This tournament delves into the question: who is tumblr’s favorite paranormal investigator(s)?
Both fictional characters and real people will be allowed into this tournament
Groups of 2+ will be accepted in as one contestant (ex. Scooby Doo and the gang would be put together to compete as a group)
Despite example given above, no one is guaranteed to get into the tournament
Do not spam submit in the same investigators
SUBMIT HERE
Submissions will stay open for a week (May 25th-June 1st)
Pinging other tourneys to get this around! @artificialkids-2k23-official @camebackwrong-tournament @deadguydeathmatch @aroaceswagcompetition @grimreapertournament @ghostpolls @fuckingstupidbracket
We’ve all seen a bot with a great username that followed us, and before blocking and reporting, took a moment, or perhaps a screenshot, to appreciate their names.
on the left we have chloe the chocolate lab, described by the submitter as: "This is my dad's dog Chloe. Chloe is a very bad girl. Chloe likes to show affection by putting her teeth on you. When Chloe wags her tail, she wags her whole body. Chloe has to eat from one of those puzzle bowls so she doesn't choke herself. Chloe thinks she's a lap dog despite being something like 80 lbs and loves to stomp all over people and bring them blankets (which she then chews on). Once at Christmas she tried to run away with a knife my dad gave me. In the attached picture, you can see her chewing up an Elf on the Shelf inspired toy while my dad chanted "SNITCHES GET STITCHES" at her. Best of all she keeps my dad company. He gets lonely without a dog. I love Chloe."
on the right we have tessa the cockapoo (cocker spaniel/poodle mix), described by the submitter as: "Tessa can be a grumpy old lady with strangers, but she’s very sweet with her family. Her favorite activities are belly rubs and getting the mail."
AI-run space ships, magically alive fortresses, any fictional building or place people can exist on/within that is also a character of its own.
Never run a bracket before and have no idea what I’m doing but I’m going to give this a shot and hope it goes well.
Animals so gigantically huge you can live on them don’t count if they’re just living their animal lives. Submissions must demonstrate some degree of self-awareness/ability to plan at the very least.
Characters on the list already cause I just really like them, ok:
The Distortion (The Magnus Archives)
Hera (Wolf 359)
The Scholomance (Naomi Novik’s Scholomance books)
Lovelace (Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series)
Please submit characters via the ask box and please provide:
Character name
Pronouns
Media they’re from
Any fun facts or personality details you feel like!
Tired of only voting for characters you know? Want to get word of your OC out there, but don't know how? May I introduce to you...
The OC tournament!!
Rules:
No established characters. If you are making a book/comic/etc with your OCs that's okay, they just have to be created by you
No OCs based on an established media (ex. a demon slayer OC)
OCs owned/created by multiple people are okay, but please get permission from all of them and mention their urls/names in the "other notes" section !!
OCs not owned by you are okay, but please get permission from the original creator and mention their url or name in the "other notes" section !!
Submissions will end on June 2nd
Image Submission Options and Rules:
Image and backstory aren't required, but they'll greatly help your chances of winning!!
In the form theres an option to upload an image, or to send a link to a post or other form of sharing. You can also email the image to octournament2023 @ gmail.com, PLEASE INCLUDE THE OC NAME IN THE SUBJECT
If the art is comissioned, include the name of the artust who made it !!
If it's from a picrew, include the name of the picrew artist and/or a link to the picrew !! Any picrews not following this rule will be automatically disqualified
ALL POSTS WILL INCLUDE IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS. If you already have one or want to make one, please add it in the "other notes" section. If not, I may get things like race, markings, scars, or other aspects of your OC wrong!!
Do not message the art to me via DMs or asks
Without further ado, Here is the link to the forms!
inspired by @irlcats-bracket !! Other tags for traction: @aroaceswagcompetition @alloarocharactershowdown @divine-swag-summit @dead-character-showdown @artificialkids-2k23-official @blorbopoll2
Ever had a song you can't get out of your head, a song that strips you down to your very being and leaves you with nothing? A song that you project onto your angstiest of blorbos? A song that hits you smack where you live? Or how about a song that you just really enjoy?
Then this tournement is for you! Here you can submit your favourite song that fucks you up the most, and battle it out to see which ballard will be named the ultimate fuck-you-up song of tumblr!
Submission Rules
Submissions will stay open for a week, but if I get a crazy amount of submissions, then it'll close sooner.
Alternatively, if I don't get as many, I might leave it open longer so there's a good amount :)
This probably goes without saying by this point, but don't do multiple re-submissions of the same song. It just makes the sorting process so much more difficult for me
Yes, you can submit songs from musicals and TV shows. However, I won't be including more than 2-4 songs from each media, depending on how long that particular soundtrack is.
Song must be at least remotely fuck-you-up-ish. You must be able to justify its place within the tournement
Instrumentals are allowed
You can rant a bit about whatever blorbo you may project the song onto. It'll help me understand it better
You're allowed to submit a song by a problematic artist, however I am not in control of how quickly that gets voted off
Propaganda is allowed and encouraged! No slander though
Submissions close on Friday 26th of May at 5.00pm (UK time)
If there's any problems with the form or if you have any questions, send an ask! :)
Please note that I’m loosely defining “serpents” as “long noodle-shaped reptile with 2 or less limbs” so sea serpents, coatls, nagas, and the like are allowed!
Submit your favorite serpents here! https://forms.gle/uAjFnRiKg6oKSjhk6
The German Mud Wizard: Initially submitted only 2 times, the German mud wizard/monk has become a surprise favorite to win the competition, defeating Critical Role's German dirt wizard Caleb Widogast by over 1,000 votes.
Ged: The only POC to make it to the final eight*, Ged has shown himself to be a strong competitor, with a consistent fanbase of voters whose enthusiastic support and propaganda have allowed him to topple Gandalf the Grey.
Merlin: Although there were 7 Merlins entered into the competition, Sword in the Stone Merlin is the last one standing. With his quirky outfits and modern humor, he defeated fan-favorites Big Hat Logan and M.Rasmodius, as well as the literary behemoth that is the Discworld fandom.
Ms. Frizzle: Although some voters initially argued that she should be in a witch bracket instead, Ms. Frizzle has proved herself a wizard with her academia-based magic, flashy outfits, and pursuit of knowledge, and remains the last woman in the competition*.
*Caveat: The German mud wizard's gender and race are unknown
a poll for smart girls in media. this is a very loose definition intentionally! have fun with it!
fictional characters only, please!
girls only! cis or trans ^_^ terfs explode
don't use acronyms in submissions! full names please!
please add a few sentences about your girl, as i might not know who you're talking about!
there are no predetermined characters, and 24 slots.
submissions can be turned in here! i'm quite a busy person, but i hope to close submissions by around may 25th depending on how quick stuff comes in. the more submissions a character has, the more likely they are to be in the bracket.
do you like dogs? do you know a dog? would you like to share the dog with the whole wide world? do you want to know who the best dog in the whole world is? well good news, now you can! this is a tumblr bracket created with the intention of showing off irl dogs, and voting to see who the best dog is! the rules are as follows:
it has to be a real dog. like dog actors, pet dogs, etc, etc. fictional dogs are great but this bracket is intended to show off real dogs!
you can submit as many dogs as you please!
please include the dogs breed if possible! this will help differentiate between dogs with the same name! if you don’t know the dogs breed, i will just put them down as a mixed breed :)
submissions will be open until the end of the month or until i decide i’ve received enough, whichever comes first!
let’s have fun and be kind (i am looking at you small dog haters <3)! here’s the form!
this poll was inspired by @irlcats-bracket! go check them out as well <3
i haven’t received too many submissions thus far, so i will be extending the deadline out a bit until may 11th! also as a note, please don’t submit your pictures via instagram! i do not have an instagram, nor do i have a desire to make one, so i cannot see any pictures submitted this way!
i feel it is worth noting, i do plan to include an option to vote for both dogs! i understand it can be hard to pick the best dog because all dogs are the best, so hopefully this will make things easier for you guys <3
uh, hey guys. so my country is having conflicts rn and there may be a nationwide power outage soon, so if there's radio silence for a bit, keep that in mind. hopefully there wont be but yk
Reminder to send love and hugs to this poll runner because they do this poll for free and are a human being and do not deserve hate! Especially for things out of their control! Go support them and send them love!
Also available as a Google Doc to print or share with people who are not on Tumblr yet.
Wondering how to get started on Tumblr, what Tumblr culture is like, and who some of the big names are? Read on! It's a bit long, but hopefully it's approachable!
Starting Out
Welcome to Tumblr! To Twitter refugees, the morbidly curious, and everyone in between, welcome!
The first thing you want to do before you do anything on Tumblr is add an icon. You can do this by clicking the person-shaped Account icon, going to Settings, then clicking on your blog in the sidebar. You may also optionally wish to customize your blog’s colors and banner here, but you can come back to that later.Â
The reason it is important to add an icon right away is because a default icon makes veteran Tumblr users suspicious that you may be a bot, and they may block you. Your icon can be anything you wish, but Picrews are sometimes looked down on (though not always), and if you are a pretty female-appearing individual you may not wish to use a photo of yourself (this is another sign of a possible bot).
Next, before you interact with too many blogs on Tumblr, you will also want to add a post or two. You can just start reblogging right away if you wish, or you can type up a quick intro post. An empty blog is another warning sign of a bot account.
An important aspect of Tumblr is that there is no real algorithm to speak of. There’s a “For You” page but it doesn’t work very well. Tumblr users love the lack of an algorithm, because it means that there’s a lack of predatory data tracking, the website will never deliberately funnel you into rage clicks and radicalization, and the things you want to see will always be the things shown to you. However it does mean that it can be difficult to start out, because you are starting from nothing.
You’re going to want to find some blogs to follow! It helps if you already know a Tumblr user or two– you can follow them, and they can suggest some more blogs to you. If you’re starting from scratch, try searching the tags for subjects or fandoms you’re interested in, and following a few blogs from there. If you don’t enjoy them, you can always unfollow later. Remember that Tumblr’s search function is generally unreliable, won’t always show you everything under a certain tag, and is nearly impossible to use to find specific posts. It’s good enough for getting a start in browsing, though.
You may also wish to follow a few tags for subjects you are interested in. Not everyone does this, but it can be useful when just starting out to find more content. To do this, go to the Your Tags tab and click Manage.
There is also a function on the site called Tumblr Live. Please be advised that no Tumblr regulars like, want, or use Tumblr Live, despite the fact that the website keeps pushing the feature. We’re pretty sure that Tumblr staff brought in people specifically to use Tumblr Live, because none of the people on it seem like our… type, so to speak. They’re just trying to attract the TikTok crowd. You can “Snooze” Tumblr Live for 7 days by going to Settings, then Dashboard, then scrolling to the bottom to toggle the option. There is no setting to turn it off completely despite vocal demand for it. Be advised that if you use Tumblr Live, this will probably alienate you from Tumblr veterans. I have been informed that the above does not currently apply to EU nationals, who are not subjected to Tumblr Live.
Going forward, you may choose to either Like or Reblog posts as they appear on your Dashboard. Keep in mind that unlike some other social media sites, your Likes are not public (or at least, you should toggle this option off– see below), and serve only as either a bookmark for yourself, or a small kudos to the OP. If you want to share the post with your own followers, or show major appreciation to the OP, you should Reblog it. This is especially appreciated by artists! Some people will tell you that “Likes Do Nothing”, but they can still be useful to track posts you have already seen or just give a little nod and a wave to the OP or the person who reblogged it. The more you reblog, the more likely your blog is to gain traction. It is difficult for someone who mostly makes original posts to get a foot in the door, especially in light of the previously mentioned unreliable Search feature.
If you would like to comment on a post, there are three ways to do this, and each has different use cases. If you want to say something to the OP directly, you may use the comment function.Â
Most commonly, people put their commentary in the tags of the post. This allows you to make a remark or humorous aside without cluttering the post for others. If someone likes your tags enough, they may screencap or copy your tags and add them to the post themselves in a process sometimes called Peer Review. Sometimes people will also tag a post “#prev” or “#prev tags” to agree with the tags of someone they reblogged from, but older Tumblr users do not tend to prefer this, as reblog chains can get messy, and blogs often rename or deactivate. It can sometimes still be used just as a nod to the person you follow.
It is possible to add your commentary directly to the post, but this is not recommended unless you strongly feel that what you have to say is important or very funny. The difference between using tags or adding to the text post has been likened to the difference between whispering to your friends versus getting up on stage.Â
There are two settings that Tumblr makes available that most Tumblr users turn off: Best Stuff First and Based On Your Likes. These can be toggled off under Settings, then Dashboard, then Preferences. You will also want to go to your own Blog settings and make sure that sharing for Likes and Follows is toggled off (no one likes this).Â
Tumblr Culture & Politics
Tumblr users have a love-hate relationship with Staff. Of course we love our Hellsite, and we want it to remain as is– free of algorithms, aggressive marketing, and the other features that make other social media sites unlivable. As such, Staff generally has a lighthearted and casual way of addressing the userbase, and there is often mutual ribbing. However, Staff have made a number of controversial moves in the past (the porn ban, adding Tumblr Live, inconsistent moderation choices, etc) that have given the users some skepticism towards them. Financially supporting Tumblr can be sometimes controversial; some will cite Tumblr’s past transgressions as a reason not to support them while others will point out that Tumblr needs our support to keep running as it does specifically because they don’t sell our data like other websites.
On a related note, Tumblr users are notoriously difficult to market to and tend to resent marketing and advertisement. Brands and celebrities (with a couple notable exceptions, see Famous Tumblr Users) are widely shunned, most use ad block (few pay for ad free), and it can be difficult for even independent artists and small stores to promote their work. Some Tumblr users see any attempt to make money outside of charitable fundraising and crowdfunding to be bad, although this is a particularly extreme view not held by all.
Politically, a majority of Tumblr is left leaning, often queer, and leftist infighting is common. It is best not to get involved for the sake of your sanity. Regrettably there is a small and stubborn foothold of TERFs and other such bigots. Block, do not engage. You may report if you wish, but as mentioned above, moderation on Tumblr can be inconsistent. If you are very worried about encountering TERFs, many use an app known as Shinigami Eyes, which highlights transphobic social network pages in red.
Tumblr was once infamous for particularly insane hot takes, and while this still happens, the general consensus is most of the worst users left when the porn ban took effect and went to places like Twitter and TikTok. Tumblr is protective of its current cultural ethos and users do not want to see a return to the likes of early 2010s culture. Outside of Tumblr it is common for people to either perceive the website as dead, or as full of insane people. We like to keep it that way. A certain style of aggressively weird or cringe blogging, known as Rent Lowering Gunshots, is sometimes employed to dissuade users of a more delicate sensibility from joining.Â
It helps to already be kind of a weirdo to enjoy it here.
Fandom culture is pervasive on Tumblr, and promoted even by Staff. While not everyone is a fandom blogger, it is likely that most are to some extent. Some people choose to have separate blogs, or Sideblogs, for some or all of their specific interests and fandoms in order to keep content consistent. Other people prefer to dump all of their posts onto their Main and let god sort it out! This is entirely up to you.
Tags are not only used to find content, but also to filter it! You may easily block tags you do not want to see by going to your Settings. This will block anything your followed blogs tag with these tags, as well as any posts tagged by the OP as such even if the reblogger did not use them. As such it is advised that you do NOT censor any tags so that people’s block lists will catch them. If you wish to provide content warnings, please tag with “#[warning] cw” or “#[warning] tw”. Tagging with cw or tw first may mess with some people’s block lists, and tagging with the warning ONLY but without cw or tw may put the post in discussion tags for those triggers.Â
Speaking of censorship, since, again, there is no algorithm, there is no need to censor curses, reclaimed slurs, words like “kill” or “death”, etc. Doing so will generally get you made fun of. The only time you may need to censor words in your post is if you are making a post critical of a subject or fandom and you don’t want to risk it coming up in their search results. In that case it’s considered polite to censor the name of the fandom, character, or other subject (or, in the case of H*rry P*tter, just a good way to avoid TERFs).Â
In recent times, the infamous porn ban has been lightened somewhat. Artistic and educational nudity and sexuality, and really anything short of full-on pornography, is now generally allowed under the Mature Audiences community label. If your post needs a Mature label, click on the button that says “For Everyone” and change it to “Mature”.
On most social media websites there is an unspoken time limit to interact with a post before it becomes weird to do so. This is not the case on Tumblr. We still have posts circulating from 2011 and no one cares.
Tumblr Memes
Tumblr is rife with memes and shitposts (short, weird text posts). The landscape of Tumblr memes is always changing, but to get you up and running, here’s a few common ones to get you started (in no particular order).
DESTIEL CONFESSION: ever since the 2020 Elections, when Supernatural ship Destiel went canon in the weirdest possible way at the same time Trump was being defeated, a screencap of Castiel confessing his feelings to Dean has been the most common way for Tumblr users to share breaking news.
CRAB RAVE: similar to Destiel Confession, gifs from the music video for Crab Rave are often used to celebrate breaking news stories. This is most commonly the spiteful celebration of the death or downfall of terrible people.
THE TUMBLR CALENDAR: Tumblr users love any excuse to celebrate something and have a great number of weekly and annual observances. Weekly observances include Tuesday No Problem, Out of Touch Thursday, Flat Fuck Friday, and others. Annual observances include the Ides of March, Halloween (celebrated throughout October and also whenever you feel like it), November 5th (the anniversary of the 2020 Elections & Destiel Confession), and others.
DRACULA DAILY: A service that has chapters of “Dracula” by Bram Stoker sent directly to your email inbox, on the date the events happened in the story. Starts every year on May 3rd, currently in its second year running. Frequently memed on. Users will often reference emails from Our Good Friend Jonathan. There are other literary substacks but this one is by far the most popular.
DO YOU LOVE THE COLOR OF THE SKY?: A notorious, extremely long post mostly consisting of a color gradient. No one likes this post. Sometimes people will reblog it just to troll others. Other times people will reblog fakeout posts that seem like they’re going to be Do You Love The Color of the Sky, but turn out to be something else.
COLOR THEORY: An oft-referenced post in which a Tumblr user aggressively defended a hospital’s use of a streak of red painted on their floor, with seemingly no self awareness that the streak looked like a long trail of blood. Now pictures of apparent or obvious blood stains may contain jokes about color theory to explain why they’re perfectly innocent, actually.
GONCHAROV: A months long ruse conducted by many Tumblr users to make a completely fake Scorsese film seem like it was real. While anyone with any decency will admit to the farce when asked directly, most people still jokingly talk about Goncharov like it’s a real thing. Sometimes a new fake media will come along and be referred to as “the new Goncharov.”
HORSE PLINKO: A gif of a horse falling down a plinko machine, usually into a fire. That’s it.
THE TUMBLR CODE: A very old post from the early 2010s proposed a code for Tumblr users to identify each other in public. The call and response is “I like your shoelaces.” “Thanks, I stole them from the president.” Originally posted as silly but completely sincere, it is now embraced begrudgingly and ironically. Tumblr sells officially branded shoelaces as a reference to this post. It is considered embarrassing to buy them.
JOHN GREEN COCK MONOLOGUE: Once upon a time, it was possible for Tumblr users to edit the content of a post when reblogging it. In retrospect, this was always a terrible idea. It was made clear how terrible an idea this was when a post by author John Green was famously edited to be a long rant about how “Cock is my favorite taste”. This spread like wildfire, and was used as part of a larger harassment campaign that drove Green off the site completely. While still frequently joked about, the John Green Cock Monologue is more controversial than it once was, with many now citing it in retrospect as sexual harassment. In the wake of the Cock Monologue, Tumblr finally made reblogs uneditable.Â
THEN PERISH: A menacing close-up screenshot of Obama’s squinting eyes. Originating from an absurd roleplay thread in which President Obama allowed a small monkey-like creature to drown, including an exchange frequently paraphrased as “I’ll do anything you want” “Then perish”. Frequently the image of Obama’s eyes alone are posted and understood to mean this phrase.
CONNECTICUT CLARK: Originating from Twitter and Reddit and spreading to Tumblr from there, Connecticut Clark was a character from the webcomics by Flork of Cows, originating an OC with absolutely no interesting powers, backstory, or particularly good looks. In fact he looks like a weird little lump. Tumblr users love Connecticut Clark and his romance with the demon witch Malfina.Â
GIFS: Gifsets are a popular aspect of Tumblr fandom culture. Reaction gifs, however, are no longer preferred and often considered obnoxious, thanks to their overuse in the early days of Tumblr. Sometimes long chains of gifs are used as Rent Lowering Gunshots (see Tumblr Culture).Â
THREE WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS: A post by now defunct Tumblr user thejorie vehemently insisting that he had three girlfriends who smoked weed, and getting into aggressive arguments with most of the people who responded to the thread in any way.
BONEGHAZI: An infamous drama in which a Tumblr user openly admitted to stealing human bones from a nearby cemetery to use in witchcraft and/or sell to others. If you ever hear anyone talking about The Tumblr Bone-Stealing Witch, just know that that’s a real thing that really happened.
MIKU BINDER THOMAS JEFFERSON: Of all of the bizarre things to come out of the Hamilton fandom (besides the Cannibal Mermaid Fanfic and the person who faked AIDS for clout, two controversies I am NOT going to get into here and that you can look up on your own), one famous fanart depicted Hamilton’s version of Thomas Jefferson as a trans man wearing a binder emblazoned with virtual musician Hatsune Miku. Widely mocked.
Famous (and Infamous) Tumblr Users
biggest-gaudiest-patronuses: AKA Gaud. Controversial but very pervasive shitposter. I tend to avoid them, lots of people consider them annoying, but I don’t think they did anything specific? Someone correct me if I’m wrong. In spite of the name I don’t think they’re a H*rry P*tter blogger.
bunjywunjy: Animal blogger known for their #Cursed Biology animal facts series. Very informative!
chongoblog: Mashup musician and streamer. Also memes a lot. His longest work to date is Mad Rat Monday, a mashup album based around the soundtrack to Mad Rat Dead.
communismkills: Thankfully no longer active, famous for harassing and doxxing trans people, as well as a frequently mocked post where they tried to get people to pay them $8000 to stop posting.
cryptotheism: Occultist and author, one of the most famous of the oft-referenced Tumblr Wizards. Posts frequently about occult history and practice.
dingdongyouarewrong: Youtube video essayist Sarah Z. Shitposts more than she posts about her YouTube channel. Has a vocal group of detractors but I’ve never figured out why. Tbf I am a fan of her channel.
doubleca5t: Well-liked trans woman shitposter and former YouTuber, though she quit her YouTube channel to focus on her career.
evilwizard: Another popular Tumblr Wizard. Unlike cryptotheism, whose “wizardry” is rooted in a sincere interest in alchemy and occultism, evilwizard’s wizardry is a schtick. Funny, though.
gallusrostromegalus: Artist and author known for their extremely long but very funny story posts.
iguanamouth: Artist and meme blogger. Many of their artworks have become memes in their own right.Â
neil-gaiman: Yes, that Neil Gaiman. The popular fantasy author is also a popular Tumblr blogger and one of the few celebrities Tumblr users will tolerate (although some resent even him).
nyancrimew: AKA maia arson crimew. The internationally wanted hacktivist who released the no-fly list is also a beloved fixture on Tumblr.Â
pangur-and-grim: AKA Greer Stothers. Illustrator, author, and pet blogger. Their oriental longhair cat Pangur is particularly beloved.
pizza: A once well liked blogger who fell into infamy for being a huge racist, and was ultimately banned, not for the racism, but for promoting diet pills on their blog.
prokopetz: Tabletop game designer and prolific blogger. Has a pinned post with all his game designs, if you are interested.
punkitt-is-here: One of the most well known My Little Pony bloggers on the site today. Known for their silly comics, liked even by people who do not watch MLP.
reallyndacarter: Actress Lynda Carter is fairly new to Tumblr, a recent Twitter refugee, but Tumblr has embraced her for her earnestness and willingness to play along with the website’s weirdness.
sixpenceee: Bafflingly still active despite the well-known controversy where they straight up admitted their family owns a child slave. Not recommended.
straycatj: Well liked Japanese cat blog, written (usually) from the perspective of the cats. Extremely cute and wholesome.
were–ralph: Beloved furry and werewolf fucker. Blog tends to trend very NSFW so follow at your own risk. Also he keeps getting banned and has to keep remaking, either because of the spicy content or because Staff is racist.
I hope this has been helpful! If you are a Tumblr newbie, again, welcome, and don't be shy to reach out and ask other Tumblr users about anything you need to know!
And if you are a Tumblr veteran who has read all this way and you think something in this guide needs to be changed, added, or removed, let me know!
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