Texts from Tolkien @textsfromtolkien - Tumblr Blog

Update on the US stimulus checks: if you are above the age of 17, and you were claimed by your parents/guardians as a dependent, you will not receive a check, and whoever claimed you as a dependent will not get a check on your behalf either.

If you fall into this category, don’t expect to get money from the US government.

vvanyar

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/many-college-students-are-ineligible-for-a-stimulus-relief-check.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-left-out-of-coronavirus-stimulus-payments-many-college-students-adult-dependents-11585396800

#us politics #stimulus check #I really dont mean to add more fuel to the bad news pile #but if you are in this category dont expect to see any money #seriously what bullshit is this

mwagneto

Y'all: ugh I wish fandom content creators would post more 😩😩😩😩😩😩

Also y'all when someone posts fanart/fanfic/edits/etc:

hpnextgenastrology-deactivated2

look im not popular in any way when it comes to my content creating and i absolutely understand that more attention makes you feel good about the content you’re putting out but I think that one, depending on other people for your own drive to create content isn’t really okay. also there’s always going to be more likes then reblogs like I don’t know, I don’t think this is something worth complaining about.

kyojuuros

The main issue here is that it didn’t used to be this way. At all. And I’m certain a lot of the people who are making a huge issue out of the like to reblog ratio are people who are been here for a while (like myself) and remember the days when reblogs dominated the hell out of likes.

Up until around 2016 or so, the like to reblog ratio was the total opposite of how it is now. And it applied on posts with fewer notes and posts with a large amount of notes:

You get my point. But over the last few years it has flipped completely:

And, of course, see OP’s screenshot.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that the posts with more reblogs have an astoundingly higher amount of notes because of increased exposure. Reblogging allows more people to see the content, that’s more people to either continue reblogging or at least give a like. For artists in particular who would benefit from the exposure in terms of commissions and patreon and all of that, this is a huge deal. It can make all the difference.

Tumblr as a blogging platform was created with the intent to post and share content. It’s not meant to be a consume-only form of social media like Instagram. For fandom blogs in particular, it always boggles me that people don’t share content that they like. Tumblr was appealing for fandom in the first place because of the ability to plaster your blog with amazing things that other people made - this used to be unheard of. For me, it’s like saving something precious so you can always come back to it again. It’s giving the people who follow me something awesome to look at too. Creating and sharing content is the heart of fandom.

People rely primarily on their dash for content. Most people avoid going into tags/searches because of wanky fandom drama. So reblogs are crucial for exposure! Likes are a nice gesture, but they do nothing to help share and promote content. That’s why content creators are frustrated or moving to other platforms, or why they stop making content altogether. Tumblr has its issues, but it’s still one of the best places for exposure due to its reblog function and overall post formatting. It’s discouraging seeing content creators on Tumblr as a concept die off. This site is nothing without them.

We can enjoy making things as much as possible but when we share it and no one cares enough to show it to others, it does make us wonder why we bothered in the first place. And this isn’t a new complaint from content creators. But it has worsened over time as the likes started dominating the reblogs.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate likes at all, notes are notes. But reblogs equal more notes, which equals more exposure, which equals happy content creators, which equals more content for fandom to consume. It’s a wholly positive chain of events that circles back around. Your reblog could be a deciding factor on whether that content creator chooses to keep contributing or to give up entirely.

Reblogs mean the world to us. They can really brighten our day a whole lot.

deepspacepirate

yeah, it’s absolutely a result of cringe culture. the whole atmosphere on tumblr has changed radically. with cancel culture, the constant policing of fandom content, calling everything ‘problematic’, harassing creators for doing literally anything, and unmitigated sense of entitlement to other people’s work, it’s literally impossible to like anything without someone crawling up your ass about it. creators are afraid to create, and consumers are afraid to share.

molinaesque

I think it’s also a combination of a lot of things:

- as above states ‘cringe culture’ and ‘cancel culture’ DEFINITELY plays into this and makes people super conscious about what they can reblog fully (without some twat who shames them or for them to lose followers)

- the whole ‘like’ habit is very much adapted from various other social media (a lot of people on tumblr I’ve noticed are super young and are used to this function i.e. facebook, twitter, instagram, etc)

- there are certainly way more people who aren’t creators and only come on to tumblr to either browse like those other sites and give likes and (sadly) either can’t be bothered to or have no incentive to reblog a post (again I’ve noticed this is a recent thing due to people coming into tumblr later and not recognizing the reblog function’s importance (or they honestly just don’t care)

- the search/tag function was never perfect but now it’s even more BROKEN

- the recent policing/flagging of posts earlier this year (ALSO BROKEN) that is dissuading people even more from reblogging/posting things

- and BECAUSE of the recent policing people are dissuaded and so many people have moved to other platforms

- some people are super into keeping to the aesthetics on their blogs (I have a habit of doing this)

Also I’ve noticed most of the people who stay on here have either been a really long time user of tumblr/are content creators who have accumulated and built a solid following/content creators who, popular or otherwise, rely on this platform for exposure and get work/have a lot of mutuals still on here/are willing to adapt to the constant bizarre changes made throughout the years on this hellsite (and the most recent changes are the ones that causes even the most grizzled of tumblr users to move on to other sites or at least to not solely rely on it so imagine those of which who don’t feel like they should even bother because they have no stakes in doing so)/all of the above.

Some people question the importance of the reblog over the like, and have this odd mentality of ‘ohh don’t just do it for the notes, JUST do it for the love’ which is honestly just baffling and screams of ‘hey thanks for making something I’m really into YOU SHOULD DO MORE FOR FREE’ or someone offering you a job and saying ‘oh don’t do it for money do it for EXPOSURE’. To these people let me tell you something:

Reblogs are free. And if you want to talk about EXPOSURE, reblogging a post can do WONDERS. Take it from someone who has gone through the various experiences of going to sleep after hours of work, posts it mostly for fun and for the fandom to enjoy, and then waking up to see that someone in the industry who has influence and power has noticed you. Even better? They’ve decided to hire you for work or to ask if they could spread your work around to people they know!

Reblogs help. Reblogs are important. Reblogs CHANGE lives.

packing-it-up

i’ve been on this platform for about 7 years now. And i have been doing gifs and edits for about that long. i used to make 2-3 edits/gifs and get 1000+ notes in 24 hours. Now if i make 10+ sets i barely get 300 in 24 hours. its all about the reblogs. I dont even care about the notes, i just want people to see my gifs. Its my creative outlet. Like something if you want to archive it for later. Reblog creations if you like them!! It means the world to the person that just spend time and energy and creativity on that for you to enjoy!!.

scarlct-vvitch

i honestly dont get why people stopped reblogging things they like on here bc like what are you afraid of??? people thinking youre cringey?? guess what bitch! youre on tumblr! it's all cringey! reblog everything you like and do it shamelessly no one fuckin cares

mark-tuan-and-jinyoung-lover-de

I've noticed how Tumblr seems to be dying and I don't understand why. People stoped reblogging and posting and this used to be my absolute favorite website for fun, information and general content... Is it dying because of lack of motivation caused by stealing assholes or because people aren't engaging (if this is the case, why)? This was the best place for fandoms for so long, but nothing ever happens here anymore. And I refuse to go to Twitter, because it is so fucking toxic. Help. Whyyy

Hey anon. I believe there are many factors that have contributed in people not posting as much as they used to on Tumblr. It’s either one of these factors, a mixture of two or three factors or in some cases for content creators all four factors have taken place.

Firstly, we had the censorship purge last year, where Tumblr started flagging nearly every other post as inappropriate even when half of those posts weren’t even nsfw. Many tumblr accounts don’t show up in searches anymore, even though they are still active. This is all because they post nsfw content. A lot of content creators that primarily wrote smut decided to leave Tumblr last year and many never came back.

Secondly, a lot of content creators started noticing their work being reposted on other websites. These creators were not given any credit. In fact the reposters claimed the work as their own. This happened to every kind of content creator on here. Fan made videos, fancams, photos, gifs, fanart and fanfics were all getting reposted on websites such as YouTube, Wattpad, DeviantArt, etc. Unfortunately it is happening all over again for gif makers, where their gifs are being reposted on Twitter. We’ve lost a lot and are still losing many content creators due to this issue.

Thirdly, when Tumblr originally turned from a photography and art website into a website for various fandoms, people interacted with posts a lot more. Before I became a KPOP account, I used to be a part of Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr. Who, Sherlock and Harry Potter fandoms. I remember that any post that was either a fanfic, gifset or fanart used to gain more reblogs than likes back then. People used to reblog every single post they enjoyed seeing on Tumblr. Content creators were used to having their posts be reblogged by followers, which automatically meant that more people saw their content. In the last 2-3 years, posts hardly get any reblogs. People tend to hit the like button and move on to the next post on their dashboard. The main reason why content creators were drawn to Tumblr in the first place, was the REBLOG button. Every time someone hits the reblog button on a post, that post gets shared to that person’s followers. In other words, new people are seeing this content. When a content creator’s followers only hit the like button, no one new sees that post.

I’m a fanfic writer myself and I don’t even mind if people decide no to give me any feedback on my content. However, the least people can do is hit the reblog button. I have zero motivation to continue writing on Tumblr. The last chapter I posted for my fanfic Queen of Jeju ( back in April 2019) has 29 notes in total. 19 people liked that post and out of those 19 people only 3 decided to reblog it. The rest of the 7 reblogs were done by me. For a long time I kept telling myself that the reason I’m finding it so hard to post any new content is because I have writer’s block. I finally admitted to myself that the real reason I haven’t posted anything new on Tumblr since April is because hardly anyone reblogs my content. When someone likes my post, but decides not to reblog it, it makes me think that okay this person liked reading what I wrote. However, my writing wasn’t good enough to be shared with this person’s followers and that is why they never reblog my content. If my content is not good enough to be shared (reblogged), then why should I even post it in the first place.

Lastly, content creators started receiving asks and dms where people began to rudely demand for new content. Content that has always been free on this website. Gif makers started receiving asks where people demanded them to create gifs of their favourite idols at a faster pace, not realising or appreciating the fact that it takes at least 2 hours for someone to create a HD quality gif. Fanfic writers started receiving asks where people demanded updates for chaptered fics and also ‘requests’ for new fics when their account description clearly states that they are not taking requests at that time. If that wasn’t bad enough content creators started receiving asks and dms where people began to spew hate towards them because the content creator was either too slow at updating or because they didn’t create content about certain KPOP artists, ships or specific genres/themes.

If people want content creators to stay on Tumblr, then they need to treat them with kindness and respect. People also need to show content creators their appreciation, since we post content for free. We specifically take time out of our own busy lives to create content that is absolutely free to consume. In other words, content creators on Tumblr don’t get paid for their work, yet people still treat them like shit.

prettywordsyouleft

Only liking posts is killing the fandom community. It really doesn’t take long to leave one sentence on a post, or even reblog it!

This reply is so on point and people need to stop sleeping on their creators or else they may lose them.

yoonguurt

Preach

suga-kookiemonster

as we move into the new year and new decade, please keep this in mind. this is not instagram. content on tumblr is not meant to be consumed, liked, and then forgotten–it is meant to be shared. it is meant to be interacted with. if you want there to continue to be content for you to consume, then you need to do your part as well.

you need to reblog content, not simply like.

if for some reason you’re shy about sharing certain content, this next one is still for you: you need to interact with content creators. tell them what you liked about it–it doesn’t even have to be in depth, and often, it can even be on anon, so there’s really no excuse! you may think your voice doesn’t matter, but i’m here to tell you that’s not true–we love hearing from you, and your note of encouragement is often all that keeps us going. even if your form of interaction is simply reblogging content and screaming in the tags–i love that shit, and i read every word.

you need to stop assuming you’re entitled to free content. content creators do this in their free time, often between work, or school, or family/friends responsibilities. don’t pester people for updates, don’t repost their content. tl;dr don’t be a dick.

you need to do all of these things. otherwise, content creators will leave and take their shit with them 🤷🏽‍♀️we do not enjoy working hard for days, months, only to simply toss it into a void, subsequently get literally nothing out of it, and then be expected to do it all over again. content is posted for free, and the least you can do is interact.

please support your content creators

barbarosabee

I have tried other sites, looking for more activity. And you know what? They fucking suck, like they just don’t feel the same. Reddit is FULL of gross “haha it’s funny to be mean!” people who are just after upvotes for “clever” (read, nasty) comments. Twitter? Wtf even IS twitter, I don’t like twitter, it’s too vast and too real, I don’t want that. Instagram is constraining with the square format, and it’s not like you can post written stories there.

There’s nothing like tumblr anywhere else. Maybe pillowfort? newtumbl? is that still a thing? idek but I’m with OP here in that I feel discouraged. The last two weeks straight, almost ALL the notifications on any original content I post is likes. So no fresh faces have seen what I’m posting, sometimes things that take hours to get. If you’re not taking and editing screen shots, you don’t have any idea how long it can take to get a good set, or how many get deleted before those perfect shots are posted. And all for free.

Tumblr now feels like the content is being treated as free samples, and content creators are just the wrapper that snack bite came in, crumpled up and discarded and forgotten about.

#reblog things dont just like

textsfromtolkien

Okay, so you know how Elrond and Elros were given the choice to choose between a mortal or an elven life? And once Elros chose mortal, his children were also mortal. So my question is this: Elros' children were mortal (because of Elros choosing a mortal life) but Elronds children were given the choice between a mortal and elven life, despite Elrond choosing an elven life. Why the disparity?

themissgrace

This is explained in the very first chapter of the Silmarillion, Of the Beginning of Days! It’s kinda vague, though, so here goes my best shot at explaining it.

Basically, as we know, Elves and Men are the Older and Younger Children of Iluvatar, and he gave each of them different gifts. The Elves get to be wise and beautiful, and the Men get... death. While this may not seem like a great gift, the text explains that this is because Men are not bound to Middle Earth, and they also get the ability to “shape their fate beyond the music of Ainur”. Essentially, this is tapping into the Christian idea of heaven; Men get the ability to determine, through their actions in life, what happens to them after death, whereas Elves go to Mandos’ Halls and eventually get reincarnated until the world ends. However, since the Silmarillion contains heavy implications that there will be a new world after the ending of Middle Earth, and that Men will play a major (but unspecified) role in it, the ability to shape your post-death and post-Arda fate is pretty rad.

This means that mortality, (and everything that comes with it) are very specifically The Gift of Iluvatar (also called the Gift of Men) That’s right, Iluvatar. Not the Valar. And while the Valar can give this Gift under extreme circumstances (see Luthien, who basically exchanged her mortality for Beren’s resurrection), or to those who are already part Man (Elrond and Elros) they cannot take it away once it is given, because only Iluvatar has that power. Therefore, once Elros chose to take the Gift, all his kids automatically got it as well, whereas Elrond did not choose the Gift and therefore his children got the option to choose it. It’s not so much a question of Men v Elf as it is “do I want mortality or not?” And if you pick not, your half-elven kids also get to pick.

The reason that picking is important is that everyone needs to be counted as among the Men or the Elves for the eventual End of Days, since Elves die with Arda, whereas Men have an unknown fate beyond the world, and having a bunch of Peredhel floating around with no specified group would be a problem. Now, you may not think it fair (or you may think it a bit of narrative gymnastics) that mortality is the Gift of Men and the Valar cannot remove it, only very occasionally grant it, but that is the in-canon explanation, as best as I can give it.

textsfromtolkien

An explanation! Thank you!

textsfromtolkien

I mean, I can't swear 100% because it's a ton of text to sift through, but I swear I remember reading that the Sons of Elrond went with Celeborn. What I REALLY want to know is why Celeborn stayed so long.

Maybe because Celeborn didn’t want to, or wasn’t ready sail until his grandsons did? That’s kind of what I always thought. I also thought that Celeborn and Elronds kids would be really close. Maybe he knew that Celebrían would be devastated if none of her kids ever sailed and he wanted to make sure some of the kids went over.

thatswhatiamtolkienabout

Actually Celeborn stayed behind to party hard in rivendell with his grandsons and Glorfindel.

mirach

He did stay with them and totally could party, but I think the true reason why he stayed is because he was a king. Some of his people were staying in Middle-earth still, and so it was his duty to not abandon them. They moved to Rivendell when Lórien started to fade without Galadriel’s power. I believe he left with Elladan and Elrohir on the last ship from Tolkien’s poem (The Last Ship) which mentions three Elves with crowns standing on it. And curiously, they had one place free on that ship - I would bet they hoped that Arwen would still sail with them.

#hey this is devasting thank u

growingingreenwood

Galion, after taking one single look at Thranduils face in the morning: Ah, I can already tell its gunna be a "doesnt play well with others" kind of day.

Thranduil, mumbling dejectedly into his breakfast: I've never played nice with others.

the-archives-of-memery

incorrect-middleearth-quotes

Gandalf: Can you do me a weird favor without asking any questions?

Elrond: Isn’t that the bedrock upon which our friendship is founded?

noldorin-drama

Finrod: I need you to stay calm, okay?

Aegnor: Yeah, I’m just gonna stay angry. I find that it relaxes me

knife-em0ji

Gimli: wow... three hairs from the Lady Galadriel... maybe elves aren't so bad after all...

Legolas, tripping over himself: GIMLI LOOK I HAVE HAIR TOO... IT'S EVEN BLONDE... GIMLI, YOU'RE NOT LISTENING,

textsfromtolkien

I hear your “Celeborn was offended when Galadriel gave Gimli his hair” and raise you, “Celeborn and Legolas bitching at each other about how ridiculous this whole situation is.”

#theyre both disgrunted #but for different reasons