#refugee site

[redtail-lol]

If you use arab.org like I do please consider taking the extra 30-60 seconds to click on ALL of their causes. Palestine is important but so are the environment, refugees, children, women, and the impoverished across the middle east and it doesn't take away from Palestine to click for multiple causes. The arab world faces a lot of problems and they only get worsened by how western nations have oppressed and attacked them. Clicking is small but it generates something and overtime it does benefit the greater good. It takes all of us clicking as often as possible but we can do it! It's really easy and safe and they have proofs on their site on how they do make an impact and are donating your click money

[arguablysomaya]

are. are keyboard smashes a thing. on tumblr.

[taffybuns]

Not sure if tumblr's seen this yet, but the Philippine-Palestine Friendship Association is taking donations to help refugees from Gaza who are currently staying in the country. This was last updated on December 13.

Attaching images below from their posts. They're taking donations both locally and internationally.

[heinous-bitch]

an advice for new tumblr users? stop trying to be aesthetic™ and start posting about things you're truly interested in. this hellhole stopped being aesthetic a long time ago

[ikkihuikki]

.2020

[yelow-heart]

Welcome twt immigrants or just newcomers o///

Every week a new wave of twt refugees arrive and so I decided to put together a tumblr 101 to keep ur experience the most stress free and safe as possible

So here it goes:

You can delete comments or plain out disable comments from your posts! So much control.

You can also edit your posts. It even was a meme back on the olden days where a post would go viral and then the op (original poster) would change the post to something silly and the reblogers would look like wierdos or dumdums lol

You can disable your asks or make a rule so people can't ask as anonymous

Report spams!! You can even get rewarded for it. But, even so, report it, they get immediately taken down temporarily

The report system work and the tumblr team is very responsible when investigating an account/post. It's not nuance and easy to make. No one will judge you for it, in fact, it's common culture to do so. It's how we battle pornbots, spams, hate blogs etc.

You have full control of your blog! What people can see, what it can show, block hashtags and the whole shbang.

The algorithm works! Only the things that YOU search for and like will be recommended to you. And if something u no longer has interest in shows up? Just click that u don't want anymore and immediately everything u don't want goes away.

There are many famous blogs that are fun to follow, specifically as newcomer, to really get u on the tumblr experience such as: heritageposts, thebootydiaries, hotboyproblems, showerthoughtsofficial, fartgallery, haikubotofficial and many others. These are just the ones I followed when first arrived back in 2016;

Yes, there are celebrities among us but they're just... here. Vibing, chilling. The most famous ones being Neil Gaiman and Taylor Swift. Here they are just people;

You might have noticed a lot of blogs with blue verification badges. Some with 20 of them. Some are rainbow! That's because Tumblr made a parody of the verification mark from twt and it was fcking hilarius. We loved it so much that it's a thing now. U too can feel very important if u want!

It's worth going the trending tags. Sometimes they are broken, but it's mostly memes or important world news stuff that are actually relevant and helpful. It's safe and you'll have a fun time lurking on other people's fandoms. That's actually how I got into some of my fandoms to begin with;

Crabs.

And there we have it! I might have forgotten something, but I not too worried as I know that people might add it later on. 😉

Welcome welcome!! You'll be safe here. No matter who you are you find a community for you here

It's a hellsite, but it's our hellsite

Remembered something:

It's important to have a profile picture and header image. An reblog a few things before following anyone. Or you will be reported because people will think you're a spam bot kkkkkkkkk so do nurture your blog a little bit before venturing into the unknown.

[robotoooo]

Me when I first started playing TotK: Wow this game is beautiful and awesome and terrifying! I can't wait to see what's going on in the story! Hell yeah! Me the moment I joined Tumblr: *weeping* and there was only ONE BED and she kept his old HAIRBAND they were in LOOoOoOVE!

[catboypalug]

Please help me I am but a poor catboy castaway from the distant lands of reddit. I landed here sopping wet and miserable clinging to a piece of driftwood. How the fuck do you navigate this webbed site

[treeembrace]

I think the biggest downside I see from switching from reddit to Tumblr is that reddit was also where I got my news. Like, whenever I open up RiF, 5/6 of the first posts in my feed are news articles telling me what's going on in the world.

On Tumblr if you want the news you need that Destial pic. That's it.

[meraarts]

Twitter users scrambling to tumblr is funny and all, but it’s also weirdly uncomfortable? I feel so visible, all these Twitter screenshots of posts and prominent users making accounts here. We used to be a little ecosystem on the fringes of the internet, safely watching everything unfold from afar, or dealing with our own intrasystem shit. Now the epicentre of the web is shifting our way and I’m scared for our delicate status quo.

[glamjrwi]

Okay I’m making this while tired but I figure I can at least get it started and smart people can add on. if you’re here from jrwitwt first off HELLO!!! Welcome. I know there have been several posts going around saying watch your step, we do things differently here, and to get with it, that might seem a bit intimidating. So I wanted to make this non-exhaustive list of how tumblr works and HOW we do things different so you can get settled in :)

also these are just to the best of my ability and based off my time here i am by no means a standard, just a starting point

-You might’ve heard this one already but there isn’t much of an algorithm here. You can follow certain tags and blogs. The best way to find people is to just scroll through tags and check out blogs whose posts you enjoyed

-reblogging is standard. Likes are typically for letting a mutual(or anyone rlly) know you saw their post or during liveblog sessions(at least that’s how I use them) while we have replies on posts that might look like a comment section. It really isn’t most of the time. Comments are normally put in the tags of reblogs. It’s completely okay if your blog is just reblogs that’s super normal here. you don’t have to have an original thought if you don’t want to

-If you really don’t want to post/lurk and only follow ppl, change your pfp so we know you aren’t a bot. Blank blogs have a history of being bots and if we can’t tell you’re a person a lot of people will block on sight. Just fair warning

-We do a lot of blocking here. If you don’t like someone’s posts, block em and keep going. The filter tags system on tumblr really works(I’ve heard twt is fussy and not great) and most people tag things appropriately here so you Will Not see the shit you don’t want to

-TAG THINGS APPROPRIATELY PLEASE it’s a give and take. When it comes to spoilers, as long as the original poster tagged it you normally don’t have to tag it again in a reblog but you can out of courtesy

-Bonus point a lot of us use “jrwilb” as a tag when everyone is on the dash liveblogging a stream ep or just when they get around to watching it. Some people have personalized ones, and some ppl also main tag their liveblogs so it’s just a good one to know ahead of time

-People chit chat through asks frequently. You don’t have to feel shy abt it, esp if you are being friendly. But if you’re anxious a lot of people leave on anon asks so you don’t have to have your name attached

-We don’t really do callouts/negativity posts. If you see a take or headcanon you aren’t fond of going around. You can block/filter, or you can make a positivity post or post abt your own interpretation!!! A lot of people here love different takes and headcanons and try to value all of them. Again, if one squicks you really bad, filter/block it. If you really wanna complain, be sure to do it in dms or a private discord server

-our concept of what jokes are okay to post are very lax. there really isnt an official thing but i’ve tended to notice we dont really tend to do anything the council havent done. we joke abt gillion tits and eggs here because the council have done it. we have made very lewd jokes because  . . . mcs and everything else grizzly does when he’s not playing dakota. so be prepared to be jarred by how . . . interesting it gets here

Okay that’s all I can think of for now. Members of councilblr feel free to add anything smile

[toxinfrog]

One of the more interesting differences between the Reddit and Tumblr experiences that I have noticed is upvoting as a way to boost something in the algorithm versus reblogging to do the same, but also telling everyone you know that you’re doing that.

It’s like spending years voting on a photography contest through an anonymous ballot, only for the voting method to change to hanging a copy of every photo you voted to win on a flagpole near your front door.

[befemininenow]

Regarding the Reddit situation

The current state of Reddit is not only a mess, but difficult to comprehend if not aware. But as a user of that site who is impacted by their change, it’s no surprise as to why they deserve it. For those that don’t know, Reddit is currently down due to a massive protest regarding their API changes. An API, or application programming interface, allows the ability for apps to interact with a site’s (in this case, Reddit) data and tools to customize and moderate a page to their liking. This includes the ability to weed out unnecessary content such as spam, hate speech, and anything out of topic through the use of automated bots. Subreddits, forums that operate under the Reddit platform, are very different from a Tumblr blog in that it allows users to interact with others and lets them post content for “karma”, brownie points that determine your reputation and accepted opinions with like-minded people. For years, Reddit’s API was free to use and the use of third-party apps made it a breeze for moderators to control what went through their subreddit.

Well, that is about to change around the end of June, first of July, thanks in no part due to Reddit’s greed and ignorance of overcharging the use for their API, as well as eliminating the use of third-party apps to interact with the Reddit API. These tools are what allow Reddit mods and automated bots to give you the best experience at your favorite subreddit at the palm of your hands. But with these charges going on hand, that will no longer happen. But the worst part about it is that most, if not all, of these mods are doing this work for free! There is really no reason as to why users and mods should pay Reddit to use a network when the pop-ups and ads already fund the company. It’s already difficult to administer a page. I can only imagine the load of work a mod has to do on a forum while juggling with their own lives. It’s honestly unsustainable.

As a result, Redditors decided to protest these changes by becoming inactive for at least 48 hours. The amount of subreddits going dark has only been increasing ever since and some subreddits are planning to go on an indefinite hiatus. As for the active subreddits, they are also doing their own form of protest, such as posting blank pictures. It’s so bad, that the site has crashed several times and is practically unusable. Many of these subreddits aren’t just small and inactive either. In fact, the most notable subreddits such as r/news have as much as millions of members while other subreddits who have a lot of interaction are also notable members of the protest. As of June 13 of 2023, the site is still feeling the effect. Reddit is imploding itself in a way that’s as bad as Twitter and even Tumblr.

What does this have to do with trans and LGBTQ+? Well, a lot. It’s thanks to these subreddits that played a part on allowing a new generation of people to interact with other LGBTQ+ members and share topics and answers to situations we face IRL. It’s also as to why it allowed us to share common hobbies and interests that ended up becoming relatable and eventually, synonymous with modern trans culture. Through memes, allegories, cute drawings, cracked eggs, Blahaj, and fangirling about spinny skirts and e-girl outfits, these are just some small, yet wholesome traits that are noticeable about the new generation of trans and questioning people. It’s also thanks to these forums and amazing people behind them that allowed yours truly to accept her identity and commence transition into girlhood. To say these subreddits were a safe space for transgender people is an understatement. It was our way of showing the internet world that we exist.

But I won’t sugarcoat this post that much. Transgender people still face struggles such as violent and hateful threats online and IRL, misgendering from TERFs and bigots, homelessness due to cost of living and bigoted landlords and/or neighbors, lack of affordable and effective health care, and most important of them all, emotional support. With Reddit’s threat of overcharging for API use, many of these subreddits that served as a support center and safe space for LGBTQ+ and trans people are in danger of ceasing to exist. One of those subreddits have unfortunately bit the dust; that subreddit was called r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns, a subreddit full of relatable memes and posts that trans and non-binary people could relate. As someone who is on the cusp of the new generation, it was an amazing place to like and comment on posts that felt so relatable. While I never had the chance to upload anything there, like trans headcannons or a question using Menhera-chan’s art, I felt like a part of the community, even if it was just upvoting posts and comments. The community and vibe was influential enough for me to shape my trans identity and share a few of those traits through my posts. It was, for the first time, a safe space for a closeted trans girl with none of the degrading “feminization” that I encountered at other sites for a great portion of my life.

Why did that subreddit close? To paraphrase the dilemma, there was only one mod administering a growing forum close to 400k members! That mod used helpful third-party apps to mod the growing and very active page. In a time where trans people are targets of hate and erasure, it was inevitable that a subreddit like r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns was going to be inundated with spam and explicit, offensive content. As a result of the exhaustive work, the remaining moderator had no choice, but to close page and continue with a spiritual successor. r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns isn’t the only subreddit affected by this change. Several subreddits dedicated to non-proftis and news were affected as well and the active users and contributors to those subreddits were dependent on third-party apps that made the UI more useful. One can argue it’s better to adapt to changes rather than lose an entire page.

The main problem isn’t about creating everything from scratch again. The main problem is that Reddit refuses to acknowledge their mistake and decides to continue with their destructive decision. We’ve seen these bad business choices over and over again. From YouTube eliminating the Dislike button, to Twitter charging for Blue Checks, and, yes, even Tumblr with their ineffective NFSW filters, these sites are more willing to put up with irreplaceable damage than they are to admit they’re wrong.

The idea is not for Reddit to shake off this protest like it won’t happen again. It will happen again, and perhaps, indefinite, should they make their changes take effect by July 1. If 48 hours is all it takes to damage a site, then a longer period will be enough to effectively kill them. Although I am comfortable using Tumblr, I can’t deny that Reddit has a vibe different from this site that will soon be gone. As someone who loves social media, but hates the changes that negatively impact the user, I will give my two cents:

Reddit, your changes aren’t just hurting several groups and vibrant communities. You are also proving the world what could happen when lack of decision making, incompetence, and bad practices can potentially destroy a company. As much as the communities I love will be impacted by this move, I refuse to comply with the greed that will benefit only a select few while affecting the rest of the community that helped build your empire at no monetary cost. Should you forward your business choice, I will move to another alternative that appreciates the work that administrators, mods, and users contribute to the growth of a site. May your bad decision be welcome with unsurprising results.

Sincerely, anonymous Reddit user.*

*Note: my blog name is not the same as my Reddit name.

[notemily]

actual guide for new tumblr users, from Twitter or otherwise

yeah so I decided to do one of these. I'm just someone who has been here since 2007 and wants to help people who are new to the site and have no idea what's happening. Twitter seems to be in its death throes as I write this, and while the posts about driving down the property values are funny, I'd like to actually try and help out.

many people have made posts that are like "get an icon and post something or else people will think you're a bot" so I'll just assume you've seen one of those already. I want to focus more on the things you need to know to acclimate to tumblr culture. so:

general tips:

like things if you want to like things. people will tell you liking doesn't do anything, that only reblogs do stuff, but that's not quite true. only reblogs will get the people who follow you to see it on their dashboard (circulating the post further through the tumblr ecosystem), but likes will let the OP know you liked it, let the person who reblogged it onto your dash know you liked it, and probably do something complicated involving the "based on your likes" algorithm but I really don't know how that works. also, the like will stick around, so if you see the post reblogged from someone else much later, your little heart will still be highlighted in red.

you can control a lot about what you see on your dashboard from the settings page! on desktop, go into settings - account and settings - dashboard to change things. most people turn off "best stuff first" and just use the chronological feed, but you do you, new user. I personally hate endless scroll, so I turned that off, but I love timestamps, so I turned those on. for bonus fun, go into settings - labs and there are extra tabs you can add to your dash.

but what about turning off anonymous asks? on desktop, this setting, weirdly, is in the "Edit appearance" page for your blog. you can also turn replies off there, allow only people you follow to message you, and hide your blog from search results. there are a lot of random settings in there, so make sure to take a look. (app results may vary.)

you might notice that one of the settings is for filtered tags and filtered post content. this is why it's important not to censor things here that might be triggering for some folks - because someone out there has "rape" filtered, and if you go around saying "r*pe," that's not going to be caught in their filter. also, at this time there are no word police who will come after you for saying "kill" or "die," so you don't need to use euphemisms like "unalive" on tumblr. you can also swear as much as you want.

blaze: tumblr blaze is a relatively new feature where you can pay actual money to have your post forced onto random people's dashboards. beware, if you use this for something people don't want to see, you will get mocked. if you use it to show everyone your cat, you're probably fine.

there are two basic uses for #tags: organizational (putting your post into a category, like tagging it with the name of the fandom it's relevant to) and editorial (adding extra commentary that you don't want to add in the post itself). a lot of people will use both, a lot of people will use neither. when people like your editorial tags enough, they'll copy or screenshot them and add them to the body of the post. this is known as "passing peer review" and is a compliment.

memes and inside jokes You Should Know:

do you love the colour of the sky? is an extremely long image post (showing all the colors a sky could possibly be) that takes a long time to scroll past, and back in the olden days (2012) it was ubiquitous on tumblr. these days you can shorten long posts automatically using your dashboard settings (see above), or use the "j" keyboard shortcut to go directly to the next post if you're on desktop, but we still remember it fondly and refer to it constantly because nothing dies here, especially not memes.

the color theory children's hospital post is another one of those things you'll see a million references to if you're on here for any length of time.

you cannot kill me in a way that matters is a post that you might have seen in screenshots elsewhere online, but it started here! other memes that originated on tumblr: spiders georg, me an intellectual, graphic design is my passion, etc.

blorbo from my shows is a phrase used to refer to your latest favorite character. it started as a joke, but tumblr has a way of taking jokes and making them a thing, so now it's a thing. see also poor little meow meow.

tumblr holidays: anything people on tumblr can make into a holiday or anniversary, we will. most of them you'll see as they happen, and they're often self-explanatory, but you should probably read up on November 5 2020 if you don't know about it already.

horse plinko: tumblr loves this one for some reason.

I like your shoelaces / thanks, I stole them from the president: this was supposedly the "secret code" to identify a tumblr user in real life. (you can buy shoelaces directly from tumblr now, but that's a recent development.)

then perish: speaking of the president, if you see Obama's eyes with a very orange tint, this is the meme it's referencing.

ball-shaving ads: ads from the personal grooming company Manscaped were/are(?) ubiquitous on tumblr, to the point that some have theorized that tumblr was deliberately saturating people's dash with the ads so that they'd be more likely to pay for ad-free browsing. and one of the ads for ad-free reads "shave off ads from your dashboard," so like, they might be onto something.

world heritage posts: there are various tumblrs that compile the best of tumblr, anything that's particularly iconic or has become a meme. there are even heritage post blogs for specific fandoms.

tumblr history:

there are three basic eras of tumblr history:

classic tumblr era 2007-2013: David Karp started tumblr in 2007, and it grew in popularity and weirdness for many years. porn was allowed: the original tumblr adult content policy read "sure, go nuts, show nuts, whatever."

Yahoo/Verizon era 2013-2019: Yahoo famously bought tumblr in 2013 for $1 billion. ads started showing up on tumblr in 2012, so this is also around when tumblr started to monetize. Yahoo was eventually bought by Verizon, and in December 2018, they announced they were banning porn, which sucked. everyone predicted the death of tumblr, but it limped on, with about a 30% decrease in traffic. (source for that statistic)

Automattic era 2019-present: in 2019, Automattic bought tumblr from Yahoo for like $3 million or something. Automattic owns WordPress, and they seem to understand tumblr's userbase better than the Yahoo folks did. they've recently instituted a more nuanced adult content policy, but because of Apple's strict policy for what gets included in the App Store, credit card processors refusing to process payments for porn, and other restrictions, tumblr can't go back to being the porn-allowed free-for-all it once was. see this post for a full explanation of why.

various April Fool's jokes have included Coppy (2015), Mishapocalypse (2013), and most recently, the button that makes crabs. expect April 1st to be extra chaotic on tumblr.

Tumbeasts - the tumblr version of the Twitter Fail Whale, designed by Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal. not sure if they're extinct now, or if the site just doesn't go down like it used to.

Dashcon - tumblr tried to have a convention once. it didn't go well. the photo with the sad ball pit is used as shorthand to reference the disaster that was Dashcon.

SuperWhoLock is a name for the fandom crossover between Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock, which were all juggernauts on tumblr at one time. the fandom supposedly "died off" after 2014, but see above re: nothing dies here.

female presenting nipples - when tumblr introduced the Porn Ban in 2018, they used this phrase in the community guidelines. they've since updated their nudity policy, but the phrase will live forever, because come on, tumblr is a website full of queer and/or trans folks. if you think you're getting away with a weasel phrase like "female presenting nipples" without being mocked all over the website, you're extremely wrong.

John Green: an author who used to be on tumblr, back when you could edit someone else's tumblr post when you reblogged it. his text posts were regularly edited to make it look like he had said things he didn't. someone edited one of his posts to be about how much he loves a certain sex act, which was probably not THE reason they removed the ability to edit others' posts, but like, it didn't help. John Green was eventually harassed so much he left tumblr. opinions are divided on whether this was hilarious or sad. (something I discovered while researching for this post: the author of the Your Fave Is Problematic tumblr [which was part of the wave of anti-John Green content] wrote a confessional New York Times article in 2021. pull quote: "I just wanted to see someone face consequences; no one who'd hurt me ever had.")

XKit: used to be THE browser extension for tumblr. it was made by "the xkit guy," who seems to have been harassed off the site in 2015. the extension was replaced by New XKit, which worked for a while. these days a lot of XKit's features have been either rendered obsolete by tumblr adding them to its settings, or broken by tumblr interface updates, and the new hotness is XKit Rewritten. want to block a specific post from ever appearing on your dash, see who your mutuals are, stop seeing notifications on one specific post (great feature for if you accidentally go viral)? install it and play around with the settings. there are accessibility features too!

...and now I've made it look like people regularly get harassed off tumblr. WELCOME, NEW USER, TO THE HELLSITE! but for real, part of why I put this post together was so if someone starts in on tumblr Discourse and mentions people who have been harassed off the site, you can nod wisely and go "ah, yes, I have heard tell of this." just to give you some kind of context for things.

anyway, I'm always happy to Explain The Joke, provided it's a joke that I get, so if you see something that looks like a tumblr in-joke and want context, my ask box is open. just don't ask me about Homestuck. I know nothing about Homestuck and at this point I'm not sure I want to.

in conclusion, new user: go forth, be weird, become a part of the culture. I hope this guide has helped!

[oarfishing]

twitter migrants stop putting shit like '16' 'tme' 'white' 'florida' in your bio did you not learn basic internet safety. no one needs to know that about you. no one

be anonymous and be free

[late-night-vocaloid]

tips for artists from twitter!

welcome! this is an extensive guide for new tumblr users, mostly geared towards artists, going over a few things I've learned here over the years.

(tldr at the bottom, short version of this post)

general tag usage

one of tumblr's best features is its tags. taking advantage of them will generally improve your experience (and ability to find posts later, something I think is a major advantage tumblr has over twitter)

tags on tumblr are used to help others find your post in site-wide tags and searches, to make your post findable on your own blog, and for commentary. they can use spaces.

your post will show up in the first 20 tags you use on it

if you use your main to reblog posts and post art, use one tag for all of your art. this will make it easy for people, yourself included, to scroll through all of your art at once without needing to dig through the reblogs. something as simple as "art" (if you don't use that tag for art reblogs too) or "my art" (if you do) will do, but it's also not uncommon to give the tag a more unique name with your name in it, like "[name] draws," etc.

speaking of which, some people also have a tag for talking, usually named similarly to "[name] draws," but again, it can be anything

don't censor your tags. there's no need to use "k*ll" or "unalive" here, and censoring trigger warning tags will cause your post to bypass people's blocked tags/words/phrases

sideblogs

sideblogs are additional blogs tied to your account. they work the same way your main does, except only your main can follow/block people, send asks, and like/reply to posts

there's no need to log into them, you choose which blog posts go to when reblogging/making them. going to a sideblog in the sidebar will auto-select that blog when you make a new post

people make sideblogs for different fandoms, blog types, etc., and because they're easy to manage and post to, many people make them for art! whether you use your main to post art or make an art blog is up to you, people do both

post longevity

posts on tumblr tend to be timeless. there are no automatically, immediately visible timestamps on posts, and people don't tend to think about when posts were made when reblogging them. you'll find your old posts will still get notes ages after you've made them

once a post is reblogged, there's no permanently deleting it. you can delete the original and it'll be gone from your blog, but the post as you made it will still exist on anyone's blog who rb'd it. this isn't to say it wouldn't get buried if only a few people reblogged it, just something to be aware of. same is true if you delete your blog

not about longevity, but the same is true of edits. if you need to edit a post, do it before people start reblogging it to prevent two versions of the post (the unedited original post, and the edited version) from circulating. of course, you can always tell people in the replies/reblogs of your posts to reblog/check the edited version on your blog (it's the same post, there aren't two individual posts) if it's important, but not everyone will open the notes and see that. people also sometimes use this for tricks

reblogging

considered the best thing to do if you really like a post, reblogging is for sharing posts with others, and saving them on your blog (+ being able to categorize them with tags if you'd like)

if you comment:

in the reblog: your comment is added as a part of the post itself, people are able to reblog the version of the post with your comment on it

in the replies: your comment is added under the post in the replies, people are able to reply back and forth to each other without needing to rb the whole post over and over, but can only reply with their main blog

in the tags: your comment will show up on your reblog of the post specifically without adding it to the actual post, it'll be visible on your blog and the tag viewing section of the post along with others' tags, keep in mind that the poster may read your tags on their post

people generally use tags to add little comments that they don't intend on getting a reply to when they reblog (for this reason, artists usually love going through the tags on their posts), but comments in reblogs and the replies are also perfectly fine

if you're on desktop, get the extension xkit rewritten and enable quick reblog. I cannot stress this enough. it makes reblogging infinitely faster by letting you hover over the reblog button for a little window with a blog selection dropdown, field for typing in tags, and reblog/queue/draft buttons, as opposed to pulling up the whole reblog screen (which is mostly good for if you want to comment with your reblog or type long tags and make sure they won't get cut off (tags have a 140 character limit each)

it's also totally normal to reblog your own art! at night if you posed it in the day, multiple days in a row, old art from forever ago, it's basically like quote retweeting it for people who missed it the first time. some people use tags like "reblogging for the later crowd" or "rb for the morning crowd" when they do this, but it isn't required

image descriptions

image descriptions (or IDs) make your posts accessible for those who are blind/visually impaired and use screen readers, which are software programs that read text aloud/make it readable through a braille display

to write them, give simple explanations of what the images you post are. for your art, include details like the medium (digital art, pencil drawing, etc), people/characters, outfits, hairstyles, expressions, poses, props, visual effects, backgrounds, and so on.

others may add image descriptions to your posts, but writing them yourself is the best way to ensure everything in your art is interpreted correctly, and the most notable parts are communicated

image descriptions can be put directly into the body/description of a post, right under or above the image (and not separated from the image under a read more)

there's also alt text, which is text embedded into the code of the image itself that screen readers will read like any other text when the image is hovered over/clicked. many websites have a way to add alt text when uploading images, tumblr included

examples of image descriptions are below the cut.

troubleshooting your posts not showing up in tags

new blogs may not be able to post to tags immediately (a bot prevention method). to make sure your posts show up in tags,

add an icon/description to your blog (you may have heard this is important to show others you aren't a bot so they don't block you when you follow them, but this is also a way tumblr itself determines if you're a bot)

reblog a post/posts (they can be deleted later)

wait a while before posting (maybe a day or two, it's been a while since I last checked the amount of time with a new blog)

certain things, like adding more than two links (not video links, just regular ones), can also cause your post not to show up in tags

an easy way to check if you're able to post to tags is to make a quick text post and tag it something specific, like "testingggg," and then check that tag to see if your post is in it. it can take a few seconds for your post to show up. this is a good way to test anything you think may be causing your post not to show up in tags, and you can delete it immediately after you check

sometimes, tags are just finicky. if your post isn't there, it may show up later, it may not. if it's really important that your post shows up in the tags, delete it and try again later

tldr/summary

the first 20 tags on your post will have it show up in those tags

if you reblog and post art, use a tag for your art

don't censor trigger warnings

if you want to, make an art only sideblog within your account

posts on tumblr are timeless and may still get notes long after they're posted

if a post is deleted, any reblogs of the post on other blogs will remain

editing posts does not edit already-reblogged versions

reblogging is for sharing and saving, and is very much appreciated

reblogging with a comment adds it as a part of the post

replying allows for short-ish discussion directly related to the post

tags are often used for making one-sided comments for the poster/your followers/people browsing the tags on the post to read

on desktop, get xkit rewritten for its streamlined reblogging feature

if you want to, reblog your art for those that missed it earlier

add simple descriptions of what your images are to your posts for those who use screen readers (see image descriptions section)

you may need to add an icon/description to your blog, reblog a post, and wait a bit before tumblr will let you post to tags with a new blog (bot prevention)

you can use text posts with any tag to test if you posts will show up in tags before posting the real thing

of course, none of the advice here is obligatory, and you should use your account/run your blog how you want to, but hopefully you find something in here helpful. there's a lot I didn't cover, mainly general tumblr things people have already covered as opposed to artist-oriented tips, and it doesn't get into all the features like custom blog themes (which I recommend desktop users look into), but these are a few things that aren't immediately apparent/are different elsewhere. that's all, thanks for reading and have fun!

image description examples are below the cut.

[ID: a chibi figure of Vocaloid Kaito sitting sadly on the floor, his scarf wrapped around his torso and lower face, and his arms to his sides. He has a single tear and is blushing slightly, and there's a bandage on his head. Beside him are a melty, spilled, blue popsicle and a wet floor sign with the text "caution" and an image of the popsicle. End ID.]

[ID: the cover of the Vocaloid Gakupo album “Celebration,” which features cursive text that reads “Celebration” above regular text that reads “Gackpoid V3 Song Collection,” along with digital art of Gakupo. His hair is half down, half up in a spiky bun with golden sticks crossed through it. He’s wearing an unbuttoned, white dress shirt, a black jacket, a black tie, and an earpiece with a mic. He looks to the camera with a neutral expression, his mouth slightly open, loosening his tie. There are glowing petals around him, and golden flowers that turn into feather-like shapes behind him. The background is a grey-to-black gradient with purplish-pink bars with patterns on them. End ID.]

these are a couple examples of how you might describe your art. if there's something distinct about your art, like very-saturated or pastel colors, you might specify that too. if you post comics, you might start out with text like "a four-panel digital comic," before describing what's happening in each panel. if you were posting a meme, you might specify which meme it is and give only relevant information, not describing things like shirt color, etc. like you might do with art. a good rule of thumb is to describe the images in your posts like you would to a friend who's in the room but can't see your screen.