#when you add tags or comment you are replying directly to the OP

[lionfloss]

I wanted to make a silly little poll of opinions on tumblr etiquette. However my follower count is too low to spread it around, and tbh I can only think of "softblock if you're breaking mutuals" and "don't have conversations in the replies" what are your pet peeves of tumblr behavior?? what is the golden rule of tumblr 🤔

lol tumblr pet peeves is a good one! I feel like my biggest (tumblr user) pet peeves are:

reposting art/photos without credit or reposting old popular posts instead of rb'ing (everyone should know this about me by now lol!)

when my very personal rant posts or very specific to me asks get reblogged and they don't add tags or anything like why are you reblogging this??

when people tag/comment on aesthetic posts with rude unnecessary commentary. like you know the OP has to see and read that shit why are you being a cunt because you don't think this photos of the dark woods is ominous enough to warrant the tag.....

"actually..." ppl who correct mundane things. like someone rb'ed my veggie poll like "cucumbers aren't vegetables" like bitch shut UP like its a tumblr poll are y'all forreal

when people don't respect certain DNIs, things like age preferences. & fucking terfs.

when i complain about something and ppl are like "um its probably your fault if you aren't doing x y z" which i guess just in general unsolicited advice.

ppl that only "like" things and never reblog

that about sums it up.

[t00thpasteface]

hey sorry i’m sure it’s a little dumb but how did you find a community/make mutuals on here? i swapped from twitter to here last year & haven’t been able to make friends like i did on twitter ;v; sorry if this is all silly but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. love your art & blog !!!

as i like to say, it's like lifting an anvil: it's very simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. as someone who's a 12+ year veteran that lurked for a couple years and remade a little while ago, really it all comes down to putting yourself out there!!! don't just sit around twiddling your thumbs and lurking. it's tough to do it without coming off as a pandering tryhard, but honestly as long as you're polite, upbeat, and posting regularly, then you're golden.

if you want a big list of wordy bullet points, here's what i've got, and i think you'll find it's pretty applicable to basically any site/community you want to get involved in:

post a lot. this is number one with a fucking bullet! POST! POST LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT. but crucially...

post GOOD STUFF. don't bash yourself in the caption/tags, don't say "sorry this is shit" or whatever, don't self-deprecate, and don't admit to posting low-effort stuff just to hit a quota. imagine it's open mic night and go crazy. this is a good site to use like a journal and a scrapbook, but if you want to actually get some traction, you need to bring something interesting to the table. of course, just being funny and nice goes a very long way.

encourage audience feedback. people LOVE to tell you about themselves and give their opinions. get them responding and make the questions and calls for engagement so interesting or fun they can't help themselves.

tag effectively. use both fandom/content tags for searches, and organizational tags for your visitors' use. the tagging system is tumblr's bread and butter, so make it work for you.

follow a lot of blogs you like. then see who they follow, and add those to the list. build a good circle of engagement and keep your finger on the pulse of the site culture for whatever niche(s) you're in... or want to get in.

reblog a lot and be funny/kind in the tags. generally leaving a lot of comments/replies to post is kind of hit-or-miss, but tags are a good harmless "inside voice" to use that doesn't clutter the post itself and yet still engages with op and people seeing the post

engage with people when they ask for engagement. things like polls, ask games, etc... scratch people's backs and they'll scratch yours. and it's just a nice thing to do regardless :)

panhandling is not always the best route. people will balk if you look desperate or openly beg for engagement, like directly asking people to reblog something or being passive-aggressive about how much engagement you are/aren't getting on something. a genuine joke about it is fun and relatable, but snarky comments just kill the vibe and scare people off.

REMEMBER THERE'S NO ALGORITHM. lurking will not put you or any of the stuff you like out there!! REBLOG POSTS! SEND ASKS! this site will NOT SPOON FEED YOU ANYTHING. like taming a wild stallion, you can make this work for you, but you have to put in the effort first.

some people will think you're annoying, and that's okay. probably not very many, but they'll be loud. this is an unavoidable part of Being Known. you can be the sweetest peach in the world but there'll still be people who just don't like peaches. don't take it to heart, and if you do happen to drop the ball or rub a few people the wrong way, don't let that keep you from trying again :)

i've enjoyed the many friends i've made on this site in the past decade-and-then-some, even though both this site and my blog are both something of a ship of theseus. here's hoping you can make it work for you and your interests, too!

[boomstab-papa]

Tae's guide to Pillowfort

So you fucking hate what tumblr is doing, you're fed up, but you don't know where else to go / what to do when you get there

Here's a guide what I've been up to over on Pillowfort:

For starters, new users need to either get an invite code (message me if you want one, because I literally always have some!) or donate to Pillowfort's operating costs to get started. I recommend getting a code first, and then donating later if you decide you like Pillowfort.

Recognize that Pillowfort has no ads and does not sell user data, so you are not the product. You are the customer. Pillowfort lives because users give their money to the webisite directly, just like how ArchiveOfOurOwn.org operates. If you give Pillowfort a try... and you want to see it keep growing... and you have a couple bucks to throw their way... please consider donating!

On your new account, you'll set up your blog. User icon, description, settings, etc. You get one blog per account. Consider making this your "everything" blog, where you make your original posts AND reblog things.

Consider making a Community that will serve the same purpose as a tumblr sideblog. For example, I made my main blog ceylon-tae and then made the Community "ceylon-tae-art". Just make the Community for now.

Did you set your NSFW and blacklist preferences? You should. Filters & Blacklist have their own link in the sidebar, so you don't have to go into your Settings every time you want to blacklist something. Easy!

Join some more Communities! Think of joining a [Fandom] Community like following the [Fandom] tag on tumblr. Posts from that Community will show up on your feed now! Here is a list of the currently-most-active communities.

Follow some people! You might have seen some of your comrades on tumblr posting their Pillowfort accounts, or maybe you really liked someone's post in a Community and you decide you'd like to follow them! Go follow them! Their posts will show up on your feed now!

Make a post! Remember to add any relevant tags to the post, especially if your post is NSFW, and don't cen/s0r your tags. Your post will now show up on your blog, and you can control who can see it, reblog it, or comment to it. You can make text, image, video, or link posts.

Now you can reblog that post you made to your Community that you made! Or to another Community someone else made! Some Communities review submitted reblogs before posting them, others do not. Remember to add the relevant tags to your reblog here as well.

Reblog posts you enjoyed, so you can show it to your followers!

If you have something to say about the post, Pillowfort has a nested comments section! Livejournal / Dreamwidth / Reddit users will find this familiar. Newbies will hopefully find it easy to learn: make your own comment, reply to the comments other people have made, talk to people in a space that's made for talking and replying.

You can make your own hush-hush commentary in your tags when you reblog a post to your blog, but these tags are not visible anywhere else. So Pillowfort is not gonna rat you out to OP when you make weird tags on your reblog. But also there is no bulit-in way to read everyone's tags in one long list.

You cannot make addendums to posts when you reblog them. If you want to add something, make a comment! Or make your own post and include link to the original post.

Seriously. Comments section. Good stuff. If you enjoy a post, check out its comment section. For comparison, tumblr discussions lived in reblogs, but comments on AO3 fics are what makes an author's world go 'round. Comments are where discussion lives on Pillowfort. So comment on the post if you have something to say! You can have real discussions again! GO. BE FREE. You can also do a Kung Pow Penis in nested comments if you want to. Nested comments are good.

Likes just tell OP you liked the post. That's it. It's just like how kudos works on AO3.

Remember, there's no algorithm, so Likes don't boost any post's visibility, and if you want other people to see a post, you reblog it. If you want to see posts, you follow people and communities, or you dive into the tags for yourself.

There's more details and things to know, but I think these are some good basics for "how the fuck do I even get started"

More how-to-pillowfort guides: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/3459763 by DoktorHobo https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/4099124 by rah https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/4404622 by killerandhealerqueen

In summary:

Make a blog. Make posts. Make a niche-interest Community or three. Follow people and Communities. Reblog other people's posts to your blog. Reblog posts to your niche-interest Communities. Make comments. Reply to comments. Love the comments. The comments are a fertile land and we will thrive. And we will call it... Pillowfort!

[wellspringrpg]

Tumblr Tips for the Twitter Migrant

Hey friends, as a long-time tumblr user who never left, allow me to offer a few tips to make your lives a little bit easier. This is targeted at the twitter community who moved here from the TTRPG community and are looking to run more “formal” blogs.

1. Use your tags!

It’s gonna make your own life ultimately easier. Yes, tumblr’s search functions are questionable, but you can generally rely on being able to find stuff via tag on your blog.

Reblogs do not show up in site-wide searches. So, if you tag a reblog as “pokemon,” it doesn’t show up in the site-wide pokemon tag. Not even if you added something in your reblog. But it will show up on your /tagged/pokemon. This is basically the best way for both you and your followers to be able to find and sort through your own stuff. So if a follower wants to find a specific post of yours, they can go to YourBlog/tagged/my stuff. And followers browsing your blog is pretty normal here—it is a blog, after all. Don’t be weirded out if someone suddenly likes your post from 8 months ago.

And for that matter, most people here also use tags for commentary. It’s generally less obtrusive than adding commentary to a reblog, so you can add some thoughts without necessarily interjecting - the OP doesn’t get any special notification unlike they do with replies or reblogs with text additions. It’s a little spice just for your followers. (Just be aware that they are visible in the notes.)

As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t use dashes in your tags (links get confused), but spaces are safe.

2. Reblog (& Reply Culture).

So unlike with twitter, replying to something doesn’t put it on your followers feeds. (In fact, your followers can’t even see your replies unless they actively interact with the post itself.) Your likes aren’t necessarily public. (They are, by default, but only if your followers have certain settings enabled will they be able to see posts you like on their dashboard.) Basically, if you have a post you want someone to see: reblog it.

Replies are mainly for quick comments. It’s a pain to hold a discussion in the replies, so it’s mainly just for a quick “this is a neat take” kind of comment. Responding by reblogging + adding commentary in the post is how discussion actually happens. That’s the equivalent of actually replying on twitter. Tag commentary is for informal thoughts that aren’t necessarily inviting active discussion. It’s the spot for anecdotes or funny commentary that whoever posted it doesn’t necessarily need to have put directly in their activity feed.

3. Use the Readmore

Unlike Twitter where nuance goes to die, you may have noticed there’s no such thing as character limits here. Tumblr does automatically cut long posts unless you change your settings, but it’s generally still considered courteous to put a readmore. This little button here (also ctrl + shift + k).

It’ll prevent people browsing your blog from having to scroll through a huge wall of text unless they actively want to. It’s a good way to keep things organized. I’m breaking my own rule here for the sake of accessibility, but in most other cases, if you’re doing a long thread-type post, you should usually cut it to be courteous. Especially if it’s image-heavy.

4. Post Types (Photo vs. Text Post)

Most of us are probably gonna be using image posts and text posts. You can put images in text posts, yes, but generally speaking, you shouldn’t. At least not large images. If you have multiple large images (like covers, for example,) a good rule of thumb is to put them all in one image post. It’s also more eye-catching when the pretty picture is at the top. This isn’t a hard rule by any means, but generally speaking, it should usually be either that or one flashy image at the top and a readmore to spare your browser.

[aj-lenoire]

welcome, twitter refugees!!

here's a quick and friendly tumblr how-to:

DOs & DON'Ts

DO reblog posts!! regardless of whether or not you add a comment, either in the post itself or in the tags, the OP will get notifications of everyone who likes the post via your reblog and who reblogs it from you! comment as much or as little as you like

DON'T repost things! fanart, fanfiction, etc. this is different from reblogging, a repost is when you copy/save the work to your computer and reupload it in a post of your own, rather than reblogging it

DO follow tags as well as other blogs!! really like one specific character from a tv show? a certain ship? search their name and follow the tag, and you'll see posts that mention or tag them even if you don't directly follow the person who made that post

DON'T rely too much on the search function, it's broken. if you want to search someone's blog for a tag, you're better off going to the URL: tumblr.com/[blogname]/tagged/[tag]

DO tag liberally! you can use the tags to add comments that you don't want to directly add to the post, to make it easier for people to search your blog, or to make it easier for yourself to find things later on

DON'T use tiktok censorship speak when tagging things!! it will make it actively more difficult for people seeking to avoid certain topics. instead of "tw: abu$e" just tag "abuse" and anyone who has blacklisted the tag "abuse" will not see your post.

similarly, DON'T tag things like "epilepsy" - instead, tag "flashing lights" so people can still use the epilepsy tag to discuss epilespy without risking seeing triggering flashing lights

DO use the follow and the block buttons liberally! this site has absolutely no algorithm, so it is entirely up to you to curate your space exactly how you want it!

DON'T send hate to people via the askbox on their blog, either anonymously or not. just block people who annoy you or post horrible things

DO participate in polls! tumblr only got them recently, less than a year ago, and people immediately went ham. vote on stupid things like which bug emoji is superior, which ship is the best, and how much vanilla extract should go in a cake! but remember that you cannot edit the original poll after you post it

DON'T use or endorse "AI" generators like chatgpt! don't reblog AI images and or AI endings to unfinished/abandoned fanfictions

DO cite your sources if you want to educate people on something in a post, we all love to learn, and informative posts on everything from current political events to which geodes could be made into useable dildos, but misinformation is prolific, so make sure anyone reading your information can refer to a real source!

jargon

notes - likes, reblogs (with or without comments or tags) and replies to a post are all agregated to give the number of notes, which is basically the number of times a post has been interacted with

OP - the Original Poster of a post, for example, me, aj-lenoire, with this post. i am op.

hellsite - tumblr itself. this website is insane and unprofitable and broken and we wouldn't have it any other way. hellsite can be either (affectionate) or (derogatory) and often both at once

blorbo - your favourite character, your rotten soldier, your sweet cheese, your good time boyy. post about them frequently and with weird, frenzied gusto

squick - something you personally don't like, such as a ship or a character or a trope, but is not actually bad or harmful - it's just not for you. it squicks you out.

blacklisting means you've blocked a specific tag rather than a blog/person. for example, if you don't want to see anything with spiders, blacklist the tag "spiders" so you don't see any! if someone you follow reblogs a post and tags it with "spiders", or the OP of the post tagged it with "spiders" then your dashboard will hide the post from you and tell you it was tagged with "spiders" and you can choose whether or not to view it

passing peer review means you added commentary to a post in the tags, and someone who reblogged that post from you saw your tags and thought they were funny, so decided to screenshot them and add them as a comment so everyone could see them. congratulations!!

breaking containment is when a post about a niche subject and/or from a blog with not many followers gets super popular because it's funny, and often OP despairs at how their notifications become unusable from the sheer number of notes from this one post

KUNGPOWPENIS - if someone posts something bigoted, tumblr will ban together to reblog, one letter at a time, k-u-n-g-p-o-w-p-e-n-i-s. only do this when the bigot is the OP, because only the original poster will get a flood of single-letter reblog notifications from every single branch of the reblog chain

tips & tricks

pornbots and bots in general are not uncommon here. whenever you get followed by someone, check to make sure they're not a bot by visiting their blog. if they only have a few reblogged posts on random topics, or no posts at all, and their profile picture is a beautiful woman, they're a bot, and you should flag and block them

old posts can and do get reblogged and liked all the time, there's no point at which it becomes cringe to interact with a post. we even have some from 10+ years ago that're considered 'tumblr heritage'

long posts will cross your dash from time to time, the most infamous being colour of the sky. you will see it and it will madden you with how far you have to scroll - inflict your followers with the same frustration by reblogging so they can see it too!! if you're on desktop, pressing j will skip to the next post.

read more allows you to shorten a post with a 'click to read more' link that takes the reader to the root post on your blog. this is especially handy if you're publishing fanfiction or a very long analysis of something.

toggling reblogs lets you choose whether a post is rebloggable or not, for example something personal you may want to delete later, turning off reblogs means there won't be any copies floating around after you delete the root post

follower count is not visible! the only way anyone will know how many followers you have is if you tell them. follow blogs based on whether you like what they post, not by whether they're super popular or not

memes are frequent and long-lasting. tumblr plays with jpegs like dolls and there are some memes that have been here for years. a current favourite is the destiel confession meme which has warped into a shorthand for breaking weird news

important dates

tumblr loves a goofy-ass-holiday!! here are some of the standouts:

ides of march - 15th march, celebrate julius caesar getting his shit rocked

pride month - june, tumblr is generally a very pro-queer space, so expect everything to be decked out in rainbows for the entirety of june and most of the rest of the year, too!!

halloween - the entire month of october and also a week in july, this site loves some spooky scary skeletons

destielputinelection - 5th november, reminisce about the absolute chaos that gripped the internet during the 2020 usa presidential election

blog recs for new users

to each their own, and a main draw of tumblr is that there's something for everyone, down to the very, very niche. so, search for stuff that interests you and follow those blogs! however, here are some blogs that are fun for everyone:

heritageposts - your one-stop blog for all the best, weirdest, oldest tumblr posts will all the drama, expect to see a lot of destiel

staffs-secret-blog - (not actually staff)

one-time-i-dreamt - full of weird and wonderful posts, made all the better by the fact that no one reads usernames here, so inevitably there is panicked confusion over what the fuck is going on

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses - one of tumblr's most ubiquitous shit-posters

aj-lenoire - that's me!

that's pretty much the basics, but most people here are really friendly, so if you're unsure, just ask someone! have fun!!

[faemytho]

some social media interaction culture breakdowns, as far as i can tell this is how these things work :3 i did this for fun and for my own amusement, so i probably got some of these wrong. please do not bite my head off. im willing to make corrections!

the differences between tumblr, twitter, cohost, and pillowfort! as far as i can tell, bsky is a twitter copy/paste, just with better site usage quality.

likes:

tumblr: do nothing. most people use this as either a bookmarking system or a "hey i saw your post and i like it". you can hide them; most do.

twitter: influence followers homefeed and algorithm. you can't hide them.

cohost: do nothing. this is for specifically "hey i saw your post and i like it". they can only be accessed by you; there's no way to make them public.

pillowfort: do nothing. this is for specifically "hey i saw your post and i like it". there is no way to access your own likes at all.

re- blog/tweet/share

tumblr: called a reblog. you can reblog with tags AND commentary, though most only reblog with tags instead of reblogging with commentary (ive seen this described as the difference between whispering to someone in an auditorium vs shouting something in an auditorium for everyone to hear)

twitter: separated into retweets and QRTs. a retweet is a direct share to your followers on their timeline with no way to add commentary, and a QRT is an embed of someone else's post with your commentary at the top, which makes it an original post.

cohost: called a share or a rechost, similar to how tumblr's system works, but the commentary culture is different. it's more common to add commentary in the post body, and discouraged to talk in the tags (based on how tagging works sitewide)

pillowfort: called a reblog, similar to how tumblr's system works, but the commentary culture is different. it's more common to share with no commentary before adding commentary, and not really common to talk in the tags. pillowfort replies are mostly where commentary happens.

replies/comments:

tumblr: unlike twitter, tumblr replies ARE NOT their own posts. they're like DMs between you and the OP, except everyone can see these messages and join in on the conversation.

twitter: replies are their own post! they function similarly to how tumblr reblog threads work, but with more limited visibility

cohost: called comments and work like tumblr replies, BUT, are able to be threaded like AO3 comments. these are actually the ONLY interactions visible for anyone to see on a post!

pillowfort: called comments, and work like tumblr replies, BUT, are able to be threaded like AO3 comments.

tags:

tumblr: TAGS ARE VERY FREE. tags are both a sorting system BUT also a way to whisper your thoughts on someone's post that you've reblogged. you can make up your own tags for your own personal blog sorting system, or keysmash your reaction to cute art. tumblr culture involves a LOT of "tag talking", in which people don't actually put their overall commentary in the body of a post, but the tags of it when they're reblogging it. when making an original post, only the first five tags are counted. tags on reblogged posts do NOT show up in tumblr search.

twitter: tags are more formal from what i can tell. they go directly in the body of a post and are an explicit way to sort posts into topics and categories. tags on replies and QRTs DO show up in twitter search.

cohost: tags are more formal like twitter, but function visibly similar to tumblr tags. they go beneath a post and are the only way to search cohost (so its not common to talk in the tags). however, unlike tumblr, all tags from every user in a rechost chain are visible and searchable in shared posts. tags on rechosted posts DO show up in cohost search (from what i can tell, it's discouraged to re-tag a share of a post to prevent accidentally spamming a tag, since the tags of the OP will transparently carry over into the rechost).

pillowfort: exactly like tumblr, without the five tag limit and without the tag talking culture. tags on reblogged posts do NOT show up in pillowfort search.

followers:

tumblr: mean nothing. if you have a lot of followers that's probably bad actually because it means you're infamous. you're the tumblr clown and everyone's watching you flail around. clout doesnt exist. you can also hide who you're following on tumblr like with likes, again, most do hide this.

twitter: clout. clout clout clout. followers is good. followers means you're famous. you can't hide this information, nor can you hide who you yourself are following.

cohost: mean nothing, but doubly so. there is absolutely no way to see how many followers you have, nor how many followers anybody has, nor who is following who. you can view your own followers, but there's no number count and nobody else can view this.

pillowfort: an odd mix of all three of the above. hidden entirely like cohost, viewable numbers like tumblr, and some sense of clout-dignity like twitter. in actuality, most users follow Pillowfort's user-created communities rather than other users specifically.

feeds:

tumblr: if you're an old user, your default is called your dashboard, in which you only get posts from the people and tags you follow. if you're a new user, (allegedly) your default is the "For You" feed. there are separate feeds separated into tabs at the top; other than the "For You" feed, you're able to customize what tabs you want to see and switch between. a half and half compromise between algorithm/no algorithm. it's there if you want it, avoidable if you don't.

twitter: you've got your "For You" and your "Following" feed (also called TL or timeline). im unsure which is set as the default, but "For You" is listed first so it's probably that. while the following feed is self-explanatory, the "For You" feed shows you posts that users you follow have liked as well as posts based on an algorithm around that. the algorithm knows all.

cohost: you also have two feeds here - "Latest Posts" and "Bookmarked Tags". Latest Posts are from those you've followed, while Bookmarked Tags is a feed you can build based on which tags you've bookmarked. there's no algorithm at all!

pillowfort: only one feed, composed entirely of posts from users you follow and communities you're in/following. no algorithm!

search:

tumblr: only the tumblr wizards know how this fucking thing works (affectionate). sitewide search brings up both text in the body of the post as well as tags. clicking on a specific tag will give you posts that have been specifically tagged with the tag. blog search is similar but it breaks often.

twitter: hell. sitewide search brings up both text in the body of the post as well as tags AS WELL AS every post made by a user who has the searched term in their goddamn handle. clicking on a specific tag will give you posts that have been specifically tagged with the tag. profile search does not exist unless you know the secret codes to put in the url.

cohost: the site can ONLY be searched via tags that exist already. blogs here can only be searched via clicking on a specific tag. however, cohost provides toggles within every blog so users can toggle on or off a user's shares, replies, and asks to their hearts delight, which makes blog scrolling customizable to the users preference

pillowfort: sitewide search is how tumblr's search is supposed to work, AND way more stable. blog search can be searched only through clickable tags, but you're also able to view only original posts or only reblogs on someone's blog.

blacklisting, blocking, muting, muffling, making posts with sensitive content

tumblr: you're able to build a blacklist based on tags, and you're able to block users. "community labels" are a predetermined set of labels users can apply to both their posts and reblogs of other people's posts, and can be toggled to the user's preference

twitter: there is no blacklist, but a "muted word" list that you can customize. there is sensitive content filtering, but it's only under a generalized "sensitive content" warning. you can mute a user if you'd rather not block, which means you won't see their posts or when they interacting with you. you are also able to block users outright.

cohost: you can set a customized "content warning" on a post for others to click through, similar to twitter's sensitive content warning, but able to be customized as needed. you can blacklist OR whitelist content warnings. for tag filtering, you can muffle (requiring a click-through) or silence (hide completely). you can mark a post as 18+ very easily. you can toggle and customize the way posts on your feed display.

pillowfort: filters and blacklist are easily accessible on the sidebar rather than hidden in the settings. however, 18+ posts can only be toggled on or off (shown or entirely hidden), there is no click-through option. you can blacklist "words and tags" all at once, or just blacklist tags, to your discretion.

posting:

tumblr: as long or short as you want. tons of different ways to post, images, videos, audio, links, ect. some VERY basic code is allowed. it USED to be go nuts show nuts, but...

twitter: theres a 300(?) character limit and a four images per post limit. you can pay money for more post characters. 18+ is more limited than other sites, but allowed.

cohost: very basic posting editor. you can code html, css, and basic markdown straight into the post if you want to. there's even a preview toggle in the posting editor to see what it looks like before you post it. literally the sky is the limit. YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW CODE TO POST ON COHOST, but if you do you can make your posts look cool. there is a "readmore" like on tumblr, but it's a soft readmore based on the post length instead of tumblr's hard readmore. 18+ is allowed.

pillowfort: a rich text editor that's built to support images, videos, links, ect. as long or short as you want. 18+ is allowed.

site-specific:

tumblr: the ability to send asks and submit posts, polls, limited profile badges (most need to be bought), blog coding customization, post blazing, sideblogs

twitter: lists, spaces, circles, and polls

cohost: the ability to send asks, user funded, no ads, anti-AI stance, range of options for profile customization, private notes (able to be left on a user's profile for only you to see), sidepages (built-in sideblogs that function as their own main blogs)

pillowfort: communities (these are in tumblr beta testing currently), user funded, no ads, anti-AI stance, a WIDE range of profile badges (99% are free, 1% are rewarded for donating to the site during specific fundraising periods)

site sign-up and apps

tumblr: free and easy, app in the appstore.

twitter: free and easy, app in the appstore

cohost: free and easy, but posting is limited for a small period of time at first sign-up. you can browse, follow users, and like posts during this period of time, but cannot make your own original posts until cohost greenlights you (they'll send an email when you're able to post; mine was just under 24 hours). they have a progressive web app hosted by chrome that functions and appears as a regular app that bypasses appstore restrictions.

pillowfort: free, but unlike the other sites and more like AO3, sign-up puts you on a waitlist for an invite code, or you can sign-up with an invite code from a user already on the site. no mobile app, but a progressive web app like how cohost has is in the works.

bsky: the twitter copy. sign-up is free, but there's a wait period before you're fully invited to set up your account unless you have a bsky invite from a user already on the site. there's an app in the appstore.

[sparkling-pink-lemonade]

(Long post ahead, reposting a reblog I made and ended up deleting because OP was an anti. Placing a "keep reading" after the repost before getting into new info. Post is screenshot heavy, and such not compatible with screen readers. I do not have energy to transcribe alt text right now.)

So anyways, there are antis in the Pico's School fandom.

I love the ship picandra (Pico x Cassandra), it's super hot, but apparently there are antis shaming it. (What don't antis shame?)

I'm not sharing OP's tags this time so it isn't as easy to find them. But the jist is that Pico isn't some pure hero, he's an anti hero. And it isn't canon that Pico has any trauma because of Cassandra. They express frustration with antis trying to demonize people who enjoy hero x villain ships.

This was my response before I deleted my post:

I'd also like to add that antis, as well as this post, are focusing on whether or not this ship is problematic due to Pico being a victim being a victim of Cassandra attacking the school. Not once does anyone mention the fact that the characters are 10 years old in their source material and that "it would be disgusting to ship 10 year olds and imagine children dating and kissing when 10 year olds would be doing nothing more than holding hands." I bring this up because of how OP then went and behaved in the comments of their post. Throwing a huge fit when a proshipper tried to inform them of what proship means.

Blue is OP, light blue is whenever they replied directly to the proshipper they were arguing against (not me), and purplish white are buzzwords creating very serious accusations against proshippers.

Any further comments from OP on their post were missing too much context due to the other side of the conversation being deleted. And such won't be commented on.

It's horribly ironic that they went on about pedophilia and their hatred for underage ships, when this post originated from a ship consisting of two 10 year olds. And on top of that, if their argument on proshipping being bad is because the dynamics of problematic ships are harmful and affect reality, then sorry to say, in my opinion as a proshipper is that Picandra is a comship. Even if Pico wasn't traumatized by Cassandra's attack on the school, she still caused irreversible damage to his life. She killed all his classmates and teacher. She is an alien who used emotionally insecure goth kids to kill humanity with no regard to the lives of her allies. She canonically couldn't give a shit about Pico, let alone be interested in him. In turn, after the attack, Pico had become a serial killer hitman that is very aggressive and closed off emotionally. If these two were to engage in a relationship, it would be toxic and abusive as all hell on both ends. But I guess that's fine because it doesn't disgust you personally. So it can't possibly be morally corrupt or questionable.

I do not plan on making a habit out of indirectly replying to anti bullshit on this level. I've already made sure OP is blocked and thus unable to see this post. The existence of my rebuttal points are more for the sake of getting my own frustrations out, practice making points against a real example rather than a hypothetical strawman, as well as providing a source of positivity for other proshippers who have dealt with this or other antis like the one featured above.

If you manage to find OP, do not harass them, send them hate, or even send 'helpful information'. A person like this is not in the right mindset to learn, and such trying to rebut them any further will only cause unnecessary stress and may cause them to root themselves more into the anti mindset.

[alchemiclee]

i've been told/keep seeing posts about people suddenly not liking when people add tags to their posts with their own thoughts/feelings/opnions/experiences, and even people that say not to tag with certain common organizational tags (like ships for example i see the most. some people use a ship name for organization purposes and not necessarily for shipping. for example i use "collei and her dads" for cyno, tighnari, collei art for my organization so I cam find them again and theres been a few artists screaming not to use ship tags and that could be seen as a ship tag. so what do i do? not organize your art into my tags and let it get lost and never seen again? not share your art at all? kinda silly but whatever, ill just ignore your art).

I personally think that's all a bit ridiculous....i don't know if that's a more recent thing (like with twitter people coming here suddenly and expecting to act like this is twitter) or if it happened in the years since I took a break from tumblr. but bAcK iN mY DaY we used tags as a little whisper to add our own thoughts without interrupting the main post. adding hard comments or replies was more seen as "too much/too loud" if it wasn't something directly meant for OP. tags were usually never meant for OP and were always for the reblogger and their followers. these days more and more people seem to think tags on their posts are all speaking to them directly or interrupting their post (not to say you can't speak to OP through tags, like i'll say nice things about their art in tags) but not everything in someone's tags on a post they reblog from you is for you! you can ignore it!!!

I know on twitter (where I went after leaving tumblr a while back) people use quote retweets to speak to the OP often. but not always. I sometimes would quote a tweet to add my own thoughts while using the quote as like a citation to credit OP for the idea. but I have a few times where the OP thought I was speaking to/about them and got very upset about it. one was a large account who quoted me back and got very nasty and sent their minions after me. quotes are louder than tumblr tags. so that's more understandable, and I was always very hesitant to do it, but I personally see indirect tweets about another post as extremely rude and posting screenshots of tweets on twitter is also rude.

I loved coming back here mainly for the tag system! I missed being able to share a post and also quietly add my thoughts. go on long rambles related to the main post without stealing their post completely or needing to make a whole new post. I know most old tumblr users get that and don't care, probably. I NEVER saw anyone complain about it in the past. only say how much they love it. it was just part of how this site worked for us. a culture thing we naturally created. so i'm assuming it's mostly new users who don't get this culture? it also doesn't help tumblr made it so you now see tags in your notes tab and not just comments added and replies. before, you would have to go to "someone reblogged your post" to see if they added tags because tumblr only showed comments. I personally LOVE when people add tags to my post with their thoughts and stories and whatnot. ai i'd go to every reblog I got to see if there's tags added. it's like an uncommitted interaction. they dont expect a reply, i don't expect a reply. they are isolated thoughts, but still related. it's still a form of interaction, without the pressure of being direct, and I feel seen/heard when they add them. (it means they're not a bot, auto reblogging my posts /hj) seeing tags on my posts i'm not just shouting into the void alone and someone sees me. me adding tags to a post is a gentle "you're not alone/I hear you/im a real person not a bot" from me. but it also could be me saying "your post inspired me! I want to write something too! but im being quiet about it so i dont take away from your post and your post gets all the credit" when I add my own little tag ramble.

so the fact that people are now suddenly being upset by people adding their own experiences and thoughts to tags is super disappointing and and frankly annoying. tags don't take away from your post and you can just ignore them! no one is forcing you to expand the tags in your notes and read them! hardly anyone will see them. most will only read your post and not people's tags! I know no one usually reads my tags because i've added secret messages to the end of my tags and no one ever responds to it lmao things like send a pic in my ask and i'll draw it for you.

yes I know "RESPECT PEOPLE BOUNDARIES" but it kind of disrespects my needs as well. theres a thin line between someone's boundaries being crosses and someone's needs not being met. but that's a whole debate i'm not willing to have so don't start it. (not that kind of boundary is easy to not cross. not bringing up arguments. but asking people to not use a main function of a website is kind of pushing it imo...) yeah I want to respect boundaries the best i can, but unless you say in the post "don't reblog and add your own tags" no one will know and you get upset when no one knows. and no, no one will read your profile/pinned post before reblogging. no one will go to the original post and read your tags. they will only reblog it right off their dash if they aren't seeing it directly from you in the tags/for you page. some people will reblog 100 posts a day. they won't go to every profile/original post before reblogging just to see if you have any special conditions and rules for your random one post out of hundreds they see a day. that's too much to expect, honestly, sorry to say!

but this is tumblr. maybe it's better for people to accept the culture/etiquette here and let it happen without complaining, or realize this isn't the place for them! because it doesn't meet their needs and boundaries! and that's ok! it doesn't have to be your place. you don't need to stay here if you don't like how it works! asking an entire website to "respect your boundaries" by not participating in a basic or essential function of the website is a little ridiculous to be fair....

no i'm not saying your boundaries don't deserve to be respected. i'm saying this probably isn't the place to have those boundaries in the first place. because there's am established way this site functions that works in counter to your wanted boundaries, so it just doesn't fit your needs. and like I said that's ok! you don't need to stay here if it upsets you that much! it's better if you find a social media where people can't share your posts. like a simple blog site that doesn't have a share function! or like Instagram? people cant share those posts. (sorry, I dont know much about social media) if you really want people to stop adding tags that bad, either turn off reblogs completely, or ask staff to add a notification option to turn off seeing added tags on reblogs! (if you're veeerry lucky, and not a trans woman, they might listen to you)

[headspacedad]

hey new tumblr users

Welcome!

So - you’re starting to settle in to your new tumblr home but the landscape is still pretty wild and you’re not sure entirely what’s going on outside your window.  Since my first post about reblogs kind of blew up a bit and it had a couple of questions showing up in the comments, I figured I’d make another post in case that helps anyone.

Today let’s talk about communicating.

no, no, come back here.  It’s gonna be okay.  This is something you only have to do if you want to.

You can go your entire tumblr existence just reblogging posts and enjoying the people you’re following.  That’s cool.  But I see a lot of new arrivals want to be interactive too and that makes sense considering this is a social media site.  In fact, tumblr can be VERY social given half the chance.  This post here puts it wonderfully.

So, you’re on tumblr.  You’ve picked out an icon for your blog.  You’re reblogging posts you enjoy (sharing the cool rocks you found with the people hanging with you) and you’re ready to get a bit more interactive.  Its kind of daunting though because tumblr seems to have a lot of ways to interact and some unspoken rules on how to do it.  Let’s break this down.

First and easiest is to respond to posts.  You see something you want to comment on, an interesting post about sharing rocks for example.  There are three ways you can interact directly with the post.  

1.  When you hit ‘reblog’ there’s a spot for you to add comments (gifs, etc) of your own.  This is great for things you don’t mind everyone and their cousin getting to see.  A quip, adding a fact, telling a related story, politely disagreeing or providing another viewpoint, bouncing off their idea and expanding with one of your own, adding to the story idea they’ve presented, throwing in a relevant gif,  etc.  This is the space for things you don’t mind the entirety of tumblr getting to read.  You’ll notice a lot of posts are chained comments like this with multiple people contributing to the post by the time it reaches you.  There really isn’t any rule about not doing this but general consensus is to make it, somehow, apply to the original post and to not be a butt about whatever your reply is going to be.  Someone posting about fighting depression by making themselves stop and enjoy the way roses smell probably doesn’t need you replying by talking about how rotten roses are and how life is pain, highness.  Start a new post of your own if you want to express that.

2. tags!  Tags are the #tags part of a post when you hit reblog.  A lot of people use these for their original purpose, which is to *cough* make it easier to find things using tumblr’s search engine (tumblr’s search engine is pretty wack).  Still, tags are sometimes useful.  They can, theoretically, help you or people on your blog look up posts quickly.  They can help people doing a general search of tumblr tags find posts on subjects they’re interested in.  I regularly search ‘bunblr’ for instance (highly recommended).  BUT tags have a secondary use that a lot of people have adopted as well.  Tags can be used for a kind of ‘aside conversation’.  This is where you can write comments when you don’t necessarily want to add them to the body of the reblogged post.  It isn’t meant to be shared with tumblr as a whole.  It’s for the people following you.  Sometimes one of your followers will paste your tags to the post itself and you’ll see comments like ‘how could you leave these in the tags?!’  That’s a good thing and usually means you hit a cord but most of the time tags are just for aside conversations and not derailing the post itself.

3.  Reply.  That little speech bubble at the bottom of a post?  Click on that and you get the little ‘reply’ section.  Here’s where you interact with the original poster (OP) directly.  You can ask a question, add a short story, give encouragement, etc.  There’s a character limit on it so you can’t get crazy verbose but its a good way to add a short bit to a post and - hopefully - get a reply from the poster.  Be aware though, people like me are pretty forgetful and don’t always check their notifications.  That little lightning mark at the top of my dash is always at 99+ and pretty roundly ignored on the daily.  Still, other people can also read the reply part and sometimes you’ll get entire discussions in there as people respond.

Be aware that all three of these methods are viewable to everyone.  Anyone who sees the post can click on the notes and the tags, comments and replys will pop up for them.  These aren’t for private conversations.  They’re three ways to interact with posts publicly.

Private communication will be for another post.  So - you ready to test it out?  Use this post as your free trial and get some social interaction practice going on!  Once you’re comfortable you can branch out and there you go.  Social times for everyone (that wants it)!

[naruto-shipping-confessions]

How to Send a Confession, reply + Rules (redone)

Russian - Как отправлять признания/конфессии, ответы + Правила (изменённые)

French - Comment envoyer une confession, réponse + règles

Spanish - Como mandar una confesión, responder + reglas

I still get asked how to send a confession. Don’t feel embarrassed. I never really explained it in the front of the blog or where it’s obvious to see. Like a pinned post.

It’s very simple.

You can use the inbox (Ask me Anything)

You can message. Keep in mind that I’ll know who you are, but everyone else won’t. Just in case you want to be anonymous to me as well.

There’s a Submit a Post option as well. No one has used it yet, but if you want to, it’s there. To be honest, I’ve never handled a Submit post. But I do know the Admin can choose to post it. Can you be anon, I don’t know?

As for how you write your confession. Just type what you’re feeling. You send your confession as if you were talking directly to me. Only instead of me replying to you, I post it in a public blog for everyone else to see and judge.

All confession are anonymous, even if you chose/forget to hide your user.

Now for replying to a post.

First, some quick rules.

Please provide a link to the confession your are replying to. (or at least tell me what confession it is)

The reply function is for you to give an opinion (agree/disagree) without being harassed on your personal blog.

It is not for you to hide away and harass someone.

You can be rude. Just can’t use slurs and other problematic behaviour.

If you have simple comments with nothing to add, please use the notes directly on the confession. The reply message option is for thought out posts. Simply saying “I agree/disagree”, “you’re wrong anon”, etc will not be posted.

Stay on topic to the confession. Off topic replies and replies accusing OP of only being anti because of their otp, when they never mentioned it. (Like an anti NH confession op must be pro NS or anti SS anti must be pro SK). Maybe they are pro, but if it has nothing to do with their confession, keep it out of your reply.

That includes hypocrisy. If a confession, for example, is talking about anti NS with Sakura hitting Naruto, you don’t reply with “what about SS or SuiKa?” (you can write that in the notes, though).

However, you are welcome to base a confession on another confession or reply.

Please do not repeat yourself or what other’s have said. Only new replies will be posted.

If you’re having a debate - that’s fine. But if it isn’t going anywhere, you’ll be asked to move on.

Do not talk about people’s morals. Do not accuse them of condoning a toxic relationship. Do not question their mental state. You can attack the ship, but not the fandom.

The notes you can reply as many times as you want.

If you want to avoid replies and just want confessions, simply just filter out “nsc replies” for shipping and “ngo replies” for general.

How to do a reply for the post/confession itself

Click either “notes” or the “speech bubble”. Type your message where it says “add something wonderful”.

Replies in notes (directly to the post/confession) =

No need

to be detailed / thought-out in your reply. You can answer with a simple “I disagree”, “lol”, “they’re obviously anti/pro X”, etc.

Replies in Inbox/Message = Must have a thought-out reply. You disagree. You elaborate why. (The confession, not the rule I just said)

Onto the Rules/Notes

Problematic confessions are no longer under “read more”. Instead they are tw tagged.

Problematic confessions are now also tagged in their respective ship and character name.

I’ll be reading the notes. And your tags. If you question someone’s morals because of ship preference you get a warning. If you use slurs, tell them to kill themselves, tell them they deserve something terrible to happen to them you get blocked.

Is this all? I’ve probably forgotten something.

[take2intotheshower]

Gentle Tumblr Etiquette Reminder for New Arrivals

You have joined Tumblr fairly recently, you have given yourself a cool URL and changed the default icon, and you have learned the difference between just Liking a post (which does nothing except act as a bookmark for your scrolling) and Reblogging it so that it reaches a wider audience.

However, one point of Tumblr etiquette of which you may be unaware is that you should NEVER EVER add personal thoughts or reactions in the "Go ahead, put anything" text box under someone's gifset, artwork or a photo. Leave the original untouched and put your comments in the tags.

Adding comments to the post itself is the equivalent of scribbling comments in the margins of a book you've borrowed. Except that when the original poster of the gifset or whatever leaves Tumblr and their account is deactivated, the source post can no longer be accessed and all we will be left with are the reblogs with your comments underneath them.

So please USE TAGS for your personal comments/reactions. If you want to make a comment about the post directly to the original poster (the "op"), there is a special Reply bubble you can use on the Share/Like/Reblog line that works in a similar way to tags.

Thank you for listening, and welcome to this hellsite (affectionate).

[the-nysh]

when it comes to interaction between blog creator and readers, I would say Tumblr is the most dry and lacklustre platform of all. The responses to decently popular and well wrimeta tend to be in the form of “silent” notes and reblogs. There isn’t much discourse in the comments either although I do love how Tumblr clout is a joke and people can say their actual honest opinions here anonymously without getting monetised and readers like me don’t have to worry about being pandered to unlike YouTube/ tiktok etc etc.

So....unless you're new around here or unfamiliar towards how this site works differently compared to those other places....currently tumblr is the chillest place people go to find refuge blog/share/discuss like-minded interests within specific communities, and to deliberately avoid the stuff they don't like - including the inhospitable discourse that plagues twitter & reddit. So if that's the type of 'reading material' you're looking for, then go there as most of the veterans here won't humor, welcome, or tolerate that. Also cause it's up to the individual blogger, using their own discretion, on how to moderate, blacklist, or curate their own feeds. :O

Also because there's some unspoken rules of conduct and etiquette when interacting with content here.

People primarily stay in their lanes. If you swerve out of nowhere into someone's post (or inbox) with a dissenting opinion trying to derail or purposely start something for attention, it's considered very rude - at most you'll be ignored or blocked. (And if people mistake you for a spambot you'll likely be blocked too.) You can reply and interact directly in the notes of a post, or reblog with a friendly comment, but unless the reblog has something substantial to say that adds-on or enriches the original post with further points of interest, then derailing a topic off-tangent - from art, to gifs, to writing, is usually frowned upon here. :O

So if you have something else to say, or a new idea that would otherwise detract from someone else's post, in general you make your own post (while @/ing the relevant person whom you want to credit or see it, when necessary).

OTHERWISE, the general guideline is to reblog content you like with your additional opinions and commentary inside the tags. (As 'likes' compared to other sites do nothing here but bookmark a post for your later use, or to 'inform' the op you've seen their post.) So as to not derail a post or make it inconvenient for your followers who want a 'clean' reblog without additional commentary tacked on. :O Which can depend on the type of post of course, or if the op explicitly welcomes or calls for open interactions, like in some chain type reblog posts for example.

However, most new people seem to be unfamiliar or wary of reblogging anything at all for some reason (either cause they’re used to the habits from other sites, or cause they only want to passively browse, or maybe only want to create their own content while keeping their primary blogs 'clean' of other interests) - when no, even making specific side blogs to share stuff - THAT is literally how content actually circulates and functions around here at all. Find new stuff to reblog and spam your opinions/feedback/commentary in the tags of a post all you like!!! Cause content creators love that shit - go wild. (But in practice, keeping up a general tagging system to organize/archive the content on your own blog works wonders so you can FIND old stuff again.)

But IF you notice a distinct lack of hostile 'discourse', then good that means tumblr is healing, that's the point. Cause many resident users here have long learned to deliberately shun & avoid it.

[kedreeva]

I think another thing about the “don’t comment, talk in the tags” etiquette that newer (or at least joined since tumblr removed horizontally nested reblogs) folks are missing for context is just how absolutely A W F U L the reblog feature was.

You know when people use the indent feature like this?

Now imagine you are scrolling your dash and you come to a post where 8 of these bars are nested horizontally across your screen and there is a vertical line of single-character-width text on the right hand side that takes you a full 2 minutes to scroll down through before you get to the 9 in-comment replies that pushed the original post into that vertical line, and all of those comments are just “this!” or “louder for people in the back!” or something with actually no real merit to any conversation. Comments that are attempting to agree with the post but have only served in ensuring that literally no one is going to take the time to read the post at all ever again without going to the OP and removing all of the commentary (if they bother to do that much). And that was just text!! It used to shove images off the center line and into the margins, potentially messing up your browser’s scroll alignment.

So inane comments, at one point in time, actually physically destroyed a post’s functionality.

THAT is why it was considered rude to comment in the reblogs instead of the tags.

The PROBLEM is that Tumblr FIXED that problem. Now if you add something in a reblog it leaves the original post completely intact, and adds a section below it with your reply completely intact. It extends a post a little bit, and it still may not actually add anything to the conversation, but also it’s not destroying anything significant.

but... the culture of saying “this is RUDE so don’t DO it” developed because people responded to social pressure to be polite more quickly and thoroughly than they did to the much more reasonable community health plea of “hey can you see how when you respond it messes up the post, maybe try to avoid that so we can read stuff.” So the people who are new, or who have forgotten Tumblr’s terrible roots, parrot that it is “rude” to leave comments aloud on posts when, in fact, it’s not really the same issue anymore. And people who hear that for the first time, without seeing any obvious reason WHY it should be rude, assume that it is because it’s somehow established as rude to interact directly (much like barging into a RL conversation without invitation) or “distract” from the main post... but that’s not the case. They’re just hearing an echo of past user aches and pains.

So, anyone telling you it’s Rude to leave comments outside of tags is either old or ignorant or snobby, and you should leave reblog comments all you want. It's your blog and you're allowed to add what you want to stuff you put on your blog. If they don’t want to pass it on, they can go a post above yours and get over it.

[coldwind-shiningstars]

I feel like people have different ways they prefer to engage on Tumblr/the internet in general, and there are a LOT of different norms for varying small communities on tumblr, and I think it might be helpful to do something like a meme that went around on pillowfort on Preferred Ways To Interact, so... soliticiting things people might want on a template/ask meme/a post I'd pin to the top of my blog just to reduce confusion? I feel bad about tonight's tags discussion mostly because I feel like it was... more confusing and distressing than it needed to be, esp because the OP of the post was not involved in the actual discussion, and I'd like to have a Thing People Can Read so they know where I'm coming from, if that makes sense? I like discussing things but it's hard when there's not a base of understanding?

Things the pillowfort meme had: feelings on replies to posts from friends/mutuals/followers/strangers, feelings on minor or adult followers, feelings on personal posts being reblogged, etc, feelings on DMs, "what a block means to me"

I think I'd add... how to handle conflict (i.e. if i say something that upsets you, please tell me privately, don't reblog the post) and I guess now "tags are brainvomit and not well thought out, if I haven't directly added my thoughts on to the body of a post I'm not really interested in a convo about them right now," maybe some other things I'll think about later?

If anything about my blogging style confuses you/you have questions you want answered on Ways To Interact with me, I WILL solicit comments in this case! please let me know and I'll make both a meme template for other people to use and my own post to pin at the top of my blog? I know these things can be really confusing and differ person to person so... yeah, a Interaction Guide would probably be useful

[bombshellsandbluebells]

Oh cool! I thought the tags would show up in the notes like replies do which is very different. That's what I mean by tags being "private" - they're obviously not, but people have to look specifically at your post instead of looking in the notes

Oh gotcha! I was also wrong about them not showing up for op if you didn’t reblog them directly from them, because I’ve definitely seen them show up in my activity feed for posts I made even when not reblogged directly from me.

But yeah, you can’t look in the notes and see everyone’s tags, but OP sees in their activity feed the tags you add to a post and you see the tags someone added in posts they reblogged directly from you.

Again, I’m nosy and I like seeing what people put in the tags of my posts (bc validation but also sometimes people have really great addition thoughts I didn’t think of) so I’m happy with the update.

I think if it did add to the notes like replies that would be pretty overwhelming and distract from replies and actual comments and that would not be a great update at all.

[erlenmeyertrash]

hi :) i apologize in advance to a) anyone on mobile or b) anyone Tired but like. something recently happened that upset a number of people. and. there definitely needs to be some clarification. speaking of: this whole blurb is specifically about ~fandom things.~ there are spaces where this is wrong or some things don’t apply. don’t reach.

and anyone who knows me knows i really truly don’t like public debate-y stuff especially in this fandom but on this one i gotta make a post because i’ve seen a few comments that are gaining popularity but are... well. they’re wrong. so. without further ado.

// this is about people ‘ruining’ other people’s posts- or, really, the impossibility of that happening.

hot take that isn’t really a ‘take’ because it’s just. how tumblr works: you can’t control what people add to your post. intent does not grant the right to any intended effect. granted, you control the original post. it’s your intellectual property- that’s why reposting is an issue. but you cannot control replies, comments, reblogs, any of that. it’s in tumblr’s terms of service.

when you make a tumblr account, you agree to the terms of service. this means when you post any content to tumblr, you’re giving the platform’s other users the right to reblog it and add anything they want that doesn’t violate any further policies. so someone reblogging your post and adding a reply that involves, say, a fraudulent link that’ll give you malware? that violates community guidelines and will be taken down. someone from another corner of the internet making your post relatable to their interests? that’s allowed. so if you make a post about Prince Harry and the Harry Potter fandom takes it over, sorry, there’s nothing you can do.

//also the reverse totally applies: if you see a post about Prince Harry, and you think “...hey, that could be about Harry Potter!” guess what dude? you are 100% completely and totally allowed to reblog that post and make it about Harry Potter.//

//also (so sorry), an important distinction: if that prince harry post says ‘HP fans don’t interact...’ can you, i dunno, respect that blogger and not make their post about harry potter? absolutely. don’t be an asshole. but this is more about being op than reblogging, so i digress.//

“but I hate all the notifications i’m getting about HP blogs adding to my post!! they’re making it into something i didn’t want it to be!!” welp. i’m sorry, but you cannot stop them from doing that. this is per the guidelines. they aren’t violating any terms of service. are they specifically targeting you with harassment about it? because that’s a different matter entirely. or are they simply doing something you didn’t want? unfortunately, you can’t keep that from happening. you can reblog your original version without their replies and try to make it more popular, but that’s about it.

it’s important to note that these people, in doing so, are probably not doing it out of spite. and even if it is, guess what? they get to be spiteful little nerds. sorry lads. they’re not forcing you into an argument about it, either. and you don’t get to tell them what they can or can’t do on your post. you can, however, choose to continue to be bothered by it, or to ignore it.

“but fam i really hate these notifications. i have a horrible fear of ron weasley and every time he’s mentioned it freaks me out, and every time anyone reblogs my post the activity feed blares directly in front of my face and i can’t look away.” see but here’s the Cool Part: if you don’t want to get notifications on a post you made, then you can delete a post from your blog. of course, by doing this you are not deleting all reblogs of the post. but what it will do is take any more reblogs, replies, comments, likes, etc. out of your activity feed. the post will still exist in many forms. but you won’t be updated on it anymore!! you won’t see it again!!

“but i am seeing it! some of my friends i follow are in the HP fandom!!!” okay well. good thing there are lots of ways to get around this one!! and xkit has even more!!

1. filtering tags!! 2. unfollowing users!! 3. blocking users!! 4. logging off!!!!!!!

...and this is where we run out of rope.

anyways. long story short, tumblr is made to curate your personal experience. you do not have any control over what other people do, short of reporting things that violate the guidelines. i’m sorry your post didn’t elicit the intended response. i’m sorry your activity feed got blown up by HP fans. but there’s nothing you can do to HP fans about it. if you choose to call them out, to reply to each HP fan and go “no, you’re wrong, this is a Prince Harry post, you can’t say that,” that is on you. you have the right to reply to them saying that... but are you correct in saying there is only one way to interpret something? do you have the authority to control someone else’s fandom experience?