didntusetowantthis - Tumblr blog

[didntusetowantthis]

i think what most people fail to understand is that curating your online experience doesn't just mean blocking and filtering the things you don't like or don't want to see but that it also (and maybe more importantly) means engaging with the things you do like and want to see. if someone creates something that makes your experience better, let them know! tell them! reblog their things! you get to see/share more of what you like and they get to know that someone out there appreciates their work it's a win-win situation for everyone involved

[didntusetowantthis]

yeah so I have three blogs now. I wasn’t gonna be here but as I explained on one of the other blogs, I’m starting to get why people do this. the stuff I don’t like about social media will always be the stuff I don’t like, but I like art, and there’s a lot of cool art here. and it’s really nice to be able to comment on people’s art and tell them I like it. I’ve been commenting on other blogs’ art (the #makeaterriblecomicday2024 tag has, legitimately, some of the funniest and most interestingly introspective stuff I’ve read in ages), and it makes my day to be able to just interact with people over stuff I thought was cool. I dunno.

Anyway, still figuring out what to do with all them. I consider this my “main” blog, because this is my “name,” so to speak, but the other two? I dunno. I think the one I made for discussing my experience on social media might be for, like, poetry or something, the spam blog will be for le spam and fandom stuff, and this one will be for my own art and musings and whatever. Or I’ll completely ignore all that and do something else, assuming I stick around in the “actually posting and interacting, not just submitting asks to FF authors about their works” space. Who knows!

[didntusetowantthis]

I get one reason why people use social media now, i think

[didntusetowantthis]

things I am learning By Doing (the power of Home Depot)

1.) spam blog is ok. I shall use the spam blog. The spam blog is my friend.

2.) there are LOTS of helpful guides on image IDs; I’ve reblogged a few on my spam blog (@toengageistobuild).

3.) I still have no idea what the dash is???

4.) making posts, leaving comments, etc. is HELLA intimidating, especially on other people’s stuff, because people other than the poster can see it!! Directly!! ESPECIALLY if they’re a small blog!

5.) people actually have discussions. Like, it’s not only people making quips and responding to quips with the occasional essay (though that’s still common), it’s also people giving their takes in their tags and then other people responding in kind when they want to, and people not being afraid to make a hella long response to something. It’s neat and already my favorite thing about this place

6.) on the flipside, it feels kinda pressurizing to reblog stuff and actually say something that isn’t in the tags, because that’s using your Outside Voice, and like… the difference between turning to your friend and chatting in the corner of a party vs finding the main group (of people you don’t even know anyway, and only have work— fandom or aesthetic or whatever— in common and joining in on their conversation unprompted). I think. This is only my impression

7.) what defines a mutual???

also, I don’t know how to link posts, how to know what stuff goes under a ReadMore, or the answers to most of my questions in my original post, but I guess check out my first post if you know stuff about social media (including extremely basic stuff. Literally my first time Using a social media, see that post). wishing whoever reads this a good day

[didntusetowantthis]

it’s been AGES since i’ve done one of these so: writeblr! what are we working on?

reblog this with your elevator pitch (and aesthetics/moodboards if you feel like it), link your WIP intros or relevant excerpts you’d like boosted, and i’ll do my damnedest to reblog everybody who responds in the next few days.

(P.S. bonus points if you tell me your favourite thing about it)

[didntusetowantthis]

I am new and need help

Hello! This is my first time having an actual social media account, and my first time consuming/creating social media as an actual account-having user. I have never posted anything, on any account, before, and have consumed social media on a limited basis. Before this, I only had Pinterest (which I don’t count as a social media because it’s difficult to do anything social on it; you just sort photos into categories. It took me years to realize that you could even follow people, let alone check comments) and YouTube (which is a social media, but in a very different sense than most social media). In general, I’ve only really interacted with whatever social media would let me view enough of its content without an account/app that it wouldn’t be annoying, and also wasn’t entirely dominated by short-form content; this meant I was mostly on Reddit before I decided I wanted an actual account somewhere. I like the tumblr interface the best (and the ability to make a blog/write essays for fun, as well as the apparent culture around appreciating art), so I chose tumblr.  

I’ve consumed a lot of tumblr posts via Pinterest screenshots/reddit screenshots, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with some terminology/culture/the way grammar works here (internet grammar is crazy interesting in general, and the language developed here is particularly interesting!); I’ve also looked at individual blogs and submitted asks without an account, as some peeps listed their tumblrs in their ao3s. 

With all this in mind, I have some questions! I doubt these will be my only questions, but I do want to ask:

1.) Pinterest and Reddit obviously only shows “best of” screenshots— what is something I should know (cultural) about this site that doesn’t show up in screenshots? 

2.) What is the difference between reblogging and reposting? How can I do one but not the other? Why is one (reblogging) often okay, but not the other (reposting)?

3.) Am I culturally (tumblr-wise) obligated to reblog social issues/current events? I very much do care about all of it, but that’s precisely why I’m on social media: to take a breather from it. I really am here just to talk about cool fanfics I like, share and look at cool art, and hopefully post some of my own art/fic someday. 

4.) Posts spread in a linked-list fashion, right? So only stuff I have the pointers for (tags/following people) will point me toward to certain posts, and will thus exclude me from the rest of tumblr, right? As in, the only way to see all of tumblr is to follow every tag? (To be clear, I very much DON’T want to do this— I’m just curious)

5.) What is the “dash?” People keep talking about curating their dashes, but I don’t know whether that means their blogs or the tab showing posts by the people they follow.

6.) I’m currently only liking things I really like to organize them, but everyone says I should reblog. This is understandable, given the linked-list (as I currently understand it) nature of the platform, but what should I do if I don’t want my blogs to become endless spam of stuff I thought was cool? I have made two blogs, and I’d like at least one of them to have stuff I’ve curated/eventually stuff I’ve created, or to follow a specific theme, with the occasional exception, and I’m afraid if I put all the stuff I like into it, it will both A.) spam other people, and B.) make it hard for people to find stuff I really want them to see if they drop by, like my own art or my own posts. But I also want to share in the social etiquette of this site (spreading cool stuff I like so other can see it!). Should have a “cool things I like” spam blog? Or is there another option I’m missing?

7.) I’ve saved (liked) a few posts so far, and something that comes up often (probably based on the blogs I follow?) are posts with image descriptions. I really like the concept of image descriptions— I’m not even disabled by sight, but they’ve been helpful in identifying people/places/things in cool art that I otherwise don’t know the names of. I also know a lot of disabled people in real life who have their access limited due to poor infrastructure (whether it be societal or physical), and i know what it’s like to be left our of things, so this seems like a nice thing to do for people when I have the energy. Is there a way to check if an image has already been described before you reblog it with a description? Is there a guidebook?

8.) Where in the world are other peoples’ reblogs? If I click on the reblog button, it only shows an option for me to reblog. Can you only see reblogs by following other people’s blogs?

9.) Is it impossible to delete a post once other people have reblogged it?

10.) Is there a way to get around AI with art stuff if you can’t afford a program to obscufate it? If I ever get the nerves to post my stuff here, I don’t want it to be used in AI training without my explicit consent. 

11.) is there a size/length limit for videos/photos/word counts for text posts? 

12.) Can you disable/limit dms/message ability of people you don’t know, or at least don’t follow you? Also, what’s the culture surrounding them? It seems terribly personal to message someone one-on-one, but the button is listed on a lot of people’s pages— not even hidden in a sub-menu. On Reddit, people seemed to weaponize this feature a lot, and I’m thus wary of it by nature.

13.) what is a “note?” I thought notes were comments, but I think I’m wrong.

(FYI, I’m using the website on mobile, and don’t want to get the app)

If there’s any helpful “new user guides” (other than the one I’ve already reblogged), please let me know! With that said, thanks to anyone who is willing to explain! 

[didntusetowantthis]

so i have a mildly popular “reblog and put in in the tags” post going around and its. very clear how many people don’t know how to interact with a tumblr post

so, first of all, tumblr’s culture has changed a lot in the past couple years. there’s a genuine community effort to not start any drama, and ironically a lot of the current hostility is an effort to keep things calm. there’s also a change in how people interact with posts, so if you haven’t been here in a while please skip down to the tags/replies/reblog with text section.

for newcomers: you should be reblogging posts about as liberally as you would like something on twitter. if you only like stuff, people will think you are rude/a bot. you’ve probably heard people talk about “cultivating your dash,” and thats because this platform is 100% centered around your dashboard. trending matters less, unfollowing and blocking in order to shape your dash into it’s best form is widely accepted, the majority of the content you’ll find and interact with will be because of your dash, and the only way to put things on your dash is to reblog them. tumblr users are deeply distrustful of algorithms and have largely turned off the “see posts your friends have liked” function (i recommend you also turn of the various algorithms in settings → general settings → dashboard preferences).

so, once you’ve reblogged a post, there’s three ways to add content to it. the tags, replies, and reblogging with text. all of them have different connotations

the tags: an inside voice. originally they were meant for organizing your blog (and they’re still used for this), but they’ve also morphed into a way to share thoughts that aren’t funny/insightful enough for non-followers to be interested in. when in doubt, put your comment in the tags

replies: basically talking to your friends in class. your followers have no way of finding your replies (they don’t pop up on the dash, nobody gets notified except for the original poster) so chances are, only the person who made the post is gonna see your comment. it’s for quick one-offs that you’re okay with other people overhearing, but really is only made for one person. they’re like a public dm

reblog with text: an outside voice. you’re getting up on a stage in town square and entertaining people. make sure it’s funny or insightful— bottom line, add something new to the conversation. you should use this the least

general rules of thumb: 

when in doubt, reblog. people will judge you if your blog is only personal posts and you only interact with other content by liking it.  

the only things people will judge you for reblogging are personal vent posts. leave a like to give a little virtual hug

if a post is asking about your personality/opinions (i.e: tell me what’s the last tv show you watched, that kind of thing) put it in the tags 

also if you see a nice edit, gifset, or art, reblog and say something nice in the tags! it’s that nice sweet spot of common enough that no one will notice but uncommon enough to make the artist’s day