#i can only post this on tumblr because no other site has the right format

[pmpknsoup]

[copperbadge]

Have we found a tumblr replacement yet? Apparently the latest “live” shenanigans were the thing that it took to break me. I’m not trying to stir shit, I’m just mostly here for you and a couple other blogs, so I’m going wherever you go.

I wish, but unfortunately not so far. I mean, I've talked a little about how I'd like to find one but there aren't really any viable ones right now, and there may not be a fandom mass-migration for years still. I'm more likely to follow the crowd than blaze a trail in this case, so it may be some time. For now my only real tactic is to simply not engage with staff or support at Tumblr in any way, and accept the changes as gradual steps towards the site's demise with as much serenity as I can muster.

I've already accidentally opened Tumblr Live twice while trying to navigate the app, which I'm sure is intentional, given I've now suddenly opened Tumblr Live twice since its inception instead of Zero. Relatedly, I would love to see them redirect that passion into making the "Mute Notifications" button actually work, but mine is not to reason why.

Anyway. There are options available, like obviously there are other social media platforms, but none have quite the combination of "easy to use" and "has a lot of people on it" and "Offers the same functionality" (photo and video hosting, an app, etc) even with an "ease of use" and "functionality" that are as crap as Tumblr's.

For example, Dreamwidth is great, but it's a Livejournal code fork so it's a very different format from Tumblr, more labor-intensive to make and share posts (no reblog function, image embedding can get a bit complicated, etc). CoHost is new and very promising but a bit of a ghost town right now -- I'm there and I've had a bunch of people find me there but still exponentially less than are on Tumblr. Pillowfort I still need to re-investigate; I'm there as well but it's been a while since I looked in, and I was struggling with the functionality previously. I had a look at Mastodon, but as positive as decentralized servers could be for the future of social media, I actively dislike the idea, and it also seems difficult to set up and complex to maintain. Discord is....there, and a lot of fandom stuff has shifted there, but its structure is very different and it's also decentralized, and also I hate it passionately and refuse to use it, so that's a no-go for me, though I suspect it's where fandom might end up.

If you're struggling with accessing tumblr directly, you might consider feeding the blogs you follow to an RSS reader -- I know people who do that and find it pretty functional, because then if they want to comment they can just pop open the specific post and deal with it directly. I don't know how much you know about RSS and I don't have the energy to fully explain it right now, but NetVibes is a pretty decent free RSS reader and it's what I use for certain blogs outside of Tumblr.

In any case, if I do find a place, or if I see the migration beginning, I'll sound the alarm :) In the meantime I'm still reading through my tumblr, stashing away posts to save off when I leave, even if that'll be a while.

[foone]

One of my few problems with adopting Tumblr as my social media outlet of choice is the way reblogging your own threads to comment on them means you get this slow explosion of longer and longer posts, and all previous versions still exist on your timeline.

This got long, so musings about the differences in how long-text posts work on different social medias and the trouble with writing them on ADHD continued under the cut.

So if you scroll down my Tumblr account after a bunch of writing, you see:

FOONE: A, B, C, D, E

FOONE: A, B, C, D

FOONE: A, B, C

FOONE: A, B

FOONE: A

And this is annoyingly repetitive especially as posts get long. Which is a definite risk, I can type SO FUCKING MUCH.

And you might say "this is easily fixed: posts don't have to be short (this isn't Twitter) so just put all the content in one post", which, no. I have ADHD. Coming back in the room to go "AND ANOTHER THING!" is my modus operandi, you know? I can't think of all the things I want to say and just say them in one place and go "OK DONE" and click a button and let the internet go read it now. I don't know what I am going to say until after I have said it, and especially not what I am going to say next.

And I worry that the way Tumblr compounds your threads in this additive explosion means that the threshold for "this is too much of this punk" is much lower than other social networks, and that's a real worry for someone who writes as much as I do. I am happy to write endlessly for my own entertainment but I don't want to be annoying, and having to repeatedly scroll past multiple copies of my endless threads is going to get old fast.

Also on the subject of "one long post vs many short ones in a thread", splitting a post and continuing in a reply post/reblog has a functional use: it's like a paragraph break, but moreso. So it's good for indicating a break in the thought, to shift focus, or to take a tangent. (and as someone with severe adhd, my brain is 90% tangents)

Anyway I'm thinking I might do something weird like build a private mastodon instance and then set it up to sync threads to Tumblr.

Like, collect a full thread of small posts, turn them into paragraphs, and post that to Tumblr as one big post. It will work better, I think.

Fundamentally the problem I am facing right now is that Twitter is the best site for how my brain works. Individual tweets in a thread are a close approximation for how I think, so writing a long series of tweets is easiest for me. In that format, I can write. I can be creative. I can express myself.

And don't get me wrong: I love Tumblr. This is easily one of my favorite places on the web. But the "big open white page with plenty of room to write" model is not a good fit for my brain. I look at that and I can't get started. If I can get started, I can't finish, because I get bogged down in going back and editing and rewording.

Short small snippets in a row, like IRC or Twitter, prevent those problems. I don't have to think about the whole thing I'm writing, because I don't have room to write that. I just focus on the current line, and once that's done, I move on to the next. Did I misspell something? Could that have been phrased better? Well, too bad. That line is done now, you can only move forward.

Yeah this may not result in a work of literary genius but it at least results in something. I am not a great writer, I'm never going to be a new york times best seller... But I'm not aiming that high. Writing like this, as a series of short snippets and not going back to fix and re-edit them? It's the only way I can write at all. (and if you have ADHD that gets in the way of your writing, I recommend trying it).

I'd rather write in this specific and limited style than not write at all. There's too many ideas in my head, I need to get them out.

Anyway the reason I'm thinking about this now is that this is why I've traditionally been a heavy Twitter user (though let the record show that I have been on Tumblr for longer!). It works for that style of writing, so I could flourish there.

But it's dying. Oh God, is it dying. And I'm having to think about what to do next. Where to "go".

And as an aside, it's always weird how we always phrase these things like migrations. Like people are backing up their bags from site A and getting on a train to site B.

Maybe it's just my ADHD talking, but that's never been how I've used the web. I am in many, many places simultaneously, and have been for a long time.

I'm active, to different degrees, on Tumblr and Twitter and reddit and discord and mastodon and cohost and Facebook and LinkedIn and IRC and email chains and BBSes. The only thing that change if I "move" is how much I focus on one over an another. If I have a shitpost in my head, where do I decide to post it? If I want to talk about something more serious, where do I go?

Obviously with Twitter dying I'm focusing more on other places. I joked to someone on Twitter that I'm currently sharding what used to be my Twitter posts to Tumblr and mastodon: Tumblr gets the shitpostier and transier stuff, mastodon gets the techier stuff. But that may change as I find the right balance going forward.

Or, regarding my "persona Jubilee" post, I might just stop. I have been this Foone for a while, it might be time to stop and rethink.

Anyway, the final wrinkle in this overlong post: I wrote this much on Tumblr, despite all my talking about not being able to do it. I think I'm basically doing this by channeling my "Twitter thread mood" and not going back up and editing. Who knows if that means I've actually managed to overcome my previous inability to just write free-form long content, or if this is just a limited trick that I can't keep up. Time will tell.

[rabbiteclair]

I'm super interested in the paranormal/cryptid post- where did you find the stuff about Japanese and US paranormal encounters? Finding a pattern in encounters like these is something I've always been curious about.

(repeating all the disclaimers from this post, which means that among other things, this isn't gonna give you many historical accounts, and it's very focused on the kind of people who wanna throw their accounts out onto the internet.)

The Japanese Side

The big one I might as well get out of the way up front: Kowabana. The site's got some stories, others exist in podcast form, but the books themselves are up to 12 volumes of translated stuff from 2chan's occult board, the vast majority of which is in the format of first-person accounts of supernatural encounters. If you know any Japanese internet horror stuff, this is where 3/4 of it came from--Hasshaku-sama, kunekune, Kisaragi Station, etc.

(If you aren't solely focused on the 'first-person account' thing, Tara Devlin's parallel Toshiden and Bankai series cover most of the rest.)

Other people have translated this stuff over the years, with wildly varying levels of quality. Saya in Underworld and Okaruto are some of the ones I've found useful in the past.

If you can read Japanese, there are quite a few sites that collect and curate this stuff, and then other sites that aggregate those sites. As an added bonus, a given story might exist in multiple different forms between these sites, and then half of the sites don't exist anymore because this stuff goes back twenty years. I've spent a decent amount of time browsing these, but couldn't give you a good list of solid ones. There is in fact a pretty decent starting list on Tara Devlin's old Tumblr.

There are some Japanese Youtube channels that document a lot of this stuff too, but tbh the only times I've watched them is when I'm about nine google searches deep looking for something, so I don't have a good list.

The American Side

I started making a list here, but it honestly wasn't much of a list. A lot of the English ones that I've encountered have come from some combination of 'wandering on the internet,' 'being on /x/ back when it was new,' and 'the story was included in some other piece of media.' (Like, Oh No Ross And Carrie is probably the single place where I've heard the most accounts of UFO stuff, but I'd be a weird person if I cited that as a good source for them.) Unlike the Japanese side of things, I've never had much reason to approach them in a systematic manner.

Considering that my big source for this on the Japanese side is 2chan's occult board, you'd think that 4chan's /x/ would go here, right? But nah. I mean, there are first person accounts on there, but they're nowhere near as prevalent. There are several places trying to archive /x/ stuff though, so it's out there for anyone who wants to dig through it like a trash gopher.

But, if you want your 'hundreds, if not thousands, of first-person supernatural accounts in one place' counterpart to Kowabana, the best resource on the English-speaking side that I know of is Monsters Among Us. Yeah, it's audio, but that's life. It also has really thorough show notes, which serves as a pretty good starting point for finding other resources. I'm pretty sure there's a whole ecosystem of this stuff on Youtube.

(Really though, if anybody knows of any big text repositories of English, first-person accounts of this stuff, curated to weed out the complete trash, I'd be interested in that myself.)

[formicarum-rex]

ive been on cohost on-and-off since november, and i think im going to stick with it (famous last words, i know, but i am genuinely enjoying my time there, meeting some nice people and enjoying the posts that come across my dash)

home page

my blog

general observations, differences between here and tumblr (both good and bad), and caveats under the cut

the ability to use html and css in posts is fantastic, and while i do sometimes miss being able to change the formatting with a simple highlight like on tumblr, the added abilities to customize more than makes up for that. i've only used it a bit myself, but plan to use it more going forward, and you can get some fantastic shitposts on your dash because of this. note that only posts are hyper-customizable. blogs themselves aren't as customizable as on tumblr (think the default/mobile theme here)

i think their pro-privacy, anti-algorithm, anti-numbers philosophy is admirable. it's not perfect-- funding is a continual trouble, although they have plans for making it sustainable.

as with all smaller websites, it is a bit of an echo-chamber and has its share of drama and controversy.

the fewer number of people also lead to there being fewer good posts than on here, especially if you have niche interests, but my dash is still quite active, and i have to check it at least once a day to keep up-to-date.

if you edit your original post, all reblogged versions of the post are updated as well.

it has a comprehensive cw system built into posts, more reminiscent of mastodon than tumblr. there is discourse about its use or over-use, but on the whole i think this is a big improvement.

i (thankfully) haven't run into anybody or any post that required blocking or silencing or muting yet, but the options are there and thorough.

related, there is a no-nonsense attitude towards bigotry. i havent run into any bad eggs myself, but from what i've been given to understand they are sniped more or less as soon as they're discovered. there may be moderation issues as the website expands (this is one issue where places split up into smaller groups like mastodon have benefits) but as of right now, it seems to be working just fine, and better than tumblr.

there's no general within-post search for the sake of privacy and to limit harassment opportunities, but unlike tumblr, the tag search is functional. in addition, all posts with tags you've bookmarked show up in a separate, single tab on your dash, in proper chronological, non-algo'd order, which is a good way to discover new people to follow and posts to reblog. this is similar to "your tags" on tumblr, but unlike tumblr, i trust it to work

i haven't used this yet, but sideblogs are able to comment, ask, like, follow, etc, separately. no more "follows from [main url]"

in general, i like the vibes better than pillowfort, the other tumblr replacement site, and its a much more satisfying tumblr replacement than mastodon, because, well, its not like twitter (although i do like mastodon for other reasons).

there are some odd things that differentiate it from tumblr that you have to get used to at best, and can be extremely frustrating at worst:

notes cant be viewed per-post. they're all under your notification tab, chronologically listed. this hasnt been a problem for me, but i understand that this can get messy if you have a lot of followers/notes

if you are not OP, you cannot view others' reblogs. i've found that this is mostly fine, but it does mean you cant dive into the notes to see if anyone has added anything you'd like to reblog instead of the version on your dash. changing this is one of the most requested features. it doesn't seem to conflict with the site's anti-numbers ideals as long as it only lists contentful reblogs (those with additions), so i'm hopeful it will be added.

OP is not notified of tags on reblogs. all comments that are towards OP and not towards your followers belong in the comments. unlike other things in this list, this isn't a downside so much as a neutral difference that has taken me a long time to get used to.

the comments are generally important. reblog chains are still used, but comments (replies) are more functional than they are on tumblr, with proper ability to reply in comment threads and a better UI. they are used more often on cohost than on here, especially if you want to start a convo with OP and others viewing the post. as far as i can tell, everyone can see every comment, unlike the reblogs.

photoset layouts are not as flexible as on tumblr

no DMs

discovery hasn't been a big issue for me as someone who is primarily a reader/viewer (if anything, the functional tagging system and unified bookmarked tags tab makes it easier), but ive heard that for creators it can be frustrating

i am under the impression that pillowfort is the place to go for specifically fandom posting. more fandom people have been joining cohost though, especially since a bunch of tumblr people joined a couple weeks ago.

i realize this isn't exactly a hard sell, but want people to be aware of potential downsides before creating an account. despite these things, i really do urge you to check it out if youre interested! it's a good place :)

[eossa]

How I'd Make Tumblr More Profitable

Yes, this is going to be controversial, since I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes spending, economics, and all that jazz. But I've been on Tumblr for long enough to have a rough idea of the userbase wants - which is what positions Tumblr in a niche other sites don't really utilize. Most of the points I list here are about improving the experience of existing users, as keeping users might be harder for tumblr than attracting new ones.

Please note that this posts reflects my personal opinions and some stuff I've seen people complain about it. Do not attack me over anything I've written here, it's not worth my time and I will resort to blocking if I'm being bothered. Constructive criticism is fine and encouraged!

[under the cut because this got quite long] [last updated 20th July 2023]

Features to Add

Block posts. Xkit has/had this feature, it was great. Sometimes I just don't want to see a specific post, and others probably agree with that.

Send asks and replies from sideblogs. Would literally make a lot of things easier and better.

Delete individual reblog additions from a post. Sometimes, you have a post where there is one"relevant" addition, multiple "irrelevant" additions ("yes!", "[repeated phrase in bold]", "this is a must reblog"), before there is a "relevant" addition again. But right now, you can only remove all reblog additions, not just individual ones. I feel like this would be a neat feature.

Direct blocking of anon hate which also tracks the IP and blocks the associated account(s). No rights for cowards, that's all I'll say.

Features to Bring Back

Reblog chains. Prev tags are the backbone of lots of interactions on here. If I click on someone's username in a reblog chain, I want to see that post on their blog, not their blog starting from the newest post. The loss of this feature is one of the things people constantly complain about in the replies of @changes.

Several text formatting options. As a theme maker, it would be nice to have proper preformatted text again - it makes code so much more legible. Other formatting options I miss are marked/highlighted text and text lines, which are really helpful to visually break apart passages of text.

Features to Ditch

Tumblr Live. There I've said it. If I want to see stuff like that, I have TikTok, IG Reels, Pinterest Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Twitter also has something like this. It's oversaturated, and aparently there are still enough cyber security concerns that it's not even accessible outside of the US and Canada.

Ads in lightboxes. Especially on mobile, there are already more than enough ads on the feed, no need to add more nested inside other elements.

Features that Make Money

Pay for NSFW. If this site allowed full nudity etc. again but hid it behind a paywall, we'd kill two birds with one stone: The site would probably still be allowed on the App Store, and the money influx would be huge. The userbase would also increase again.

(If Tumblr Live is kept.) Pay to snooze Tumblr Live permanently. It's the most complained about thing in changes' replies, so I feel like people would pay on a subscription base just to not see TL anymore.

Pay to increase limits. 250 posts per day is the maximum that can be posted - and there are people hitting those limits. If there was an option to buy a higher limit (500p/d, 750p/d, etc.), people might generally use it. Like those add-on charges for mobile data. Same goes for posts in the queue, posts in drafts, images in a photoset and so on.

Pay to pin posts at the top of a tag or search result. Ebay Kleinanzeigen has this neat feature where you can push your small ads to the top of a search query so that more people can see it. This could be a cool feature to try, as it would work in a more content-aware way than Blaze does.

Pay to buy inactive URLs. There are some really cool usernames on here that are taken by blogs that haven't updated for 5+ years and only have one post (or none at all), and I feel like it would be neat to be able to buy one of these cool usernames attached to an empty account. To make sure that usernames attached to redirect or something else don't get bought, tumblr should send an e-mail to the username owner - if the user doesn't react to that for 3 months, the usernames changed owners. [added 13th July 2023]

Existing Features to Improve

NPF posts. I feel like a combination of legacy and NPF would be neat. Think selecting a main element like in the legacy editor (e.g. video, image, audio) and then adding a caption that can add different content types like NPF does. Or at least create a better overview over NPF variables and release the full base code with documentation to make things easier for the web designers on here. There are more issues with the NPF format but I won't list everything people dislike about it here.

Block people. The block feature should make sure that the person being blocked doesn't see any posts made by the person they were blocked by, even if those posts were reblogged by another user. Also, like IG does, there should be an option to block either just a specific blog or the IP address attached to block side-blogs and other accounts of that user.

Color palettes. The color palette options for the dashboard are generally a nice idea but I think it would be better if there was a dropdown menu to choose a palette from rather than having to click through all the different options. For example, if I want to go from Cement (light mode) to Dark mode, I have to click through 10 options until I reach Dark again. There has to be an easier way. [added 20th July 2023]

Other Improvements Needed

Nuke spam bots. Users are reporting all the spam bots, yet, it doesn't seem like they are dwindling in numbers. Also - at least this is how it's being perceived by the userbase - tumblr isn't doing enough on their end to reduce spam bots. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed.

End hateful and criminal activities. It's the year 2023, yet there are still outright N*zis, violent tr*nsphobes, literal p*dophiles, and other people committing to the daily bit of hate speech and other illegal activities (fraud too considering all those fake GoFundMe sites) on this website. I'm not saying free speech should be banned but there is a bright red line between what is free spech and what is hate speech (or should get you jailed considering fraud and p*dophilia).

A through-out, perhaps even interactive, beginner tutorial. "The site is too complicated to use for new users!" – then explain how it works in easy terms, with examples, images, and videos. Every other application or web app has walk-throughs, just do the same here.

Improved ad relevancy. The ads I see on tumblr are usually so out-of touch with the userbase, and many of them feel like the sort of stuff you see on a spam-ridden torrenting site. I feel like increasing the relevancy of ads to what the users usually blog about would cause a higher click-rate and turn-over-rate than the current ads do.

Summary

There is probably more I could add, but that's it for now. Should I make any later additions directly to this post, I will mention it to prevent misunderstandings. If you have any ideas or constructive criticism, let me hear about it in the replies or reblogs of this post.

[army-of-bee-assassins]

hi I just have a question about image descriptions, is it better when I put it in the alt text or under the image? does small text make a difference? I shouldn't put the description under readmore, right? sorry for so many questions I want to do it right

hi there! thanks for these questions. i'm always happy for people to ask this sort of stuff! i appreciate that you want to learn more and do it right. :)

so just right off the bat, i'll say small text should be avoided. some people who need the image description may be low vision but not using a screen reader, which means the small text would be inaccessible. they may have ways of enlarging the text on their phone, but it can't enlarge the small text enough to read. and yes, a read more should usually be avoided as well. the only exception i would say is if you're describing something extremely long, such as pages of a comic. in that case, the best practice is to include a short description outside of a read more, like a quick summary of what the images are, that then also indicates that the full description is under the cut. but again, that should really only be for something super super long.

when it comes to alt text versus ids in the body of the post, they both have their uses and are preferred/more accessible to different people! alt text is designed for people who use screen readers, and it has been standard practice across the web for a long time. most people just weren't aware of it until recent years when sites like tumblr and twitter made it more visible to those not using a screen reader. when an image does not have alt text (which is the vast majority of images on this site), a screen reader coming across that image just says "image". so the screen reader user needs alt text to be able to have access to the content of the image. an image description following the image will also get the job done, but i have seen multiple screen reader users say that they're in the habit of skipping a post as soon as they come across an image without alt text, just because the majority don't end up having an id anyway and they just get tired of scrolling through inaccessible content.

some people do prefer an image description outside of alt text, since alt text still has some accessibility issues for those who don't use a screen reader, particularly in terms of color contrast and formatting. it can be hard for some people to read, which is why they prefer the image description to be in the body of the post instead. something to note for image descriptions in the body of the post - it's important to place the id right after the image and before any commentary.

basically - both alt text and an id in the body of the post are good things! different people have different preferences for one or the other. according to a resource i've seen shared around here a lot (i believe from perkins school for the blind), generally speaking alt text is for a short description, while an image description is meant to include more detail. so this can be good practice. you can also always mention in the alt text that the description will be expanded in the image description. something that i and a number of other people do is actually just use the same description in both alt text and the body of the post. in that case, for the image description i start it with "image description copied from alt text", so that someone using a screen reader could skip it easily.

sorry for rambling so long, and thanks again for your questions! if you have any others just let me know!

[yonemurishiroku]

I think another thing to note is that a lot of the TSATS negativity stems mainly from users on tumblr. I’ve been on twitter & Tik tok and the reaction seems to be overwhelmingly positive. Like the first few days the book came out, seeing tumblr reactions versus other platforms was literally like night and day. I’ve even seen some ppl say they cried a lot or that it’s their fav PJO book! (Which is a surprising but whatever 😭) I have seen some criticisms on the other platforms, sometimes about the writing quality or OOC-ness or being underwhelming, but it still wasn’t all terribly negative. The only place I’ve seen VERY VERY harsh vitriol is on here, and I’m not sure why. personally I thought TSATS was okay and I have my own criticisms, but honestly I have that with every PJO-verse book. Imo some of the takes I’ve seen here are valid, but some are also really really mean and honestly a tad overdramatic, but idk why or what it is about tumblr. I think I’ll stay away from here for a while when chalice comes out.

This ask is from May 18th, I'm so sorry for the delayed replies. 😭😭😭 It got caught in a mess for quite a while aksdkdakj---

Ok. So.

You're saying that most of the negative reviews come from Tumblr whereas TikTok and Twitter give mostly good feedback. I think I can offer a few explanations about this.

Tl,dr:

Tumblr allows long posts, whereas Twitter and TikTok have a length-wise limit to their content.

Tumblr is more fandom-centered, a much more suitable place to rant in a book of a franchise.

Tumblr has a different approach, which enables different types of posts to come across you, unlike Twitter.

(Please keep in mind that I don't use TikTok, so most of this would be assumptions based on my limited knowledge about the platform. I have a Twitter account though)

Now. The first point is quite clear. Tumblr doesn't have any limitations to whatever you post on the site (or at least that limit exceeds normal people's capacity of writing/reading per post ajsdhakjdhak), which enables you to give long, complicated, detailed essays on a certain topic.

Which is the best fit if you want to criticize something.

Because unlike complimenting something, when you criticize it, you'd need to give a reason for how and why it is bad (in your opinion). To compliment something, you might just need to say simple things like "OMG I LOVE IT" "This is so adorable I might cry" etc...

Adding to that: sometimes it's just easier to list what you dislike, you know? 🤣🤣🤣 I mean. When you hate something, you'd find it very easy to focus on its flaws to dissect, which results in many rants. Whereas when you love something, you just... love it. Not mentioning sometimes you can find it hard to articulate said love.

In Twitter's case: Twitter has a character limit, which hinders people's need to rant. This appears unsuitable when you want to rant about st in dissatisfaction. Although, it'd be pretty good if you're overwhelmed with love and want to flood the complimenting post with memes.

Yes, there're people writing a whole long ass thread on Twitter. But again, with Tumblr alr providing a function, it's understandable which one would prefer.

TikTok, in addition to having a length cap on their videos - which acts roughly the same as Twitter's character limit, allows only video format. This is just a hypothesis, but I suspect people might be discouraged by the idea of making, filming, and editing a video about something they don't like - rather than just... writing it down. I find the second choice much easier.

Similar to the above, Tumblr is more fandom-centered. The app is literally advertised as for Fandoms and Creators.

When you want to share an opinion on a certain topic, you'd go for those who at least have a semblance of whatever you're talking about, right?

Tumblr is created for fandoms and has its own tag system. This makes it easier when you're targeting a certain group of enjoyers. I doubt that Twitter and TikTok, while having their own tagging systems, would be more effective than Tumblr. (Ppl on Twt rarely use tags when it comes to fandoms......)

Different approaches.

Tumblr, as far as I know, filters content by tag. Which means that if you look into the The sun and the star tag, you'd see everything related to it. If you like something from it, chances are you'd get recommended another post in said tag, regardless of what it is about. Including conflicting opinions.

On Twitter, on the other hand, if you want to see a certain topic, chances are you'd need to:

1/ Follow someone who's active on said topic. Generally, you would go for someone you like/ share some of your sentiments/ you vibe with to follow right? Hence, chances are they would share the same view as you.

2/ Search for the tag. But I doubt people would use tag for this book.

3/ Search for any other keywords. This runs the risk of missing content, which might or might not include the criticizing post.

Of course: This^^ relies heavily on my predictions and assumptions of your engagement. It might not apply that well.

All in all, it all comes down to whether and where people choose to express themselves. I have a Twitter and a Tumblr, and I choose to deliver most of my PJO content on Tumblr. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ You don't see me criticizing on Twt, but I'm def there.

About Chalice though, I don't think you need to worry lol. TSATS has its problems because it focuses on already controversial topics and is put on a pedestal before release, so people tend to be more extreme. Chalice, on the other hand, afaik, is about another average quest by Percy? It's not that... extreme, I mean, and there's hardly and complicated plot. I think of it more as a side story, really. So maybe you don't have to worry that much? lol i do hope so. 😂😂

[pixelgrotto]

Adventure Paths & Strategy Guides

Those of you who keep track of this blog may have noticed that my updates have dried up since September. I have a good reason for this, because I got a new fulltime job writing for Rock Paper Shotgun. Yep, that's right - after originally starting Pixel Grotto back in 2013 because I couldn't get a job working at a video game media outlet, finally my path has come full circle. It only took a decade!

This turn of events coincides with a lot of other stuff in my life. In the past year, I've gotten married, moved from the US to the UK with my wife, and been freelancing in the tabletop RPG space all the while. In fact, my first published TTRPG work is now out in the wild in the form of Pathfinder Adventure Path #198 - With No Breath To Cry. Go grab a PDF (or physical copy) if you can, since I wrote some creepy lore about a new demon vaguely influenced by Chinese yaoguai and Japanese yokai, not to mention all sorts of Asian horror movies. I'm actually more pleased with my contributions to Pathfinder Adventure Path #199, but that doesn't come out until January. Keep your eyes peeled for it though!

Needless to say, this has probably been the most hectic and life-changing year I've gone through since 2018, when I moved from Hong Kong back to the US. And as 2023 comes to a close, I'm feeling reflective. I compare myself with others a lot, and much of my life has been spent looking at the accomplishments of people around me and feeling like I don't measure up. While I still do this to varying degrees, I suppose I can finally acknowledge that two of the goals I've always had - 1) to work in the gaming industry to some capacity, and 2) to see my writing published - have manifested in 2023. If I could venture back to 2013 when I started this blog (with a post about eating dumplings while playing Final Fantasy XII, no less) and tell my old self what he'd be up to a decade later, younger Jeremy would be chuffed.

That's another thing of note: as of this past October, Pixel Grotto turned a decade old. Technically, the site is even older than that, since prior to Pixel Grotto, I used this Tumblr for a blog dubbed Aqua Headphones that was sort of a mixture of personal ramblings combined with reblogs of whatever I found cool on the internet at the time. Since then, I've written an awful lot about video games, which led to writing about tabletop games, which led to working in both fields in a professional capacity.

It's surreal to examine my goals and observe how they unfolded in unusual ways. My original desire to work in games media came from the childhood magazines that I loved - Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly - and when those went the way of the dodo, I became a journalist with the sly hope that maybe one day I'd get a job working at Kotaku or something. But I finally got my gaming gig not at an American site, but a British one. And I'm writing guides, which is not something I initially envisioned myself doing. It's tricky work where we often have the chase the reins of the most popular franchises (I now know more about Modern Warfare 3 guns than I ever imagined I would), but it's also fun, since it reminds me of days spent perusing GameFAQs and leafing through physical strategy guides, several of which I still own. Versus Books' Final Fantasy VII and Ocarina of Time Perfect Guides remain on my shelf alongside Prima's Quest for Glory guides and Peter Spear's The King's Quest Companion...and while I can't do my current work in the same format of these gems (many of which were "novelizations," a style of guide writing I really miss), it does feel trippy to be following in their footsteps.

I could say the same thing about getting my words published. As a kid, I forever wanted to pen the next great fantasy novel. And while I've got more than a few discarded novel drafts sitting on my hard drive, the field of fantasy fiction isn't the one that's bearing my first printed work. Instead, it's modules and supplementary books in the fantasy tabletop gaming space - a space that has let me develop and externalize some of the plots and characters that have been gestating in my head since childhood. To a certain extent, that childhood desire to be the next great Tolkien has lessened as a result of this, and I can't say I'm displeased. I'm also happy that my first published work has been in a Pathfinder Adventure Path, because once again thinking about magazines, Adventure Paths remain one of the few remaining publications in the TTRPG space that bear some resemblance to old issues of Dragon magazine, and the nostalgia makes me happy.

I don't like to spend much time on this blog talking about myself, because there are always new ways to incite comparison to others and activate the inferiority complex in my brain. But at the end of a very long 2023 and on the tenth anniversary of the name "Pixel Grotto," I feel like it's necessary. As we move on to year eleven, I'll continue to make posts as long as my schedule permits it - after all, I can't let this blog fall to the wayside seeing as how its existence contributed a great deal to the opportunities that I now enjoy!

[shimmering-stims-archive]

Not a request, just a question - how do you make stimboards? /gq

Long answer warning

I start with getting the static/regular image if possible you want a png (even if it has a background) since they’re higher quality than jpegs.

Then I open up a notepad on my computer or phone to keep all the links in until I put them into Linkslist.

Then I look for gifs, I usually start on Tumblr then move to google if I can’t find the right stuff then if I still can find the right stuff and won’t comprise I’ll try to find a video to make a gif from

When saving gifs be mindful of the scum of the earth know as webp. Webp was supposed to be a universal file format but not many sites support it this is made worse by google converting literally everything to webp. This can be avoided on Tumblr by doing this on computer: click open image in new tab, scroll to the end of the url, it will say gifv, take of the v and then press enter, it will now save as a gif.

In an ideal world all the gifs you like would be a 1:1 ratio (square shaped) but alas that almost never happens. This is problem because of the way Tumblr formats images. Take this example: the pictures of both ENAs are the same file but since one was paired with a wide but short image it was zoomed in so it matches.

There is no way (as far as I know) to crop images within Tumblr so you’ll have to do it outside of here. Me and everyone else seems to use ezgif. Ezgif can convert webps to gifs, crop gifs, add effects to them and many other useful things.

Anyway now that I have some gifs I like I make a draft post and see how it looks. Then I rinse and repeat the gif finding process until I’m happy with the board.

Finally I put all my links into Linkslist (I do this because I’m lazy and don’t want to put 8ish links into a post one by one) then I add a caption to my board, put the sources link and done!

Also I believe it’s technically possible to make one large file in photoshop then post it to Tumblr as one image. I say technically possible because the size of a gif file that holds 8 moving parts and isn’t compressed beyond recognition would be too much for Tumblr to handle and would most likely exceed the size limit.

Also also Tumblr can only do 3 image for width. So if you wanted let’s say a 4x3 board you would have to merge gifs in photoshop or photopea put a white divider between them while also being mindful of how the image size stretching I mentioned before works. So that’s why no one does anything besides 2x3 and 3x3 stimboards.

This might sound like a lot of work but when you get in the groove it’s really fun. Especially when it’s a request so you’re extra excited to get it out so they can enjoy it.

Anyway I hope this wasn’t too bland a read and was maybe a bit insightful. Have a great day thanks for taking interest in the blog!

[northwestofinsanity]

Interesting development tonight while trying to make Tumblr work a bit better on my phone while my tablet doesn't want to work with it -I figured out how to fix my blog URL from redirecting to in-dashboard view (tumblr.com/[user URL]) on my mobile browser, regardless of which URL format I use ...and I believe it's a workaround for the issue of Tumblr's login wall popping up in blog-view even for people who have chosen in their settings to keep their blogs viewable to everyone by being able to have your blog work in [User URL].tumblr.com format on mobile.

For anyone who wants the ending point first before the context, TL;DR -it has to do with THIS. If you're curious or need the visual of what exactly the difference the "Use Default Mobile Theme" setting makes, and why it might be a problem, context follows:

So, for about a year now, the picture below is how my blog -and most other users' who use the basic Tumblr theme instead of a custom blog -comes up on a mobile browser:

It displays under the dashboard header, like I opened it from a post, and the URL stays in the dash-view format - tumblr.com/[user URL]. I could tap on the highlighted, second link for my blog page I had enabled with [user URL].tumblr.com, and it would *still* revert itself into dash view, and the previous URL. Also, this rendered my blog unviewable to anyone without an account, as the login wall would pop up in short order after loading -and I do in fact have friends who I occasionally share some of my Tumblr posts with, but they do not have or want to make an account. (Yes, you may ask me "why not just go with a completely different custom theme so that it has to load properly?" -Well, I do have "custom theme enabled" selected -as one known step for allowing public view -but I stick with the "Official Tumblr Theme" because I like the simplicity and accessibility of it, and I've had a lot of menus not display right or be confusing to find on other people's custom themes, and while it's their choice to use what they like for their own blogs, I want *my* blog to be accessible and easy to navigate, for my own sake as well as anyone else. And it's not like this has always been a problem with my blog theme, right? So, why should it be?)

But then I also realized that I have a few users I follow using the Tumblr official theme for at least their mobile site who still had it loading the way it used to for me, and switching properly to [user URL].tumblr.com, and bypassing the login wall as far as I could tell. Now that I've finally figured out how to switch back after what changed about a year ago, when I tap on that second link on my phone browser, it looks like this:

Look! It's the proper URL with the blog search bar at the top. I can share my own posts with my friends who don't have a Tumblr account, and they can *see* it without the login prompt blocking it up if their using a phone. Better yet, I haven't quite figured out this part, but ever since "featured tags" became a thing, my phone mobile browsers won't let me search anything other than featured tags on the search bar in tumblr.com/[user URL] view -I could tap "enter" all day after typing it in, and it just doesn't register or go anywhere at all, and I've yet to get any answers from help requests on that... (Note: I can search blogs on in-dash view just fine on desktop -that's only a glitch on my phone). But that search bar at the top in the proper URL view works like a charm for anyone lucky enough to be dealing with that same glitch, and is so much easier than having to manually type in search or tag URLs for non-featured tags.

So, that brings us to what changed:

I started digging through my blog and theme settings for *anything* that would possibly fix this, and was even about to resort to switching to a custom theme with the simplest layout possible if necessary (Again, I've had the "custom theme enabled" toggle on for as long as it's existed, as a known step for bypassing the log-in wall despite also allowing public views on blogs.) Then, I finally noticed an "Advanced" panel on the very bottom of the editing tray that led me to the solution

The toggle for "Use Default Mobile Theme" was enabled on my advanced settings -something that did not exist when I designed my blog in 2017. (And aside from a minor tweak to my blog description, that theme has remained the same from that very night forward). As it states, "This will override your theme with a special layout optimized for browsing on mobile devices like iPhone and Android". What it doesn't say is that it will ALSO override the switch to [user URL].tumblr.com, and keep your blog opening in in-dash view on mobile browsers, regardless of your other view settings. As soon as I found that and toggled it off, one of my greatest headaches with using Tumblr on my phone over the last year was cured.

Now, I still can't navigate easily on other users' blogs who have that enabled, whether by choice, or by not knowing how to fix this issue, but again -their blog, their choice. Throwing this out there for anyone who's been as perplexed by this as I have been and might not know you *have* a choice.

[vgilantee]

char's ao3 crashcourse for tumblr fic writers

hello and welcome to char's ao3 crash course for tumblr fic writers. the main target audience for this post is the gorgeous sav of @faeology but instead of fighting with the tumblr dm system, i figured why not just make it a post that i can format a little nicer! the images won't have alt id's but i will do my best to describe the steps so that the images help, but aren't required!

so, you've posted a fic to tumblr (and maybe wattpad) and want to post it on archive of our own (ao3) to reach a broader audience. but the formatting and site is a little intimidating to jump into, which is okay! the site has no algorithm because it's an archive. i can make another post on how to search for fics if you need a hand, but for now i'll only explain what is required to be able to post your fic to make it super easy for people to come across it

if you don't already have an account, you'll need to press "get invited" and wait for an email to make your account. depending on how much traffic is moving through, it may take a little bit to get the email. but don't stress, you will get it.

once you're in and logged in, go to the top right of the site and click post. a drop down will come up with either "new work" or "import work"

you can import your fic, but i don't because i write outside of tumblr and therefore am already copying and pasting the work. you will likely need to adjust some formatting the post if you import it, but if you're okay with that, then feel free! just paste the url into the URLs box

for the rest of this post, i'm going to explain the steps of "new work", though some steps overlap

so once you've clicked on new post you're faced with lots of sections of settings, starting with tags

within rating there is 5 categories: "not rated", "general audiences", "teen and up audiences", "mature" and "explicit". please rate your fics. it helps with filtering. think of the ratings like movie ratings. if you aren't sure what one means, there is a post explaining them, and i can find it if people need it!

next is archive warnings: "choose not to use an archive warning" (ao3 describes this one as "Use this if you don't want to warn for anything. You may also choose this option if you don't know what you should warn for; if you don't like warning for certain topics or warnings in general; if you want to avoid some spoilers, but not others; etc."), "graphic depictions of violence", "major character death", "no archive warnings apply", "rape/non-con" and "underage". once again, please use this correctly. select all that apply, some people rely on these for filtering

fandoms is pretty self explanatory. just tag the fandom. when you type in the fandom, a drop down of suggestions will appear, make sure you select the right one to help people find your fic in the fandom

with categories, this section is optional but is really important for reader insert/ship fics, because they denote the genders within the relationship. the information of this section from ao3 is:

"here are 6 categories of works on the Archive. While here we have given an interpretation of the abbreviations, the exact definitions of these vary from fandom to fandom and fan to fan; use whichever you feel are applicable, or else none: F/F - Female/Female relationships F/M - Female/Male relationships Gen - General: no romantic or sexual relationships, or relationships which are not the main focus of the work M/M - Male/Male relationships Multi - More than one kind of relationship, or a relationship with multiple partners Other - Other relationships"

for relationships, you need to know the difference between "character/character" and "character & character". the former is a ship or romantic relationship, the latter is platonic or familial. do not get them confused with familial to save yourself being found by the wrong people

when adding characters only tag the characters that are actually in the fic. think tumblr's tag system. don't tag people that aren't there like you wouldn't add an unrelated tag to a post (you won't get reported as spam there but you will piss people off)

finally is additional tags. use this to tag the fic type (fluff, angst, hurt/comfort etc), and also additional warnings that aren't covered in the check boxes above. you can also add things like "tommy and wilbur are princes and technoblade is a feral god that philza picked up from the woods" which is your own rambles and also additional info about the fic or a half joking summary (that is an actual tag from one of my favourite fics that breaks my heart every time i read it. it's beautiful). it is also very common to put your "no beta we die like [character]" tag here

NEXT! the preface section

here you add the fic title, the fic summary, and tick whether you have notes at the beginning and/or end. those are your authors notes and will give you either one or two new boxes to add your notes to (ignore the pseuds box. if you're new you will only have the one username appear.)

then there is the associations box

here you are required to set the language of your fic, whatever that may be. you can also tick if your fic has multiple chapters, is a part of a series, or was published on a different date (i usually end up using this box because i forget to post my fic on ao3 for a coupe of weeks lmao)

for most people, the privacy section isn't used but it's important to know what it all means, just in case

registered users are people who have verified their accounts, meaning only people who are logged in will be able to read your fic. comment moderation is what it sounds like, you have to manually post a comment publicly. then you can choose who can leave comments

finally the meat of your fic, the work text

by default, it will be set to HTML, and unless you know how to use HTML to format a fic, switch over to rich text (or if, like me, you can't be bothered coding the fic you just put all your brain power into posting)

rich text will give you the following options:

most of which are self-explanatory, so the only one i will over is the line next to the quotation mark. i use image dividers when posting on tumblr, and while i can also do that on ao3, it can fuck with the formatting. so that line inserts a nice little divider that will fit the formatting regardless of whether the reader is on desktop or mobile!

then you can press post and you're good to go! the fic goes live and is ready for the world of ao3 to read! you can also press preview to check the formatting is just how you like, but sometimes you just have to say "fuck it, we ball" and post the fic lmao

if you have any questions feel free to ask! hopefully i have made this all super clear, but if you need clarification i am happy to rephrase to help you out!

[schooltrashers]

Debating a LYING braindead idiot

So it looks like he wasn't done looking like an idiot, he had to continue playing defense for Che and Communism. It reminds me of when I debated against an idiot who defended Hitler and Nazism. The murderous history of Hitler, Che, Stalin, Mao, Nazis, and Commies should be enough reason for any sane individual to be against Nazis, Commies, and murderous dictators. But apparently, neither he nor the Nazi I've argued against are sane. So let's begin with this idiot (@skorpiontongue) complimenting himself, thinking I wouldn't notice he's using an alt account.

Chapter 1: Alt Compliments

I've seen this type of action before where a Leftist would use an alt-account to complement himself on Tumblr, Discord, Twitter and other social media sites. The one on Discord was the easiest to spot because it came from a new user who joined the discord. How sad and pathetic does one has to be to compliment himself in a short amount of time? He did it on the same day of his post. As if he were impatient to wait a day or two. He was likely trying to get my attention as soon as he made his post, while I was away from my computer. I'm usually either working, spending quality time with my girlfriend or on my phone doing my thing on social media. Anyways I think he does this for attention, because he sure as hell ain't getting it at home(most likely living in his parents basement due to commies being "anti-work") or at the public library where he is most likely accessing the internet.

"ur so based fr"? You ain't fooling anybody.

Chapter 2: Projection

The one thing The Left are caught doing all the time is accusing people of the very same things The Left are guilty of doing themselves. He thinks I'm a "wolf in sheeps clothing". Which is completely false because unlike him, I've always fought against totalitarian and extremist views. It did not matter which side of the political spectrum the totalitarians and extremists come from, I condemn them all for their horrible actions. For example I've always been against Nazis and the KKK for their evil actions. Ever since learning about them in history class, I've always condemn Nazis and the KKK. I condemn Commies and Antifa for the very same reasons, due to their violent and murderous actions, especially since Antifa killed innocent black people in their CHOP/CHAZ zones such as Secoreia Turner, Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr, and David Dorn. Want to know how I heard about their deaths? Through Newsmax, Steven Crowder and other conservative media. They will not talk about them in Left-wing news media because their deaths go against their narrative and it makes them look bad. The real wolf in sheep's clothing are the Left who pretend to care about black lives and yet ignore the innocent black lives who were murdered by Antifa/Commies/BLM members. The Left in your eyes can do no wrong. Luckily for me, I'm not so blind to the truth. I'll speak against both the Left or the Right if I disagree with them and their actions. For example I'm against Bush for invading Iraq and falsely claiming that there were weapons of mass destruction. I'm also against Bush for initiating the Patriot Act and I'm against Obama for continuing the Patriot Act. I recognize the corruption in both parties and right now the only politicians who are actually trustworthy are MAGA Republicans and Tulsi Gabbard(a former Democrat turned Independent). Tulsi Gabbard was slandered and lied about by Democrats who falsely accused her of being a "Russian Asset", even Mitt Romney was slandering her. She was also censored by Big Tech. Which reminds me, Biden falsely accuses Trump of corruption and yet his deals with Ukraine(before the war) and Hunter Biden's Laptop story being covered up by the mainstream media and social media made it quite clear to me that Biden is the corrupt one. Not that you would be smart enough to figure that out since you're a braindead commie who can't even come up with an original format, copying my chapter format in this debate.

Speaking of Commies, he goes on a nonsensical rant defending a murderous commie dictator(Che). At this point he may as well defend Hitler and deny that the Holocaust happened. But since I've already destroyed his argument on Che, we'll move onto the next chapter.

Chapter 3: "I swear I'm not a racist" - Said the commie.

Your lack of reading comphension and understanding the context of what I'm saying, shows just how braindead you are. I brought up the Democratic Party for one reason. Their claim of the "parties switching" and comparing it to your claims of Che "changing". It's not that hard to figure out numbnuts. If you look at Trump's history, he was the first in the state of Florida to allow blacks and Jews in his club. The Democrats history on the other hand created the KKK, tried to continue slavery in the Civil War, shot Abraham Lincoln, they voted for a racist President(Biden), as well as voting for an anti-semitic bitch(Ilhan Omar). So of course you would vote Democratic because you're either a dumbass believing in their lies or you agree with their racism/anti-semitism and don't give a shit if they're lying, covering shit up to protect themselves through censorship and trying to deplatform conservatives along the way. Best choice my ass.

Your racism comes from stereotyping big strong black men as "violent", using Terry Crews as an example, which makes no sense due to the fact that he's a classy guy and not at all as how you perceive him as(a violent big strong black guy). If you're going to use a strong big black guy who is violent or may have violent tendency, Mike Tyson would have been a better example, he's had a history of beating up people(in a professional sport), as well as biting off the ear of a fellow boxer. Or a fictional character like Major Payne(one of my favorite movies from my teenage years), since he's badass enough to kick anybody's ass without breaking a sweat and he would have been a more positive example due to his badassery.

It does not surprise me that you're uninformed about Cuba. People's rights are being violated, hence the protests. The people in Cuba want liberty. Something Commies or The Left in general has no true understanding of because if they did, they wouldn't actively censor people they disagree with, nor would they try to ban guns or deplatform conservatives. Diversity of thought, freedom of speech and gun rights is what the Left are actively fighting against. Without diversity of thought, without freedom of speech, without the right to bear arms, you're unable to speak freely against tyranny and you're unable to defend yourself against rapists, murderers and thieves. You think you're against rapists, murderers and thieves, yet you defend the Left who would not go after the trans who raped a teenage girl at a school restroom, you defend the Left who murdered an innocent 8-year-old black girl(Secoreia Turner) who was at the wrong place at the wrong time at a burned down Wendy's and you won't condemn the Left's actions of stealing from a Walgreens in San Francisco. So I don't expect you to condemn a communist country that are violating people's rights in Cuba and China. Heck I don't even expect you to condemn Communist China for banning black people from renting a home or going to a restaurant, in which they used the "virus" in 2020 as an excuse. How do I know all this? I stay informed by watching Newsmax, a channel that CNN & Democrats wants to deplatform from Cable and Satellite. Gee I wonder why? Oh I know, it's because they're exposing the Left of their lies and corruption.

Chapter 4: His lies continue!

I highly doubt that you've ever lived in Texas because I used to live there as a kid and I loved it there, I was never uncomfortable there during my time living there. I also doubt that you've ever been to Mexico, I have because I went there to visit my grandfather. Anyways Newsom has been doing a disastrous job in Commiefornia and it shows with his policies, people are moving out of Commiefornia. The only places where the war on drugs has failed is in Democrat-run cities such as Detroit and Baltimore, both cities are a disaster and unliveable.

Chapter 5: "My source is wikipedia because I'm too braindead to look at legitimit sources that won't bullshit you!"

When I was younger, I probably would have used wikipedia as a source, I used to vote Democrat until 2008 when I went Independent before voting Republican for the first time in 2020. I also used to hate Trump and believe in every lie said about him back in 2016. But I've learn from my mistakes and realized that the pro-establishment politicians, big tech, and the mainstream media are the ones who can't be trusted. I am older, wiser and I don't fall for such dumb shit. Wikipedia is as unreliable as the mainstream media, fact-checkers on social media and Democrats claims about Tulsi Gabbard being a Russian Asset or Trump being a racist or a rapist. I don't fall for the lies like you do. So if I wanted to learn about Qanon, I'll go straight to the source(their website), not take the words of an idiot(you) or wikipedia, since wikipedia has been known to be politically bias and it shows with their description of Parler.

Every lie, every slander said about Parler has been accounted for with what I underlined in that screen shot. It also showed how heavily bias wikipedia was in their description of Parler, all of it was untrue. I posted about it months ago, or maybe even a few years since I haven't been on Parler in a long time now since I am more active on Elon Musk's version of Twitter. The point is that you can't trust wikipedia to tell you the truth on anything. That's why conservatives created "conservapedia" to combat the lies of wikipedia.

Want to talk about conspiracy theories? Your on the side that spews it all the time such as Critical Race Theory, Radical Gender Theory, Black Queer Theory, and The Parties Switching Theory. They also make up other conspiracy theories such as Tulsi Gabbard being a Russian Asset, Trump being a white supremacist, all conservatives being Nazis, or Trump stealing the election in 2016. None of that turned out to be true, but you Leftists continue to spew that nonsense anyways. See unlike you, I went straight to the source whenever any claims were made about Tulsi, Trump, Trump Supporters or anyone else the Left doesn't like. What I found out was that nothing of what the Left said was true at all. For example the kids at Covington, Kentucky were accused of being racist. That turned out to be false when I saw the full video of the whole event. The actual bigots in that event were the Black Hebrew Israelites using a homophobic slur against Trump. The Black Hebrew Israelites also used other bigoted language that the Left seems to ignore. They only care about making Trump supporters look bad, no matter how unreliable their "evidence" is, such as Nick Sandmann smiling at an Indian, calling him a racist because he had a "smirk" on his face. That is just ridiculous. You would have to be braindead to believe that bullshit.

Chapter 6: If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it!

And yet you support a group that had some of their members pose as the opposing side to make them look bad, since Antifa members have been caught doing it. That's why they attacked Andy Ngo. They are not rational and they are not very bright, which is why Antifa are full of white beta male dumbasses with bad haircuts and faces so ugly that you could tell they're on meth. They remind me of the Juggalos I used to feud with, they weren't very bright either. I use to expose them of pedophilia, violence, murder and rape. But my feud with Juggalos ended because I realized not all of them are like that. It just happens that I know many of the bad ones who lived in my city.

The fact that you defend Antifa, shows you're on their side rather than just outright condemning them of their actions(which I pointed out a few chapters ago). See you think they're nothing like the KKK, but you'd be wrong. Both are violent, both are murderous, both are full of white beta male idiots, both were created by Democrats and both pretend to be the good guys, despite the crimes they've committed such as murder, rape, theft, violence, riots, burning down churches, burning down blacked owned businesses and both wear a mask to conceal their identity from the cops, even though the cops let them get away with their crimes anyways, especially in Democrat run cities. Conservatives has consistently condemn these actions, liberals/leftists has not. If you were really against fascism, you would oppose the Democrats, Nazis and Commies all at once because true Anti-Fascism is Anti-Totalitarianism. Unfortunately for you, I am the real anti-fascist.

Antifa está repitiendo las acciones del KKK, no importa si dicen hacerlo por la justicia social, estúpido peluquero fascista.

P.S. This Twitter violation was before Elon Musk took over.

[pankomako]

there's probably like a million others out there already, but since im seeing a lot of my friends hop on tumblr due to the twitter situation i figured i'd give this a go. so, welcome to

panko's guide to tumblr!

i've been using this site for almost a year now, so i suppose i'm at least somewhat qualified to do this. i mainly just want to do this for fun honestly. i think lots of people have covered more of the setup and what to expect from tumblr as a whole so i think i'll focus on more of the usage of this site, because it's definitely much different from twitter, and, in my opinion, FAR better, plus that's the thing people seem to be the most confused about. so, here we go!

Post Features

the first thing you may notice is that tumblr has no character limit on posts! if you want to post a 10,000 word essay on the motives of your favorite character from the video game or tv show you're super into right now, nobody's stopping you. already so much more convenient than making threads on twitter.

there's a variety of options you can use to make your text more visually interesting, add emphasis, and/or organize your post! when you highlight text (at least on browser, i dont use the app), these options will appear above what you highlighted. you can make your text bold, italicized, bigger (on a new line), smaller, crossed out, or even colored! under the drop-down list there are other options too such as cursive text and lists. you can also add hyperlinks to text if you want. (this is all in the rich text editor, you can also switch to HTML or Markdown by going to your post settings.)

you can also add plenty of other media to posts! you can add up to 30 images which you can arrange however you please, although from my experience arranging images is kinda clunky, but still way better than twitter lol. you can also add gifs, videos (one per post), audio files (10 per post), and embed links. you can also add a cutoff line where everything under that line is hidden under a "read more" button, which is very useful for longer posts.

when you make a post, there is a space to add a title, but it's not required. most people don't add titles unless it helps with formatting.

you can also schedule a post to be posted at a certain time, queue posts to be posted on a consistent schedule, change who can reblog a post, and even save posts as drafts if you want/need to come back to them later.

Tags

Under every post you make/reblog, there is an option to add tags. these are in their own section under the post itself. you can add as many as you want afaik, but they can only be so many characters long. on tumblr, tags have multiple uses.

you can add tags that correspond to your post such as the topic or fandom (and characters/people involved), or whether it's art or photography, for example, to try to help get your post out there. it's preferred and just better in general to only add tags that are relevant to your post. don't tag character fanart as sports or food or pop music, but ESPECIALLY not an unrelated fandom.

you can also use tags to organize your blog and make it easier to find specific posts. you can tag your own art as "my art" and art you reblog from friends as "friends' art", and even create your own tags for specific topics you frequently post about, such as your oc world or a fandom fic or au you have. i personally don't use tags for organization much, but i do have my own tags for the two oc worlds i have. (you can do this even if you're not a fandom-goer or artist, these just serve as an example bc im both lol)

you can even use tags to add extra comments to a post. lord knows i do this a lot myself. lots of people will use tags to sort of ramble off-handedly under a post when it's not the main content of said post. this is especially common under reblogs - more on that later. since you can add spaces within tags, writing full sentences in the tags is easy and a very common practice. just be careful when using commas; adding a comma starts a new tag.

Notes

similarly to how twitter has likes, retweets and comments, tumblr has likes, reblogs and replies. however, these are all combined into one sum of notes. all notes on a post are compiled under the source post. by clicking on the number of notes under a post, you can see a list of all replies, likes and reblogs on a post, if you're curious like me.

on tumblr, likes act as more of a bookmarking tool. you can look at a list of all the posts you liked, and you can have this list displayed on your blog if you want, but likes do NOT increase the visibility of a post. if you want to help a post gain traction, you need to reblog it. if you don't want that post on your blog, but you want to let the person know that you've seen and enjoyed their post, you can leave a like as a small but kind gesture if you want. if you were playing minecraft, liking a post would be akin to punching a mob, but reblogging would be like using a sword. it may not necessarily be a powerful diamond sword, but it does more than a one-damage punch. i should also mention - you can only like a post once; if you like a reblog of a post, you like the source post and can't like separate reblogs of the post.

reblogs are the core of tumblr's functionality. this site does not have an algorithm, so reblogs are the only way for posts to circulate. it's probably pretty easy to figure out, but reblogs put another person's post on your own blog and on your followers' feeds. this is likely the biggest difference between tumblr and twitter: you can reblog a post as many times as you want, and you can add on to a post directly by reblogging, which is much different from a quote-tweet on twitter. also different from quote-tweets, all notes on reblogs are notes contributed to the source post. in a reblog, you can add a comment either in normal text or in the tags, and you can add images and gifs as well. it's common courtesy to put comments that don't contribute to the post in the tags, such as saying you think a post is funny. lots of famous tumblr posts are chains of reblogs - unlike on twitter where you can only retweet one tweet/reply at a time, you can reblog these reblog chains. you can also add the tags of the person you reblogged from to your own reblog if you want, though usually people just say "prev" if they liked the previous reblogger's tags.

replies are a convenient way to have a conversation under a post without repeatedly reblogging. although convenient, replies are limited in what you can do with them. they're text-only and have a character cap. but they're still a good way to add a quick comment to a post if you don't want it on your blog. you can also reply directly to a person in the notes of a post by mentioning them in your reply. replies can be deleted from a post or be turned off for a post entirely by the original poster.

I think that's about all you need to know to get started posting and reblogging, but please feel free to add on if i did happen to forget anything. thanks for reading and happy tumbling! :D

[kagejima]

Reading on Tumblr is a unique and odd experience. As a reader who has a small, but slowly growing, pool of mutuals I often find myself struggling to regularly keep up with their work that is longer than an average drabble. From my understanding of Tumblr and various social media sites, the best way to grow your platform, especially from a creative standpoint, is to produce content and produce content quickly to stay relevant. That’s a lot of onus on the creators because they need to not only be coming up with ideas but also dedicate time to write, edit, format and post their work. As a reader, I should be happy because all my favourite writers are spoiling me with fics, drabbles, hcs and everything in between, all the time. And because I love their writing, I know I’m going to enjoy everything that they post. However, that also means that there is a lot of content to consume and respond to. Personally, I believe that if I’ve read your entire work and I enjoyed it, you deserve to know that be it through tags/comments in reblogs, asks or dms. However, I want to do this right, meaning that I want to put in thought and catered praise. However, with the sheer amount that I want to read and I want to respond to I get overwhelmed and fall behind on my reading. Often it takes me longer to read what I have liked (which I know is a terrible bookmarking system and I'm trying to find a solution that works best for me and authors alike), but I do get to them slowly but surely. In a similar vein, there are so many instances where I don’t see a lot of mutual’s work perhaps due to timezones and/or how Tumblr decides to show content. Even after the queued '#icymi' posts I still find myself discovering a lot of missed content days, if not weeks, later which is equally frustrating from a reader’s perspective (especially when I want to support and encourage the authors I love so much). As mentioned before, I understand how important feedback is to creators, and I love giving it. However, sometimes the way that this site is coded doesn’t work in the creators' favour because as a follower I expect to see your posts on my dashboard similar to how you as authors expect your works to show up on my feed. All in all, there are two sides to every coin. I hear and understand the concerns that you have as creators, and I hope you know that making content should never be a chore but, should be something that you enjoy doing for yourself. Understanding readers and their moods/patterns is difficult as there are so many different ways individuals choose to consume content (I myself am a heavy mood reader and when I hyper-fixate on a character, I spiral and just read anything I can find on them). It's impossible to do everything by the book and cater to the endless varieties of readers. However, even if the numbers and the stats that you are receiving on your pieces are not what you like, please know that you're just as valid as other posters on this site.

I am monitoring a discussion this weekend between writers and readers about low interaction and frustrations. Please read the rules before submitting something.

Just as a reminder, if you wish to reply to someone's message, do not comment on it with your own handle. Instead, please link it in an anonymous reply of your own. If you do not know how to do this, I can walk you through it.

[chaseadrian]

When I get stressed about notes I try to remember what you said to me about not letting fandom affect mental health and how people shouldn’t care so much about notes/it should be about creating for the enjoyment, because you were so so right about that!

At the same time, the whole reason we’re sharing our creations on here is because we want other people to see them and like them and it’s definitely hard not to get discouraged if something doesn’t do well.

I’m so sorry that you’ve been feeling discouraged about posting your writing on here, I really hope you know that any lack of engagement has nothing to do with the quality. You are an excellent, emotive writer. Tumblr is just finnicky about interaction and engagement. You’ve written so much and there’s nothing wrong with taking a break if you need one, I just really hope you don’t doubt yourself because you are very talented and your fics are great. 

thanks sarah! yeah no i don’t ever think it has to do with the quality personally, i just don’t find it worth my time to spend the extra time formatting and making a header and then changing all the links on my navigation/masterlists. updating to ao3 is much easier and straightforward and catalogs the writing so i can still keep track of it.

i’m luckily at the point where i know lack of engagement has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with the downturn in engagement this site has seen the past few years. i write for myself, but i share it bc it’s nice being a part of fandom. but if i’m spending a lot of time writing only to get bad engagement then i have no problem just sharing fic with friends/mutuals, not on this site, bc at the end of the day yeah i don’t need to post anything here and neither does any other fandom creative