Tumblr .. .

[creaturefeature]

geocities only make sense if there´s someone going out of their way to customize their blogs, but not everyone puts that sort of effort or even knows how to turn on the custom theme, so most blogs I seen tend to use the default theme.

That being said I´vee seen some cool themes, but if you´re sor not into building one from scracth there is always https://theme-hunter.com/

[tarraxahum]

Tumblr is more of a microblog, as in it's focused on sharing pictures and brief texts and reblogging others than it really is writing about yourself (or whatever you want to write about). So I guess in a sense it's more like Twitter with MySpace-esque page layouts?

I think this one REALLY depends on which side of Tumblr you are on. Meaning, like, fandom, aesthetic, etc. etc.

'Cause the amount of long-reads on Tumblr is considerable in my experience. Especially if it's fandom meta or angry rants on social issues or excited infodumps on favorite topics or history posts or 'science side of Tumblr'... And there's also a whole genre of posts like these, whatever they'd be called (link is from a random blog I found when looking up the post sorry). There's also writebr, aka the side of Tumblr populated only by writers posting snippets of their work or taking writing prompts and such. And so on and so forth.

That's to say that I think a lot of people actually do use Tumblr like a proper blogging platform and comparison to Twitter is not an exactly fair one, in my opinion.

Also, as far as "sharing pictures" goes, yes, gifsets are Really Popular, but also... You just can't do a Tumblr style gifset on another platform. One gif/four images per post only? Blasphemy!

[Guest]

I think this one REALLY depends on which side of Tumblr you are on. Meaning, like, fandom, aesthetic, etc. etc.

'Cause the amount of long-reads on Tumblr is considerable in my experience. Especially if it's fandom meta or angry rants on social issues or excited infodumps on favorite topics or history posts or 'science side of Tumblr'... And there's also a whole genre of posts like these, whatever they'd be called (link is from a random blog I found when looking up the post sorry). There's also writebr, aka the side of Tumblr populated only by writers posting snippets of their work or taking writing prompts and such. And so on and so forth.

That's to say that I think a lot of people actually do use Tumblr like a proper blogging platform and comparison to Twitter is not an exactly fair one, in my opinion.

Also, as far as "sharing pictures" goes, yes, gifsets are Really Popular, but also... You just can't do a Tumblr style gifset on another platform. One gif/four images per post only? Blasphemy!

Well, I guess I stand corrected, then. I was only on there a relatively short time, so my experience is limited.

[appleAlc]

I will say that I do quite love the little poll tournaments that've been happening on tumblr since they introduced polls.

[Tiffany]

I'm not super active on Tumblr, but I generally like it. I mostly stick to the fandom side of Tumblr since most of my LiveJournal peeps went to Tumblr because LJ was taken over.

 Unfortunately, some unpopular choices had been made. LJ already had that mass removal of fanworks that mainly affected the LGBTQIA+ community. However, did also target fanworks that weren't seen as good or communities of victims that were also targeted. So, it was a big deal. When the takeover happened, more of this was a significant possibility, so people jumped when there was a new option in Tumblr.

Unfortunately eventually, a lot of the same problems LJ had, so did Tumblr. They also have had mass deletions of fanworks that have never been against their rules. So, it's not a place where I feel safe only storing my fanworks, and I am glad I never had to, but I sometimes like being in the fandom community there.

[Necrosia]

I am an avid tumblr user and I like it, it's not perfect but as far as social platforms go its the best one in my opinion. Its pretty much an acquired taste and the experience varies A LOT depending on which community/interest you are using it for.

As mentioned by other people, a lot of very niche communities made their home on tumblr and the only way to find it is if you know it or stumble on it by accident, for these communities tumblr works as a sort of 'forum'.

I have experience in both the otoge and the doll customization communities.

For doll customization/modding people will share not only finished dolls but also post pictures of random doll body parts and ask if anyone can help recognize it, ask for help and tips, show work in progress, this community in particular really uses tumblr as a forum of sorts because everyone comments on one another and help around.
(obs: a lot of doll modders go thrift shopping so its not unusual for people to buy cheap packages with random broken parts to use on their projects =P)

Instagram sells the illusion of perfect effortless customs, tiktok spreads a bunch if misinformation regarding materials, tumblr is the only place where an expert modder will post their honest account of how they tried 3 times to dye a doll and failed. I would prefer a forum to discuss and keep this sort of info but since its not available tumblr does fit its purpose here.

For the otoge community there were a few people who were the "writers" they used tumblr as a blog where they would post their review of games they played, this was a couple years ago where most popular games where still in japanese. Other users would orbit around these blogs, asking questions, curating content, posting in-game CGs or scans from exclusive magazines.

For these two very specific examples tumblr is such a nice and cozy place! But for some other interests and fandom it can be a hell hole of harassment.

Tumblr's biggest problem has always been the absolutely despicable people who use it.

This stands true for any community anywhere, some fandons can be extremely nasty and it may seem its a general stance when it's actually just a very big bubble encompassing the whole mainstream of an interest. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience

[doubleincision]

i met my current husband on Tumblr circa 2010-2011, so it will always have a place in my heart. we had been active in the same fandom circles pre-Tumblr, but Tumblr is where we really got to know each other, so i just say we met there. if you've seen that post that's been going around with the alternative-looking couple admitting we met on there, that's me and my husband hahaha

it's very much a "what you make of it" kind of site, and that's how it's always been, at least in my experience. if you avoid the discourse and fandom drama and just use tumblr for funny pictures and stream-of-consciousness shitposting, it's much more peaceful and fun than any of the big social media alternatives right now. there was a time many moons ago when i was something of a "big name fan" in some moderately-sized fandoms over there, but i never got into any of the big fandoms that people associate with Tumblr, so i've never been involved in any huge fandom drama or anything like that. the biggest fandom i've participated in was Steven Universe, but i was only active in the veeery early days of the show's existence. once the drama and hot takes started i just ignored the fans and watched the show.

nowadays i've just started instant-blocking fandom blogs so all i see are the casual, shitposty things. i'm too old to care about fandom drama anymore

however, as much as i still enjoy Tumblr, this is a legitimately huge issue:

I'm not super active on Tumblr, but I generally like it. I mostly stick to the fandom side of Tumblr since most of my LiveJournal peeps went to Tumblr because LJ was taken over.

 Unfortunately, some unpopular choices had been made. LJ already had that mass removal of fanworks that mainly affected the LGBTQIA+ community. However, did also target fanworks that weren't seen as good or communities of victims that were also targeted. So, it was a big deal. When the takeover happened, more of this was a significant possibility, so people jumped when there was a new option in Tumblr.

Unfortunately eventually, a lot of the same problems LJ had, so did Tumblr. They also have had mass deletions of fanworks that have never been against their rules. So, it's not a place where I feel safe only storing my fanworks, and I am glad I never had to, but I sometimes like being in the fandom community there.

there's also a big problem with Tumblr allowing transphobic and queerphobic blogs to exist and harass queer users, but when those same users fight back they're the ones that get punished. but that's not an issue unique to Tumblr

[Guest]

I want to properly get going with Tumblr but I am still confused on this account:

Is it better to have a blog per interest or to cram everything into a main blog? I am interested in many fandoms, hobbies, technologies, aesthetics and fields of science, and I wonder whether it is appropriate, or annoying, to put it all in one account.

[shevek]

I want to properly get going with Tumblr but I am still confused on this account:

Is it better to have a blog per interest or to cram everything into a main blog? I am interested in many fandoms, hobbies, technologies, aesthetics and fields of science, and I wonder whether it is appropriate, or annoying, to put it all in one account.

It differs from person to person; the two popular modes I'd say would be
a) one blog where most posts are tagged with what it's about; that way, you can set up pages on the blog theme that only display content with that tag, so you can have one page for this game, one page for that book etc. and followers who only follow you for specific content can filter out the other things via tags. I think this could be appropriate for you.

b) Separate blogs for different interests, usually when you cannot be arsed to tag and you want a url that reflects the content. But I find the only people doing this are ones that are afraid to "offend" their followers by posting stuff not interesting to them, scared to lose their follower count. The disadvantage is that you'll always have a main blog and the others are just side blogs, and as of now, they haven't found a way to switch a side blog to be the main blog and vice versa, so it isn't an option. And you can only reply to posts and follow back from your main account, so when someone follows your Need For Speed sideblog and you follow back, they will not see the Need For Speed blog following them back, but your main.
You can circumvent the latter issue by making a separate account for each blog so they're all mains, but honestly, the hassle of logging out and into different accounts is not worth it.

If you do get a Tumblr, I'd suggest the browser extension XKit Rewritten for it. Has good additional options and accessibility features. The Quick Reblog especially.

[tarraxahum]

I'm a chaotic Tumblr user, I have one blog for everything AND I don't tag anything (except for some glaring trigger warnings)

So it really comes down to what you're more comfortable with, I think. Some people like for their interests to be neatly sorted into side-blogs (and I guess some people may follow those blogs more readily if they are specific and won't spam them with something else?), and some just don't really care for it.

Not much related, but a similar difference imo, some people also like to queue a lot of posts they make or reblog, so that they come out gradually and keep the activity more smooth, while some, like me, well... I post/reblog whenever I'm online straight to my blog, and if I spam someone's timeline then that's also a common thing on Tumblr.

And if a user I like starts spamming a fandom I'm not interested in, then it becomes my fandom in law which I accidentally consumed entirely through gifs.

Tbh I probably should have a separated blog for my art only but every time I tried to do that I started forgetting about it or mess up what's getting posted where by accident, soooo... yeah, not for me.

[doubleincision]

I want to properly get going with Tumblr but I am still confused on this account:

Is it better to have a blog per interest or to cram everything into a main blog? I am interested in many fandoms, hobbies, technologies, aesthetics and fields of science, and I wonder whether it is appropriate, or annoying, to put it all in one account.

i'm qualified to answer this question because i have been using Tumblr since 2010 no, i do not have anything better to do, thank you very much

anyway, because having multiple blogs is still a somewhat clunky system, most people just have one main blog, and use a tagging system to categorize their posts. having a separate blog for a specific interest is typically only done if you post and reblog about that topic a lot, or if it's a niche interest that you feel like most of your followers will judge you for or won't want to see. personally, i have no shame, and my blog contains everything i'm interested in. i let the content speak for itself and if someone doesn't want to follow me because i have furry art or bizarre shitposts on my blog, that's their decision to make

to sort your posts+reblogs, it's customary on Tumblr to have some kind of witty or funny name for your tags, especially fandom tags, for example if you're into a show like Steven Universe you might tag all of your SU posts+reblogs as #gay rocks or something funny like that. but that's not required, you can name your tags whatever you want people typically have a tag for their own unique posts, too, to distinguish them from reblogs, which helps when you're trying to find a specific post that you made. my tag for my original posts is #mine, for example. a lot of people have a tag for their own text posts, like #surge rambles or something like that. tags on Tumblr also don't work like Twitter tags; they're primarily used to categorize posts on your blog rather than getting your posts seen by other people. this is because Tumblr has no algorithm, and the site's search feature is also ass garbage, so most users don't really care much about their posts being visible anymore lol.

Tumblr lets you pin a post to the top of your blog and that's a good place to list all of your unique tags, for ease of access for yourself and any visitors to your blog. you can link to specific tags on your blog with the url [BLOG URL].tumblr.com/tagged/[TAG NAME]. a typical pinned post will read like this:
welcome to my blog! i'm Surge, i'm 29 and my pronouns are he/him. my blog is mostly shitposting with an occasional fandom post.
tags:

• my art
• my text posts
• fandom 1
• fandom 2
• fandom 3

if you've never used Tumblr before, there can be a bit of a learning curve to it because the site has a very unique vibe and culture to it. you'll get a feel for this by following other blogs; the best way to absorb the culture is by simple immersion. feel free to email me if you want help getting started; i've literally been using this stupid website for almost half of my life :TnT:

btw, i highly recommend installing XKit because it VASTLY improves the browsing and posting experience. Tumblr staff is pretty notorious among the site's users for implementing some.....extremely questionable features while ignoring bugs and problems that have existed for years.

[creaturefeature]

im too one of those people who has different blogs for everything.

one for fandom, one which is practically my photoblog and another I collected a bunch of random posts and resources which I tag so can I find them easily.

i do content warnings too I guess. i think I remember making my fandom blog +18 only since I also post the occasional s very risque content while other blogs are mostly sfw.

Also I like we get to organize sideblog in a single account instead of just having to make multiple accounts, makes it easy to know where everything is

[Cele]

I do have sideblogs for specific topics/gimmicks, but at the same time I also spam my personal/main with whatever I happen to be into at the moment, so yeah. If there's a topic I want to be more "specific" about I guess, I make a sideblog, but if it's just reblogging art and stuff, into the main blog pile it goes.

[princemaggots]

I have a few sideblogs, not for reasons of being worried about people's opinions (if someone doesn't like what I post they can unfollow my main lol), but because I like having some spaces with certain "vibes"/theming as opposed to my very chaotic main blog. Also because at the point I am right now with over 10k posts on my main blog, it's very necessary if I want to have an easy time finding and organizing certain types of content.

For an example of the second reason, I have a character blog where I reblog things and tag them with the character they remind me of (an example of the type of post I tend to reblog there: "come get your man he’s not doing anything wrong he just misses you").

As for the first type -> one example is my goth + 00s nostalgia blog. I could post these things on my main (and sometimes I do!) but it's nice to be able to just scroll through that blog if I want to look at that type of content :3

[creaturefeature]

I just heard that Tumblr is going through another 2018 style purge at the moment, again. yeesh. Woke to find a bunch of blogs just gone.

To summ it up Tumblr has started to reinforce these rules certain types of content, but its badly written and vague enough that its getting a bunch innocent blogs flagged and deleted for the most flimsly reasons.

And because there´s a bunch of bad actors there who are more than happy to abuse the report system taking advantage of this

Now in response users have decided to migrate to mastodon and other places. But yeah as officially today, tumblr is now a terrible place to post art and fiction.

Between this, imgur, and now AO3 with the whole AI thing? godamn it. Might as well just focus on making your own website.