General Tumblr RP Etiquette
Hey there everyone! It’s Era. I just thought I’d post some basic (mostly unspoken) tumblr roleplay etiquette. A lot has changed over the past four-five years of tumblr RP and the community has adapted and adopted various things into its behavior. This post will address as many of those general topics, although I encourage other rpers to add on to this post as they see fit!
THESE ARE BY NO MEANS RULES AND ARE NOT MADE TO FORCE ANYONE TO ROLEPLAY A SPECIFIC WAY, these are just general courtesy I’ve picked up and seen over the years!! These are things to keep in mind while rping in tumblr’s current rp community and will most likely change in the future, so please don’t feel like I am enforcing you to do these things! Some of this is entirely opinion as well, so take it all in with a grain of salt. That said, this is just a general reference post for those who are interested.
Please note that even with all these general ideas, rpers might have various other rules they would like you to be aware of, and some may not require a lot of these for their own personal preference. It’s still good to be aware of them for a general-use type of purpose.
Follow blogs you intend to interact with
Ask a rper to help find your thread if you’ve lost it
Gently remind a rper if they haven’t responded (generally within 1 weeks time; some may request longer/shorter time periods)
Send rpers asks about their muses
Tag your interactions (even reblogs) with a person’s username for easier/quicker access/finding (see tags section for help w/ this)
Be excited to rp with someone!
Keep your drama and behind-the-scenes private between you and the individual(s) involved.
Realize you have the right to stop rping with anyone at any given time for any reason
Like other peoples headcanons/information/posts!
Realize you have the right to drop rps if you feel the need to
Know you have the right to change your rules/about as many times as you like to make your rp environment safe for you
Keep vagueblogging/drama off the dash.
Try judge whether or not you feel it’s right to post a lot of OOC posts or not (individual judgement)
Realize not everyone will want to rp with you or find interest in you
Realize cliques happen, and aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Remember RP is for fun and is not something of a tool to use against people.
Be open minded to suggestions and critique!
Harass rpers for interaction
Harass rpers for being mutual-exclusive
Harass rpers for being exclusive
Argue/haggle rpers on their rules
Steal other rpers headcanons/icons/graphics/information/ect
Be rude to people asking genuine/kind questions
Reblog any rps that you are not directly involved in
Reblog headcanons you did not make yourself unless you are invited to
Tag absolutely nothing (more of a personal preference/suggestion, but this makes it absolutely hellacious to find anything on your blog)
Guilt trip or bother someone who has told you they are busy/can’t interact w/ you right now
Feel bad if you have to drop a thread for whatever reason (lost muse, not interesting, ect)
Vagueblog or post publicly any issue you have with someone unless it’s a last-resort and you absolutely positively feel it’s important enough to blast the dash with (abuse, blackmailing, theft, ect)
Whine on the dash when someone tells you no
Ask people to rp, then never reply to them, then complain you have no one to rp with
Think all friend groups or cliques are bad/evil/ect and that you shouldn’t participate in having rpers you enjoy
Think absolutely noone will want to rp with you! You’re super awesome! Fuckin’ spectacular!! There’s plenty of people who will rp with you out there!
Not use rp to hurt other people!
Tag a rper in your starter/roleplay post/reply with their username
Tag urls with hyphens (”-”) as two words or one word (e.g. justasimplesoldier vs just-a-simple-soldier)
Tag general triggers and nsfw as well as fancy tags (i.e. “#yourregulartagforblood*~” AND “#blood tw”)
Tag triggers and nsfw as “trigger cw/tw/other characters” and “nsfw cw/tw/other characters” (for instance: #gore tw, #emetophobia cw, #nsfw –0//3)
Tag rpers unless you need to talk to them/roleplay with them/ect
Tag anything with hyphens (”-”), even fancy/original tags, as they will not show up on your blog or in tumblr’s tagging system (unless you DON’T want them to show up, such as “#nsfw -//”)
Leave triggers untagged (most triggers are specified in people’s rules page)
Tag triggers and nsfw as “tw nsfw,” “cw blood,” or “–/// eyes” (these are hard for blacklist to catch)
Send rpers asks about their muses
Ask rpers their age if smutting if it is NOT SPECIFIED on their blog (depending on both of your preference)
Submit rpers prompts when requested, or fanart you’ve done (if they allow)
Send a second ask if you believe your ask has been eaten by tumblr (it’s generally nicer to ask ‘did you get my ask?’ first before re-sending multiples)
Ask rpers for their skype/kik/ims if they say its okay to in their rules or if you have grown close
Send in ask memes (depending on the meme + your character’s relationship; this varies per rper)
Ask an rper to explain something if it’s not clear
Answer asks as clearly and politely as you can
Feel comfortable in closing your ask/submit/anon options if you receive harassment or are at any time uncomfortable
Answer anything publicly you feel is important to address
Send rpers invasive asks about their muses ____ (sexuality, genitalia, gender, ect.- especially if they’ve specified not to!)
Ask rpers for their personal information (where they live, their real name [not the same as what to call them ooc], their phone number, ect)
Harass people for their skype/kik/ims (especially if they don’t give them to you)
Send repeat questions/memes/asks if a RPer makes it clear they will not answer those types of asks/has told you to stop
Send in ask memes that an RPer has specified is for certain things (mutuals only, ships only, ect, and you’re not one of those things)
Ask questions that people have already answered before (do some blog skimming first)
Be rude to people asking genuine questions
Feel obligated to answer repetitive asks nicely
Feel obligated to explain yourself (especially if it’s personal)
Answer anon hate or post drama publicly (unless you feel the need to/that it’s important)
THEMES, ICONS, AND GRAPHICS:
Make a custom theme if you want
Use a basic theme if you want
Customize thememakers themes (as long as they give permission)!
Use graphics in your theme! (custom or pre-made with permission!)
Make your theme readable and organized by your audience!
Make sure your theme is 100% readable
Have playlists you think fit your theme/character/you like if you so desire
Warn your audience if you have autoplay (”autoplay warning” in the description/title is suggested)
Make icons for yourself (size doesn’t matter, but it’s popular/common to use 100x100 pixels)
Use a faceclaim (irl, comic, drawn, ect visual representation of your character) if you so desire.
Make your theme posts smaller than 300x300 pixels
Make your theme font too small (10px is the cut off line on readability)
Use font effects that make your font hard to read
Use artwork that you have no permission to use.
Erase an artist’s signature or watermark for ANY reason.
Steal other Rper’s themes/icons/graphics, even if the original content is not their own
Make icons out of fanart or other people’s art without their permission
Use an IRL person (celebrity, youtuber, ect) who has specified they do not want to be used as a roleplay fc/playby/ect as a face claim
Sell any kind of theme, icons, or graphics that you did not hand make yourself (this includes icons/graphics with fanart, artwork, or any photographs you did not take yourself as well as theme coding you did not hand write from scratch)
There may be things added to either this original post or to reblogs of it. For now, that’s all I can think of! Thanks again for reading and enjoy your roleplaying!
blakekathryn
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
