Ways to Feel More Involved in a Tumblr Community
Off the back of my post yesterday, I saw a few tags and comments about feeling left out, on the outside looking in because they’re not a creator. I get that. I do. You see established friend groups and feel like an outsider. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You ARE valued and important and you CAN be more involved in the community and feel less of a outside observer.
And here’s a few ideas to get you started.
I’m using Jack as an example, but this works for any topic of interest.
1) search Jacksepticeye and click the blue ‘follow’. Set to ‘most recent’. Congratulations, you just found the heart of the community. Here you have found potential friends. Here are people throwing art, edits, theories and nice messages into the ether and hoping for the best. Here we are all equal. Everyone gets a fair shot in ‘most recent’ because you don’t have to be popular to be seen.
2) The ‘like’ button is more powerful than you think. No, it’s not a reblog, but if nobody liked your post it’d have 10% of the notes it has. Sometimes all a lonely person wants is to know someone out there checked out their post. For someone still learning art, a ‘like’ is a huge boost. I often ‘like’ art because someone took time and effort to show their love for Jack and the community. I’ve received followers for liking a post. Just by liking posts you’re helping. You’re involved.
3) Remember that you don’t have to create something to post in the tag. I haven’t created shit for this post, yet here I am. Nice words of encouragement. Ideas, friend requests, info requests, shitposts. Post what you want so long as you’re civil. Scrolling the ‘jackseticeye’ tag in ‘most recent’ you’ll realise just how many people post in that community hub without creating something. It’s perfectly okay.
4) It is possible to create content that requires zero talent or expensive programs. Some of my highest notes are on nice messages, text shitposts, and screenshots of twitter exchanges or instagram posts (of youtubers, I don’t steal fanart). If Money is the issue - Shitposts and memes can be done in MS Paint, FireAlpaca or Gimp (all free) Gifs can be captured in ShareX, Instagiffer or Gifcam (all free), videos edited in VideoPad (free). Youtube have tutorials for all of these.
5) Nice comments on posts go a LONG way to getting you involved. The OP is guaranteed to appreciate the hell out of any kind words and when others see your name pop up a lot with encouraging words they’re far more likely to see you as a positive person worth talking to. “Sorry times are hard, but I believe in you” “Happy birthday!” “I adore this!” “OMG LOL STOP!” all great comments. You are NEVER bothering an OP with a compliment. EVER. No matter how big a blog you perceive them to be.
6) Join Discord servers. If you’re intimidated by the size of @anti-support-group or @jse-pma-discord then keep your eye on the tag daily. There’s usually a few posts per week of people asking others to join their smaller discord groups.
7) Everyone here, EVERYONE here is open to friendships. We all want friends. We all think we’re bothering someone by messaging them, yet we all get excited at new ask or message alerts. I’m not going to tell you to message people because that’s intimidating to some, but be open to it. My inbox is always open. Some conversations end, some build new friendships. If comment threads are more natural to you, start leaving nice comments on those posts, yo.
8) Remember we love you just for being here. You don’t HAVE to be involved. You can watch and enjoy from the sidelines. We see you Silent McLurky and we love you. But if you DO want to feel more involved you absolutely can without creating art or theories or gifs or anything really. Just find your voice and we’ll find you.
Very well said
This person deserves a prize. I think they summed it up pretty nicely. I love this community to bits, most of us try to encourage each other. You guys gave me the courage to start posting again... thank you... I mean it❤❤❤
