#with a grassroots system of authorship; you are literally

[owlmylove]

this is tumblr, actually fuck off with that dumbass "prev tags" bullshit that is impossible to fucking figure out what tags youre even talking about. we have a system here, you fuckin twat. USE IT. fuck off back to tik tok or twitter and eat shit.

AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

never thought i'd see the day that i, card-carrying circa 2011 tumblr girlie would be accused of. uhhhhhhhhhhhh [checks hand]

tags

actually unclear how any of this can be an accusation when there's no crime. yes, there was (and still is!) a prior system of screen-shotting or copy/pasting prominent tags and including them in the reblogged version of a post, but this system predates the in-browser pop-up viewer of blogs and reblogs that tumblr added in recent years

while screenshotted & copy/pasted tag additions did enrich the original posts, often leading to the kinds of collaborative post-creation tumblr is renowned for, there were 2 major failings of this system:

the first; if a copied tag failed to speak to a larger audience and/or become part of the post's identity and more widely accepted form (i.e., the most commonly reblogged version, often overtaking the original version), then the screenshot/copied tag post would merely be an eyesore, and users would bypass this version to engage with the original or pre-tagged post

the second; if a tag addition did become part of a post's more widely-known identity, then the user who screenshotted or copy/pasted it was very rarely the tag's author. This means subsequent rebloggers have the option of either going to the enhanced/tagged post, checking who it was reblogged from, and trying to see if this point of origin was, indeed, the person who had written the successful tag

however, overwhelmingly, most users wouldn't care to retrace tag provenance in such a way--they'd simply reblog the post, unwittingly giving credit not to the author, but whichever user had seen fit to include the author's tag

now, this is not in and of itself a bad thing! again, collaborative post creation and playmaking is a hallmark of tumblr's ethos. BUT, it does leave the question of crediting a creator up to the rebloggers' willingness to engage. and, while it's charming you might think i've the faintest relation to twitter and tiktok, i'll admit both sites seem to have a greater currency of "clout" than tumblr. i don't mean to suggest that the OG system of tags robs users of would-be "clout", since, well. if you're looking for clout, historically, tumblr's the wrong place to go prospecting

but tumblr does have a long and troubled past of accrediting creators, starting with circa 2010s WeHeartIt and DevArt repostings with "credit to the artist" / "credit to the photographer" often being the only half-hearted gesture towards acknowledging authorship

now, one benefit of the "prev tag" system is the reblogger's willingness to track down a post addition's author is tantamount to seeing it. You have to find the tag's original creator to read it. you become a scholar hunting through countless footnotes, making you an active participant in discovering and honoring authorship, rather than a passive consumer of secondhand content.

is the "prev tag" system of reblogs not as immediately gratifying as simply seeing a tag? forsure! and if said "prev tags" thread continues on for 3-4+ reblogs, each one leading you onwards in pursuit of a treasure of unknown value, only for said tag to be, well, maybe not entirely living up to it's unintentional hype--yes, that can be frustrating.

but the "prev tag" system is not replacing, but working symbiotically in relation to copying tags: it often functions as a peer-review system, an electoral process determining who has the knack to speak on the people's behalf. A well-received "prev tag" often leads to a copy/pasted tag after making enough rounds (no one wants a 7+ "prev tag" chain; at that point, it should simply be posted/copy-pasted), and is more likely to integrate with the post and engage with subsequent rebloggers more effectively, having already proved its mettle

tumblr is a system of communication like any other, and this communication changes with time and its environment. in the face of a changing dashboard and, admittedly, yes--an influx of users from other native digital spaces--then it only makes sense that our systems will change with us.

also: honey baby sweet angel child. deep breath. this ain't 2012 superwholock. there's no need to tell strangers on the internet to eat shit. go touch some grass<3333