Tumblr?

[thefourthvine]

Okay, so I am sure you are all very tired of seeing posts by people going, "Who is Tumblr? What is she, that all our fans commend her?" But! I have a question, brought on by thehoyden, who is, it goes without saying, a terrible person. And so, yes, this is another How Does Tumblr post. Sorry.

See, I have always rejected Tumblr as Not for Me, because walls of text are not welcome there, and I am an entirely text-based creature. And I will probably always be a more or less passive Tumblr user, but - I was considering posting, like, shorter, single-thing recs there. For recs that will never fit in a set! Or whatever! It would still be all text, though. Is that a thing I should do? OPINE AT ME, Tumblr denizens! Assuming any of you still read this text-based medium.

Comments

[sqbr]

While Tumblr is much more image focussed than lj or dw, there's plenty of people who mostly or only post text, and I'm sure you would gain plenty of followers (me, for example :))

[azurelunatic]

Tumblr has a format specifically for links! And I am sure that your recs would be greatly reblogged!

... Though I prefer this particular text-based medium, because Tumblr goes way too fast for me.

[everbright]

Eh? I honestly don't care I suppose, because the few folks that do just-recs posts on pinboard or whatever I just dump into the DW feed-thingy and get them on my reading page.

[lovepeaceohana]

...funny you should mention, I actually just got a tumblr - mostly so that I could link all the things I'd normally post on facebook, which is (briefly) the wrong audience - and, yeah, I'd follow a text-based tumblr for recs. :3

[james]

I have a tumblr for posting pictures of my quilts and knitting, and for posting drabbles which I feel are Not Worthy of being archived or posted to actual journals. However, I find browsing on tumblr hard - there is so much "reblogging" that I can't always tell if I've scrolled back all the way and seen all the new posts.

So I would prefer recs being posted here. :o) Or at least cross-posted here, because I still secretly hope to see one of my stories recced. (Geno/Sid western au! Coming up! Why is no one but me excited about this?)

[anatsuno]

Ditto on the crossposting - plenty of people do text on Tumblr and your tumblr will probably be a fun thing of greatness, but personally I use tumblr for images only; I need to *avoid* tumblr for days or weeks at a time to avoid getting spoiled for movies I care about (presently not going there because TDKR...), etc etc, so I sure would love it if you chose to crosspost your textual entries here where I hang out reading comfortably all the time. :)

/selfish comment

[ahouseforrain]

This.

Also from a selfish perspective, but. I don't have a tumblr account, and I'm not really intending on getting one. Not because I couldn't thrive there, but because I only have so many hours in the day and I've verified already that tumblr and I don't get along, because of that. *solemn* So while I do have a few tumblrs that I wander by occasionally and skim, I'm not trying to keep up there and I can't.

tldr: I'd be sad if the recs were tumblr only, because I'd rarely see them and I love your recs so.

[jenna_thorn]

Echoing this. I love your recs, but I have a lot of difficulty navigating tumbler.

I don't know if there is a way to cross-post, though.

[batrachian]

Another vote here for the 'tumblr moves too fast' crowd. >.>

[nestra]

Yes, or in other words, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME.

[lemon_badgeress]

+one meeeeeellion

[genarti]

Agreeeeeed.

I follow a few tumblrs with a reader, but that's it. A lot of aspects of tumblr's entire interface don't work with my reading style or the amount of time I have. So anything I read on tumblr comes from either following other people's links, or shoehorning specific tumblrs into other formats and other online systems.

[goodbyebird]

I often read Great Big Walls of text on Tumblr. If people don't like them, they can gett off your tumblr :)

(and yeah, seen recs too)

[princessofgeeks]

I am not using Tumblr at all at this time, but I know this makes me an outlier.

Just don't leave, okay? :)

[the_shoshanna]

I don't have (and likely never will have) a Tumblr, and I hope that you will post those recs here!

[christycorr]

I don't check Tumblr often enough, so I'll set up an IFTTT task to get emails whenever you update there. *shrugs* I already do that here anyway.

Let us know if you go with that idea!

[missizzy]

Go cautiously. Tumblr will consume your life if you are not careful.

[parhelion]

Yeah, I have to admit I'm another who hopes you don't get swept up by this new-fangled doo-dad *waves cane*. I'd be thrilled to read short single-thing recs here, but I'd probably miss them over there.

[jjhunter]

I have a Tumblr, but I much prefer DW. Hope that helps!

[brownbetty]

don't do it! tumblr is a life-ruiner.

[vickita]

I am still using this text-based medium. Heh. I, too, lament the loss of so much of my LJ/DW f-lists to the shiny.

[puckling]

I really like tumblr, so I would like to see shorter recs there, especially since I really enjoy reading your recs.

[vass]

I find Tumblr frustrating to use. It's not just the image-based thing, although that sure doesn't help. It's also that it's the sort of platform that 'makes things easier' by insisting that you let it do everything for you, and do it Tumblr's way, not yours. I find this very frustrating. YMMV.

[musesfool]

I think that would be a great use for tumblr! I mostly scroll past wall of text posts there, but recs are a different animal!

[j00j]

I'd be happy to read walls of text anywhere you post them (as long as they're legible), but I agree tumblr isn't the ideal format for that.

I'd also be happy to read shorter, single-thing recs here, for the record.

[sinensis]

adding my vote in the "I'd be so very happy to read short, doesn't fit in any theme style recs on DW/LJ" column--if you have the time/energy to crosspost, more power to you. My own tumblr viewing is very sporadic and totally image based--I have made no attempt to recreate my DW friendslist over there, for instance.

While I think that text posts are fine on tumblr (people actually do post fic there, although WHY WHY WHY, I cannot even begin to parse), it is also true that tumblr posts are short-lived, hard to search, tend to wash away in the perpetually oncoming tumblr tide, etc.

[giglet]

What you said!

For the recs, however, I'd rather see them here. tumblr is so very... post-textual.

(Gif sets, on the other hand, are developing into an entire artform of their own, which makes me think that tumblr may actually benefit fannish creators.)

[sinensis]

the art of the gif set is one I love, and I'm glad that tumblr makes a good platform for it.

I'm also really happy that DW is taking the first steps to image hosting.

[paxpinnae]

DO IT. Tumblr is a life-ruiner, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's not Dreamwidth/LJ, but it doesn't have to be. Tumblr is where you go to get your short, happy fix. Also, the Tumblr hockey fans are extremely devoted to finding awesome quotes, clips, and pictures.

[torachan]

There is actually lots of text posted on tumblr. Some people even post whole fics there, though I would not do that or read fic there if there were any other option.

[zvi]

If you would like to experiment with tumblr, it is trivial to set up an RSS feed from a tumblr to dreamwidth, so people could easily follow you here without crossposting. I don't know if you're still paid on LJ, but surely you know someone paid there if not, and they could set up a feed account for your recs tumblr over there, also.

Personally, I would be quite content to read your single recs on this here journal. But if you want to do something else, that would be cool too, if you post signposts.

[morgandawn]

One thing about RSS feeds (which I use for tumblr and many other sites) - they only store a few entries and get 'washed' away as new entries are added. So there will be no way to tag and find older recs as efficiently like on LJ/DW (let me pause and laugh at the word efficient and LJ/DW because I still remember the woes of finding stuff when we moved here). So if you want to keep your recs/pics/clips alive longer than a week, I'd look for a cross-posting tool like we use here on DW.

And since I do go back and look for older recs, I'd vote for a cross-post (not a RSS feed) here on DW/LJ.

[marycrawford]

Personally, I would prefer to read your recs here on DW. I have a Tumblr (a week old or so) but I much prefer it for images and low-text-content stuff.

I'm not a fan of reading text on it, not least because you can't comment or reply to it -- and isn't that part of the fun when it comes to recs? Or fanfic, for that matter, which people also post there for reasons that baffle me.

Also, I know you have the set-of-recs format and all, but I can't imagine anyone is going to point fingers and say You Are Not Following Your Self-Devised Format if you were to break away from it whenever you felt like it for single recs and whatnot. :-)

[out_there]

DON'T LEAVE US!!!!

Okay, on a more serious note, do the Tumblr thing if you wish, I'm all for everyone doing whatever makes them happy. I just... don't quite get tumblr. Or, hmm, it's fun for 5-30 minutes of surfing images-only, but the idea of following things on Tumblr makes my head hurt. The formatting of stuff is odd, and there's a certain shortness of posting and phrasing that always makes me feel like I've stumbled into a conversation already in progress.

[indeliblesasha]

Here: http://tankisclean.tumblr.com/ this is my tumblr. It's a pretty good reflection of my dashboard. Some text, pictures, links etc. There's actually a lot more text on my dashboard, I just don't reblog as much of it as I do pictures. I get whole essays, and really, Neil Gaiman posts mostly text, as you can imagine.

If you look at specific tags like "domestic avengers" for example you'll see LOTS of blocks of text. Some people post whole fics to tumblr. There's also a lot of fic reccing.

What I would suggest as a compromise to cross-posting everything here would be to make a reminder post here once a week or so "recs posted to tumblr this week, go here!" and just link to the tumblr, because you don't have to have an account in order to read someone's page. It would be a lot less work than trying to crosspost everything.

[metaphortunate]

Tumblr is just kind of pointless on my phone, since it doesn't do animated gifs very well and if a conversation gets nested it becomes impossible to read really fast. And I almost never get to internet anymore except on my phone. So I would be sad if the recs were not here!

[peculiaritea]

I would totally follow you on Tumblr, and while it is used for images in a big, big way, it's actually a really flexible platform that allows you to quickly post just about anything, links, videos, pictures, conversations (like, dialogues), etc. It's really fun and addicting and I would love to see your recs on there!

[giglet]

allows you to quickly post just about anything, links, videos, pictures, conversations (like, dialogues), etc.

Really? Is there a text-based primer for that? I haven't found it, nor found a way to post anything or comment or do anything except read and reblog.

[(Anonymous)]

The post formats are all at the top of the dashboard, when you click those big, colorful graphics. I actually had to fumble my way through learning how Tumblr works. I haven't found a primer, and the complication comes in browser add-ons like Missing-e and Tumblr Saviour which increase site functionality for the users who install them. I wonder if such a thing exists, though? I know I would benefit from it. There are still some things that I am sure I don't understand or know about. :-/

[peculiaritea]

Oh, that was me. I was replying from my phone and didn't realize I wasn't logged in. I should have known there was an obvious reason I had to answer a captcha question! I haven't had my coffee yet. (-_-;)

[anenko]

Here's an example of a Tumblr recs blog: http://tomomichi.tumblr.com/ (beware Avengers spoilers).

I find Tumblr a bit nauseating, personally. All the refreshing/scrolling doesn't give my eyes a place to rest.

[paintedmaypole]

I think Tumblr can be useful for a single rec, because it fits well with one of their post-types (the link plus description). Overall, I find I'm using Pinboard more to track fic and see what others are rec'ing these days, but I've found a couple of pairing-based Tumblr's really useful for finding out about particular stories for smaller fandoms.

One thing I really enjoy using Tumblr for are quotes from fic. Whenever I come across a really great line, I tend to put it in Tumblr. That's a kind of rec, but I think its also an example of how the Tumblr design/interface is really more set up for certain things like images, quotes, and links... and less for actual humans having actual conversations with each other about fic. (Which, as much as I'm a confirmed Tumblr user, is the thing I most dislike about it.)

[fred_mouse]

Adding my voice to the "I'd read single recs here" crowd.

[blottingtheink]

tumblr is a great platform for single recs, or small rec posts; there's also a read-more function.

honestly, everything everyone's said is true; i don't think it's an either/or situation.

[paceus]

I'm not a Tumblr denizen -- I use it to read individual Tumblrs (if that's what you call them) and don't have a "reading page," so I don't have the problem of "it's going too fast" and "with all the reblogging, I can't always tell if I've got everything when I go back" like other people who've commented.

Anyway, I've found that people use it for words as well as pictures, and take this opportunity to post a link to one of my favourite Tumblrs, sex is not the enemy: here's the word tag -- if you click, there's nothing but safe, reliable words there, but they're words about sex and porn and other NSFW things like that.

[chibimuse]

I love tumblr for gifs and as an alternative to saving images to my computer, but the lack of a simple comments system means that I would much prefer to read your recs on DW where I can also read all the fantastic comments that tend to spiral out from your posts.