#damntumblr

A little background:

We all know about the great memes Tumblr has created, which is why I (finally) created an account earlier today.

You wanna know what the first post I ever saw on Tumblr was?

A blackgirlxxx gif.

First, thanks for all your thoughtful responses. As it turns out, most of you like the Tumblr format (some really love it), many of you have discovered how to work around its various quirks, some students have experienced a variety of frustrations, and a small number actually despise it. 

Most of you agreed, though, that it could be better. So in response, I’ve redesigned the class Tumblr. The emphasis is now on bigger images, available blogging histories, and an easier way to tag your posts (the tagging part was a saga of its own, since there were limitations on how many characters I could have in the “suggested tags” space, leading to students appearing and disappearing from the radar; the solution was to have you tag with just your last name; I had to drop the “ENG 170,” and don’t ask me about the date). 

Most of you like maintaining your own Tumblrs, and find posting easy. The main problem is really commenting, which wouldn’t be a problem if every Tumblr design had the same functionality. But it doesn’t. Some designs emphasize text, and some designs emphasize pictures, and some designs make commenting easy, and some designs make it impossible to comment on posts, even when you’ve flicked the right switch on the dashboard (if you still haven’t flicked the “Allow replies” switches yet, please do so; you can find them by clicking the gear icon in your dashboard), etc. None of them are the same. This is good, because you have a lot to choose from, but this is bad, because the only way I can ensure a standard experience is by asking you all to choose the same Tumblr design, which sort of defeats the purpose (translation: “Be creative. Be exactly the same as everyone else.”). 

The difficult thing about comments, of course, is that many of them consist of re-blogged posts. As we’ve discovered, the class Tumblr quickly fills up with repeated materials, and we all have to hunt through them, which is a pain. And it’s hard to reply to comments—some of them including direct questions to the writer—if you can’t find them. Sigh. 

Which is why this week we all took a break from commenting. This includes me. I wanted to think for a while about how we were going to manage everything the course asks you to do, given the limitations of the website. I considered dropping the commenting requirement, but too many of you told me you liked reading each other’s work. Then @toshacposts let me know you could reply to people by posting and including an “@“ sign next to their Tumblr name (not their real name) in the comment, just like Twitter or Instagram. So we’re going to give this a try. When you comment on someone’s stuff, go ahead and reblog the piece. Include an @author’s name in your comment, then tag the post with your last name at the bottom. This way the original author will be notified that you’ve commented, and I’ll be able to locate the comment by clicking any tag with your last name. You won’t have to send me an email through ANGEL mail on top of everything else.  

Also, familiarize yourself with the Activity link in your dashboard. This will tell you who’s commented on your work, who’s re-blogged it, who’s liked it, etc. 

And finally, if you have a smartphone, get the Tumblr app. You’ll always receive notifications whenever anybody comments or re-blogs your piece. My phone is constantly lighting up with class activity. 

That about covers it for now. I’m sure we’ll keep tweaking this design until we have it right. Let me know if there’s anything I’ve missed.