how to support content creators
i see a lot of posts that complain about the insanely unbalanced like & reblog ratio on posts these days, or that posts just don’t get any notes anymore and while i 100% agree on this, i think it is also important to point out how exactly we can actually change this, especially for people who might not even have been on tumblr when it was almost normal to get at least 1k notes on a regular gifset.
i’m fully convinced that it is not only the popular culture of having certain blog aesthetics that stop people from reblogging things, but that also tumblr itself has made it harder and harder for content creators to spread their work around because of certain changes this site has made over the years. here are some quick things you can do to frequently see new content:
turn off “best stuff first”, luckily i’ve “only” seen this feature on the mobile app, but it is turned on by default & if you regularly use the app, please turn it off. otherwise you will mainly see content that is already circulating around, while new posts will be pushed back.
another thing you can do if you use mobile and search for specific content, switch to #tagged, so you can see the most recent posts without relying on the search function.
if you use the desktop version of tumblr and lets say you’re searching for example new star wars content, switch the default “search” to /tagged/ instead. you might ask yourself, why? simple: because the search function is trash, but more on that in a second.
if this seems too much of a hassle for you, you can install xkit extensions called “classic search” and “tag tracking +”. it will automatically redirect you to the old tracking system instead of the search one. and also! you can easily keep track on new content through your dashboard, like it used to be before tumblr introduced search. so lets say you love the lord of the rings and marvel, you will always be informed quite easily if someone made something new by tracking related tags, right on your dashboard (it’s called “follow this search” now, you’ll see it if you’re on the /tagged/ page of a specific tag).
if you insist on using the search function, switch it up to let it show you the “most recent” posts. tumblr will always show you the most popular posts on default. meaning: tumblr will always show you posts that already have thousands of notes/posts that are currently circulating around and new posts will be at the back, if they even show up at all. “search” is at least in my experience, not reliable and has a tendency to eat up posts and just don’t show them at all. (especially on blogs). however it is worth mentioning that “search” is supposed to find at least the first 10 tags someone made, while “tagged” shows the first 5.
peak into tags creators use to tag their work! i’ve already shown some examples on some of the screenshots above, but basically most creators use [fandom]edit or [fandom]edits tags on their work. this can also apply to specific characters [character name]edit or even fanficiton [fandom]fic. don’t be afraid of unnecessary discourse in those tags, you’ll usually only find creative content on there.
this is very important: because tumblr has made it so hard for creators to be seen, these days no one will see content unless people reblog it and share it with their followers. you might have seen a popular theme on this post of tumblr showing us “the best stuff first :)” and such. this is why we keep complaining about the unbalanced like/reblog ratio. blog aesthetics aside, if you clicked on “like” on a gifset, it usually means that you liked it, right? now imagine this gifset someone has made for 4 hours straight and you though it was pretty, slowy dying away unnoticed even though it was meant to appreciate our nerdy interests together, because it will die.
another thing: i know fandom can be toxic, full of bullies and incredibly close minded in their little “purity culture” bubble. if you are afraid to reblog something because you might get shit for it, don’t be. we need to slowly re-learn to like things just for the sake of having fun, because fandom is supposed to be fun. we have valid problems on this earth and i can guarantee you they have nothing to do with a fictional villain in a movie. you don’t owe anyone on this site anything, unapologetically love what you love.
that’s all i can think about right now, if i have forgotten something, feel free to add it on this post. please be aware that if we as users do not change our way of using this site, nothing will change, because tumblr as a website simply does not care about their content creators. and content creators in return, will slowly delete or stop making content for us altogether.
