#content block

[senseless-septic-shambles]

Been thinking about this since @archivefullofyoutubers brought up some legitimate points about Content Block and I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep until I’ve got my thoughts out. 

Content Block wasn’t started to guilt people into reblogging things - at least, that wasn’t my intent. Rather, I want to raise awareness about how many content creators are struggling with feeling motivated. 

If you look through the notes of the original post you’ll see a lot of creators saying how discouraged and unmotivated they are to create because they don’t get feedback. 

Now, I know that getting notes shouldn’t matter that much - our worth is not shown through numbers on a screen. But at the same time, this is all the payment we get. Yes, we write and we draw and we edit because we enjoy it. But we share because we want you to enjoy it as well. If you’re not engaging with us, we won’t want to share anymore. 

I know that the idea of not posting any content for a week is extreme, but I think extreme is needed. I have seen so many posts about people asking their followers to reblog more, to interact more, to show them they enjoyed their writing. And in each of these posts, there are so many content creators agreeing. 

It’s everywhere - and yet there seems to be no change. I understand that you don’t want particular things on your blog, I understand that you’re not going to be able to see all the things that are posted. I understand that tumblr is a complete piece of crap. 

But when a post has hundreds of likes and is barely reaching 20 reblogs? That’s when we have a problem. 

So, I don’t know what to do. I want my friends’ stories to get more interaction. I want readers and consumers to understand that we do this for you. If anyone has any better suggestions than not posting anything for a week please let me know. 

But this has gotten bad. So many of my friends have complained that they don’t feel like creating any more. That they don’t feel like there’s any point in sharing their works anymore. 

What are we going to do? 

And to those of you who are participating in this event, I want you to reblog. I want you to reblog as much art and as many fanfictions as possible. Fill your blogs, build up your fellow creators. 

We’re a community. Let’s act like it. 

[astudyingreer]

I’m not participating in the content block. I make my art because I want to and it makes me happy, not because I expect validation. 

[septic-dr-schneep]

What do you think of the content block coming up?

That’s the thing where content creators are going on strike to emphasize reblogs on their content instead of likes, right? So they can get more publicity/appreciation? I don’t know, I have mixed feelings about it. 

Firstly, I think for any creator who’s really passionate about what they do, it’s gonna be hard to restrain themselves and just...not post content for a week. A week is a long time. And secondly, I don’t know how much good it will do. If there’s no content there for a week to reblog, how exactly is it going to help them get more reblogs?

I don’t know. From where I stand, it would seem like the number of readers/viewers would be part of the decision making process. With the select number of readers/viewers I have, I personally wouldn’t go on strike to prove a point to them -- even though my most popular story on this blog has a ratio of 100+ likes vs. 10-20ish reblogs per chapter. 

Frankly, people find it easier to like than reblog. A like is one click. A reblog is a click, open a new tab, tag as necessary for your blog theme, and then another click. People browsing the internet have insanely short attention spans. One click takes one second. 

I try not to count the notes as “likes vs. reblogs”. Notes are notes. One note, whether it’s a like or a reblog, means that one person noticed my creation and for that moment in time that they looked at it, it made them happy. It would be wonderful if they went the extra minute to reblog and show how much they liked it, but sometimes that just can’t happen. Maybe they got pulled away before they could. Maybe they were going to and then forgot. Maybe, honestly, they didn’t like it enough to put it on their blog for all to see. That’s up to them. As the creators, we have no control over how they react to our content. That’s something we have to accept. We can and should always hope, but we shouldn’t assume the same of every viewer. 

[toomanyfandomstowrite]

Me: *sees all the amazing content coming out during the so-called ‘content block’ thing*

Me: heh

[senseless-septic-shambles]

Content Block 2019 is a protest from content creators. It will take place between the 18th and the 25th of February. 

During this week, those participating will not post any content, be it stories, art edits or anything like this. This is a protest against the lack of reblogs consumers give our content and is happening in the hopes that after this week consumers will interact with our content more. 

[nctsboodle]

I drew the Content Block.

[julywinters]

What's content block? I only just saw you post about it

(Not sure why this got posted when all I did was open it but you know, I’m not surprised that tumblr is this broken)

This post explains it better than I could, basically it’s a protest against the fact that nobody wants to reblog things from creators. Which, I get it, is an issue, but I just don’t think it’s in my best interest to participate.