Hiiiii!!! I'm kinda new to tumblr, and I just read your beginners guide. I sort of got the jist of what tumblr is like, but do you have any tips for me to become more familiarized with it??? Like do you discourage me from doing anything or recommend me to do something???
Hi! I’m glad the Beginners Guide is still helping people. Honestly, it covers most things.
When it comes to thing you should avoid;
1. If you hate something popular or fandom related DON’T tag that thing while complaining about it. If you do, all the people who like it and follow that tag will see your post.
To give you an example: If you like Gravity Falls but hate Fiddlestan, you can make a post saying that you dislike the ship. However, if you tag that post #Fiddlestan #Fiddleford McGucket/Stanly Pines people who love that ship will be the main ones who see it.
You wouldn’t like it if someone came up to you and started telling you how much they hate something you like so don’t do it to other people.
2. This one is an old internet rule in general but don’t feed the trolls.
Some people are just jerks and get off on being annoying. Do not engage. Do not keep arguing with them. Walk away and get on with your day. If need be, block them.
3. You don’t need to reblog things that make you miserable.
Feel free to ignore any posts with reblogs that say stuff like ‘if you see this and don’t reblog it, I don’t trust you and you should feel bad.’ I mean – if it’s a post about something you care about – you absolutely can reblog it but reblog a version without the bullshit, shaming, nonsense addition.
If the next big world event has just happened, you can post about it all you want but don’t make yourself miserable doing so.
Tumblr is supposed to be fun. If you feel like you’ll cry, have a panic attack or just make yourself unnecessarily sad by constantly talking about/rebloging posts about ‘Topic X’, you are doing it wrong.
If you find yourself doing this, stop. Either reblog something else or go offline for a bit. You don’t owe anyone an explanation and you aren’t helping anyone by damaging your own mental health.
When it comes to things you should do;
My best piece of advice is to join small fandoms. If you love a show/movie/book/band and no one has posted about it yet, don’t be scared to make the first post.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t join big fandoms too but small fandoms are great.
Big fandoms are fun (if you avoid the drama) because you will get lots of content. Small fandoms are fun because you will get engagement from a few people again and again.
You are much more likely to make friends in a small fandom and you might get to watch them grow into something bigger.
Small fandoms are also mostly or completely drama free. About 3% of any fandom is toxic. If you are in a fandom with 10 people, then the chances are that none of those fans are toxic. If one of them is, you can just block them.
If you are in a big fandom with ten thousand fans, suddenly that 3% is 300 people. They are still a minority but they can be a very loud minority which is much harder to ignore and can give the fandom as a whole a bad name.
