#why am I so invested in this tumblr poll

[cottagecorearoace]

Do not despair rottmnt fandom! We still have a ninja’s greatest weapon—hope! If we keep hoping, Donnie just might win! But why should you vote for Donnie, you ask? Well…

Donnie is canonically autistic and has so much swag it’s unreal.

Donnie has helped educate people on autism and neurodivergence in general. He may or may not have been the driving force for my realization that I might be autistic. Donnie seriously changed my life with that piece of information.

Donnie is very realistic autistic representation. He’s just an autistic character who’s allowed to exist and exhibit autistic traits without being scrutinized for it. I love when he stims!

Donnie presents many autistic traits such as low empathy, monotone voice, sensory issues, difficulty with emotions and feelings, special interests and stimming!

In conclusion, please vote for the autistic turtle! Maybe it’s because I’ve been fixated on rottmnt and autism for the past seven months but I genuinely believe that he deserves to win. I hope that you can give Donnie the support he needs to win this competition with his clear superior autism swag! 💜💜💜

@autismswagsummit @autismswagreblogs

(I am way too invested in this competition, someone help. Even if Donnie doesn’t win, he’ll always be a winner in my heart!)

🐢💜

[jefflion]

This might be just my jealousy speaking (it totally does), but the polls thing frustrates me irrationally because I fear that by the time I get them, they will be run to the ground.

[arcane-vagabond]

Hey, y’all. Not really sure how to start this, but here goes.

I started using Tumblr in the far off year of 2012, when I was 16. I started off in the Hunger Games fandom right as the movies were coming out, and I made so many amazing friends on here. I eventually moved on to different fandoms, namely SuperWhoLock (The combined fandom of Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. If you know, you know). There were ups and downs, but fandom was a community I could rely on. Strangers on the internet were supportive of me, even if we weren't necessarily close, people made an avid effort to interact with each other and have conversations with people on here.

I took a break when I started college, trying to navigate my way through my newly aqcuired adult status, and Tumblr kind of fell by the wayside after a while. But, when I left there was still a thriving community in fandom with people interacting with each other, coming up with theories for things, coming up with theories and headcanons about beloved characters. Comments and reblogs were plentiful, and fanfic, fanart, etc. were a two sided conversation. You didn't even have to write fanfic or make fanart in order to get interactions.

I came back a couple of years ago, logging in here and there to lurk and read fanfic on my old blog. I discovered Top Gun: Maverick and felt compelled to write my very first fanfiction: Don't Hang'em Til Noon. I was so excited to share it because I saw that no one else had done a Wild West!AU, and I was excited to share my work and talk about it and the actual movie with people on here. I did find people who were as excited as I was, and that was great. But then I got one of my first anonymous messages.

"You really need to calm down."

Calm down? Why? I thought the whole point of fandom was that we were all excited about this one thing? I was so confused.

I kept writing, and the hate anons kept coming. I was accused of thinking I'm better than everyone on here (why, I still don't understand), I was accused of thinking I run the fandom (probably because I pointed very obvious things out), and more. I take it on the chin usually, but of course words still hurt. This was not what I remembered fandom being like, and I found that the longer I kept doing this, the more it started to feel like a chore versus something I genuinely enjoyed.

I get hundreds of votes in my polls for what to update or what to do next, but the notes and interactions are not reflecting this. I got more interactions as someone who didn't create fan works twelve years ago than I do as a content creator now. The attitude towards fandom has changed.

It's no longer a community, it's a popularity contest. People put down others to make themselves feel better, which was always a thing, but not it's more prevalent. It's become a numbers game, and it shouldn't be. People say that they're too afraid to comment or put themselves out there to talk to creators, but guess what? It's terrifying to put your work out there to be seen by so many people and to be judged. And it's discouraging to see the amount of people who like but won't leave a comment or reblog. Do you actually like it? How am I supposed to know?

Some of you are so jealous of others, that you've let it consume you. You attack me for my AUs, claiming that they're boring and uninteresting, and yet? There are some of you who've seen how invested some people have become with my stories and have tried to emulate them. You're not venturing into AU because you genuinely want to. You're doing it because you see that there's a market for it. You're the same people who mocked me for doing it in the first place.

There's a whole group on here that are so bitter and insecure about their own abilities, that they feel the need to put others down, and I'm not mad. If anything, I feel genuinely sorry for you.

There have always been problems with fandom, but not like this. I don't know if this is all specific to the TGM fandom, but y'all? I'm exhausted. I'm tired of putting so much of myself out there to only here crickets or demands for more. What happened to actual conversation? Waht happened to interacting for the sake of interacting?

I've made some genuinely amazing friends on here, and I talk to them pretty much every single day. However, I need a break from this website. I need to find my love for writing again, and I won't be able to do it on here while things continue to be the way they are. So, this is my long ass way of announcing that I'm officialy going on hiatus for a little while, at least the month. I will be focusing on writing We Abide as an original story the way it was originally intended to be. I will not be on during this time. I will not continue to pressure myself to update for you all when you give me next to nothing in return. And if this makes me the villain? Then so be it.

For those of you who've been a constant source of comfort, laughter, inspiration, etc.? I love you. From the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful to all of you, and if at the end of my month away I decide to come back, I hope you'll still be here to read what I give.

Until next time.

-Liz

[matan4il]

Im currently doing a simple poll on my other account what Tumblr thinks of a Free Palestine and I say the results so far are a little concerning

And then two comments so far:

ardwolff: That's like saying we give a small chunk of land back to the indigenous American people and keep the rest for ourselves while we "live in peace" -- y'all do realize a Palestine historically was home to Jewish people and can be again if we abolish the Israel - backed apartheid ethnostate. No theocratic ethnostates should exist. They are inherently unjust

beigale-shtuchim: hey buddy what happened to the jewish population in MENA states?

Hi! First off, sorry that it took me so long to reply, I am getting so many asks, and I do not have as much time to reply as I would like, despite doing my best to find it... But I hope you know that I appreciate everything you do!

Thank you so much for doing this poll, and for sharing the temporary results. Do you have the final ones? If so, I hope you consider adding a link to them here.

There are different strategies researched in psychology about how to persuade people to come around to your position. It actually started out with marketing, but can be applied to any campaign aimed to get the public to subscribe to a specific position. One of them is the "foot in the door" strategy, a term that comes from those salespeople who show up on your doorstep, trying to sell you stuff you weren't even looking to buy. Their first challenge is how to keep you from slamming the door in their faces. If they right away offer you to buy something big and expensive, which you don't even need, you're likely to do exactly what they don't want. But if they get you to agree to something small, then they "got their foot in the door," you won't slam it in their faces 'coz you agreed to something small, and now they have you engaged. And the more engaged you are, the more invested you become. If you've already said yes to the small thing, you're now invested, and they can start talking you into why, if you're gonna buy this thing anyway, a bigger and more expensive version makes more sense.

The way it is defined here: "The foot-in-the-door technique (or FITD) is a strategy used to persuade people to agree to a particular action, based on the idea that if a respondent will comply with a small initial request then they will be more likely to agree to a later, more significant, request, which they would not have agreed to had they been asked it outright."

That's what the anti-Israel movement basically did. They started out with a smaller, more reasonable request, for people to care about the "Palestinian problem" (which means they were getting more and more people invested in it), and agree to a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish one. That wouldn't be as hard for people to agree to, especially since Jews themselves had agreed to that notion back in 1947, when they accepted the UN partition plan. Then, once people are invested in caring about the Palestinian problem, the discourse switched to how Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state, and the only solution is to destroy it. Now all of a sudden, if you really care about Palestinians, then it's not enough to support a two state solution, you have to be against Israel, you have to be against Zionists, you have to be against the Jewish right to self-determination, anything less than that, and you are failing the Palestinians (who by now are depicted as the world's greatest victim, even though there is plenty of comparison data to refute that notion). And you do care about the Palestinians, right? So you gotta be against the Jews. Sorry, Zionists.

Also, I would love to hear what chunk of the land @ardwolff lives on they gave away to native people, while they're so willing to distort the history of Israel and erase the native rights of Jews here, making us the only native nation to have returned to its ancestral land, only to discover the world wants to displace it again. First it was done by the Romans 2,000 years ago through colonialism, now it's "in the name of" anti-colonialism (as its been packaged by your friendly FITD seller), but by punishing a native population, it's playing right into the hands of colonialists still...

I hope you're doing well! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[cuephrase]

robin poll conduct notice

hey!! so i didn't want to have to make a post like this and i'm not really thrilled at having to do this but i really hit my bullshit threshold so i feel like i need to establish some stuff before i continue sharing any data from the Robin Poll. apologies in advance, i swear i am not typically this aggressive and this is not the kind of post i tend to make.

allow me to preface this by saying that this is not me saying that you cannot have different opinions than me, or anything like that, okay, if that's what you take away from this i don't know how to help you.

also, i'm not super familiar with tumblr etiquette, but i just want to say that i have their @'s removed bc i have them blocked.

first of all, please do not make bad faith assumptions about me as a person, i understand that i cannot ask you to make zero assumptions about me, and to an extent i do not care what you think about me but like idk think before you fucking speak?

i'm just going to brush over the fact that hey, maybe if you don't like any of the characters on the questionnaire directed to their fans, then maybe don't participate, wild thought, because that's beside the point frankly.

i did not include Duke as a Robin, (the only characters I included were Dick, Jason, Steph, Tim, and Damian, hereafter referred to as The Five), because he does not count as a Robin by the metrics i was using.

the five Robins i included are the core characters who have carried the mantle for a significant period of time since Dick's entrance to canon-present. Carrie was not included because she's Robin in canon-future. Duke was not included because the only time he has canonically been Robin is in Batwheels.

"No, because in We Are Robin-" I'm going to stop you right there. I have read that series. I know what the fuck I'm talking about. If you've also read that series and somehow come to the conclusion that Duke is Robin in the same way that the The Five are, i'm glad i don't have your reading comprehension skills. i can't understand this for you either. Furthermore, if i was going to count Duke as a Robin because he was part of the We Are Robin movement, i would also include Dax, Dre, Izzy, Riko- you get the picture, i hope.

also lemme just-

not that this will convince anyone who firmly believes Duke is Robin the same way The Five are, but like when i say Duke's skin color has fuck all to do with why i did not include him- i mean that wholeheartedly.

and if you headcanon Duke as Robin, cool!! if you think he should've been Robin, cool!! there's nothing wrong with Duke being Robin- he just has not been Robin in comics!canon. (do not play the semantics game with me, you will lose.)

if it had been a Batkid/Batfam poll, Duke would've been on there!!

also, the poll was not a "which two characters that have worn a Robin/Robin-inspired suit do you like the most" poll. if you want that data, cool!! go do your own research.

second!! i have zero tolerance for this data being used to shame other Robin fans, this is not being shared so y'all can hop on your wank soapbox and jack off.

this kind of bullshit is not going to fucking fly. besides the fact that there is just so much that is...blatantly incorrect about this statement, this is "obnoxious conduct". i'm not going to waste my time getting into the weeds on this comment, mainly bc they're blocked so they won't see this so there's no point.

and to be clear, this did not upset me bc it was negative towards Tim stans and I'm a Tim stan- this comment could've been about any Robin and I would've been pissed. Tim might be my fave, but I deeply love all the Robins.

actually briefly, i'm going to say that i think it is beyond fucking stupid to bitch at fanon!Tim fans bc you think they're ruining comic!Tim's success. people who are invested primarily in fanon are probably not reading comics, and if they are, they're almost definitely not buying them so they're not impacting sales. you know who is? comic readers. if they cannot separate fanon!Tim from canon!Tim, that's a skill issue on their part. but like seriously, you think Tim Drake: Robin flopped bc of fanon!Tim? you do realize that the art was not well received, right? and that a lot of comics-buying fans are homophobic? and that oh, idk, a lot of comic!Tim fans disliked the run for valid reasons that had nothing to do with the art or being homophobic?

OR, hear me out, people are allowed to dislike characters and fans of that character are better off respecting that??

obviously stan behavior can be off-putting af. i'm not saying that stans should be able to do whatever- there's a lot of behavior from all stans that is just exhausting and pointless and benefits no one. but it's like...you do understand rage bait and hate gets engagement and social media algorithms don't differentiate between positive and negative, they just push whatever's getting interacted with. if you don't make an effort to avoid wank, you're going to drown in it. and if you're only ever in a handful of bubbles cycling the same opinions, that's all you're going to know. that doesn't mean that it's a real reflection of reality.

generalizing is so...i literally made the questionnaire because i believe that you can't generalize stan opinions based off who their #1 Robin is. stans are not a monolith.

what are the comic!Tim stans supposed to "take to heart" here? do you think we like woobie!Tim? do you think commenting about how OOC fanon!Tim is on a fanfic accomplishes anything than upsetting a fanfic author? do you think our posts about comic!Tim tend to break out of comic!Tim bubbles and impact fanon!Tim in any kind of controllable way?

and that goes for all stans, like it is no one's job/responsibility (or place quite frankly) to be policing how others interpret/enjoy characters. write your character analysis posts, share the fact-check panels, whatever, i'm not saying you can't discuss how you think a character should be interpreted. but like damn. save your energy for the people who want to have a conversation/learn. and be fucking nice about it- istg the attitudes of comics fans is probably one of the biggest turn offs for people who might otherwise be interested in comics, that and the sheer volume of content.

(if you're like, "okay hypocrite" bc i just angrily laid out why i didn't include Duke as Robin- i am allowed to not tolerate being called racist on my own post. i'm not stepping into Duke is Robin truther spaces and shitting on their fun.)

finally, and this is not strictly a continuation of the previous comment, i've been made aware that this data is being discussed elsewhere, which is fine, but i really cannot stress enough that this data is not generalizable. that's not an "excuse", it's a mathematical fact. the data isn't even reflective of only the opinions of people who follow my tumblr- my tumblr is super small, we got wayyyy more responders than i have followers, by a lot!! this data cannot be used to support any claims about fandom at large, nor was it intended to.

as i've stated multiple times, this questionnaire was not made to measure if someone was a "real" fan. meaning, it doesn't exist to grade fans or shame fans or do literally anything other than help me find out if knowing someone's top two fave Robins is significantly more informative than simply knowing who their number one favorite Robin is.

that's it. i literally just want to know "are X stans basically alike, or does it change depending on this specific factor", that factor being who their second favorite is.

tl;dr- this data was not collected to be turned into wank, it is not being shared to cultivate wank, and anyone that attaches wank to my posts directly will be blocked. i want to share this data with everyone who is interested, but no one is entitled to the results.

sorry if this was your introduction to me, i swear i am usually much happier and more diplomatic, but i hit my personal limit and i wanted to be really fucking clear about the boundaries i'm drawing. i will be using my block button as i see fit bc i want to enjoy the time i spend on this platform and put into this project. and you can block me too!!

[randomwords247]

hecking same and also you're right

For example like Sans is like. A skeleton. He is literally bones. Tumblr sexymans are not all about conventional attractiveness or appearance. It's about the personality, the quirks, the vibes.

There are like a bunch of ppl in the mcyt sexyman poll who do not have sexyman vibes, or who are getting through becuz ppl like/dislike them or their competition.

The poll isn't about favourites or having your blorbo win it's about who is more tumblrsexyman. People are voting their favourites even if they are not a sexyman and are thus polluting the poll >:(

Rant: The mcytblr sexyman poll is overrun by voters who have no idea what a Tumblr sexyman represents. They think it's a beauty contest, or they just pick their favorite. A third of the nominees don't even belong in this competition in the first place. If my favorite sexymen were losing that'd be one thing but they're losing to popular mcyters who aren't even sexymen.

I am far too invested in this but it's too late for me now.

[braxiatel]

Goodtimeswithscar is a sexyman and I will prove it to you

If you are still on the fence I encourage you to look at the sexypedia - a wikipedia dedicated to tumblr sexymen - and checking out their tropes page. Scar meets 35/62 on a list where recent winner of the tumblr sexyman poll Cecil Palmer of WTNW fame only has 8 listed on his character page!

35!

Scar is Textbook, and if you need proof I have gone through all the tropes and explained why they apply to him!

VOTE SCAR!

4th Wall Blurring: This one is arguable due to the nature of the medium but I’ll include it

Animal Theming: See: animal hybrid headcanons and designs. Cat Scar, panda Scar, hyena Scar, avian Scar - they’re everywhere!

Angst: That cactus ring… magic mountain. need I say more? This boy has angst. 

Bait: *gestures at the shirtless skins*

Capitalist: she sells sea shells on the sea shore but the value of these shells will fall due to the laws of supply and demand no one wants to buy shells cause there’s loads on the sand step one you must create a sense of scarcity 

Chaoslord: HotGuy! [snipes you for no good reason]

Criminal: shells will sell much better if the people think they’re rare you see bear with me take as many shells as you can find and hide them on an island stockpile them high until they’re rarer than the price of diamond

Con Artist: step two gotta make the people think that they want them really fucking want them hit ‘em like Bronson influencers product placement if you haven’t got a shell then you’re just a fucking waste man

Dealmaker: three it’s monopoly invest inside some property start a corporation make a logo do it properly shells must sell that will be your new philosophy swallow all your morals they’re a poor man’s quality

Distinctive Voice: I do not need to make any arguments here. Have you heard him???

Quotable Catchphrase(s): well hello there, scarred for life, “a-ma-zing”, etc.

Distinctive Laugh: I think I autism stole Scar’s laughter (whoops) so I’m giving him this one too, but also that gigle is just very good and we all know it, right?

Dominating: from the trope description: “Characters who assert their power over others. Could be through manipulation, magic, smugness, or force of personality.” Yes. 

Duality: Convex did not put their whole entire vexussies into that possession storyline for us to forget about it. 

Egotistical: This one is arguable and a question of characterisation, but I think that we can all agree that on some levels, yes. 

Eldritch: From the trope description: “Since the typical sexyman is a tall mostly human looking pale twink, in a vast majority of the cases the eldritch is a heavy implication lying just under the surface.” Hello? Vex Scar?? 

Gay: See subsection: 

LGBTQ+ Coded: That cactus ring. Mumbo “eye candy” Jumbo. The season 7 mayoral race. Concorp. His jolly rancher arc. This man has so many boyfriends. 

Girlboss: listen I think a lot of characters who aren’t traditional girlbosses get called so, but with Scar I think it’s accurate okay. Did Scar utilize girl power effectively when he and Cub were blatant war profetiers during the season 6 civil war? yes. Absolutely. Girlboss. 

Glowing Neon: vex blue anyone?

Hot-headed: Don’t let his calm exterior fool you. Remember. Scar when someone steals his horse: *sets their whole entire house on fire*. 

Intelligence: yes but also see subsection

Smartdumb: Okay listen. Scar is Smart. Scar is very smart. And I specifically have to make sure you know I am talking character only here because cc!Scar seems to me to be a Very intelligent person with a wide field of knowledge. But uhm. c!Scar dies so much and so often in ways that are completely unavoidable. He does silly things without thinking of the consequences. I have seen enough people calling him a himbo (beloathed term) enough times that I do not need to argue this point. He is smart but also babygirl Why are you like this.

Johnlocked: “When two characters are shipped extensively by fans despite the pairing not necessarily being canon (or even present) in the original work.” it started out with a cactus ring how did it end up like this, it was only a cactus ring, it was only a cactus ring

Knifemurder: Hotguy! [snipes you a second time] 

Magnificent Bastard: This Is The Whole Point. Scar oozes charisma even when he is the villain and that’s why he is so beloved. He is smart, he is stylish, he is charming, even while he is killng you. This is the point. 

Marked Canon/Fanon Divergence: “Sexymen with a large gap between how they are in the original work (Canon) and how they are commonly portrayed in fanworks (Fanon)” see : the fake crystals vs Scar actually having magic, the abs being painted on vs shirtless Scar everywhere, etc.

Monster Features: vex scar vex scar vex scar

Nonhuman: like the vex thing is literally canon it’s not fanon those cons sure did vex 

Pale Twink: We could have done many things with this collection of blocks people, and yet my dash is full of shirtless twinks/twunks every day ending with a y. Curious. 

Perpetual Smiler: Okay listen this is partially the nature of the medium but also 1) that is a distinctive smile and 2) have you see the fanworks? 

Power: This man tried to sell fake magic crystals and we all just decided he can do magic. He was an elf once and now fae/elf Scar headcanons are everywhere. 

Scars: I- I’m not explaining myself here. yes??? 

Tall: I can think of one, maybe two portrayals of Scar that have made him short. 

Theme Song: four expand, expand, expand clear forest make land fresh blood on hands five why just shells why limit yourself she sells seashells sell oil as well six guns sell stocks sell diamonds sell rocks sell water to a fish sell the time to a clock seven press on the gas take your foot off the brakes then run to be the president of the united states eight big smile mate big wave that's great now the truth is overrated tell lies out the gate nine polarise the people controversy is the game it don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name ten the world is yours step out on a stage to a round of applause uou're a liar a cheat a devil a whore and you sell seashells on the seashore

Unkempt: so those rugged life series Scars, huh? 

Villain: Scar has been the villain several times and has a Long list of crimes to his name

Technically Antagonist: see 3rd life

Villain Protagonist: unreliable narrator Scar my beloved. I love how he just *does terrible things edited to make him look like he’s just a silly little guy having some harmless fun*

Well-Dressed: Hmmm I wonder why waggon/tycoon Scar routinely wins every Scar skin poll. Also he has enough outfits to include these sub categories too: 

Suitguy: “Characters who typically wear formalwear, specifically suits. Often includes waistcoats, top hats, bowties, and pinstripes. Other neckwear may also be worn.” Again. The tycoon skin really lives rent free in all out minds, huh?

Long Coat/Cape/Robe/Etc: bathrobe wizard Scar my beloved but also do you know how many thirst trap last life Scars I’ve seen?? 

White Twink Humanization: He is made out of blocks in canon. We did not need to make him like this and yet we did. 

White Hair: last life Scar beloved by many <3

VOTE SCAR!

[howdidiendupshippingthispoll]

Round 1, Bracket 1, Side B, Second poll

Sai and Ino Yamanaka [SaiIno], Naruto vs Sportacus and Robbie Rotten [Sportarobbie], Lazytown

Story of SaiIno:

Literally hadn't even watched Naruto or Boruto or anything. Saw fanart of them that was just so so cute. Went to ask my friend who is obsessed with Naruto about them because like, I literally didn't even know the character names, just knew they were from Naruto. He informed me they are not only cute but also canonically married. And I fell HARD. I tried to resist for several months but uh. Nope. Somehow they also got me to watch Naruto. I counted down the episodes until Sai's first appearance and screenshot every scene they show up on screen together to send to my friend. He says he's amused. I'm not sure. But I also am not sure I care if he isn't.

Story of Sportarobbie:

This is gonna be awkward to explain since I haven't actually watched the show yet at the time of writing this. But a Sportarobbie post randomly appeared on my Tumblr fyp and, out of curiosity, I checked the tag out and got HELLA INVESTED. And then a fanfic recommendation popped up and I was like "Sure, why not? I'm just reading this for fun anyways.". AND I LOVED THE FIC!!! I HAVEN’T EVEN WATCHED THE SHOW YET AND A 24-CHAPTER ARRANGED MARRIAGE FIC ALREADY GOT ME INVESTED. If whatever my explanation is isn't the pinnacle of how did I end up shipping this then I have no idea what anymore.

[retirement-home-rumble]

just caught up on this tournament and I do want to say that you definitely are biased towards that one tie bc you reblogged the post multiple times saying you wanted a tie; so it’s not just tagging it “in this house we love tiesweeps” that makes people think you’re biased. also people saying “it’s not that serious, it’s just a tumblr bracket” goes both ways - like if it’s not that serious and we’re all just having fun then why should anyone care that the votes actually say it should NOT be a tie? like, weren’t you pretty “seriously” invested in this specific poll being a tie, enough to make an exception to the existing rule?

at the same time it literally would have been at most two votes that decided it (sorry to the other anon but their math was wrong). only 968 or 969 out of 1896 would show up as 51.1%. and while I am not in favor of tiesweeping it personally, it is your poll and you should do what you want & what makes you happy. but if you have thousands of people voting in these polls then you have to expect that a decent number of them might be upset if you do make that choice rather than following the rules.

I mean as to your first point, I reblog all propaganda I see, no matter what side it's for. Sure I miss some, but I try my best to get all of them. So along that same vein, if a post gets a lot of propaganda, of course I'm gonna be reblogging it a lot. It just so happened that most of the propaganda that one was getting was for a tie. If there had been tons of people reblogging it with anti tie propaganda, then I would have been reblogging that just as much.

Also, as to me saying I wanted it to tie: I have literally stated that I want as many polls to tie as we can. I also reblog all polls that are close to a tie when it's down to the last few hours, just to give people the chance to tie it if they want.

So combine those two points together, and it just happened to be that after I reblogged that post with the last call for a tie, that it got reblogged a lot by others. So of course I would then reblog their propaganda. And since it's been stated that I'm biased towards all ties, I don't think it's exactly fair to say I was biased specifically towards this one tie. Like if any others were close enough, I would have been just as invested.

Idk. I guess I just don't get people acting like I'm not allowed to be invested in and have fun rooting in my own tournament? When I make it perfectly clear that I love ties, maybe don't act surprised when I get excited about a potential tie?

Even then, I wouldn't have even said anything if it wasn't, as admitted by you, decided by less than 2 votes. I understand that some people could be upset by this, but it was a weird situation and it's impossible to please everyone.

I put out that second poll to try to make it as fair as possible. I've also been trying to share both sides of this (posting asks with people explaining their opinions about it and reblogging the propaganda against the tie) so that everyone can make their own choice. Yes I said I personally would like them to tie, but I didn't force anyone to vote. Everyone has their own agency here. I said I would honor the results of that poll, and people have voted for them to be allowed to tie.

Anyway, sorry for the long rambling answer. This whole situation has just been a bit exhausting and I really don't want to lose interest in this blog because, before this, I was having the most fun I'd had in forever. I felt like I actually had a purpose.

[derpycat02]

Hot Take

Okay so now that I've been on the website instead of the app for a few days I have things to say I think.

The app is better (for me) than the website hands down. Easy. No competition. And no, this is not just because I am used to the app version. I actually thought this out.

Things the website does better than the app (to satisfy you long term tumblees):

I can delete a poll from my post if I accidentally click it thinking it is the listing format option. I do this a lot because listing is different than font type in every document editor ever, and there is no way to remove polls from drafted posts on mobile that I have found. The website puts a big fat red X in the top corner of the poll. This is helpful

Bigger screen = less overwhelm. The information to screen ratio is smaller which is less overwhelming for my skrunkly little brain. Also, since I have the pride theme activated (which was a bitch to try and find) all the extra space is pink!

More customization options. I haven't actually played with this, but it seems to be the thing that most Tumblr users use to say the website is better than the app. I did notice there were more options for themes when I finally figured out how to do that, which was cool. (On mobile, I'm pretty sure there are just 4 themes: light mode, dark mode, tumblr classic, and pride. I could be wrong though)

No push notifications. I have notifs turned on on mobile for all of the polls I follow, so I get like over 30 notifications from Tumblr alone overnight. It's very stressful, but I put up with it because it keeps me from missing voting times and ensures that I can go through and like every post that comes out from accounts that I am invested in. I know liking does nothing algorithm wise. I just like showing support and likes are a nice, quick, easy way to do that. Anyway, without the push notifications, I'm pretty much confined to me my feed, which I've never HAD to scroll before. The way I am now consuming content has become (mostly) more relaxed and less stress inducing.

Text formatting. I like that it's a drop down menu. In the app, It's just a button, and you have to press it repeatedly to get the format you want (this is fonts and listing specific).

Things mobile does better that the website

Navigation. Oh my gosh the app is SO much easier to navigate than the website. It took me less time comparatively to figure out how the app worked than it did for me to figure out how to do most things on the website. The website has been around longer, and therefore has the opportunity to be more complicated. The whole point of mobile apps is to be a simple, accessible way to go about navigating whatever the app is for. It's just easier to use.

Typing in posts. The amount of times my laptop has just randomly stopped typing in the middle of the post is ridiculous. It tends to happen when the "draft saved" bubble pops up, which makes me think it may be a glitch with the website rather than my computer. My computer also does not have this problem literally anywhere else. Also, the "draft saved" bubble, while cute and reassuring, obstructs my vision just a bit. There is so much dead space to either side. Why is this bubble not off to a side instead of right in the middle of where I am typing? It was also difficult for me to find the text formatting option, but this is mostly because I was not used to it.

GIFs. I do lots of propaganda, and to save space on my device I use gifs instead of going on the internet and downloading pictures and finding video links. I'm not always very good with words, and find that images tend to be more convincing anyway. On the mobile app, when I search something in the GIF search bar, it stays there even after I've made a selection. Not having to re-type my search 10 times makes it a lot easier and less monotonous to look for propaganda and fill up a post. This is not the case on the website. As I learned after attempting "Kitbull" propaganda, you have to re-type your search each time you add a new GIF. That got annoying really fast, and I only wound up putting two GIFs when I would normally use all image spaces (10).

Push Notifications. But I thought you said the website not doing this made consuming content less stressful??? I know what I said, and yes, for the most part, it does. However there are a lot more areas where the lack of push notifs on the website make my Tumblr experience a lot more stressful. For one thing, I am missing out on ALL of those polls. I follow SO MANY polls, because I was able to keep up with all of them as long as I had push notifications. I have not been able to vote in many polls this last week because I would have to go through and search every single one of their usernames exactly correct to find their pages and vote in my regular fashion. I simply do not have the time, energy, or memory to be able to do this. I also do not get notified when I am sent a message. I learned recently that most Tumblr users don't use the "share" function on posts, (via) however my girlfriend and I use it all the time. Our feeds consist of different interests that we like sharing with one another, so we share posts and polls back and forth just for funsies. To show that we love each other. Etc. etc. The website does not notify me when I get these messages unless I am actively in the tab, so I don't know when she's sent me something. Same goes for any interaction with my account or on my posts. I cannot see if someone has made a comment or a silly reblog with funny tags unless I am in the app. You know what the website DOES show me? How many new posts have been made. This is CONSTATLY refreshing even while I am actively scrolling and not only shows up in the app but also in the tab information. This is why I have such a problem with this. I understand that computers in general just don't do push notifications, but usually with social media, you can see how many notifications you have by checking the tab above the search bar. There's usually a little number in parenthesis next to the title or name of the social media you are using. This is very helpful for me, since my computer doesn't always give a little sound when I get any kind of notification, so I can just look over and see what I've missed while I was queuing up Spotify or playing Minesweeper or Solitaire. With Tumblr, this number only factors in the number of posts that I haven't seen yet. This number stressed me out, has me constantly refreshing the page even before I am done scrolling, and is not actually helpful in any capacity.

Page Jumping. Both the website and the app are dogwater at not jumping around the page while you scroll. However, the app is slightly less so. Page jumps in the mobile app only happen when an ad loads in where it wasn't before. This is pretty consistent with how any webpage, crappy mobile game, or social media app works on a phone (on my phone at least). When I'm scrolling anything I have to be careful to wait until all ads have loaded before I try pressing a button or I'll accidentally hit something I'm not supposed to. On the website on my computer, Tumblr page jumps every time I reblog. EVERY. TIME. Reblogging is, like, the currency of the realm. It is how things are meant to be done. I don't have the energy for a page jump every time I try to reblog something. That's gross.

Screenshots. This is admittedly more of a device difference than a Tumblr format difference, but it is affecting how I interact with Tumblr, so I thought I should put it on here. If you actually follow me and try to keep up with what I post (which isn't much) you know about my Untitled Bots threads. Essentially when I see a bot follow me, and their name is either blank or "Untitled" I screenshot it, crop it to the word "Untitled" and add it to the thread with a silly quip or lament or goofy photo. However, to make sure I don't miss any, I don't block and report these bots until after I've gotten a screenshot of their profile. Because it is so difficult to take and edit screenshots on my laptop specifically, I have not updated this thread even after being able to access Tumblr via the website.

For these reasons, I have decided the app is better than the website. Thank you. Have a nice day.

[mayakern]

Hi sorry i sent an ask earlier. Didnt realize you were getting so many as i saw the poll earlier, did it, then got off tumblr until later and didnt check your blog before voicing my thoughts. I didnt mean to cause any stress and reading some of the asks from before i sent mine answered a lot of what i was wondering/helped give voice to why i was so personally disappointed/invested. (What you said about fat/queer bodies and feeling very invested in what we put on those bodies especially rang true.) I guess people feel more entitled to an opinion when it feels like theyre involved in the process via polls and stuff so its more personal when things dont go our way.

Apologies again.

no worries! again i completely understand.

i’ve had many years of experience Receiving Opinions On The Internet and at this point i’ve reached a much more comfortable place with it than when i was younger. at the heart of it all, when it comes to these sorts of responses, i know it all comes from people who love my work and my art. that’s why the feelings are so strong, because they love it and feel invested in the process and the product.

i did just need to draw a line tho in terms of how many i was receiving because it gets overwhelming after a while. someone sends me an ask and i respond and for them, that’s it, but usually i’ve received that same opinion or question at least once before, if not several or dozens of times. and that compounds over the several social media platforms i am on as well. and a lot of it is stuff that is too short lived or topical for it to be added to my faq. and that’s just kind of how making a living on social media is!

so while i don’t have unlimited patience and i do need to draw boundaries from time to time, i am not upset or hurt or mad. i am also not at all hesitant to speak up when i think someone is being rude or weird and i do not feel that way in this situation. tbh considering the size of my audience, the actual amount of rude/nasty people is tiny and i am eternally shocked by and grateful for that.

[babybeatdowntourney]

Ladies and gentlemen and everyone else, take your seats and get ready, because its time for

That's right, we're putting together a tournament of all your favorite FICTIONAL* babies! Have you ever wanted to watch Baby Grinch murder the shit out of Baby Jesus? Do you want Boss Baby to finally get that smug look wiped off his face by Dil Pickles? Do you just simply want to see toddlers wreck eachother's shit mercilessly for your own sick amusement??? THEN LOOK NO FURTHER, THE BABY BEATDOWN IS HERE FOR YOU!

Right now we are accepting submissions of various FICTIONAL* babies for our tournament; simply send us an ask with: 1) The name of your baby, 2) where they are from, and 3) any propaganda regarding why they should be included, and we will count that as one call for that baby to be represented in the ring! Any propaganda might be used in the actual tournaments, but I'll ask you first if I can for each individual poll. Full rundown of how this will work beneath the cut.

* - Baby Beatdown Tourney LLC cannot legally condone the cool and hilarious sport of real life baby fighting because the babies cannot consent. We will also accept submissions of real-yet-long-dead babies like Baby Jesus, just no real life currently living babies please.

FAQ:

Q: So, how are you organizing tourney matchups?

A: we're using a seed system, matching highest seed levels to lowest seed levels, second highest to second lowest, etc. Seed numbers will be determined by number of submissions that particular baby recieved. So if I get a hundred submissions of Boss Baby, that's a seed of 100, but if I only get one Stewie Griffin, he's got a seed of 1.

Q: So it's gonna be another poll tournament, are there gonna be matchups of the losers?

A: Depends on how much engagement I get honestly! If people seem genuinely invested in these polls I am down to go a bit further but if this remains a bit for me and my friends to enjoy then I maybe wont do as much!

Q: How long do we have to submit?

A: Keeping this one loose, I wanna close the submission box by the end of April. Depends on how many submissions I get. If everyone is submitting a ton it may be sooner, if nobody submits any it may be later.

Q: Why no real babies, I want to submit my baby cousin/daughter/son/nibling/etc.!

A: Look it would just be extremely fucked up for little baby Jeffrey to lose an online battle to Stewie Griffin! Think about how they'd feel all grown up and they find out they were less popular than a fucking Family Guy reference? I personally would be devastated by such a realization. Plus those babies cannot consent to having their pics all over the internet, made into memes, potentially showing carnage, etc...its just fucked up and any submissions to that effect will be thrown out.

Q: So are the babies actually like, fighting to the death, or is it a popularity contest...? How should I imagine this scenario?

A: Honestly however you want! Go with whatever amuses you more. I'm viewing it as a wrestling tournament for the ages.

Q: How do we define a baby for this?

A: Basically if a character is shown as a baby, wearing a diaper and suckin on a binky, they're a baby. No specific age barrier will be present but we reserve the right to throw out any submissions. I may also accept some "joke submissions" such as Senor Pink from one piece, just because the point of this tumblr is comedy.

Q: So what, you're a sick fuck who likes watching babies get hurt?

A: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_comedy, block if you dont wanna see it

[rayclubs]

I am so emotionally invested in the Tumblr wizard battle poll thing. You don't even understand. I physically need Merasmus to win. I need the Howl hoe armada to step back and let my wrinkly fav get his spotlight for once. All those sexyman tournaments mean nothing to me, but my heart will shatter into a million pieces if Merasmus isn't crowned Tumblr's #1 wizard. I won't even go in-depth on the comedic potential and the actual reasons why she deserves it, I just need him to win, you understand? I am grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you and staring into your eyes and through them I see your soul and on its delicate unwavering surface I see the reflection of my own soul in its primal form and its screaming words at the universe and they come in pairs of two and they echo "MERASMUS SWEEP". If he loses I will cry like I haven't cried since I was five years old, cradled into the arms of the Earth, mesmerized by the distant glimmer of the midnight stars.

[eldritch-elrics]

memes of 2022

[memes of 2021]

every year i am a little bit later with this. anyway, here’s my casual list of tumblr/twitter memes i saw in 2022 in my sphere of the internet, roughly in chronological order. i’ve almost certainly missed some (or described some of the ones that are here incorrectly/incoherently), but hopefully it’s fun to read anyway!

horse plinko

john lennon’s asscrack

blorbo from shows

the fall of urfaveisunfuckable

wordle scores

guy with big eyes

(megamind) no bitches?

i am in misery / i save dick by giving it cpr / reese's puffs

it’s me boy i’m the ps5

live slug reaction

my brother in christ

car battery dropping on jade from victorious

maidenless

homophobic dog

get drinked

tumblr blaze

tumblr crabs

ball shaving ads

debating the use of kung pow penis

elon musk buying twitter / twitter refugees on tumblr

misha collins coming out as straight

what would you do if i were a bug

video games characters at the mall

dracula daily

“hey i’m justin bieber” “and…?”

morbius

overwatch diversity chart

swedes not inviting friends to dinner

that’s why this pride month i’m partnering with x

x closed forever because a y threw up

mousegirl (nonsexual)

the lgbtq+ community has forgiven x

tumblr pikachu man

sometimes i wonder what i taste like

the final fantasy rp billboard

boris johnson resigning & ongoing uk fiasco (+ lettuce)

little guy dancing

oh look, the last ripe peach!

gougar

girl yelling in boy’s ear

circling a word in red and pointing to an image of something that sounds similar

reddit guy who fucks to cbat

modding your 3ds is easy

honestly [character] has been through so much more

gandalf big naturals

reigen winning twitter polls and then finally getting beaten by sans in tumblr sexyman contest

the queen of england dying immediately afterward (plus tons of other wild stuff)

the yaoi poll

holy fucking fuck that body of yours is absurd

drawing anime eyes with amongus guys

jesse pinkman's shirt when he goes through the most traumatic experience of his life

some fandom thing turning up in a random us city/state

tree guy

investing in posts

me listening to my completely unorganized playlist

hey don’t cry. x ok?

spirit halloween costumes

goncharov

i just got laid off from twitter, i was the person responsible for the feature where x

general twitter crashing and burning

koopas dancing

you don’t like trumpet? bwaa?

in an interview, wednesday star jenna ortega revealed…

bill clinton game awards kid (unfortunately)

hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby

cylinder dick guy

greta thunberg vs andrew tate

different types of cube designs

[clash-of-the-wizards]

IMPORTANT COMPETITION UPDATE(S)

Okay, this is absolutely bonkers. I already have OVER 100 submissions, creeping up on 200, in just over 24 hours. SO I'm making an executive decision. Sorry. I'm allowed to do that.

NOMINATIONS WILL BE CLOSED ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, AT 6:30 AM EST !!!!

This now gives you guys approximately 38 hours to throw your wizards at me and hope you get in! Best of luck to all of you, by the way, I'm getting some REALLY fun submissions. Keep them coming!

BRACKET COMPETITORS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 AT 6:30 PM EST

This allows mod Hermann (me) 36 hours to sort out all of the competitors, discuss with their dad about what does and does not fit the qualifications, gather numbers, and figure out if I need to throw together any losers brackets or short-term polls to determine final slots or battles between fandoms

If a poll does need to be thrown together to sort out a battle between a fandom or a tie in votes, that poll will be open for 24 hours. Whoever wins will be included in the bracket

There will only be one wizard per fandom allowed to be entered in the final 32-person bracket

Remember, if I'm late posting, I'm a human with a life! It will be posted, I promise

ROUND ONE OF POLLS WILL BE OPENED ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, AT 7 AM

Each poll will be opened for 24 hours

There will be a 36-hour period between the end of a poll, and the opening of the next round. This allows mod Hermann (me) time to sort out contestants, confer with their dad about whatever the hell he has to say (he is your co-mod after all), and create the next bracket and poster images

Is this, by chance, your first post about the clash of the wizards? Want to participate and submit a wizard? Then make sure you check out THIS POST to learn all the rules, and get access to the form you can submit your wizards through.

ALSO IMPORTANT

I use a plethora of hashtags throughout my posts. Let me lay those out for you so you can sort out the important stuff

#clash of the wizards is for all things dedicated to this competition. Wanna post something about it? Throw that tag at it. I also sometimes use #wizard showdown

#clash of the wizards announcements is for posts like this-- important stuff about the competition and the way its gonna work

#clash of the wizards general is for the funny stuff, like random announcements or twosies shoutouts

#wizard propaganda is when I post about or reblog a post about one specific nomination. Wanna post propaganda about why someone should vote your wizard? Tag #wizard propaganda ! I'll probably reblog it too! And if you tag me in it, I definitely will!

#clash of the wizards polls is where all of the polls will be stored, no matter how dire their results may be! Looking for a poll? Check in there!

#mod hermann loves their dad is a much less important, less official tag, just used to talk about stuff my dad is saying about the competition, since he's helping me co-manage it from his study

And another reminder, have fun! So many of you guys have taken to digging into those NICHE ass sources and are full on infodumping to me in the forms, and you guys have no idea how much I appreciate it. Hell, you've given me a months-long read/watch list just by participating! I picked up The Color of Magic from my local library just this afternoon because of you Discworld fans and that fucking pathetic ass man Rincewind! I'm so so so glad you're all invested in this, and you should be proud to be invested in this too! It's obvious we're bringing a community together, and I love it! Thank you!

Now, enough sappy and business stuff

LET'S GET REALLY FUCKING READY FOR A MAGIC USER BATTLE TO THE DEATH, TUMBLR! WOOOOO!

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Hi. This is a reply to you 'Why don't you comment' poll. I hope you don't mind me sending this. I tried commenting as I have a mix of reasons, but Tumblr was playing up.

Past Influence: Some people write one sentence comments and others can write three paragraphs on a chapter. Unless I am critiquing, I tend to fall into the first catagory. However, someone I looked up to believed that unless you were in the second catagory you were fake. It wasn't good enough to tell an author that you liked their work; you had to be able to say why. I think that left a mark. I don't want someone thinking I'm fake or in the category of people who post unhelpful, "Great. Please update", style comments because I didn't write an essay; so unless I'm in a wordy mood, I don't tend to comment.

Quality: I've felt bad in the past because I've left positive comments and then a couple of chapters later the quality has gone downhill or there are other reasons I've decided not to continue investing time into a book. So, now, I tend not to comment until I'm really committed.

Critiquing: No one likes unsolicited advice. I like critiquing amd trying to help, but I've learned that it is a good way to cop abuse or get frustrated unless done properly. Now I only critique works if I have spoken to the author before I start reading. I only approach the author if they have something on their page or the book that suggests they would like feedback.

Themes: Sometimes I read things not because I approve but because I am curious about a moral question or why a character functions the way they do. The best example is probably Diabolic Lovers. I've never played the games or watched full episodes, but I am fascinated by the characters. Why they are the way they are, are they capable of change, etc. However, because I don’t want people assuming I'm into supernatural/sadistic kinks or that I approve of how the protagonist is often treated, I don't tend to interact with any stories I read.

I hope this has been helpful. Sorry it got so long.

Thank you very much for all of this! I appreciate all the detail you gave and you perspective on the different options in the poll