#new-xkit-extension

[baraste-legacy]

I just wanted to say that I am in AWE of your organization skills. That masterlist is masterfully done. I’m trying to do something similar for my own blog, but I’m having a hard time figuring out categories and making sure things don’t overlap and everything is easily findable. I aspire to get it looking like yours!

@thegirlsinthecity Thank you for your kind words 😊. It's still an imperfect system (some tag overlappings that seemed like a good idea at the time, now I'm doubtful about, and the Archive view is rather unwieldly), but hopefully it's useful for the visitor.

This whole thing grew with time, and I wouldn't be able to handle it if not for a few tools. Just in case you didn't know them, they are:

XKit: a desktop browser plugin that brings a set of little fantastic "quality of life" tools to Tumblr. The ones I use the most are:

Quick Tags, where I have a lot of tagging presets. Most of times, adjusting them is just a matter of deleting some tags in the result of its application (for example, when a fan art post isn't about SWTOR, I just delete that tag), which is fast to do.

And One-Click Postage: it has the Reblog button bring up this little panel that can produce a reblog, a scheduled one or a draft at the click of one of those bottom buttons. The beauty of it is that it can auto-tag with the original post's tags and the name of the original blogger (which is great if one is doing a reblogs drafts spree while idly scrolling the site and wants to later remember what they were about, for when the time comes to tidy them up and reblog them). That, or let you add the tags from the very Quick Tags list, either at that moment or while editing them.

They are a lifesaver. The thing is, there are several XKit variants around, each with a different level of feature parity and compatibility, but they can coexist. I'm mostly using @new-xkit-extension for classic editor posts and reblogs, and XKit-Rewritten for the new editor ones.

And speaking of lifesavers: given the poor state of Tumblr's blog maintenance tools, every time an artist changes their blog's name or I discover a better way to tag old posts and reblogs, the idea of having to edit a lot of them becomes quite dreadful. There is, though, this tool: tags.circumfluo.us. Basically, a web application that offers tag search-and-substitute functions (including replacing sequences of tags, say, find A B C and replace with A D C keeping that order).

One must be a little careful when the list of posts exceeds certain amount, as Tumblr has some daily limits for this kind of post modifications (at worst, you can find out that it didn't manage to process all of them and that you can't post any more for the day, but you could do it again another day to process the ones left). It is great for massaging the way one has tagged things into shape.

So, I'd say just tag things in a way that feels usable to you 🙂. Consistency doesn't have to be perfect, although these tools make it far easier, and you can always readjust things later with tools like that webpage.

And again, thanks for the praise. I really love it when people find this thingy of mine both useful and usable.

[phynali]

Tumblr tip sheet for twitter refugees

i’ve seen a lot of different advice posts but none that had what i consider all the key advice in one spot, so here we are. long post ahead.

-

1. your dash can be put into reverse chronological order and it is a BETTER experience if you do that

Go to your settings -> Dashboard -> Preference

Turn “Best Stuff First” OFF

2. you can (and likely should!) turn off algorithmic content

Under the same menu. Settings -> Dashboard -> Preferences

There are two algorithms on tumblr.

One is “In your orbit” and I fucking hate it. i want to see the content that I like, not that some random person i follow likes. if i wanted to see that content on my dash, i’d follow the people who put it there.

The other is “based on your likes” and it is hilariously bad because if you like a post for something you don’t normally like or follow (e.g., when I watched a new movie and liked one post about it), you’ll suddenly get a dozen posts about that thing and only that thing.

I keep it on because it’s hilariously bad, but i honestly recommend turning it off. it routinely recommends shit to me that i hate and i have to keep telling it that i am “not interested in this post” for things tagged with my nOTP, but until / unless i filter that ship tag out entirely, i will keep being serviced those

3. filtering / blacklisting is your friend

this is true on every platform, not just tumblr. i’m sure veteran twitter users are well-versed in it, but just as a reminder. you will be expected to filter your own content/dash here on tumblr, and if you complain about seeing something that was properly tagged, you will be rightly mocked as a clown.

Settings -> Account -> Content You See

you can filter both tags and post content. There’s a completely innocuous post i absolutely hate that does rounds and is never tagged, and i almost unfollowed a mutual for how much i hate that post and them reblogging it so much. but i typed a specific sentence from that post into the “filtered post content” options and BOOM - haven’t seen it since. glorious.

4. content controls are your friend

under the same “Content You See” menu. You are automatically opted OUT of seeing this stuff, so you MUST opt in to see mature content.

you’ll want to determine your own preferences, but i prefer to see all of the mature content types that may be hit with a community label.

5. long posts are (probably) your friend

tumblr cuts posts over a few lines if you have this turned off, and it’s really annoying and really truncates your experience of the website. THIS is itself a long post!

part of the quintessential tumblr experience is being annoyed by the “do you love the color of the sky” post.

seriously, this isn’t twitter. we aren’t here for 280 character bite-sized posts. i 10/10 recommend keeping long posts on.

Settings -> Dashboard -> Interface

6. blog-specific settings

there is also a menu for additional settings (including updating the appearance etc) for each blog you have (your main, and any sideblogs).

this is near the end of your options under Settings -> Blog Settings (click the individual blog to update)

under your blog settings you can...

- enable your custom theme (which you should! this is turned off for new users but personalizing your page is part of the experience)

- decide if you want people to know what posts you’re liking and who you’re following. i do NOT, so these are off. internet privacy is allowed on tumblr, and don’t let anyone bully you into thinking you need to make everything public for their supervision. consume all the problematic content your little gremlin content desires and tell people to fuck off if they take issue with that.

- determine if and how others can interact with your blog!! there some settings about asks, messaging, tipping (if you’re here to make $$), whether people can even SEE your blog, if it’s searchable, etc. tumblr gives power and control back to the users! use that power!

here, you can specifically set your “Ask” preferences to on or off, and to accept or NOT accept asks from anonymous users / logged out users.

if you’re here to interact with friends or just vibe, or don’t reblog a lot of asks games or encourage anon inbox messages, and/or especially if you’re getting harasment and don’t want to deal with shitty users, it is okay to turn off anons, and i ENCOURAGE you to do so.

i keep it on for my fandom sideblogs and off for my main and this makes me happy. do what makes you happy.

7. etiquette and interface

- change your icon so no one thinks you’re a bot

- reblog posts so your account isn’t empty. also, with  algorithmic content turned off by most users, YOU are the algorithm, and interaction on this website is strongly encouraged. making or reblogging posts part of the experience and sort of the whole point

- reblog tagging: individual preferences apply. instead of adding a comment on a reblog, users will often add their thoughts in a tag, if they aren’t specifically looking to engage in a dialogue or add on to the post itself. other users can then decide to copy their tags (often with “prev” for “previous” appended) or even copy/paste them into a comment on their reblog, which is your tags “passing peer review”. people also tag to index posts so their blog is more searchable, and to include trigger warnings and content warnings related to a post. you can also choose to not tag anything. it’s your blog, do what you want.

- tags are how people find new content. if you make a new post and want people to find it, they will be searching the tag related to that content, so tag it accordingly. people can also follow tags and get notifications when new posts are made into that tag.

- do not censor words! this isn’t tiktok or twitter. we say ‘fuck’ and ‘kill’ here. if you write “unalive” or censor swears or triggers, people’s content filters do not work, and you will have undermined their ability to curate their content, moderate their experience, and avoid triggers. don’t do that. just spell out the whole goddamn word, please.

- you can make sideblogs under a single account! this means you have your main, which you interact (like, reply, and follow) from, but which can be used to have a space for all your posts and reblogs on a given topic (fandom, hobby, fixation, whatever). you can also direct message to/from a sideblog and accept asks etc.

- if you use tumblr in your browser, there is an add-on called XKIT. this used to be a tumblr user staple and allowed for a lot of functionality that tumblr didn’t used to have. tumblr has since very much upped their game, but it can still be worth using XKIT if you’re regularly in a browser and not on the app. for example, it includes some ad-blocking capabilities. I use “New Xkit” and have a few personalized settings with it.

- posts go around forever on this site and new memes crop up every day, retreat, and then resurge out of the blue randomly. this makes for tumblr-wide in-jokes that circulate for years, like “do you love the color of the sky” and the “color theory children’s hospital” post. if you don’t get these, you can ask and i’m sure tumblr will deliver, but you can also wait around and follow more people and these will turn up eventually.

- your dash is what you make it. your interaction is what you make it. you have control, you are not at the mercy of algorithms and advertisers if you don’t want to be. paying for ad-free browsing is an option. they even give you the option to toggled your ad settings within ad-free browsing. seriously - you. have. the. control.

this is something that we love about tumblr and one of the things that makes it our hellsite (affectionate) instead of our hellsite (derogatory). if you’re finding your experience to be negative but still want to stick around, i encourage you to block accounts or content that makes you unhappy or anxious, to follow the accounts that bring you joy, and to adjust your settings into whatever makes you happiest and least stressed out.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

For anyone annoyed by the Tumblr changes, if you're on desktop I would recommend using XKit Rewritten (and New XKit for any other odd changes you'd like to try out, including even older aspects of Tumblr). It's the older version of Rewritten but most of the extensions on it are still supported/do work). I can't guarantee they'll definitely make a fix for it/a direct fix for this particular UI change, but it's possible that they might since they usually make extensions that allow you to essentially revert changes made to the UI. Other various UI extensions (such as old ones from Tumblr's past UIs that the extensions basically just revert you to) may also help fix up your UI.

As you might expect these extensions need to be on to work/revert the appearance of the UI (so if you turn them off you'll revert to the current state of Tumblr), but while they are on you can curate your UI to look how you want it. This goes for both New XKit and XKit Rewritten. I use both and I couldn't live without them lol. You can get some big oldies of Tumblr's, like classic search on Rewritten or the Tweaks extension (full of various UI tweaks) on New XKit (including the old shade of blue Tumblr used a long time ago that I never stopped using!).

Unfortunately I don't know of any solution for mobile if it affects mobile at any point (or if it already has), but whenever you're on desktop, I would definitely recommend both these versions of XKit. I have so many extensions from them that I often don't even realize when there are UI changes (remember how Tumblr added themes for your dashboard? I didn't even notice for the longest time because I've had New XKit on the whole time) because Tumblr's default coding is overwritten by the extensions I have on.

[argisthebulwark]

my desktop layout just changed and holy shit this is just twitter. this is pretty unusable. tumblr execs really saw twitter plummet and thought "failing as a website is my thing!!"

[thedragonmod]

Everyone: Gets to enjoy the old Tumblr Layout thanks to "Dashboard Unfucker"

Me, a Google Chrome user:

[lostlovepunk]

tumblr really was like

hm desktop is completely unusable now

let's also run off the people who use the app

[irradiatedsnakes]

OH MY GOD ITS QUICK TAGS!!! QUICK TAGS IS WHY I KEEP BREAKING POLLS!!!

if you use the quick tags xkit extension to add tags to a post from the dashboard it breaks the poll and makes it appear as links! the reason i keep breaking polls is because i use this extension so much!

(i knew before that it could break certain formatting- if you have images set up beside each other, quick tags will break and make them all on top of each other making the post super long.)

[onewingedangels]

i see tumblr updated its shitty twt dash again that some of the xkit's features don't work anymore :')

[mihrsuri]

Apparently now clicking on a username on a post just takes you to the persons blog not the specific post and also tumblr no longer remembers most of my tags I am UPSET. /whine.

[opera-gx-official]

Welcome castaways

welcome to your new home, and what better way to spruce up ur new place than with operaGX, the browser for gamers.

[saturnisfallingdown]

THE PC IS UP AND RUNNING!! currently working on downloading the iso file to install linux mint on it but I am sending this post from my desktop!!! how sick is that!!

[caredfours]

hi friends <3 i'll be getting back to messages and things soon , sorry for being a lil quiet 😭 i've had a lot on my plate recently + am still recovering from being sick so it's all been a lot at once 🤍

[snowflop]

I've finally been infected with the new dash layout, this fucking sucks

[flikkerij]

accidentally closed my tumblr tab bc i thought it was twitter at first glance

[crispyblonde]

the way that people are so fucking greedy and nasty when someone dies is downright disgusting and shameful. especially when you're a family member that had bad blood / nothing to do with them when someone fucking died and you're going to immediately go take their stuff or act like you're entitled to it over everyone else in the world.

make sure people you love make wills even if they are seemingly healthy and young.

[dafukdidiwatch]

Part 57

WHOO HOO! Finally! Agatha is Mother Free! Gil is Father Free! Tarvek is not frozen in time for a while! The romance gang is back together!!

Of course we can't celebrate just yet with Zeetha's backstory, Dupree's Backstory, the underwater lab about to blow up and taking them all down with it, but it's the little victories