#does anyone even need this tho idk what the general public's knowledge on tumblr ask blogging is

[askspiritfukase]

Updated: 11/29/2022 (new info in asterisks)

So I heard there might be more new users on Tumblr. The Vocaloid ask blog community here has been sputtering for a while now, and I realized it might be intimidating to get involved. As an active participant in the ask blog community since 2013, I thought I could share some tips.

Disclaimer: I am basing this off of my personal experience in the VOCALOID ask blog community. I don’t know how other ask blog communities are faring or what their conventions are.

THE BASICS

What is an ask blog?

In this context, it’s a blog where you roleplay a character and respond to people’s questions. Tumblr’s ask and submission boxes make this very simple. While an ask blog can technically be text only, I really recommend you get creative and make your own image responses. Most people draw, but some people back in the day used to use MMD. 

What is a muse?

I don’t know if this term is still used outside of the Tumblr ask and RP communities, but this basically refers to the character(s) you roleplay. Many mods feel personally connected to their muses and may even feel that their muses have a mind of their own. Don’t worry about it too much, but if you come across ask memes for “mod and muse,” they’re just referring to you and your character. Incidentally, “mun” also means “mod” so you’ll see posts using that sometimes too.

HOW TO START AN ASK BLOG

Choose a character!

If this is your first tumblr ask blog, I highly recommend starting with one or two characters you really enjoy drawing. Starting off with too many can become overwhelming. If you want to expand your character and world focus, you can always do that later!

Your character does not have to be fully fleshed out, but giving them some background and personality is definitely a good start! If you need inspiration, look up voca synth modules and songs! You can even use an original character that’s been featured in a voca synth original.

Ex: Ask25jiMiku, AskMeltdownRin, AskReincarnationApple, AskSynthVShian (all these blogs don’t exist as of writing this post)

Choose a name!

You can get creative, but I suggest choosing names that make your character easy to identify, especially if you’re using an original character featured in a Vocaloid song. I also recommend adding “Ask” somewhere in there so people know at a glance that you’re an ask blog.

Sideblog or main blog?

I highly, HIGHLY recommend you create a new main blog for your ask blog unless you don’t plan on updating often. You’re more likely to gain attention while using a main blog since you can follow back other ask blogs and send asks. Sideblogs cannot send asks at this time.

Figure out your blogging style

Many voca synth ask blogs I’ve seen fall roughly into one of two categories: Plot-focused and ask-focused.

Plot-focused blogs: These blogs take a more active role in providing information to audiences. They may even act like an interactive webcomic. Some blogs follow the course of a main storyline, while others may have only a series of smaller storylines and arcs within the blog. They can focus on a select number of characters and launch themselves into their own events. The mod may have clear endings in mind for these events, but audiences can influence what information is revealed by sending asks, such as the character’s thoughts. Overall, while asks are important to this blog, major events may occur even without much of their influence.

Ex: vocalads

Ask-focused blogs: These blogs take on a more passive role in providing information to askers. They may not have preset storylines that the characters will take, although they might have developed backgrounds. Without asks, these blogs might not reveal much information and may not update at all. Events can still occur, but they’re often triggered by asks(ex: magic anons) or through interactions with other ask blogs rather than started on their own. These blogs feel less streamlined and tend to go more with the flow of asks and interactions.

Ex: My ask blog, and 85% of voca synth ask blogs I’ve seen fall into this category. It’s the most common type by far.

Of course, you do not have to adhere strictly to one or the other, and there have been those that were a mix of both. You could even come up with something totally new that I haven’t thought of! But if you need a starting point, decide how you want to reveal information to your askers.

Lay down some rules

Do you have limits? Do you not want to be bombarded with asks about a specific topic? Make a page or post detailing these rules!

*Announce your ask box is open!

The final step is to let people know you’re open! You can make a simple post with an image of your character and an “ask box open!” message. Others can reblog your post and spread the word. If you have more energy, you can get more creative with your “ask box open” post, like making it into a short comic or something. 

Ex: askvfurawa’s, My blog’s 

HOW DO I GET ASKS?

Is your ask box open?

Seriously, it’s a common mistake so check your blog settings. And make sure your anons are on since people can be shy! If you feel safer with them off though, that’s okay too.

Provide some information

An “ask box open” post is a great way to get the word out there that you’re open for business, but it might be difficult for people to send you asks without more information. Make a quick profile for your character! Fill in some basic information about their likes and dislikes, what they do, etc. For mobile users, utilizing the pinned post feature is perfect for this.

Think about how your characters live their lives

When you answer asks, it’s also important to think about what your character might be doing as they answer their asks, as well as providing some extra information that could pique interest.

Are they cooking as they’re answering the ask? Are they in the park? Did the ask remind them of something they saw last week? Providing simple answers can be okay, but it may be hard to pique the interests of askers if that’s the majority of your responses. If you’re providing simple answers because you feel pressured to answer asks as soon as they’re sent—don’t! Well-thought-out responses are always better than a bunch of rushed ones!

Reblog ask memes!

Ask games exist on various social media, but you can find many on Tumblr tailored to ask and RP blogs! You can also reblog “M!A lists.” A “M!A” refers to a “magic anon” which is a special anon that is sent to change the conditions of a blog for a certain duration of time. For instance, an anon can send in “M!A: Character is turned into a mermaid for 3 days.” M!As are not mandatory to accept, and you can alter the duration if you feel you cannot handle it. You can also make your own ask memes or M!A lists. If you don’t accept M!As, be sure to list that in your rules or blog description.

As a bonus, ask memes can help spark character interactions or interactions between mods!

Ex: M!A List, Muse ask meme, Another Muse Ask Meme

Send in asks yourself

The asks you send to other blogs don’t necessarily have to be in-character but if you want to start interactions, sending in-character asks are a great way to do that. Additionally, if you send asks to others, they might return the favor. *In a similar vein, if you follow other ask blogs, there’s a good chance they might follow back. If they don’t, they might just need to get to know you better by seeing you around the community and stuff first!

Vocaloid Community events

Octoberloid is the main Vocaloid ask blog event still running, but there’s Vocatines and a few other stray events here and there! The host of the event will usually make a main post detailing what will be occurring, the venue and timeline, and what to tag your posts if you’re participating. These events can be a great way to have your characters interact with others! Feel free to start your own event as well or revive any old events!

Ex: Octoberloid, Vocatines, Vocasummer

Keep things in character

It’s generally recommended not to use your ask blog as a personal blog. The occasional OOC post is okay, but reblogging loads of OOC art and text posts that don’t relate to your character is discouraged. This is particularly true if you don’t tag your posts properly with “OOC.” There used to be weekly events on ask and RP blogs called “Munday” where you could ask the mods questions. This probably still exists in other communities but it’s pretty dead on the Vocaloid side of things. There are even ask memes centered around Munday! If you really wanna talk and show things about yourself, how about reviving Munday here?

Ex: Munday ask meme

Tag wisely

I don’t know if this is still true, but back in the day, only the first 5 things you tag would actually show up in the tag search. Everything else was for your own archiving purposes. I still think this is a good rule of thumb. Tags I recommend using are #ask, #vocaloid, #vocaloid ask blog, and the name of your character. I also tend to tag the asker out of habit so people can search their own name.

However, if you’re producing a large quantity of posts in a short amount of time because you’re making low-effort sketches or making a lot of text posts, I recommend reducing how many tags you use so you don’t spam the tag search.

I HIGHLY recommend you tag all your asks with something. Tumblr has a chronological order feature but as far as I know, it only works with tags. For example, I tag all my asks with “new ask.” If you want to see all my asks in chronological order, you can type in “askspiritfukase.tumblr.com/tagged/new ask/chrono” and BAM! For mobile users, you can add this to your pinned.

And of course, you can add your own thoughts as mod in the tags if you want. I’d encourage this compared to writing your thoughts in the captions, but that’s just a personal preference. Do what you feel is fun!

TIPS & TRICKS

*Don’t make too many ask blogs!

*No matter how much you like the characters, making too many ask blogs might be spreading yourself thin and it’ll be hard to keep track of. While I think you should do whatever’s fun, it might not be good to accidentally overwhelm yourself either. From experience, it doesn’t feel good to open another, brand new ask blog only to abandon it within a few weeks. So just a word of caution!

Trim your posts!!

If you at least occasionally use Tumblr on desktop, download xKit and the addon “editable reblogs.” It works best if you use the text post feature to post your ask and art responses. Basically, it enables you to trim your responses in interactions which is important in sparing everyone’s dashboard from novel-length posts. If your ask response is gonna be particularly long, use a read more!!

Stay within fandoms

This might be more etiquette than anything but generally, ask blogs stay within their own fandoms but it isn’t a hard rule. *I mostly bring it up in case you try following ask blogs from other fandoms but they don’t follow back or want to interact. Some blogs are completely chill with it! OCs are a bit of a gray area so I can’t speak much for them. 

Communicate behind the scenes!

If you’re interacting with another blog, you should communicate behind the scenes if you want a successful interaction. In my experience, interactions without mod communication tend to die quickly.

Join the community with some friends!

A lot of the fun in ask blogging is in making connections and having your muses interact with your friends’ muses.

Reblog the end of interactions

Let’s say you and another blog are interacting and the interaction has ended on their side. Even if you have nothing left to add to the interaction, I recommend still reblogging their post so that readers of your blog will be able to have context since your audience may not follow your partner’s blog. This is something I used to not do and I have since regretted it.

Try to have legible text

I’m guilty of having spent years using chicken scratch but in all fairness, my main art program didn’t have a textbox feature. If your handwriting is naturally neat, then perfect! If not, and your art program has text features, use them! Just make sure your font is easy to read.

Don’t worry about consistency!

Ask blogging should be a hobby that encourages you to experiment without pressure. You can make your art as consistent as possible, try a different thing with every ask, or even just use uncolored lines. I’ve found that what’s most important is the thought put into the response.

Because this is a hobby, don’t worry about being inactive!! I’ve gone months without updating. It’s normal!! This should be a low-stress fun activity, and there’s no shame in having breaks :)