On Tumblr

[mark_asphodel]

I'm kind of not seeing the point of it, at least for me.

I have no intention of forwarding SO COOL stuff, however cute, funny, or instructional. That's exactly what I meant when I posted on tumblr comparing social media to chain email forwards. So there's this awesome cat gif or neat recipe or cosplay thing that 17,000 other people have already liked? That's cool, but I'm pretty sure those 17,000 likes and 5,000 reblogs don't need me adding to the noise.

And really, it's mostly just a noise machine.  Tumblr is not designed for dialogue.

So the real point of it, as far as I saw tumblr, was showcasing fan art. Well, the ethics of posting fanart basically leads me to this-- I'm not going to do it myself, and you basically have to "vet" every single piece that someone else posts to determine it's been sources and THEN whether or not the artist approves of reposting before you reblog no matter how much you like something, so I may as well just post a fanart roundup (links and all) of what I like every now and again on my DW like I've been doing these past few years. They'll get about as much traffic either way.

I'm not deleting my account there because there are some interesting things that take place on tumblr, but it's not fulfilling my needs for either fanart adoration or discussion.  I can use it as a dumping ground for ideas too frivolous for this journal, but eh.

ETA: Raphi pointed out that tumblr is at least all public-access so friends-locking and such is not an issue.  As someone who dislikes information being siloed I have to admit that's a huge point in its favor.

Comments

[kyusil]

I'm not sure I get the public access thing. One of the turn-offs of Tumblr (as a personal blog) for me was the lack of having that option. And considering how many private or small-scale spats end up going viral there, with everybody on the site needing to throw their two cents in having at least the option of privacy control might not be a bad idea. Granted, given the nature of the platform one could argue that it's the users' fault for posting sensitive info in the first place, but by and large here we're talking about teenagers. Dumb kids who are going to regret all this later in life and are entirely unable to do damage control. At least make privacy control an option.

Re: fanart, this is one reason I'm one of the dinosaurs who didn't jump ship from deviantART to Tumblr. Because I can keep track of my own art and the art I like. People suddenly started posting exclusively to Tumblr, which makes negative sense to me. You already had a perfectly good artists' platform! Ah well. It should only be a matter of time until they come back? '~'

[queenlua]

Having all posts public is a design choice—and while that makes Tumblr unsuited for certain use cases, offering a privacy option would probably stifle the openness/quickness of discussions, which may well be a drawback to the majority of its users.

Example: while I love the DW/LJ paradigm to bits, I do think that if you're new to a fandom on those sites, it's pretty common to encounter a bunch of "friends only" locks and very little discussion that you, the confused newcomer, can access, which is a bit discouraging and off-putting from the outset.

But on Tumblr, it's less intimidating and easier to participate in discussion, insomuch as that exists—just jump in the Fire Emblem tag or onto a random blog and respond to something there. Then if you like anyone participating in the discussion, you don't have to wonder if you're "friends" or not if or if it'd be creepy to ask for access; you just follow them, no fuss.

It's possible that the LJ communities functioned like this back when they were active, but I wasn't around then, so I can't comment on that experience. But it's worth noting that while I much prefer DW/LJ as a social platform, there's a huge chunk of my flist that I didn't add here until I interacted with them some on Tumblr first, because it just "feels" easier to meet new folks there, and that's probably a direct result of everything being public.

[mark_asphodel]

I do think that if you're new to a fandom on those sites, it's pretty common to encounter a bunch of "friends only" locks and very little discussion that you, the confused newcomer, can access, which is a bit discouraging and off-putting from the outset.

This is my single biggest beef with the move from website-based fandom to journal-based fandom. I hate it. Hatehatehatehate.

It's possible that the LJ communities functioned like this back when they were active

The comms I lurked on (in other fandoms-- HP, for example) were pretty intimidating in the same way major message boards and Usenet groups were intimidating. They had regulars and cultures and mods... the official sort and the self-appointed sort. Good place to browse and shitty to post.

[kyusil]

I feel like that is true of any established fandom though, wherever it is. I'm similarly intimidated-- if that's the word we're going to use-- by Tumblr fandom as I know it gets into the sort of routine drama and fights that are just indicative of public fandom space. And which I'm just done with, personally. IMO you're going to have to pay a price no matter where you go.

Thankfully with emblemology those barriers seem to be coming down in places. I know it's served as a reminder to me to unlock my fandom-related entries!