#my queue is almost empty so i'm posting some original stuff lol

[theshalesky]

i still think about the day i read that poem out loud to the class. the teacher said choose a poem from this book and read it and put in emotion and bring it to life. i chose a poem the most beautiful of all and waited impatiently for my turn. expecting to be praised as always. when i stood in front of the class i was nervous, but i felt good. the poem was long and i kept reading the ball rang and i kept reading. no one said anything, so i didn't stop. when i finished, i wasn't aware of any mistake. it was only when my teacher thanked me that this feeling started to cave in: thank you, you chose a lovely poem. i left the classroom and this feeling kept growing. i did something wrong, of course. replaying the situation in my head i understood too late. they didn't want me to read for that long or i didn't read it well enough. probably one because of the other. and that's the worst part: not that i wasn't good for once. but that i didn't get it. that i kept going, thinking they liked me unaware of the obvious cues. no, that's not the worst part. it was a good poem, they liked the poem in itself. they just didn't like the way i read it - i ruined a beautiful thing. simply by touching it simply by giving all that i was because the truth is: not that i wasn't good enough it's that i'm something that will never be liked. i still think about the day i read that poem out loud to the class.

[clover-system]

I follow 750 people, and about 20 of those are mutuals. I joined almost ten years ago at this point, way before there was an algorithm like the for you page (which is like two years old, max). Back before they started generating a feed for you the only ways to see posts at all would be following users to get posts on your dash or by exploring tags. Exploring tags constantly can get annoying so I followed people.

I only have about 200 followers total but I've had multiple posts breach containment - to keep my sanity I just turned off push notifications entirely except for when I get a dm. If you really want to stop a post from clogging up your activity feed while it's blowing up, the mute button has never really worked well according to reports - but you can delete the original post if you want. You'll never get a reblog in your feed again.

The reason I follow so many people is because I do like being able to see as many posts as I have time for - I follow a large amount of artists, some who only post once or twice a month, so that alone would truly be an empty feed. And on top of that I'd estimate at least 150 of them are dead blogs that haven't updated in five years because I don't have the heart to unfollow people who've moved on. I like to reblog a lot - before a lot of people flooded in from other social medias, reblogging was "the thing" you did on tumblr to a post you liked. It was really common for a post to have more reblogs than likes, with likes functioning more like bookmarks than anything. I haven't really changed how I view interacting on tumblr in a long time, but the culture here sure has changed around me. When I'm in the swing of things, I run a queue of 45 reblogged posts a day. I prefer to see posts to reblog as they get posted and reblogged by people and blogs I know, instead of always seeing posts from strangers. In my head the same post can have a different flavor coming from different users reblogging it. I enjoy having a lot of posts on my dash but I don't want the tumblr algorithm (which has a history of being flaky, making nonsensical decisions, and not giving you enough control over what you see) to be in charge of the content, I much prefer to see stuff curated by people I trust and share interests with. I hope this makes sense. Good luck with the too many notes! Tens of thousands really gets overwhelming at times.

If you really want to stop a post from clogging up your activity feed while it's blowing up, the mute button has never really worked well according to reports - but you can delete the original post if you want. You'll never get a reblog in your feed again.

Finally, someone who actually addressed the issue! Thanks!! Though I kinda wanna keep the post on my profile as functionally a souvenir, lol. Maybe I'll take it down if it bursts again.

before a lot of people flooded in from other social medias

When was this btw? What was the tipping point? When did likes become more common than reblogs? I always make sure to reblog/queue a bunch because I was told about that immediately. There have been a few movements to and from Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit.

before a lot of people flooded in from other social medias

Ack, why 45? That's so close to 50, the limit!

Good luck with the too many notes! Tens of thousands really gets overwhelming at times.

Yeah, thanks. Have fun in the processing vortex.