A brief summary of how user engagement is tracked on Tumblr, for the newcomer:
When you like or reblog a post, that counts as user engagement for the person you liked or reblogged from, and shows up in their notifications.
If the person you liked or reblogged a post from wasn’t the original poster (i.e., you’re liking or reblogging a reblog), it also counts as user engagement for the original poster, and shows up in their notifications as well.
This means that user engagement from your likes and reblogs can potential accrue to two different people, the original poster and the person you liked or reblogged from.
Consequently, you cannot “steal” user engagement from someone by reblogging their post.
This is one of the very few areas where Tumblr is actually functions more reasonably than other social media platforms.
Note that this is only true if you use Tumblr’s built-in reblogging function. If you save someone else’s content to your local device and append it to a new post, you effectively become the original poster from that point on.
This means that on Tumblr, “reblogging” and “reposting” are two different things; if you see someone complaining about “reposting”, this is not the same as reblogging.
Commenting when reblogging does not affect any of this – unlike, say, Twitter, where quote-retweeting causes user engagement to accrue to the quote-retweet and not to the original tweet – and you can and should do so freely.
However, every Tumblr user can see who exactly you reblogged a post from, which functions as a soft disincentive against making inane comments; if you make a dumb comment on a reblog, people who see your reblog may “back up” one step in the reblog chain to reblog a version of the post without your comment.
Nobody understands tags, and there’s a fair amount of evidence that how tags work changes periodically and without warning.
Tags are a divine mystery.
(For those going “how is this not obvious”, it’s about prior expectations, bro. On many major social media platforms, using the built-in sharing tools does divert user engagement from the original post. For example, as noted above, quote-retweeting on Twitter causes likes to accrue to the quote-retweet instead of the original tweet. This is because Twitter is hostile to human life.)
It’s really good for stuff like this to go around every once in a while! Strange as it may seem, people may in fact migrate here from Twitter or Instagram, where this stuff works differently and where there are different expectations of engagement.
DON’T FORGET - *most* Tumblr users DO NOT MIND if you engage with their OLD posts! (Apparently on Instagram they do? this baffles me.)
Many also don’t mind if you “spam” their notifications with a bunch of likes or reblogs in a row.
Tumblr has a rich culture of Very Old Posts continuing to make the reblog rounds, and people become fond of them.
Also, unlike Twitter, you can reblog the same post multiple times. Heck, you can reblog the same post every hour on the hour for days. (Please don’t.) But you do see a lot of “oh this came across my dash again, must reblog” with posts users are fond of. This is fine.
Tags ARE a divine mystery. People use the tags both for organization (inasmuch as this works, sometimes), and for added commentary. Commentary added to the tags will generally be seen by those who follow that person and see their reblog on their dash; but the OP and whoever they reblogged it from can also see the tags in the notifications.
So again – you can use the tags for commentary, and many people do. But people WILL see it. It just won’t “stick” with the post… necessarily. Tumblr also has a culture of people seeing some tags they think are relevant or clever, and reblogging a post with someone else’s tags included. So bear that in mind as well – something you put in the tags could get “pulled up” into a reblog chain by someone else, and this is generally seen as fine.
Sometimes when I go hundreds pages deep into people’s Tumblr archives, I find really funny posts and I weigh the pros and cons of liking/reblogging them.
Pros: I’ll have access to them later because they’re fucking hilarious
Cons: They might think I’m creepy. Despite the fact that it’s public and on the Internet, it is not socially acceptable to let anyone know the extent that you creeped their archives.
I hereby extend blanket permission for anyone to creep on my archive, and to like and reblog posts from it if they want to. It’s really quite flattering.
Tumblr’s search functions means it’s easy to see someone’s years-old posts grouped together. (You find one on a tag search. You go to their blog to look at it. You wind up seeing five other “like this” posts, which are based on keywords, not chronological order.) Like, reblog, follow as your heart desires. If they want “ugh don’t go crawling through my archives” they can move to another site.
This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill—we are rolling out reblog controls across web and iOS, starting today.
How does it work?
When drafting a post, select the settings cog in the top right corner of your post editor. From here, you can choose one of two options.
“Anyone (on Tumblr)” means just that.
“No one” means that your post cannot be reblogged by anyone, ever.
ALT
Why?
Your wish is our command. Many of you have told us this feature would give you a welcome sense of safety. If you block someone after the post was made, don’t worry—they still can’t reblog it. This change gives you control over your own posts, and so will improve your posting experience. Ultimately, better posting means a better Tumblr. And finally, don’t worry, Android users. The feature will follow on your platform soon.
That’s all, folks. Happy reblogging!
Any questions? Drop us a line on @wiporSupport, and keep an eye out for the mobile rollout on@changes.
As much as I mildly despair about the functionality of Tumblr, I’m forever grateful we don’t have the creative interface of other social media platforms.
I keep seeing youtubers talking about how the new algorithm on their creative dash is so detrimental to their mental health, both in terms of how they feel about themselves as creators and the content they make—dreading to find out their performance rating, regardless of whether they enjoyed it or not. And it’s the same across multiple other platforms, TickTock, Facebook, Instagram. Fuck, I’ve even seen people with business accounts complaining on Twitter.
And then there’s Tumblr. Where sometimes you can’t find your own posts even though you know you tagged it, time stamps are hidden in the ellipses at the top right hand corner of the post, your bread recipe keeps getting flagged as porn, too much punctuation causes asks not to send, and checking your activity feed causes the app to crash. You want to know your trending numbers? You want to know what’s performing well? Fuck you, guess.
time stamps are hidden in the ellipses at the top right hand corner of the post
Excuse me the fuck WHAT
IMAGE ID: Screen shot of a tumblr post with the menu accessed via the three dots at the upper right corner of the post dropped down. The three dots and the time stamp, “Posted - 2:28 AM” are circled in red.
we should take the “does it spark joy?” question to social media. go through your facebook, remove friends that do not spark joy, go through instagram and unfollow people and pages that do not spark joy. don’t surround yourself with things that don’t make you happy.
This is just to help all the users who need this info. Some users are new, some do not use a laptop. And it’s perfectly fine! So there might be a few things they don’t know about or are unable to do. Hope this helps!
Also, I found out that there are some features regarding fonts and all which aren’t available on laptop, but are available on mobile browser and app respectively. You can check them out under “How to create a masterlist”.
on mobile Tumblr app - Sorry, the mobile app can edit the bio but cannot add links to it. Sucks, ik :(
*NOTE-After adding a link to your bio, NEVER edit your bio through the mobile Tumblr app, or else the link won’t work. ONLY do it through Chrome browser on laptop and mobile. I learned it the hard way.
How to Create a Masterlist on Tumblr:
includes how to add a link to a text + different features of text post on respective devices
Look, here’s the deal with tumblr: it moves fast. A lot of people follow enough blogs that scrolling through one’s entire dash is impossible. I remember the days when I could wake up in the morning and scroll back to the last post I saw before bed. Sweet, summer child.
Here’s the other deal with tumblr: I see so much anxiety about reblogging one’s own stuff, be it art; analysis; fanfiction; hell, personal posts and replies. I have (and continue to feel deeply) that anxiety. Every time, my inner critic and I go through the same song and dance.
Critic: You look like you’re begging for notes/replies/reblogs. People will think you’re needy/full of yourself/have to be the center of attention. You already have a few notes, why do you need more? Other people have it worst than you. Ugh, you’re just clogging the dashes of your followers. If they wanted to read it, they’d have read it already.
Me: *ball of anxiety* You’re right. Wait, no you’re not. Wait, maybe you are. Wait, no—
I’d say it’s 50/50, even now, that I’ll reblog myself.
And you know what? Fuck that.
Not everyone can get through their dash in a sitting.
Timezones are a thing.
Work hours are a thing, also affected by timezones.
Life away from tumblr is a thing (what??? I know).
There are so many reasons a person might not see your fic/art/stuff the first time. Reblog it the next day. Reblog it a week from now. Hell, set up a schedule or a queue and have it reblog itself three months from now. Go back through old fics and reblog the ones you really liked; I guarantee you have followers who are new enough to have never seen it or who would like to reread it.
Be proud of the work you do.
Oh yeah, I felt that resistance from here.
Say it again. Out loud. Write it on a post-it note and stick it where you’ll see it.
Be proud of the work you do.
You wrote/made it for a reason. And yeah, part of that reason was probably to share it with other fans. Otherwise, why post at all? I know. Man, I get it. I’m cringing even writing that. The fucked-up “don’t show off” mentality runs deep, right?
Fuck that, too.
If you have followers who unfollow you because you’re reposting your stuff (and this is hard to prove, remember; maybe they quit tumblr, maybe their interests diverged from yours, whatever), who cares? Let them go. For everyone who leaves you, many will stay. And many will be happy to see that thing they missed because of work, life, sleeping. Especially if you follow a few points of tumblr/dash etiquette:
Use cuts/read mores for anything longer than a few hundred words (I tend to cut at about 400-500 words, though if something’s under about 700 I might leave it).
Reblog at reasonable intervals (day/evening, next day reblog, etc. Hourly might be a bit much ;D).
all the new fuckers: don’t censor words in ur post with numbers, @ and punctuation signs, different letters, shit like that. not just cuz it’s absolutely fine to say weird shit and things that other places generally censor on tumblr, but also cuz there are people with screen readers, and when u unnecessarily censor things like that, it really fucks with screen readers and makes it very difficult to read.
this isn’t just a “you don’t have to” thing, it’s a “you shouldn’t”.
Just a friendly reminder that on this godforsaken website you can and should do the following few things that involve going into your settings:
1: Under Dashboard, disable Best Stuff First, Include Stuff In Your Orbit and Based On Your Likes. The former ruins the how the timeline works here, the middle violates the sanctity of anonymity if people you follow don’t want you to see their likes, the latter is a crapshoot and annoying and inaccurate because the likes algorithm is fucked.
2: Under Account, turn off letting people finding your blog through your email address, your email should not be just out there like that.
3: Under Notifications, turn off news because nobody knows what the hell is popular or gaining traction at any given moment. Posts from 6 years ago will randomly gain a resurgence of popularity for no good reason. Also just turn off the stuff that gives you immediate info about notes or updates or notices it’s just so fucking annoying and useless.
Under Appearance, you can choose to make who you follow private and what you’ve Liked private. I recommend doing both of those things. The old days of dumbass slapfights and following discourse are long gone but not yet over. Defend your mental health by just not letting folks know what you’re following or what you like, do what the Bird Site never ever let you do. From here you can also choose to turn anonymous asks off and that’s a good way to learn who you need to block if they’re being a shit to you, which to that I say block early and block often.
This website is different than the Bird Site in that 1: it will not tell you who to follow and 2: Likes do nothing, Reblogs are what matters. Likes are nice but Reblogs keep the blood pumping and posts/works by artists circulating. You can even choose to reblog your own stuff. This site is a massive sea of islands that have boats parked around them and bridges between them. There are, regrettably, Nazis and TERFs and tradcaths on this site. I have never seen them except for when they decide to pick fights with people I follow. You should also make it abundantly clear those people are not welcome to interact with you. You can threaten them with death here. It tends to work. Tell the fascists to die, recirculate the blood of content, treat this site well and keep it healthy and it will keep your mind healthy in turn.
This site allows a shocking amount of anonymity in the modern age. You don’t have to share personal information if you don’t want to. I don’t recommend you do. People can and have used DNI criteria and trigger/content warnings to dunk on people or upset them. Keep yourself and your data safe, you don’t have to have a carrd in your header or a list of kinks or a laundry list of things you believe in. Keep strangers at an arm’s length and moderate what you tell other people about yourself. I know this used to be the internet’s #1 naked picture dump and so many people courted parasocial relationships with folks here. Those times have changed. Don’t be weird and don’t let people be weird to you based on what they know about you.
By many standards on this website, I am an old-timer, even though I’ve been here steadily since 2015 with an initial reg date of 2013. I know the old stories, of the Oncelor, of Dashcon, the Kickstarter scams, the doxxing. I only qualify as an old-timer due to the fact that I stayed through the porn ban of 2018 and kept circulating content. This site…it’s not good, but it iswhat you make of it. Curate your content, even though the tagging system doesn’t work. Find what you like, even though the search function sucks ass. If you’re here for popularity you generally won’t find it because the algorithm straight up does not work, but also if you were forged in the fires of the Bird Site you likely knew this would not be the case. My advice is to find a handful of people who provide a feed like I do and if any specific names you see a lot interest you, skim their own blogs, follow them if you like, let your network spread, never be afraid to prune who you follow. Also your follower count doesn’t mean shit, it doesn’t really dictate who can see what you’re putting out there, your marketing and self-promotion is more or less tied 1:1 to using the tag system and your own hustle.
My other advice is to be as queer as you want, support queer people, and most importantly to tell the fascists to die as creatively as you’d like.
A LOT of good stuff here no matter how long you’ve been on tumblr
God… I felt like such a latecomer to Tumblr. It’s bizarre to think of how fast things turn over.
Install new xkit and force real time stamps onto all posts. That’s my biggest piece of advice.
tumblr users love to say “we don’t censor things here like on Twitter” and then type things like “r3ylo” and “jk r*wling”
if you say “and then this fucking r3ylo-” that implies that “reylo” was the bad word in that sentence
tiktokers do it because they have to, we do it because it’s mean ☺️
Okay I know this was mostly a joke but I just feel the need to point out - this didn’t start out as being mean, it started - and largely continues - as the opposite.
For a long time, tumblr had tags and no other search function. You wanted to find a post that wasn’t tagged, you had to go to Google and type in your query and add “site:tumblr.com” and hope for the best.
As it is now, that method is STILL better than our native search function most of the time, but the quality of tumblr’s native search function isn’t really what’s important here, what’s relevant is how they implemented it.
See, the search bar in the upper left corner of the site - you used to type in something there, and it would take you to posts tagged with whatever you searched. Then, one day, they quietly rolled out an update that instead brought you to a search page that pulled up nearly every post that even mentioned your search term.
This…did not mesh well with the site culture.
Because, see, we had an etiquette guideline - do not post your negativity in the public tags. Why? Because people go into the public tags to find content about things they LIKE. Posting hate in a public tag was basically seen as being a raging dramamongering pissbaby troll LOOKING to start a fight over petty nonsense.
So imagine, suddenly, you log in one day, and someone’s sending you anons angry about you allegedly posting hate in the tags, when you have NEVER done so. You use what you THINK is the tag search function to prove it, and - what the hell? Your UNTAGGED post about how annoyed you are with your notp…is appearing there???
So people started censoring things like that. Usually not because we all think the thing we’re complaining about is profane (though sometimes it does get a giggle to think of it as such), but to keep it from showing up when people are searching for what they love and to prevent pointless drama. To avoid looking like some asshole troll going onto a fan forum specifically for The Blorbo Show and making a thread entitled “THE BLORBO SHOW SUXXX AND YOU ALL SUCK FOR LIKING IT!!”
And now it’s just part of our site culture, for both peacekeeping reasons and petty glee.
The more you know.
On tiktok, you censor for the algorithm. On Tumblr, you censor for the users.
If you do look at your follower count and notice it dropped, shrug and go ‘eh’. Keep living your life and doing your shitposting how you like.
Hownot to Tumblr
Watch your follower count and if it goes down, figure out exactly who it was who unfollowed you, decide they hate you, then go into their DMs and stir up shit.
Is it just me, or if you see somebody unfamiliar like one of your posts, and their icon is the picture of an attractive young white lady, alarm bells immediately go off and you go to their blog, which has no bio and zero reblogs, and block them?
ALT
