A message to Twitter users coming to tumblr: a message from your local duel-hellsite citizen
So, Iāve seen a ton of Twitter users talking about making and sharing their new tumblr blogs, to escape Elon Muskās āanti censorshipā bullshittery. First of all: welcome! I know itās looking bleak over there; especially for trans people. But, now that youāre here, Iām here to tell you all about tumblr etiquette, how this website works, and how itās different from Twitter. Because you canāt come onto here acting like itās Twitter, lest The Beast get to you.
First, here are a small handful of tips and tumblr facts!
Your likes and who you are following are automatically set to public. You can make them private in your settings!
You can block tags from the settings, too.
There are lots of bots on here. If youāre not careful, you could be mistaken for one! The main way you can avoid this is changing your icon and header from the defaults. Adding a bio helps too!
You can queue and schedule posts so that your account posts throughout the day.
Like Twitter, tumblr has a radical feminist and TERF problem. However, theyāre pretty easy to spot. There are lots of guides out there to help you learn how to spot tumblr TERFs!
Tumblr, for the most part, does not have any celebrity or brand accounts.
Your tumblr follower count is private.
You can have multiple accounts with the same email, and theyāre very easy to switch between! These are called āsideblogsā.
Your main page is not a ātimelineā. It is a ādashboardā!
You can have a custom desktop theme using HTML! Think like ye olde MySpace days. There are tons of pre-made tumblr themes available, if youāre not already proficient in HTML; including free ones!
Now, letās talk tumblr etiquette and how itās different from Twitter. Youāre a tumblr user now! Itās time to start acting like it!
Donāt just like posts. They donāt increase visibility whatsoever. The way that you can help posts that you like is reblogging them to your blog. Especially for art!
We donāt say āoomfsā or āoomfiesā. Just āmutualsā is fine, thanks!
Adding onto a post with pointless comments is frowned upon. If all you have to say it āthis is so true,ā or something else to that effect, you should put that in the tags of your reblog.
Most people donāt have carrds or rentries on here. Some of us do, but itās not an obligation like it is for Twitter.
Similarly, we donāt censor words like ādieā and ādeathā. Posts about wanting to brutally murder people in power go viral all the time, and itās completely allowed. Iām serious! Enjoy your newfound freedom!
Blocking isnāt a big deal here. Get rid of any weird notion you have that morality is linked to blocking certain people.
But lastly, and most importantly:
Drop your discourse at the door.
If you try to post about most of the things that Twitter users discourse about, you will be laughed off the site. Especially Twitter LGBT+ discourse. Posts actively mocking topics of Twitter discourse go viral on here regularly.
Tumblr has mostly healed since its discourse-ridden days, and itās now much more chill. Of course, discourse still happens, but it is so easy to avoid now. For a lot of us, tumblr is the last pleasant social media site left, so donāt ruin it.
Here is a list of discourse-related things that tumblr users donāt do:
Most of us donāt do callout posts, unless itās something actually serious (like that one blog that had a human slave).
Everything that you heard on Twitter was āexclusiveā to certain LGBT+ groups is used by just about everyone on here. Bi women use the double venus symbol on here. Youāll just have to learn to live with that.
In particular, I want to emphasize how much we donāt do flag discourse. To the point that somebody caring about flag discourse of any kind is how we tend to identify an ex-Twitter user.
On here, you will never have to see another slur discourse post again, unless you actively seek it out.
Youāre welcome. And enjoy your time on here!
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
stormborns
