One of the things that I get told by a lot of people is that the writeblr community is ignoring them. They are putting out their posts and original works, but because they are not getting the notes and responses they were hoping to receive, they think that they are being ignored.
This is such a deeply damaging and painful mindset for you to have, and it's also really unfair to the people around you.
I get it. It hurts when we don't get the validation, response, and encouragement we were hoping to have. It really, really sucks, and I'm so sorry that you're feeling lost and alone and confused about why people aren't reading your writing. Your writing is wonderful, and deserves more love than you feel like you're receiving right now. You're definitely not the only person feeling that way, and most of the people here can empathize with you. We're all struggling to get noticed.
But here's the thing: most people here aren't ignoring you.
*This post isn't talking about any malicious acts of bullying that might be happening which unfortunately does exist on Tumblr. This is talking more generally about the content and engagement on this website.
Here's the definition of the word ignore:
refuse to take notice of or acknowledge; disregard intentionally.
Ignoring someone means that we see someone, and we pretend not to see them. It means going out of our way to exclude someone because we don't like them.
I promise, most people in the writeblr community aren't seeing your URL and your posts and saying "Oh ew, it's this person again. I hate them and I think they suck, so I'm not going to interact with them."
The Writeblr Community is massive. There are easily hundreds and thousands of writeblr blogs that use the tag. With the wonky tagging system, and the tumblr algorithm, it is so, so easy for posts to fall through the crack. There are thousands and thousands of posts with the #writeblr tag that you are competing against for attention.
When you scroll through your dash, do you like and/or reblog every single post you see? Do you remember every single blog that pops up on it? Do you follow every single writeblr blog you see? How many times are you actively choosing to ignore posts? I would guess not very often. You're just scrolling on through, and sometimes a posts catches your eye, and sometimes it doesn't and you forget about it by the time you're two posts down.
Even with DMs and asks — people have a lot on their plates. Tumblr isn't always a priority for people, and maybe they don't have the time and energy to respond. Maybe they never receive it because it got lost. Maybe they intend to reply and forgot to, and now it's too late to respond and they feel super awkward and bad about it. There are a lot of reasons why you might not get a response, and as much as it sucks, chances are, it's not done maliciously.
You have a lot of love and support to give, and some amazing creativity and writing to offer. It's really unfortunate that it's not being noticed, and it can really hurt to see something you've put a lot of effort into and have it not get the response that you're hoping for. Tumblr is a fickle place, and with engagement dropping lower, it can be really hard to get the community that we're all hoping to find here.
That being said, I can't help but feel like people who say that they are being ignored are carrying a lot more hurt than they need to. Feeling like you are being ignored or excluded can hurt your self-esteem, or build up a lot of anger and it's a really awful feeling.
Chances are, most people aren't ignoring you. Most people are not out to get you, and they are not trying to exclude you specifically from the community because they don't like you. It's much more likely that you're just getting a little lost in the shuffle because there is a lot going on in tumblr at any given moment.
This isn't your fault, and this isn't anyone else's fault either.
It hurts so much to feel like you're not being seen, and that's absolutely valid. I'm sorry that you're feeling that way, it's a terrible, awful way to feel. I can reassure you however, that most people would love to get to know you; they just might not have noticed you yet. I can reassure you that most people are not purposefully excluding you either.
The community doesn't hate you. People don't hate you. You are wonderful, your presence here should be cherished, you have so much to offer to the community, I think that you absolutely belong here, and I'm sure that other people would agree too.
I hope you find the friends and the interaction that you're hoping for someday soon! It might take some persistence, luck, and some shaking of your fists at the tumblr algorithm, but I know that your people are out here somewhere.
Until then, try to remind yourself that people are most likely not ignoring you. They're just missing a lot of the cool stuff you're doing because it's really easy to miss things on this website. Someday, someone will notice and will appreciate it as much as you do. You just need to keep trying until then.
Good luck! I'm rooting for you.
