and sure! engagement isnt all that matters, and i had some nice interactions here - but when art is your job you need to take into account where most people flock to
any time i advertised my tumblr, uploaded, came up here to see i have messages only for each and every one of them to be bots and get nowhere… i just saved my time instead than browsing tags to use and experimenting with when to even post because this website is SUPPOSED to circulate your posts for years to come, people kept telling me its worth the chance still because people will like your things even from a while ago, but, thats just not what the experience i had. and i can safely assume many others will not have that experience either.
this might be a me problem but my dashboard is fucked. at times i see what i assume are new posts from friends i follow, other times its the same 3-4 posts on top i saw days ago. i keep getting recommended crap what tumblr tells me i followed (no, i didnt follow #nature or #travel but you tell me) and its all just kindof a concotion of stuff i have already seen many times or simply dont care about.
i dont imagine if thats the situation for others then they will see many things to engage with.
and the other thing is that people are most likely to like and not share something. its not a diss, thats just how sm works most of the time, a retweet/reblog/repost to like ratio is always significant. any time i did get reblogs and nice tags, trust me, i treasure it all. but ive been trying to grow here, even go out of my way more to build it, since last spring, up until sometime this year, but man, im tired. on bluesky i got to 1.7k in just a few months, on here, in 1,5-2 years i barely broke 2k, and its still as inactive most times as it can get (sometimes even more when i deliberately kept up with being active).
and dont get me wrong, tumblr used to be GOOD. very good for art! as a beginner i had so many great experiences, so much attention on art that wasnt even quarter as good as what i can do today - but over the years and after various events things just changed. and thats fine. im just a little disappointed because it really truly feels like unless you never left and didnt already build a large following previously, your chances of finding success here are very slim.
and while we know numbers dont make the value of anything, it still kinda blows and after a while you just give up posting to someplace that only takes up time in your day but does not make any significant returns.
and to anyone who found their audience here - honestly, more power to you! im so happy you did. but to those who keep telling people to return here, to keep posting, to jump ship from whatever site onto here, maybe hold that thought, or do add that they might not share in the same success you do. i sure didnt, and thats fine, even if it is a little disappointing.