#but uh dkfjh yea i was just kinda excited to see that polls are a kind of post that tumblr gives the old “spread far and wide” treatment!

[nyoomerr]

my guess would be that polls... seem less risky? like, it's automatically anonymous, it's less commitment (it's right there for you to click! you don't have to go looking for the ask button, put it on anon, then think about what to say - and since you're not saying anything, you don't risk saying something silly or offensive) and clearly you're not being a bother to OP, because they're definitely looking for interaction (well, at least that's why -i- often back out of sending asks...)

that's fair, and i certainly can see that for asks - the culture shift on tumblr definitely goes both ways with users not expecting to receive asks much anymore, too. (though, for the record, my ask box is always open, i really do like this style of engagement tumblr has, it's fun!)

but tbh i was talking way more about the other more traditional engagement aspects, not the actual action of voting in the poll:

that poll post currently has more reblogs than likes, which is awesome!! tumblr literally lives and dies by people reblogging stuff so it can show up on other people's dashboards. but the past couple years have seen a really steep decline in people reblogging things in general. in old tumblr culture, the ratio of likes to reblogs was generally 1:1 - you liked it and then you reblogged it so other people could see and like it. these days, since people are so used to other social media apps where liking something is "enough" for it to show up in an algorithm for someone else, the ratio has shifted so there are generally many more likes than reblogs on something :<

i do think there might also be an argument to make something of the lines of "i think a lot more people are looking for a lot more interaction on posts than people assume, especially artists and writers and editors and any other sort of person who puts time and effort into the things they post online," but that's probs a bit off topic... ヾ(•ω•`)o

anyway tldr i was just surprised to see that the poll was engaged with in ways old tumblr culture used to be in terms of the number and types (larger number of people leaving notes in the tags) of reblogs n stuff!