One more question(for now) why do people on tumblr use tags to talk #like this #about whatever they think of the post, instead of just commenting on the reblogš Is there an etiquette I'm missing?
short answer: yes.
long answer, there is an etiquette to it, and I think it's a longstanding thing that just ended up ingrained in a lot of users, which comes off as cold/shy/outlandish or maybe even standoffish to people from other sites and apps. there's no be-all end-all of how to act online or on here but i think in terms of most* people (*speaking broadly, making this up) who've used tumblr for a while it feels like this:
tumblr is a theater, the dashboard is a stage, each post is a performance. (a joke, a dramatic act, a story, a movie, a picture, etc.) you have a variety of ways to interact with the performance, but some of them are going to be more frowned upon--based purely on how the long standing visitors of the theater are used to acting, honestly.
likes are a polite applause, but they don't show anyone outside of the theater that you enjoyed yourself, or what you enjoyed. the performer appreciates the applause but does not garner any new viewers when you only like a post, btw.
silent reblogs mean you exit the theater with merch or a leaflet and go show it to other people. look what i saw on the stage, don't you want to see it too. this shows the performance to a new variety of viewers, who might then also show it to others.
replies and reblogs with content are often seen as """"rude"""" because they're like standing up at the end of the performance and loudly saying "that was okay but I think MY take on things makes it just a BIT better." people are more forgiving of this when it's something universally true or acceptable, or when it's very funny. if it's not (and even if it is, sometimes,) there'll potentially be a reblog down the line making fun of it (and this is another person in the theater standing up and making a fart noise, regardless of how tasteless or rude.) it's never actually "wrong" to add comments on a reblog unless you're being intentionally hurtful, and it's normal to add commentary to a friend's post, but even then, people seeing this from the outside may see that as obnoxious and impolite and try to call you on it anyway. (people are very weird about enforcing what they see as a universal rule of etiquette, when this is admittedly the only site where you'll be punished for adding to the discussion.)
and again, this is an absolutely arbitrary rule because what one person finds universally true and hilarious, another will find trite and stupid and too niche. the polite thing to do in the case of the latter is just reblog from further up the chain than the commenter, but people aren't always nice when they're annoyed.
getting to your actual question now, comments in the tags are a way to leave remarks that you DON'T want to shout to the whole theater. these are you whispering to yourself or your friend, or writing in a guestbook on the way out. people can see/hear it if they go looking for it, but you're not shouting over the performance to get your piece out. it's polite because it's unobstructive and doesn't take up space, and if your tags don't make sense to someone else or seem too niche, they don't have to share the post with your commentary attached.
adjacent to this, "peer review" or screenshotting someone's tags to insert them in the post is like if you did whisper to your friend, then your friend wrote your comments on a whiteboard and held it up for others to see. as this is a form of commentary within the reblog, it's again subject to an arbitrary universal/niche rule. just because a tag gets peer reviewed doesn't mean it's beyond reproach by strangers.
also in line with this general line of thought experiment, blazing a post means that between acts, you run up on the stage and start shouting your piece. it is, once again, going to be more acceptable to strangers to see you do this if it's something universally funny, true, or cute. this is why niche fandom posts, vent posts, and self promotions get ignored or booed down, while pet birthday photos and silly jokes get blazed and get a lot of notes regardless.
lastly, a kungpowpenis is when twelve+ individuals from the audience get up and beat the shit out of the person performing on stage and leave their corpse on display in the town square.
I canāt find the original source of the photo I referenced for this, which is a shame because it was beautifully done. But, uhā¦ well, hereās Shiro in shibari.
EDIT: A lovely person on Twitter found the source for me! See this and more by the photographer, Andy Siharath.
there's something so compelling about stories where a character's virtues intensify into flaws that lead to their downfall. loyalty and love becoming so all-consuming that compassion outside of them ceases to exist. duty overwhelming any moral compass until order becomes more important than justice. selflessness so intense it becomes self-destruction. let me watch while whatever saved the hero in the beginning destroys them. let me see them fall to their own worst impulses disguised as what once made them good.
I hate how popular supernatural used to be. Why does this have 45k notes. Theyāre just sitting there. Theyāre not doing anything funny. Jackles and Misha arenāt cockling it up tm according to the anniversary post they donāt get together for like at least another year. Mishas not wearing a skirt or space pants at most jensens sweater is a little gay but thatās it. This post fills me with rage. It angers me. I mean kudos for cutting jarpad out at least they were a little forward thinking but to forty five thousand of you who interacted with this,,, why?
Happy November 5th! Happy Despair/The Truth Day! Happy one year anniversary to the episode that shattered my brain into a bunch of tiny pieces. I cannot BELIEVE itās been a year already. Everyone have fun today!
This comic is included in my big 2021 comics collection, linked below.Ā
Buy the comic now on Gumroad | Support projects like this on Patreon
Whew, well heres a little comp of all the paintings i did this week! Wish i had known i was gonna end up making this a little project, could have planned an actual colors scheme. Ah well, heres to next time :D
i disapprove strongly the narrative some tumblr blogs are taking that says: āif you voted for [candidate] unfollow me!ā. accepting diversity of opinions is intensely important in todayās society, and the lack of this is whatās causing the intense polarization of american citizens
this post upset some of my now ex-followers so iām going to reblog it again.
evil grows in the dark. civil discourse is the sunlight that burns away ignorance and exposes evil so that it may wither and die.
iāve changed a lot of peopleās opinions on topics that are very important to me simply by talking to them politely. iāve had my own stances altered in light of civil conversations with dissentingly opinionated people. iāve had people hate-follow me only to later tell me they changed their minds on some stuff because of me. if i spat vitriol at those people instead, theyād be dug even deeper into their ideological holes. we have to talk to each other. itās the only way forward.
so, insofar as whether people areĀ āallowedā to follow me, i donāt care if you follow me, i donāt care if you unfollow me. i donāt even look at who comes and goes on my blog. the only thing i ask for is civility.
janainaart
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