so like. obviously it’s an immensely tragic route to take but sometimes it’s just so satisfying for a story to go “there’s no happy ending this time. resistance is futile in this scenario. the ‘good guys’ can’t win. this is a pointless last stand. so for their final act, our beloved characters are going to rock the antagonist’s shit so fucking hard it makes you stare at a wall struggling to process what just happened and how you feel about it for hours afterwards.”
i simply think that sometimes it’s the best possible narrative decision to allow characters to become supernovas, imploding on themselves but taking as much with them as possible. “you can’t save anyone” “maybe not, but i can hurt you”. fuck yes. if you can’t beat them, tear them apart.
so i have a mildly popular “reblog and put in in the tags” post going around and its. very clear how many people don’t know how to interact with a tumblr post
so, first of all, tumblr’s culture has changed a lot in the past couple years. there’s a genuine community effort to not start any drama, and ironically a lot of the current hostility is an effort to keep things calm. there’s also a change in how people interact with posts, so if you haven’t been here in a while please skip down to the tags/replies/reblog with text section.
for newcomers: you should be reblogging posts about as liberally as you would like somethingon twitter. if you only like stuff, people will think you are rude/a bot. you’ve probably heard people talk about “cultivating your dash,” and thats because this platform is 100% centered around your dashboard. trending matters less, unfollowing and blocking in order to shape your dash into it’s best form is widely accepted, the majority of the content you’ll find and interact with will be because of your dash, and the only way to put things on your dash is to reblog them. tumblr users are deeply distrustful of algorithms and have largely turned off the “see posts your friends have liked” function (i recommend you also turn of the various algorithms in settings → general settings → dashboard preferences).
so, once you’ve reblogged a post, there’s three ways to add content to it. the tags, replies, and reblogging with text. all of them have different connotations
the tags: an inside voice. originally they were meant for organizing your blog (and they’re still used for this), but they’ve also morphed into a way to share thoughts that aren’t funny/insightful enough for non-followers to be interested in. when in doubt, put your comment in the tags
replies: basically talking to your friends in class. your followers have no way of finding your replies (they don’t pop up on the dash, nobody gets notified except for the original poster) so chances are, only the person who made the post is gonna see your comment. it’s for quick one-offs that you’re okay with other people overhearing, but really is only made for one person. they’re like a public dm
reblog with text: an outside voice. you’re getting up on a stage in town square and entertaining people. make sure it’s funny or insightful— bottom line, add something new to the conversation. you should use this the least
general rules of thumb:
when in doubt, reblog. people will judge you if your blog is only personal posts and you only interact with other content by liking it.
the only things people will judge you for reblogging are personal vent posts. leave a like to give a little virtual hug
if a post is asking about your personality/opinions (i.e: tell me what’s the last tv show you watched, that kind of thing) put it in the tags
also if you see a nice edit, gifset, or art, reblog and say something nice in the tags! it’s that nice sweet spot of common enough that no one will notice but uncommon enough to make the artist’s day
Finally real advice for new users. This is a solid guide for how to make the transition from Twitter to Tumblr.
In particular, artists need you to reblog. A reblog helps them get seen. A like doesn’t help them at all.
A big part of cultivating creative discipline is accepting that you can’t just sit around waiting for inspiration to strike and learning how to write without it, but the other half is learning never to let inspiration go to waste when it does strike.
If you’ve got an idea for something that you’ll never be able to show to anyone else – maybe it’s too personal, maybe it’s too pornographic, maybe it just doesn’t fit your idiom – you should absolutely go ahead and write it anyway.
This isn’t a “write for yourself” thing (and there’s no shame in being uninterested in writing for yourself – art is about communication!): it’s a “building your portfolio” thing. Self-plagiarism is one of the most fundamental skills of any artist, and you never know what random scribble is going to turn up exactly what’s needed for some seemingly unrelated project later on.
Like, it’s not likely that that grotesquely self-indulgent character piece where your fandom crush inexplicably has three dicks will randomly prove to contain the missing ingredient for that novel you’ve been procrastinating on writing, but it can never entirely be ruled out!
I’m sorry but Miguel is a clingy ass bitch like you think his trauma from losing his family TWICE won’t make him clingy? I’m talking about monitoring your every move to the point it’s almost creepy
twitter giving everybody a curfew is SOOO funny, what a way for a website to go out <3 you lived, you got bought out by a dumbass who wants everybody to like him soooo much, you got completely overrun by fascists that just need to spend $8 to make everybody look at their shitty opinions, you gave everybody a curfew, and you died goodnight twitter you won’t be missed
