Chapter 2. High Society

Chapter 2. High Society

A beginner’s guide to tumblr etiquette

— How the algorithm works —

Ok so maybe that’s a misnomer. Tumblr doesn’t actually have an algorithm, and so the way all things circulate is reblogs. If you see a post that you like give it a reblog so that more people will see it.

This doesn’t mean liking the post is useless! If you like the post the op gets a notification that somebody liked their post and that would understandably make them happy. Give the post a like! It’s like giving the op a pat and going ‘Nice post!’

If you see somebody post a poem or a fanfiction or a sketch or a drawing and you think it’s nice like and reblog it! Artists struggle to circulate on here and it’s SO helpful to creators of all types!

Don’t try and get famous, you won’t. If you’re not already a content creator on another site you won’t get far with trying for fame. If you post something it will either blow up or not, it’s up to the people.

Brands don’t make it far here and neither do celebrities so the odds are we’ll push them out if they get here.

— Discorse —

Maybe you don’t like something somebody posted, maybe it’s problematic, whatever the case you don’t interact. Don’t reblog it with your opinion or even comment on the post. Block the person that posted it and move on. If they said something truly problematic (Something illegal or against the guidelines) then report them and block them.

So now let’s say you have a pet peeve about a fandom and you want to post about it. In this case let’s use a ship you hate as an example. Don’t use the main tags of the ship use a discorse tag. (they exist you just need to look a bit more.) If you don’t use a discourse tag then expect to be blocked.

— Friends? —

You reblog a post with a funny comment and somebody adds to that. You lead into a back and forth of commenting and laughing, you fallow them back, they fallow you back. This is a mutual!

When you fallow somebody and they fallow you back their your mutual. Mutuals tend to exchange dms and reblog each other’s posts. Their a generally nice thing to have and it’s like having friends that actually texts you back- *begins crying*

— What else you can do with tags —

When you reblog something and you want to comment but don’t care if more people see the what you said then put it in the tags. When somebody reblogs the post your tags will not appear under their post.

If you see somebody posted tags you like you can screenshot the tags and reblog the post with the tags you screenshoted. This is called peer review.

— If you do this I’ll maul you. —

If you repost art credit the artist but generally don’t repost art. Reblog don’t repost. If I add a funny caption though… NO! Credit the artist even if it’s a meme!

— tw ₩h@t d03$ th@t $@¥?? —

If you for whatever reason need to use a trigger warning for a post don’t censor yourself when you tag it.

When you need to use a trigger warning you should tag it with the triggering topic without censoring. Example:

Correct: #tw Suicide

Incorrect: #tw $u!¢!d3

If when you tag a trigger warning censoring the tag will prevent the people who need the trigger warning from being protected.

If you’re posting something with flashing lights don’t tag it as “#Photosensitive, #Photosensitivity, #Epilepsy” these are where photosensitive people talk about their experiences. Tag it as “#tw flashing lights” or “#flashing lights”

— Sorry, I’m cringe! —

Don’t worry about seeming cringe when you post! Tumblr is the reason cringe culture is dead, post about your empty or hated fandom! Do whatever you want! These are free lands!

More advice here!

He ain't wrong

Atsushi: I don’t know what to do, Akutagawa hates me.

Kyouka: Maybe you should try being nice to him.

Atsushi: I did, I complimented his coat.

Kyouka: What did you say?

Atsushi: I said it looked like a trash bag.

Kyouka: …

Say what you wanna say 'cos there ain't no algorithms heeeere.

YO TWITTER USERS! As a Tumblr Hellsite resident here, let me just say STOP FUCKING CENSORING YOUR WORDS! YOU CAN SAY 'KILL' 'DIE' BITCH' OR WHATEVER! Even 'FUCK YOU I KILL YOU ELORN FUCKMUREER! DIE YOU SHITTY BILLIONAIRE SCUM!' and you WON'T GET BANNED FOR IT! Also, if you are going to tag, DON'T BRING THAT TIKTOK WEIRD WORD CENSOR-SHIT OR WHATEVER IT IS CULTURE OVER HERE BECAUSE YOU WILL LITERALLY MAKE US ANNOYED WHEN WE ARE TRYING TO BLACKLIST CERTAIN WORDS TO CURATE OUR SPACES.

Also ALSO IF YOU TRY TO BRING YOUR SHITTY WANK (aka 'discourse) HERE WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO YELL & BLOCK YOU FROM OUR BLOG SPACE

In regards to Tumblr's proposed changes: what you can do

Understandably, the vast majority of users are unhappy at best and furious at worst with all the changes that have been made and will be made to this platform. Tumblr has always been a very unique place, especially when compared to other social media platforms; we, as users, have (or at least, we used to have) an immense amount of control over our experience. We get to decide who we follow, what content we see, what tags we blacklist--we even get to customize our blogs with themes, essentially being able to create our own personal mini-websites.

I believe I speak for just about everyone when I say that we, as Tumblr users, love having this kind of control and curation.

However, it seems that Tumblr wants to take things in a direction that reduces the degree of control, curation, and customization that users have historically had. So what can we do?

As many other users have suggested, rate- and review-bomb the Tumblr app. Make it known that these changes are unwelcome and that it will impact Tumblr's performance and popularity.

Send feedback using the "contact support" function. Select the "feedback" category, and explain why you don't want these changes to be made. Emphasize that you don't want Tumblr to become like every other social media, especially in the wake of Twitter's and Reddit's respective downfalls. Emphasize that you want to keep blog themes. Emphasize that you like reblog chains, and that you don't want reblogs to look like Twitter threads. Emphasize that you like Tumblr because of what it currently and has historically offered. Emphasize that you like Tumblr for its unique features. Emphasize that if these changes are implemented, you will be leaving the platform. Also keep in mind that your feedback should be polite and professional. Hostility and insults will not help our cause. Make yourself firm and clear, but do not turn to profanity.

Make an impact on their profits. Stop blazing posts, stop buying digital trinkets such as checkmarks, stop buying merch, and unsubscribe from ad-free browsing. As all companies and corporations are, Tumblr is profit-driven. If their profits plummet as a direct result of these proposed changes, they're much more likely to reconsider and backpedal. (Remember how Discord backed down from crypto/NFT implementation after millions of users cancelled their Nitro subscriptions in retaliation?) Vote with your dollar.

I have hope that we can get them to listen. I think we have a fighting chance. The userbase is what keeps the platform alive, and if they realize that changes they make will seriously cause users to abandon ship en masse, taking their money and generated ad revenue with them, the people in charge may change their minds.

Reblog this. The more people who see this, the more people who do the things listed above, the better chance we have of making an impact. Fight for your online experience.

Oh gosh, I remember when Musk melon bought Twitter and the Twitters came raging into Reddit and being goddamn fucking rude. It was awful.

But there are some good Twitter people so...

….you know what just occurred to me? Yet another difference between the Twitter and Reddit migrations.

TWITTER: fuck your longstanding customs and etiquette, Tumblr, we’re doing what we want and if it’s rude as hell we don’t care. Yes, even if it’s something that made sense on Twitter but no damn sense here at all. You’re privileged to have us.

REDDIT: hey Tumblr? How do I do the thing? I need to X but I’m not sure how/I keep seeing this and I don’t understand/thanks for your help, guys

Like. It actually kind of tells you a lot about the style, format, and etiquette of the sites they came from.

Was? Was ist dein problem?

no wayy i just saw a twitter thread complaining that tumblrs “algorithm” sucks and its too hard to get followers

boy do i have news for u angel