#anon does not make you invulnerable to being accountable for your words

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

Common Tumblr Myths

I’m seeing some information go around rn that’s true in spirit, but not entirely correct and I want to make a few little reminders

“Likes don’t do anything, they’re just so you can find things again later in your liked posts.” This one is usually fired off as part of encouraging people to reblog instead of/in addition to liking things. It’s a good thing to encourage, because reblogs are the most EFFECTIVE way to show support and share posts, but they’re not the ONLY way. Likes do things!! They help posts be more visible outside of people’s dashes in search results, the “for you” page, and things like “in your orbit” and “based on your likes” (assuming you have those enabled- you can turn them off in settings).

“Tumblr doesn’t have an algorithm.” Also usually seen as part of the reblog-not-like posts. Tumblr does have an algorithm- it’s just not forced on you like it is everywhere else. Your dash (the main screen when you open the app or website) is curated on follows and reblogs, but the “for you” page, search results, and anything that shows up on your dash because of tags you follow and your/your friends’ activity, that’s tumblr’s algorithm! You can avoid it completely if you want, and sometimes it does some Weird Shit, but if you’re new here and struggling to find blogs to follow, browse some tags, reblog and like a ton of things, and then check out the for you page. It’s actually a pretty good way to find new people!

“It’s rude to block/unfollow people.” Full honesty, this is maybe not a universal opinion, but on a website where your experience is almost entirely defined by who and what you follow, you need to block and unfollow people. Sometimes your interest changes and you don’t want a fandom cluttering up your dash. The “toxic side” of a fandom can be nothing but a myth to you if you block liberally. No one can know if you’ve blocked them unless they specifically go to your blog, and even then it looks the same as a loading error. The strength of tumblr is the ability to control your own experience, so take advantage!

“There’s no way to know who sent an anon ask.” That is um. Not true. There are ways to figure it out. I will not detail them here because you can Google that and I don’t want to hand people that power, but just. If you are going to be shitty to someone on anon, please keep in mind that people can figure out who you are fairly easily, even if most folks don’t know how or won’t go to the effort of doing it. Also, anon asks can be a really lovely thing, so why,, use them to be a dick

This isn’t a myth but it is related to that last bit: you can answer asks privately! If you get an ask and you want to respond but don’t want it on your blog, answer it privately so only you and the asker can see it. It’s a good way to handle asks that are maliciously targeting someone or potentially trying to start drama. Highly recommend. Don’t be a cyberbully’s platform.

That’s all I’ve got right now (whoops got a bit off topic) but if I see more going around I might reblog this with some more for the new folks. Also! Hi new folks, glad you’re here :)