inclusivity. And expecting a standard of inclusivity and asking a designer about that standard isn't bullying them necessarily? Harrassment can always happen for sure but expecting a standard and not supporting a designer for not reaching that standard is not bullying.

*I do think it's good to have financially accessible, well made patterns, but I also think that knitting pattern designers deserve to charge a reasonable rate. Not that every designer should charge the same, that's up to the individual, but that knitting patterns shouldn't necessarily be expected to be cheap.

[queerlilchinchin]

So, this may get lashback or whatever, but I have a bit of a counter argument - as someone who's made posts about this - about the whole "if you like it, you should reblog it so others can see it too" argument.

Bear with me.

Now, just because you like a post, doesn't make it rebloggable. For instance, if I get only likes and replies or even just likes on some of my musings, venting posts (actually I prefer not to have those reblogged most of the time), writing that's full of triggering content, random thoughts or personal photos (unless they're of my animals ;) ), I'm not going to get upset about it.

Notice I included some of my writing.

I write a lot of content with some pretty intense themes. I don't expect just because someone enjoyed the writing that they're going to reblog it. Why? I worked hard on it and if they liked it, they should want to share it with the people around them... right? Not necessarily. Sometimes people don't want triggering content on their blogs. But they still want to show appreciation for the writing. So the like it. They may comment how much they liked it but they don't reblog it. That's fine. Also, people are welcome to put whatever content on their blog they want to. If my story was enjoyable but not the kind of content they want on their blog, why would I take offense to that? I have very specific themes for all of my blogs (except of course this one)... and I wouldn't want to share just any post on them. Just because I'm the sort of person that has 15 blogs with 15 different themes doesn't mean I expect someone to create a blog just so they can share my post. Y'know where I'm getting with this?

I'm not going to be angry at someone for not reblogging my posts when they like it because I get it. I understand writers and artists wanting their work shared. You worked so hard creating that thing... but not everyone that enjoys your writing is going to want to share it. And that's something that we need to learn to be okay with because not all audiences are the same and it's not really realistic for us to expect them to be.

Hell, look at fandoms. You go from anime fandoms to comedy fandoms to drama fandoms, you're going to get completely different kinds of people, who respond to things completely differently. So why should we, who are creating something out of nothing, expect our readers to be just like every other creator's audience?

Sure, one person might get a lot of reblogs. But 1. you don't know what it took for them to get there and 2. your readers aren't their readers. You shouldn't expect yours to be the same way theirs are.

Idk. This is just something that's been going through my head lately and I felt the need to put my own thoughts out there. We shouldn't be pressuring everyone to share everything they like. I get it. I get wanting your stuff shared more and to go in front of more people, but I get maybe one or two people that still reblog my writing and instead of being unappreciative of the people that still reblog my stuff by talking about how much more people should reblog my stuff, I am thankful for those that do. I'm thankful for those that leave comments. And I'm thankful for those that took the time to like them. 🫶🏽

Love you, writers and artists. I do appreciate that you still stick around and post. This isn't to demean you or make you feel like I'm attacking you. It's just a thought since there's so much screaming about needing people to reblog more... to play "devil's advocate" because IRL I'm kind of known as the devil's advocate woman. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[themetalvirus]

hi, i can tell some of my followers are from twitter, so here's some tips:

LIKING a post increments the note counter and lets the original poster know you saw the post.

liking art is appreciated, but does not get more people to see it. liking vent posts is also a way of nonverbally patting someone on the back / nodding along sympathetically. likes basically just give the original poster the info that you saw their post and felt the need to interact with it in some way but didn't have anything to add and didn't want to share it.

REBLOGGING is the main verb of this site. the etiquette is hard to nail down for newbies, and i think it's the second hardest thing to grasp for a lot of people.

reblogging is extremely important. if you do not reblog posts, the posts will not be shared, and there is no other efficient way to spread posts. your dashboard is populated by people you follow (if you have every algorythmic recommendation turned off, which is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to curate your experience; those who use tumblr regularly and have for years have "based on your likes" and "best stuff first" turned off) and if you do not populate your followers' dashboards then they will not have any reason to follow you. they cannot see posts you have liked on their dashboards.

if you do not reblog posts and only like posts, you will be assumed to be a bot and blocked. even if there's evidence you are a person, going through someone's whole blog and reblogging absolutely nothing while spam liking for a half hour straight may very well also get you blocked. every like shows up on the op's feed AND in the blog you're browsing's feed. be polite!

when you comment on a post in the main post body while reblogging (not in tags or in replies), that comment will stick to the post and be seen when others reblog it. it's considered rude to add a comment to the main post body without having something meaningful to add, whether it be a joke, more information, or continuing a discussion. commenting something like "yes, lol" adds clutter to OP's notes and the notes of whoever you reblogged from, and others down the reblog chain will have to manually remove your junk comment.

be kind! reblog! share! there are other ways to comment on posts, like...

REPLYING which is an alternate way to get your comments to stick to a post semi-invisibly.

everyone who opens the notes can see your reply, like when you open replies on twitter, but it won't show up attached to the post, like twitter. this also pings the op and the person whose blog you left the reply on. it's useful for questions or conversations that you want to have but don't want on your blog! it's great to add feedback to a post without sharing it.

THE TAGS are the most difficult part of tumblr culture to grasp for a lot of people.

tags can be used as organizational tools (for instance, categorizing pictures or fandom posts or your own posts) and can be browsed either exclusively on your blog or globally. if you put organizational tags like #photo on a reblogged post, it will not show up in the global tags, but will show up when you look at the #photo tag on your blog. if the post is original and not reblogged, the post will show up both in global tags and in your blog's tag, so if you search #photo on either your blog or the search function, it'll show up.

however... tags are the primary way people comment on posts. it is a tidy way to say "lol" or "OH MY GOD???" or make a small, potentially funny quip that you don't want to stick to the main post. commenting in tags is customary and will make you look more like a local. if the post is funny, it's normal to say in the tags "i snorted" or "i am on the FLOOR" or something like that. you can say pretty much any comment in the tags as long as it's broken up between multiple different ones.

if you want someone to know how much you appreciate their art, leave a comment in the tags and the op will see it! your tags also show up in the notes of the person you reblogged from, so, for example, if you wanna say hi, you can say "hi [friend's name]" and they will see it in their activity. (i recommend using DMs for this though, lol)

if you never ever talk in the tags and never ever make your own posts, people will have no clue who you are and will have no clue what you think or what you want to create. if you enjoy that, then go ahead! but talking in tags is how you make your blog your own without your comment sticking on others' reblogs. it's also a way to mumble under your breath on your own posts, make little additions that people can see on the original post but not on reblogs!

i recommend really trying to get to know how to talk in tags instead of adding comments directly to posts you'd like to share. it helps everybody!

aaand that's all i've got