Question about Tumbler

[ember86]

So I'm thinking of making a Tumbler account, but I'm a little nervous about socal media websites. So does anyone on here have a Tumbler account and can you tell me about your experience with Tumbler? Thanks.

[True]

I have one, I actually prefer it. Iv always had a hard time seeing it as social media though, to me it seems more like, live journal, blogspot, type thing? But that's just me.

I post my art and follow blogs that post anime, random funny things, animals, etc. So my dash is pretty silly looking.

One thing I like, is there's NO personal information required? I mean if you wanna post it sure, but that's your choice. Your page can be whatever you want it to be, A journal, an art gallery, a store, whatever.

[LadyMoondancer]

I'm on Tumblr!  I really enjoy it.  I have several Tumblr accounts, including one just for pony stuff. 

In basic terms, you follow a blog and then whatever is posted there shows up on your "dashboard".  In addition, you can also search for things like "My Little Pony" and find content from blogs you don't follow.

One of the great features of Tumblr is the tagging system.  For example, if I am posting a picture of Posey, I tag it as "My Little Pony", "G1", and "Posey".  That means anyone searching for "Posey" will find the picture.  It also makes it possible to search a specific blog for ALL posts tagged with "Posey".

I also downloaded "Tumblr Savior".  Tumblr Savior allows you to "blacklist" tags.  Don't want to see "not safe for work" content?  Block the "nsfw" tag.  Don't want to see spoilers?  Block the "spoilers" tag.  I am a big Steven Universe fan but I hate spoilers--so I usually block the "Steven Universe" tag just before a new episode comes out, so I don't accidentally see upcoming content. 

[ember86]

Thanks I wasn't sure if it was like Facebook which I really, really didn't like.

[Lore-Lei]

I have a tumblr, and to be honest, I have no idea what to use it for other than just generally speaking my mind when I absolutely need to.

It's less of a social media site and more of a blog thing. You can look for other people and follow them, and their stuff will them start appearing on your front page. My biggest drawback with this site it's that is a completely unorganized mess. If you start following one people who is prone to reblog all kinds or memes, generators, and other kind of things extremely often, I can guarantee those are going to dominate your front page 99% of the time.

It adds fuel to the fire that you can't have a normal talk via posts. No, you instead need to reblog it, and then wait for them to reblog it so you can reblog it again, meaning that if you have a hearthy conversation with someone, both of your blogs will be covered up by the same post over and over and over and over again.

The things LadyMoondancer already mentioned, and that you can visit specific blogs from your watch list dampens the hits a bit, but I still don't think it's a site you could devote yourself to as a main social platform.

[Taxel]

I'm going to be honest with you. Tumblr is really not a site I'd ever recommend joining. There are good people and communities here and there, but its very very popular to send death threats, tell people to kill themselves, dox people (post their information in an attempt to get them harassed, hurt, fired, ruin their career/business, etc - basically to destroy their lives), and all your general mean insulting behavior. Tumblr Staff don't care. They rarely ban people who are doing these things and its really terrible. If you prefer heavily moderated, nice, happy places (like the Arena), Tumblr is not for you.

If you make sure to never post your opinion on things (especially politics, religion, feminism, etc) you probably won't be harassed. I mean, you could still be for some other reason but the attacks are usually over a difference of opinions. Even if you're liberal and progressive your views may not line up with the popular thought there, which can end in bullying and harassment. Another way to help cut down a lot of harassment is to keep anonymous asks disabled. Most people are too scared to say anything off anon.

And if you start off in a certain "community", only blogging about a certain game or toy, people might get upset at you if you start posting other things. I don't tolerate that and used to have a disclaimer that I wasn't going to make a blog for every hobby and it was fine. But if your goal is followers, you'll have to cater to them of course. My blog is just like... a record keeping place for me to store stuff so I don't care about that.

I've had an account for a couple years and purposely stay under the radar. No opinions on anything, no posts with popular tags on them, etc. I just do my own thing. I have submissions (where people can send links and photos are stuff, generally to post onto your blog but some use it to communicate) and anonymous asks turned off. I use Tumblr Savior to block any tags I don't want to see and unfollow people who post a lot of them. I've never had any issues with drama or harassment because I do all I can to avoid it, but I've seen a LOT of people get attacked and torn to shreds over literally nothing. Its insane.

Oh though I will also mention, what Lore-lei said about conversations isn't entirely true anymore. They recently added what's basically an IM feature. I use it to keep in touch with a handful of friends and I like it quite a lot. Its buggy and doesn't always work (which describes all of Tumblr honestly) but its a great thing for me since I can't use Skype anymore.

[dragonfly]

I have one. I'm not super active on it. I mostly just post photos of my dog. I think you have to actually like ... interact with other users for it to be much fun.

[Bekuno]

It can be a mixed bag. It's pretty much the only social media site I use but it is full of negativity and harassment.

Even the pony side of things isn't safe. There's a lot of extreme-SJWs and radical feminists that harass people (especially bronies, no matter the type) and I always end up unfollowing them because they're really rude and complain so much and are generally just negative people.

Try to keep things as positive as possible (on your Dashboard). Don't be afraid to turn anonymous messaging off. Don't be afraid to turn off messaging altogether. Don't be afraid to block people or blacklist tags. Remember that your blog is your own and no one else is entitled to it.

You have Safe Search so you can keep NSFW things off of your dash. I also recommend installing the add-on New X-Kit to enhance your experience and make things easier. It includes a blacklist just like Tumblr Savior but I think Tumblr Saviors blacklist might work better.

But the site is full of anything you can imagine. Art, fandoms (no matter how obscure), lifestyle, hipster, recipes, music, funny videos, etc.

I've been on the site for almost 5 years now and I say and post a lot of controversial things and I've only gotten hate maybe a handful of times and I shut them up right quick. If you're big enough to ignore it do that, if not turn off anon and block them.

You can have multiple blog as well. Only one of them is your "main" and the first blog you make will be that main and you cannot change it. Your main blog is what people with see if you send them messages, reblog, or like things. You can have as many side blogs as you like. In my sig you can find two of mine but I actually have five sideblogs.

If you want a side blog that's password protected so you can post sensitive material that you dont trust others to see you can do that. If you want a side blog that you and others friend can also post on you can do that.

Just try to find what works for you and if the site isn't your thing I'm sure there's something else out there.

[otocolobus_manul]

Unfortunately, tumblr has gained internet notoriety for its self-entitled people who think they know everything about everything, and see nothing wrong with harassing and suicide baiting and just generally being extremely unpleasant to others. While obviously not everyone on the site is like that, it can be significant enough to dampen your experience. Like others have said, the block and tumblr savior features help keep negativity away.

While it is a good place to keep one's obscure interests organized, with every update the website arguably gets less and less functional (I don't even know how to navigate my dash and settings anymore, lol). There's also a lot of spambots who clog up popular tags with gross pictures and links, and send viruses via asks and mail. Be wary what you click and who you follow, though I guess that could be said for any part of the Internet.

Though there are many good aspects of tumblr. Don't let me scare you, lol. If you want to try it, I'd suggest joining. After all, you can always deactivate your blog if you're unhappy.

[Taxel]

I've been on the site for almost 5 years now and I say and post a lot of controversial things and I've only gotten hate maybe a handful of times and I shut them up right quick. If you're big enough to ignore it do that, if not turn off anon and block them.

Yeah, it can be kind of random who receives the hate. It depends a lot on what "communities" (if any) you take part in, who follows you, who you follow, who reblogs your Tumblr-controversial stuff, etc. There's a lot of factors. With the community I started one of my blogs for, a LOT of people are the very entitled and nasty Tumblr variety. They play nice in public but once someone steps out of the lines they drew, that person is viciously attacked and ganged up on by the entire community. The person in question will be hated and ostracized for years, even if they entirely leave the community or change their opinion or anything like that. Its ridiculous, and its really not worth risking it. But if you take part in other, or no communities, you might be fine and only deal with a couple trolls.

I swear sometimes the hate is entirely random too.

[Lore-Lei]

Oh though I will also mention, what Lore-lei said about conversations isn't entirely true anymore. They recently added what's basically an IM feature. I use it to keep in touch with a handful of friends and I like it quite a lot. Its buggy and doesn't always work (which describes all of Tumblr honestly) but its a great thing for me since I can't use Skype anymore.

Really, I haven't seen that one yet. I've only seen this speech bubble thing I call 'say' function which allows you to actually comment without reblogging, but it only appears rarely and inconsistently.

[Taxel]

Oh though I will also mention, what Lore-lei said about conversations isn't entirely true anymore. They recently added what's basically an IM feature. I use it to keep in touch with a handful of friends and I like it quite a lot. Its buggy and doesn't always work (which describes all of Tumblr honestly) but its a great thing for me since I can't use Skype anymore.

Really, I haven't seen that one yet. I've only seen this speech bubble thing I call 'say' function which allows you to actually comment without reblogging, but it only appears rarely and inconsistently.

Yeah, the implemented it really weird. Random people got it and you could "infect" other people to allow them to have it too or something? I thought the whole thing was dumb so I ignored it. People stopped doing that a while ago so I think it rolled out to everyone? But I'm not really sure. You access it from the speech bubble with a smiley face at the top of the screen, by your dashboard and inbox buttons.

I think Say is something the owner of the blog has to choose to enable? And there are requirements sometimes? I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with it since I rarely use it.

[ember86]

Thanks for telling me all this, it's a lot to think about.

[StarZetRaven]

I like tumblr I have three main ones, and one of them is a pony blog. I keep away from the drama so I'm doing just fine.

[Lore-Lei]

Yeah, the implemented it really weird. Random people got it and you could "infect" other people to allow them to have it too or something? I thought the whole thing was dumb so I ignored it. People stopped doing that a while ago so I think it rolled out to everyone? But I'm not really sure. You access it from the speech bubble with a smiley face at the top of the screen, by your dashboard and inbox buttons.

Oh, I see it. Thanks. Not sure if I'll ever use it though.

I think Say is something the owner of the blog has to choose to enable? And there are requirements sometimes? I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with it since I rarely use it.

Yeah, took me some time but it is, it's something the blog owner enables.