Quick Guide to Tumblr for Outside Readers
While I love Tumblr and think it’s the best blogging platform I’ve ever used, I’m sometimes concerned about its readability to my friends who navigate here from my Facebook page or a link I send them.
So, to explain: Tumblr is a community. Similar to Twitter, you can “follow” people whom you find interesting and their entries will appear on your homepage or “dashboard.” In the upper righthand corner of each post that appears on your dashboard are two buttons — one in the shape of a heart, which you can click to indicate you “like” that post, and one that says “reblog,” which allows you to post that entry to your blog, while giving credit to the original blogger.
To give an example, here’s a screenshot of my dashboard: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/ProjectMayhem112/tumblr.jpg
The top bar shows all of my blogging options — Tumblr has a lot of pre-formatted blog post “types.” I can blog with just text (but can imbed images, too); a photo with caption (and captions can be blog-length if you want), a quote (auto-formatted so that they appear in big bold letters), a link, a chat, audio or video. Below that, you can see some of the posts of the people I follow and that I “liked” that quote from Cormac McCarthy from booklove.
Reblog Wha?
Reblogging can be a bit hard to explain, but the post just below this one is recent example of a reblog. The screennames of those Tumblr-ers who I reblogged the post from are hyperlinked (clickable and in blue, for the uninitiated) and their comments are kept separate from my additions by the vertical lines. Reblogging is a huge thing in Tumblr-land — you can add a comment, as I did in the last post, or you can just leave the post as is. It’s a way of sharing something you found on your dashboard that was interesting or fun or worthwhile and it’s part of what makes Tumblr unique (and very low pressure in terms of producing content). No one on Tumblr blogs in a vacuum; instead, we are each responding to an entire community of users. So when you see those various screennames and lines, it means I saw a post on my dash and wanted to be part of that conversation. It’s difficult for non-Tumblr users who visit Tumblr blogs because it feels like inside baseball (and it is) but I hope this helps a bit.
What is this Tumblarity Nonsense and Why Are You Such a Huge Baby About It?
Occasionally, I’ve made just a few glancing references to my “tumblarity.” Tumblarity is exactly what it sounds like: popularity on Tumblr. Sort of. There’s some special sauce algorithm based on your number of likes, reblogs and followers and, of course, how often you post.Don’t post for two weeks? Watch your tumblarity drop. Post a lot? Post a lot of quality content that people enjoy and reblog? Your tumblarity can skyrocket. However, tumblarity occasionally gets very erratic, dropping me (and many others) by 100+ points only to return those points a few days later, all while my Tumblr activity level stays the same. This leads me to suspect that perhaps the good people at Tumblr have not quite perfected their algorithm. Typically it’s not something that would ever draw my attention, but when you go from 487pts to 316 and then back up to 450, all with consistent activity, you start to get a little suspicious. But overall, tumblarity is mostly meaningless, it doesn’t get you anything. But…
There is Actually One Way in Which Tumblarity Matters
Tumblr has recently implemented a Tumblr user directory. There are certain keywords or “tags” with which people can label their blogs (you’re allowed to use three — mine are, unsurprisingly, “books,” “media” and “new york”). Each tag has its own directory and each directory ranks users according to their tumblarity. So, the higher your tumblarity, the easier it is for people who are looking for blogs with your tags (a book-nerd like myself regularly peruses the “books” directory for new cool people to follow) to find you.
I Can’t Even Comment to Express My Adoration For/Loathing Of/Sheer Indifference Toward You
Because so many conversations between Tumblr users take place over reblogs (e.g., someone posts something, another user responds to it by reblogging and adding her comments, original person (or others) reblogs that and responds, etc.), the lack of a commenting system doesn’t really stop many people from using Tumblr. Plus, it takes nasty anonymous commenting completely out of the equation. While it strengthens the “community” feel of Tumblr, it, again, makes the whole system feel so inside. Tumblr does, however, partner with a service (Disqus) that provides Tumblr-ers with a comment system that can be installed with HTML. I have not yet figured out how to do this but I hope to do so in the near future (EDIT: I have now installed Disqus, as you can see), because I know some of my friends who don’t have the time or the inclination to blog might still like to comment.
If You Do Have the Time or Inclination to Blog…
…Tumblr is awesome. I have never written so much in my life. Yes, I do more reblogs than I’d like but: I’ve been on Tumblr for three weeks and even if we measured just my original content, it’d be more than I’ve written for a blog in years. Every day I find things that are new, intelligent and engaging on my dashboard. Yes, if you follow the wrong Tumblr users, you might see approximately 6.5 million photos of Marilyn Monroe on your dashboard (or the same photo — really, she finished Ulysses?? — 6.5 million times) or a quote about your heart being a butterfly and you need to set it free and love is wonderful and other minutiae from The Wisdom of 9th Grade. But with discernment, it can be just as easy to find quality content to read and respond to. To put it forcefully: in the age of this-is-the-Internet-and-everything-I-consume-should-be-free, I’d pay for Tumblr. Really.
