tumblin

[schmevil]

Now that I'm on Tumblr, I understand a bit better all the internecine ridiculousity its bred, as well as all the delicious crack. But can I just say, good GOD, what a poorly designed image blogging platform-thing. Replies and comments are overly complicated. The upside though is the ease and speed of posting, and of finding people. idek, weird.

I feel like I should have some deeper thoughts here, perhaps something on the fannish migration paranoia that's gripping so many folks. And I guess those are my thoughts on the situation: Tumblr is Tumblr, migration happens. LJ/DW remains a superior platform for having certain kinds of conversations.

Comments

[whatistigerbalm]

It generates a strange sort of connection-but-no-relationship with other people; I am finding it hard to deal with the inability to comment without reblogging.

[skalja]

Once you've followed someone for two weeks, a "reply" link should show up next to "♥," "reblog," and the number of notes. You get a 250-character text box to comment in -- a little short, but something.

[dingsi]

(Hope you don't mind a stranger tl;dr-ing at you? ^^°)

I agree this is better than nothing, but in most cases I can't even use it because I follow Tumblogs via RSS feed. The dashboard does not work for me -- I tried several times but it feels too overwhelming and clumsy, even during times when I followed only four people. Later I wondered if I could follow them first and then block them from my dashboard to work around the issue, but found that one cancels out the other. So unless someone enables replies for everyone they follow and they are a follower of mine and use a layout that permits replying directly from their page, I cannot do it.

Which, uh, was a long-winded way to say that I wish Tumblr would offer some more options for actual dialogue. The smushed indented quotes alone are bad enough to make intense reblog conversations really awkward. :(
And I haven't even started on other things I find terrible about the site.

But, to get back to the OP, there are also things that I really love about Tumblr, and in some ways it fills a niche that DW and other journaling services simply aren't made for imho (or, well, not as much). The pictorial aspect, yes, and the speed, and the low pressure. I have a similar problem with putting myself under pressure when posting and Tumblr helps with that - one sentence on my profile there states precisely that I want "to learn that [I don't] have to write essays all the time". Another favorite aspect is the randomness: there's a blog for [almost] everything, including the obscure (I once found a Tumblog that posted nothing but pictures related to blood).

[skalja]

Yeah, I agree with all of that. Tumblr has a very specific use which it's great for, but it's not very adaptable.

[whatistigerbalm]

Oh, thank you! I'm looking forward to getting those.

[schmevil]

Duuuude. Me too. What's your Tumblr name? (It's possible I'm already following you... I am that much of a newb).

[whatistigerbalm]

I doubt it, I am not terribly interesting there. My main account is biedermeier but I've yet to post the pictures I want to put there, I'm still collecting them; I'm way more active under the sub-account winzler but that's just sharing stuff from the Tron fandom. If I make a comics subaccount I'll let you know, I've been thinking of it. (I'd recommend adding ejne7 though, she's an ace ficcer and a fellow comics fan here from DW.)

I like the pictorial aspect of it

[jazzypom]

But in terms of reading fic, or blogging or commenting? No. There's a reason why a fair few people with tumblrs still have active LJ and DW accounts.

[skalja]

I actually find Tumblr very useful for meta because I have a very strong internal editor, and the super-fast, off-the-cuff nature of Tumblr blogging takes some of the pressure off feeling like every commentary or essaylet I post has to be perfectly polished and encompass the entirety of my thoughts on the subject. (Plus 99% of my Tumblr followees/followers are comics fans, whereas most of my LJ friends aren't because I've had it since before I really participated in online comics fandom.) I'd never use it as my primary vehicle for posting or reading fic, though.

[schmevil]

I've decided to use it for random pictures and first-draft meta. Just a few paragraphs of what's on my mind, in preparation for a longer post on LJ/DW. I think it'll help me get over my perennial writers block.

Re: I like the pictorial aspect of it

[schmevil]

I've seen a few people, generally with a foot outside of fandom, making use of Tumblr to blog. I'm planning on using it for my John Carpenter fan project, to keep it low stress.

Nice!

[jazzypom]

I've only seen it in a comic book sense - and I can see how it would lend itself to pictures. Or one of those tongue in cheek blogs like My Chinese Dad, but as blogs themselves? Hmmm... I'm probably too accustomed to Wordpress as a blog than tumblr.

Re: Nice!

[schmevil]

I have a Wordpress project on the go as well (unrelated), but I like the low sense of commitment that Tumblr requires, how casual it all seems. I think it'll be just right for random fangirling of an old director. ;)

Hee, yeah, tumblr has a bit of a casual 'squee' air to it

[jazzypom]

Like, I will reblog pictures that I like, that sort of thing.

I had a knitting blog (on blogger, heh) back in the day, and I do a Wordpress blog for work purposes.

Nice!

[jazzypom]

I've only seen it in a comic book sense - and I can see how it would lend itself to pictures. Or one of those tongue in cheek blogs like My Chinese Dad, but as blogs themselves? Hmmm... I'm probably too accustomed to Wordpress as a blog platform than tumblr.

Re: I like the pictorial aspect of it

[schmevil]

What's your Tumblr name? I'm looking for people to follow. :)

LOLz. I'm jazzypom

[jazzypom]

I pretty much have it there for comic scans that I love, love, love and I follow the blogs that have 'fuckyeah' in their names. Like, Young Avengers, fuck yeah, etc.

[dirty_diana]

yeah. Two of my fandoms are heavily on tumblr, but I mainly don't mind. Some other platform will always be better for something. And the speed makes it great for low energy days but otherwise? Kinda inaccessible as far as I can tell. Would it kill you to have an alt/title text option on the photo posting page, Tumblr?

[schmevil]

It definitely lacks in terms of accessibility. The dashboard is counter intuitive and the threaded block quotes of a reblogged conversation can be hard to read.

[schmevil]

PS. What's your Tumblr name?

[dirty_diana]

sweeter-than