{"id":194,"date":"2018-10-11T13:47:12","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T13:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hashtagartcom.wordpress.com\/?p=194"},"modified":"2025-03-01T16:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T16:56:15","slug":"zoom-in-on-our-warehouse-tumblr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hashtagart.blog\/?p=194","title":{"rendered":"3 Things We Should Know About Tumblr"},"content":{"rendered":"

2.789 billion people use different social media platforms, but which one of the big five is the best one for sharing art? Let’s have a look at Tumblr.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"tumblr-2172747_1920\"<\/p>\n

All social media platforms are in the for-profit category. Among the main players are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter. But do they differ in any way? From the point of view of a person who used all of the five, today I would like us to have a chat on Tumblr.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Zrzut
a screenshot of the tumblr page after searching for tag “autumn.”<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tumblr’s website<\/a><\/span>, you can find the lofty citation of Reuters\u00a0<\/span>saying that:<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Tumblr continues to be the foremost place where creative individuals congregate to share their ideas and creations (…).”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

GIF found on GIPHY<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there is no acknowledgment that this quote is four years old. For me, Tumblr definitely used to be a thing<\/strong>. But can I say that Tumblr \u201cused to be,\u201d when, as of 2018, it has over\u00a0440.2 million blogs<\/a><\/span>?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"tumblr-2418790\"<\/p>\n

Tumblr was created and ran by a young entrepreneur and IT specialist\u00a0David Karp<\/a> <\/span>back in 2007. Tumblr started to be a for-profit company in 2012 when it allowed paid advertisement on the website. Next, Tumblr was bought by Yahoo. There was a great fear among the users that it would tighten up the censorship rules, however, it largely didn\u2019t change. In 2017 Verizon Communications acquired Tumblr. <\/span><\/p>\n

How Tumblr functions doesn’t depend on the company itself who happened to own it at the moment. There is no reason really to say a lot more about Tumbler as a company. Some IT guys run it perhaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

GIF found on GIPHY<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So what is Tumblr? As shown in this 8min long<\/span>\u00a0critical video made by\u00a0<\/span>JelloApocalypse<\/a><\/span>, Tumblr can be defined like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2m-e4PgiVfM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]<\/span><\/p>\n

After you typed in Tumblr<\/em> in your Apple Store<\/a><\/span>\u00a0search bar, you will see its description as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Tumblr is a place to express yourself<\/strong>, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. Whether it\u02bcs fandoms or philosophy, fashion or felines, Tumblr is where your interests connect you with your people.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Let’s first take a look at Tumblr from three technical points of view:\u00a0the mechanics of sharing,\u00a0the social media aspect, and\u00a0censorship<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

GIF by\u00a0SHURLY<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, the mechanics of sharing<\/strong>. Tumblr allows us to create posts which contain a variety of media<\/strong>: links, quotes, videos, texts, sound\/music recordings, and, of course, photos. The dashboard, or our main page, shows posts of the blogs we follow or tags we are looking for. Posts can be shared<\/strong>, or reblogged, by other users. Reblogged posts can be posted with or without a comment, with or without a direct contribution. If there is no direct contribution, we can track the reblogging thread, yet we have to chronologically go through a list of all the users who reblogged the post before we get to the author.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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GIF by\u00a0BENTUBER<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Second: the social media aspect<\/strong>. Tumblr allows users to submit questions to other users. Users can ask questions as themselves or anonymously<\/strong>. Users can also comment under posts and reblog them with their own caption<\/strong>. The community of Tumbler is a specific one, especially suitable for fandoms<\/strong>. Users are often tied to a specific community with a similar mindset, yet if their post gets reblogged, it can reach another community that would not be accessible otherwise. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Jeremy Gordon argues in his post on<\/span> why we should bring Tumblr back<\/a><\/span>, the option of reblogging \u00a0is:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201c(…) a much more achievable and worthwhile pursuit than trying to craft the argument that would appeal to everybody in the world all at once.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, he also argues that Tumblr’s search engine is a tricky\u00a0one. It is not easy to find a kind of blog that we look for without a lot of clicking around and digging through blog posts. Still, after we find a community, we can count on attention and feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

GIF by BENTUBER<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Third: censorship<\/strong>. Social media platforms judiciously navigate disputing territory between self-expression and pornographic\/harmful content. Tumblr is a very open platform, permanently encouraging freedom of expression<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to censorship, Tumblr is mostly like YouTube or Deviantart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every one of these platforms is trying to respect copyrights. But, just as YouTube, Tumblr is rather more reactive than proactive<\/strong>. Whether content is taken down because of copyright law is largely determined by the artists and how mindful they are. That is why Tumblr is often full of content without any attribution. Besides, the reblogging system makes it uneasy to find the original author<\/strong> if the reblogging thread gets too long.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"zrzut-ekranu-2018-10-13-o-18-57-46.png\"
Hello From Tumblr blog page on Tumblr<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the<\/span> Community Guidelines<\/a><\/span>, updated on 2018-08-27, Tumblr says that users are requested to flag potentially offensive content<\/strong> that can be sexually or violently explicit so that it becomes protected by the safe mode<\/em>. By default, users under 18 and non-users have the safe mode on, and cannot see the sensitive content.\u00a0However,\u00a0this\u00a0February<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Tumblr made an experiment of setting the safe mode as a default for all the users, yet only for a few weeks. Tumblr claimed that they just wanted to “remind” users about the safe mode option,\u00a0but the company is reiterating<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that these new moves aren\u2019t going to lead to any kind of censorship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the reasons for this action is the amount of spam, bot accounts, and adult content on Tumblr. Its openness is one of the reasons why <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201c<\/span>22.37 percent of incoming referral traffic<\/a><\/span>\u00a0from external sites to Tumblr is from adult websites, making that the leading category for referrals.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nonetheless, Tumblr kindly emphasizes in the Community Guidelines\u00a0<\/a><\/span>that<\/span><\/p>\n

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“We’re not in the business of hosting adult-oriented videos (and it’s fuc***g expensive)”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still, Tumblr is more liberal when it comes to sensitive content than Facebook. But what kind of art dominates Tumblr?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A very critical and fascinating overview was made by Miss-Zi-Zi<\/a><\/span>, an artist, who shared her thoughts and findings in this video:<\/span><\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=USzKh6oiFCw?rel=0&start=32&w=560&h=315]<\/span><\/p>\n

…if you found this video interesting, you can also check out this one<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The criticism and hypocrisy\u00a0of the Tumblr communities<\/strong> seem to come back in any discussion about Tumblr. So how it really is to post and search for art on Tumblr? Below you can find the comments that I found pretty valuable for our case. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Zrzut
An opinion of AsmoArael, the user of DeviantArt, posted on\u00a0DeviantArt Forum<\/a><\/span> on the topic “Tumblr vs Deviantart.”<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zrzut
An opinion by Andy on Quora<\/a><\/span>, posted as an answer to “In your opinion, is Tumblr a good website for posting art or blogging?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zrzut
screenshot for dashboard after putting in the search bar “Tumblr” tag<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zrzut
An opinion of Wimsicat, the user of DeviantArt, posted on\u00a0DeviantArt Forum<\/a><\/span> on the topic “Tumblr vs Deviantart.”<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zrzut
An opinion by Kim Schwarz on Quora<\/a><\/span>, posted as an answer to “<\/em>In your opinion, is Tumblr a good website for posting art or blogging?<\/em>“<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instagram always feels to me like being a rush for likes. Besides, it is very specialized.\u00a0Facebook is a digital shopping mall, where people are selling and advertising things all the time. Twitter is very limited when it comes to content sharing and was never appealing to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"16598559554_6d467c0b72_o\"
Photo<\/span><\/a> by\u00a0Matt Midboe<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I used Tumblr for around six years. I was a rather passive user: I started by finding a fandom of Queen band, and I got immediately pulled into the universe of memes, jokes, stories, and fun facts only about Queen. Later, I started searching for photography and art blogs, many of which were really appealing and lovely. Although I stopped using Tumblr, I have never experienced any of the hate speech many users talk about<\/span>. Yet I did not post anything, ever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Would you join Tumblr to search for\/post your art? Share your thoughts in the comments below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The featured picture was made using an artwork<\/span> “Tumblr Ponies Logo – Deal With It ”\u00a0<\/a><\/span>made by<\/span>\u00a0FauxShot<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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