we need a universal grocery classification system like the dewey decimal to aid in shelving, so i don’t have to figure out whether you think maple syrup goes with the sauces, breakfast foods, jams, or condiments
reblog and put your “soap and candles” gift in the tags, like the simple thing someone can get you if they don’t know what to get you that you will always be excited about
You know, I find it really frustrating how much overlap there is between “trying to inform newbies how tumblr works on a cultural and technical level” and “just plain trying to guilt people for reblogs” like
On the one hand I feel it is very very valuable for newbies to know that
Likes have negligible at best impact on a post’s visibility, UNLIKE on Twitter/Instagram/TikTok - if you’re expecting a popularity algorithm like that here, you won’t find it; nobody uses the very rudimentary (and we would like them to stay rudimentary) algorithmic discovery features here unless they’re SUPER bored; the sole purpose of a like is just a feeling of acknowledgment for the OP and whoever reblogged the post if applicable and maybe a bookmark for your own sake, and
It is not remotely weird to reblog things with nothing to add, UNLIKE Instagram/TikTok where you’re only supposed to post things you made or contributed to or that are MADE to be spread as memes; a tumblr blog is often treated like a scrapbook and in fact it’s rarer to find blogs that are more than 10% original posts than it is to find just random reblog accounts, this is good and fine because reblogs inherently carry attribution
Because there are people who genuinely don’t know this because of how social media platforms keep homogenizing and the overwhelming majority of them will have a way better time here knowing that - and, yes, it is a bit demoralizing to see how relatively dead it becomes when a significant number of people operate under those expectations - which I’ve seen some people doubt happens, but compare the likes to reblogs ratio of a popular post from 2013 to a popular post made since 2020, and it becomes pretty apparent that culturally people have become more generous with likes and/or stingy with reblogs for SOME reason or another and it’s pretty easy to assume that the continuing homogenization of social media and turning likes into a “soft share” on most other platforms is at least a FACTOR.
But that…that doesn’t mean people owe you reblogs. People are gonna put what they want to put on their blogs, and they’re going to scroll on past things that they may like, may enjoy engaging with, but that just doesn’t Resonate with them the Right Way. That is the way things have always been and is the way they should be.
It’s gotten even worse since polls rolled out with people complaining about people voting without reblogging, as if every single vote WOULD have been a reblog Back In The Day (I guarantee you it wouldn’t have). You probably don’t share every single poll you take online with your friends. Why do you expect others to?
I don’t want to go back to the c.2013 days of rampant guilt tripping, please, let’s…let’s not.
But also, let’s make sure - for all our sakes - that people know how this site works, and how it doesn’t.
“Sorry for posting so much of x” baby you are on the posting so much website. We signed up for this. Spam me with your blorbo pictures I love them, genuinely. I love what you love. Its OUR special interest now. ♥️
Jesse Pinkman is so adorable, man. I don’t know how Walter can yell at this little guy. I see why Kelsey jannings was losing her shit everytime Todd was on screen 🥲
