#plus there was the reblog spammers

[m0tiv8me]

I’m going to start working toward making a private group accountability blog a reality. This will take a little time to setup and think through logistics and how to combat some immediate challenges that come to mind such as:

Access and members: How to best gauge true interest and group member screening. I want every member to feel like this group blog is a safe positive space to share. This means not everyone will be granted access just because they ask. How to determine genuine interest and intent as well as trustworthiness is tough and will require some additional thought and process development.

Password sharing: Access to the group will be password protected and there is no way to prevent someone from handing out the password to whomever they like. Preventing this will lean heavily on admitting likeminded trustworthy group members.

Posting guidelines and rules: Some basic guidelines probably need to be established to keep the group focused on it’s primary purpose, and keep it supportive and enjoyable.

To reblog or not to reblog: I believe code can be custom modified to eliminate the reblog option on a page. This feels like an added layer of comfort for those who post and do not want their content to leave the privacy of the group.

Admins: obviously if I set up the group I would have admin rights to it. But it only feels right that more than one admin and perspective may be needed to keep operating opinions and ideas from becoming one sided. Plus I can’t always be on tumblr to manage the page all the time.

Free: the group will be FREE and not attempt to solicit or make money off of its members. It’s sole purpose it to help provide accountability, encouragement. Provide and outlet and be a safe positive space.

Ads: pretty sure the usual Tumblr Ads are unavoidable. But being a private page will eliminate bots, spammers and all the other Tumblr unpleasantries of a public facing page.

Content Control: Members will be able to create post and edit their own content as well as comment on other members posts. Reblogging content from your personal blog to the group blog I believe is possible but will need to test.

Member ID: To my understanding members would appear and post just as they would on their personal blog. So there would be no confusion or changing of who someone is.

Email: How a private tumblr group blog works is you must be sent a private email invite to join. The email is likely the same one you use with your Tumblr account. The email isn’t stored or used in any other way but to send an invite.

That’s about it right now. More to think through and work on before opening it up but it’s a start.

Tagging those who have already expressed early interest for visibility. @dafitness4shawn @fatmaninalittlesuit @bigbruthag @healthymist @cam-strong @theroadbacktoboston @jacqattacq @mikelcity

[chattingwiththelightkeeper]

Ramblin’ Wreck

One thing that most will notice about my blog is when I write out a post, it is normally well thought out, I do my best to have a subject in mind and try to keep it focused on that. This is not one of those posts and while I am not a Georgia Tech alumnus, I feel GT’s nickname of The Ramblin’ Wreck will fit this post well as I need to just get some of the things out of my mind.

No, nope, and no again. Sorry, Tumblr stranger but you do NOT know me from the content of my blog. It is true, I give glimpses into the person behind the blog but I assure two things, Dante Hicks has Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, New Jersey open even with gum in the locks and the sum of my blog does not add up to the entire person behind it.

Speaking of me again, that is right I am being a selfish person with this post, a couple of times a month a random stranger will message with saying something like “I love your blog but does your wife know you are kinky?” So in my best Jake from State Farm voice, here’s the real deal, I am not married, never have been but hope to be someday in a relationship with that level of commitment. I do want to thank the Tumblr troll who messaged me to tell me that “He has seen my wife”, I appreciate the memory it triggered of playing blackjack next to the late Jeff Healey. He asked me if I had seen his wife and I replied no. He laughed and said he had not either. If you did not understand Mr. Healey’s joke, he had not seen his wife because he was blind.

Continuing about my personal life, I keep parts of it personal. When I have something I want to share about it, I will but most likely personal things will be shared on my other social media pages, not here in the Tumblrverse. While I am an open person, respect that personal lives are personal, and just because I blog it does not mean everyone is entitled to access to every facet of my life.

I am more than happy to answer questions but I have one request, be polite. No ‘be polite’ does mean addressing me by a lifestyle title but starting with “Hey fucker, I have a question” is not going inspire me to answer your question. What it is going to inspire me to do is hit the block button.

Good conversation is something I enjoy and I chatting with other Tumblrs but please remember I have a life outside of this blog. So I may not respond immediately to you or this may make me an asshat in some people’s minds but I adore real conversation so if you cant bring a chat that is stimulating, no not in a sexual way you pervert, the conversation is going to fall by the wayside.

Since I am talking about life outside of Tumblr, I guess you could say I took the advice of a few high school bullies who used to tell my group of friends “Hey nerds, get a life”. I have built a very full life, which means, surprise, I am not on Tumblr 24/7. Just because you may notice my blog has just posted, it does not mean I staring at my phone or laptop posting away. What this means is my queue just dropped that post.

On the subject of life outside of Tumblr, since the COVID has altered my world and changed my work-life to a work from home life, I have started to struggle. No, it is not the lack of peopling but it is a struggle of my own making. Back when going to work involved commuting, the drive home was my time to unplug from work and provided a clean mental break. Now that this commute is missing from my life, I faced an epic fail where I just could not put work away and quickly my workdays stretched to a minimum of fourteen hours plus I allowed it to encroach upon my weekends. All of this caught up with me, I flamed out, and it felt like I was in a flat spin downward. Thankfully, unlike Maverick, I was able to save it without ejecting but because of this, I am very mindful of how much time I spend on electronic devices (Please note, Goose was not hurt during the making to this post). So this means even less time on Tumblr for me than before the COVID crap-o-la.

A common comment I receive on Tumblr is, “I recently followed you and I see some people can reply to your posts but I cannot. You are not being fair picking and choosing who can reply.” I am being very fair with who can and who cannot reply because I do not pick or choose. Tumblr, just like any blogging platform, has spambots and the best defense against them is to not allow replies until either seven or fourteen days (I cannot remember what the exact number is in the blog’s settings) have passed since someone followed my blog. Spammers are not patient, so if they cannot go to work replying with links to their cryptocurrency scams, they move on. If you are a new follower, thank you for following, but understand there is no picking and choosing of who can or cannot reply. Just be patient and that will become an option or if there is something on your mind that cannot wait, reblog the post with a comment.

Well, my rambling is over, and thank you for letting me get out all the frustrations that have been building up in my mind.

As with all of my writings, please see this disclaimer.

©TLK2020

[99point9percentwhump]

Blogger’s Lament

Ha, the spammers are at it again and they’ve upgraded their messages!

“ hurverscobaloucoun421theasHello hоw are уоu dоing I just seеn your tumblr page... You sir, havе flоw. It's аwеsоme, I likе  your posts. Good!! I'm gоing tо invіtе 1920+ friends n nеw subscrіbers tо уоur blog. And сr��ate Wеlcomіng рoster fоr u. You will obtаіn follоwеrs fоr уour tumblr blog get nеw reblogs, lіkes, sharеs to yоur postеd content. сheck оut thе lіnk in my profile ріc. “

I’m not sure what I found more humorous the “you sir have flow” or the I’m going to invite 1920+ friends”

Careful friends they’re evolving!!!!!!

Last year's spammers: P-bots follow us we’ve got p*rn!

Yesterday's spammers: I love your blog you might like mine subscribe, please, pretty please!

Today’s spammers: HI!!! I’m uber friendly and would like an oddly specific number of +PLUS+ to follow me!!!!!!! ‘cus you got so much flow! 

[sharky857]

Is it possible to feel emotional over one's own post?

I'm referring to this post here: http://sharky857.tumblr.com/post/180595431362

Or better, to how many notes it gained in the span of a few hours.

As I'm typing this, it has a staggering count of 1.144 notes: 489 like and 653 reblogs (plus a few replies here and there)

And I do mean staggering. I've always been running a messy and overall trash blog solely to post and reblog about whatever stuff I may like, with the occasional signal boost concerning what I consider as the most important topics (while always being also careful not to be like some kind of spammer, although some hyperfixation moments can cause me to reblog several posts in a row about any new interest *cough* see "League of Legends KDA *cough*).

As owner of this "messy & trash blog", I never expect to see any of my own posts taking off THAT much. Most of the times I have 0 to 4-5 notes, 99% of them as simple "likes", sometimes notes might grew close to 10-20, and in the rarest occurrences they shoot past 1k.

So far, the latter situation happened only once, as far as I remember, and even so it still took some days/weeks to get there. It wasn't a signal boost post, just some gifset from a quite old anime I put up together in the spur of the moment.

Last night, I saw some posts about Article 13 popping up a lot on my dashboard.

I've always been seeing those posts in the past days/weeks, and I even left my humble contribution in form of "signal boost" reblogs.

It was during one of those reblogs that I remembered that, when the first plenary vote happened, the site "saveyourinternet.eu" also had three different options for EU citizens to contact the MEPs of one's own native Country.

Tweets and emails were basically as simple as "click here and here, add this and that small info and then click send", while the 3rd option (the most dreaded, for some as socially anxious as yours truly) was about phoning those same MEPs.

But then, during the time of the 2nd vote, those options were gone from that site.

Now Article 13 (and 11 too) is entering what's supposed to be the 3rd and final vote, and that same site still displays no sign of "contact your MEPs" option anywhere, which kiiiinda ticks me off, to be fairly honest. I know there are petitions on “charge.org” (I even linked them in the post mentioned at the beginning), but poking the MEPs with concerned messages sounds like a more direct way to get their attention and (possibly) reconsider their vote.

So I started to search for alternative sites that could offer a similar option, and one of them was what my friendo @d-structive also linked in one of the reblogs.

Alas, that site turned out to be only for UK citizens to contact their UK-only MEPs, while my Google search for another alternative led to basically nowhere. Then @d-structive dropped by my Tumblr chat and left THE LINK.

Being a curious Sharky, I clicked THAT LINK.

After a very short browsing, I saw THE OPTION and I thought: "Ok. This... This is big."

I rushed back to Tumblr and started to make my own signal boost post. While I was at it, something hit me: while choosing my Country from the drop-down menu, I saw too many listed to be only EU zone ones.

So I went back to that site and tried to enter "united". I originally intended to fully type "united states", but I had only the time to write "unit-" before that site showed me "united states" and "united arab emirates".

That had been when I thought back at what I mused only a few minutes earlier. That finding wasn't a big deal. That finding was a FREAKIN' HUGE DEAL!

So I went back to Tumblr and fixed the still in-progress post, while sharing this “discovery” also with my friend.

By the time she replied and said “maybe we should tell the others too”, I had already double and triple checked my own draft for typos and smashed “post".

As I said at the beginning, my blog is a messy trash that barely gets any attention, except for the same, few followers and friends liking & reblogging.

But I miscalculated the power of a single reblog from @d-structive.

That adorable "stinky fish" is within the "JSE fandom" and, according to what she told me, this fandom is made of really nice artists and fans, who've been all worrying A LOT about this whole "Article 13" ordeal.

The moment they spotted a way for non-EU folks to finally send a message to our MEPs, they didn't hesitate and immediately slammed both "like & reblog", because "HOLY SH*T GUYS LOOK!" reasons.

Amongst that flood of notes, I also saw some of my own followers and friends reblogging that same post, for the records.

And to be honest, seeing how this post is still spreading throughout Tumblr like the wildest of fires as I'm writing this, has been warming my cold, cynical heart.

[asian-avatars-hunt]

Updates #4

Alors les ptits loups ! J’espère que tout le monde se porte bien en ces chaleurs prenantes, faîtes attention à vous et :

Pour en revenir à l’update, je ne pense pas que vous ayez remarqué ! Mais !

**La liste des tags a quasiment été mise à jour, il ne me reste plus qu’à peaufiner certains tags et aussi à devoir ajouter les “To add” (qui sont nombreux). Puis a maj les graphistes qui s’amusent à changer de pseudo, merci pour le boulot :p

**Le design va changer ! Pas celui de la liste de tags mais celui du forum tout court. J’essaye d’en trouver un avec le bouton reblog et like et qui permet de voir les tags et aussi avec de quoi afficher de futurs Partenaires/Forum du mois/et liens clairs vers les différentes pages que j’ai en cours de constructions. Navrée pour l’attente !

**J’ai actuellement près de 800 billets dans mes likes parce que j’ai eu la flemme de les reblogger donc je m’excuse par avance pour le spamm. La file d’attente est toujours entre 01h00 du matin et 07h00 et de 30 billets. J’en ai +100 qui attendent.

**J’ai actuellement 5 Avatars Hunts à faire ! Du coup, je pense aussi ajouter un endroit sur le design où montrer quels sont les spamms qui vont avoir lieu. Il n’y a pas de tag du genre “request” pour mais si vous faîtes une requête, vous verrez quand arrive la votre et le tag utilisé pour la célébrité. Les avatars Hunt ne sont pas mise dans la file d’attente mais rb dans l’immédiat ! Ou alors qu’une partie ! J’essayerai de pas trop spammer !

** ET ? 35 Abonnées ?? Je sais que ça ne paraît pas énorme mais pour moi ça l’est, je ne m’y attendais pas ! Merci infiniment à tous ! L’un d’entre eux est un porn blog mais qui sait, ils font ptête du rp

**A part cela, je suis un peu pas mal occupée avec mon futur forum mais ça devrait aller, promis, les changements arriveront vite (c’est ce que je dis depuis 3 mois nan ? oups :p)

In english

Quick update on what’s going on !

**The tag list has been almost completly updated, I just need to ACTUALLY correct some graphists’ credits and also put the “to add” tags in the list.

**The design is going to change... Again. I don’t find it practical for you to not be able to see the tag list link really visible. But I’ll keep reblog & like button visible. The navigation page isn’t going to change, I like it that way, please don’t hesitate to tell me your opinion about it.

**I have around 800 likes and 100 in the queue and I’m sorry it’s taking me this long, I was unorganized for some days uh. The queue is still around 1am and 7am for 30 posts.

**I have already 5 avatars hunts requests ! So if you see some spamm, I’m sorry. I’ll try to put half of it in the queue but considering this is a hunt, I’ll see how I’m mananing. Also, I’ll try to add to the design a space where I can actually write what request are going on right now

**35 subscribers ? How rad is that !! Thank you all ! I didn’t think this tumblr would actually work LOL One of them is a porn blog but hey, who cares, maybe they do rpg.

**I’m quite busy with the opening of my forum but I’ll keep on doing my best (that’s what I’m saying since 3 months so I’m sorry in advance haha) You will soon see the Forum Promotion section opened BUT it’ll be mostly french rpg forum since I’m part of the community. Tho. If I see more english request, I’ll be glad to insert more of it too ! What do you think ?

Lot of of love et pleins de besos ♥

[mylifeisaseries]

@crilag @stamp-gray @acaoli @epineusement-votre @prunif et tou.s.tes les intéressé.e.s, je pense que je vais poster ça sur mon blog littéraire @thebooknerdqueen. Je rebloguerais sûrement quelques trucs ici mais je veux pas spammer plus que je ne le fais déjà. To all interested parties, I think I'm going to post all of the novel related things on my literary blog @thebooknerdqueen. I'll probably reblog some things here but I don't want to spam more than I already do.

[phantomviola]

Thanks so much for tagging me @mypedrom 💕💕

1. Why did you choose your URL?

I was (and still am) a big fan of the musical The Phantom of the Opera plus I play the viola so I just merged the two and haven’t really wanted to change it since.

2. Any side blogs?

Nah. Y’all are going to see my obsessions in one place.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

I’ve been on here since 2010, so that’s 11 years total. Wow.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Yes. I have several actually. I use the basic one, then a “Mari is stuck grading” tag and a “Back to work” tag. I do like to schedule things in advance rather than posting all at once.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

It was mainly for the purpose of blogging Doctor Who and Sherlock content. Plus, David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch content as well.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I love Maxwell Lord so much and the wonderful @sirtadcooper made such gorgeous icons of him. The only tough decision was to choose which background color and style I wanted.

7. Why did you choose your header?

In case y’all haven’t noticed, I’m in love with Pedro Pascal and once again @sirtadcooper blew me away with her header design and I had to get one. Plus, I love the added touch of Pedro’s signature on the side.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

This ridiculous Pedro Pascal characters + text posts entry. I still cannot believe how many notes it has. 😲

9. How many mutuals do you have?

I have no idea, but there are several and I love every one of them.

10. How many follows do you have?

Apparently I have 220 followers but I’d say it’s a bit less than that due to dead blogs or possible spammers.

11. How many people do you follow?

103

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

Nope

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

I’m on here for a few hours each day, either in the afternoon or late evening. I’m trying to limit the amount of time I’m on here though recently. I’ve been teaching online for a year now so less screen time is necessary.

14. Did you have a fight with another blog once?

Nope. I avoid any online fights or confrontations if I can.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I was posting some of those earlier in the year since I was feeling bad for my writing mutuals and/or others that made gifsets or edits, but I’ve cut back on reblogging those posts recently. I realize they are important for exposure and that Tumblr and Instagram / Twitter are not the same, but I personally think that as long as you get some kind of attention (be it through reblogs, likes, or comments) that’s good. However: stealing and reposting is not cool.

16. Do you like tag games?

Yes I do! They are always fun!

17. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I’d definitely say @sirtadcooper, @trashcora, @steveroger, @pedrocentric, and @mandalores just to name a few are true artists and deserve all the praise for their work. (Also IDK why the heck y’all are following little ol’ me. Unreal.)

18. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Oh, absolutely. Inside I’m still a nerdy lone teenager at the cafeteria looking around for a place to sit but too afraid to approach you beautiful mutuals sitting at the cool kids table out of fear of rejection or being made fun of. *adjusts glasses and slinks away*

No pressure tag: @pedro-pastel, @voidjarin, @fairy-feather, and anyone else who wants to do this.

[aikainkauna]

Seriously, Tumblr

I really don't know what they've done to their tag algorithms, but so many of my Connie posts are dropping off the tag, even if they have no swearing in the tags or whatever else weird stuff they censor (while keeping pedo and pornspam and Nazi blogs going!) at random. Oh yeah, and they hate everything that has a link to a HQ photo in it because SURELY those are spam, and right underneath, they recommend me a meth fandom blog with some guy demonstrating his speed dick to me. (Have I joked about Connie being on speed so much?!?)

So, really. IDK what the fuck to do because how do I help people access pics and info about this too-obscure master actor and amazing human being without Tumblr thinking I'm a spammer? When their measures against actual spam/harm blogs are useless?

I guess the only thing any of us can do is to reblog the good stuff as much as we can. So if you want to spread the love, share it--because Tumblr won't allow me to make the perfectly ordinary photos and gifs visible otherwise.

Plus, I'm getting crazy likespams from some folks again (they come on like menstruation, I swear--one every month and it's useless and it keeps going on and it's painful), so this is probably a good time to mention (for the hundredth time) that 20+ likes don't do anything except flood my dash. If you really love this gangly, slinky panther so much, share him instead of just bombarding the OP--that'll actually help spread the love. And now that Tumblr's making it even harder for the fans of obscure things to get heard, reblogging's never been more valuable.

[aikainkauna]

Oh dear

...seems reblogging that old rant drove away someone sensible, while the spammer continued and now my Activity page is still taking ages to load just because of that one person’s spammage (while the interesting new person is gone). 

Knowing the autism level of the typical puppydog/likespammer, I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s always a shame. Only the people who have any actual social intelligence left even *entertain* the thought they might have offended someone and go off in an anxious weeping heap/insulted huff, whereas it’s the really disturbing stalkers/puppydogs/spammers who don’t get it even if you literally tell them “this thing you’re doing is uncomfortable, please stop.” I legit had a real sociopath here a couple of weeks ago, with no empathy plus several creepy comments (and who proceeded to take over all my free time with massive commentspamming), so I really am not exaggerating. She just didn’t get that I was not going to be BFFs with her just because she liked a thing I posted, and that I did not have the time to talk to her all day. No amount of trying to be reasonable or polite helped, and I had to block her.

And if you think I’m being a cranky bitch, this is honestly what you’ll end up being like yourself after spending 23 years on the Internet. I’m so, so past that stage where I would just try and bear it and be nice and then be driven nuts. After you’ve had that happen approximately 75 times, you realise life’s too short. I’m actually still too stupidly patient and still too nice, because I didn’t just block the aforementioned sociopath outright (even when I realised she had the mental age of a toddler) but tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and to talk reason to her. And I’ll never get back those hours/days of my life. So if you ever end up in a similar situation, don’t be too hard on yourself. You *have* to put a stop to it or they’ll drain you, while never realising you’re a living, breathing human being with a life and thoughts and feelings of your own. Remember that that type of puppydog/spammer can only see their own obsession, that thing they’re fannish about. They only bombard you because you offer a mirror from which to reflect their own obsession. Not because they are that interested in you as a person to exchange fannish thought with.

JSYK, I really don’t mind the genuine likes, just the spammers who leave a wall of their name on the Activity page as they systematically go through your blog and make a point of liking everything with their darlings in to the point where they drown everything underneath themselves. You are probably not one of those people, so don’t worry. I am absolutely ok with fangirling, but there is a line after which it just turns pointless and unwieldy and stops serving any kind of positive purpose. I’d much rather... talk with you? Exchange tags, maybe, if you reblogged a thing? Like, you know, *interact,* rather than just be bombarded with these clicks?