Change your profile picture, blog header, and title to something other than the defaults. Do it right now. You will be mistaken for a bot otherwise, and blocked.
Go into Settings -> Dashboard, scroll down to Preferences, and turn off the options in the picture. This will get rid of most of the algorithmic stuff.
Turn off Tumblr Live. You have to snooze it once every 7 days for some stupid reason. It’s hosted through another company and will steal your data if you use it.
Go to your blog settings (under the little person menu) and turn off these two settings:
Turn off infinite scroll (lags the site) and turn on timestamps on posts, in the same menu as Preferences.
Basic Features of the Site:
Reblogs drive the entire site. If you’d upvote something on Reddit, you’d reblog it on Tumblr. You can add text, images, or tags to a reblog, but you’re not required to.
The dashboard is the equivalent to your Reddit feed, and contains the posts of all the people you follow, with the newest at the top
You can send an ask to someone, and it’ll appear in their askbox for them to answer. You can receive them too, or turn off the settings if you don’t want.
Tags aren’t actually used for finding stuff (search function is dogshit), but are more for categorizing. People also talk in tags. Because Tumblr is weird, you can’t use quotation marks (“) or commas in them without fucking it up
You can filter both tags and phrases under Account Settings; doing this will put a filter over a post that contains them, which you’ll have to click through to see the post itself. Useful for avoiding hate speech or blocking out annoying stuff
Likes are useless. They literally do fuck-all except send a notification to the OP.
Stuff Tumblr Does That Other Sites Don’t:
Very old posts (I’m talking from like 2012) often circulate on this site. There’s no such thing as a post being "too old” to reblog
Blocking is highly encouraged; you can block someone for any reason. Even for just being annoying.
If you and someone else are following each other, you are mutuals. Mutuals are fucking awesome and are treasured like friends. Mutuals are a thing on other sites but Tumblr treats em differently.
You can screenshot someone’s tags if you like them and add them to a reblog. This is called “peer review”
Sometimes someone will find a blog and go through it and like/reblog a bunch of posts. This is totally fine and not “creepy” like it is seen as on other sites.
Tumblr jokes often rely on Continuing The Bit and a “yes, and?” attitude. Goncharov is probably the best example of this.
We are fucking infested with bots. They will either have totally blank profiles or be filled with porn. Block and report on sight.
Censorship is pretty lax here. I can say “I want to brutally stab Elon Musk to death and watch him bleed out in front of a crowd” and nobody gives a shit.
General Etiquette:
Don’t try to do epic clapbacks here, you’ll probably just get laughed at or blocked. If someone is bugging you or spouting bigoted bullshit, block them.
Reblog art!!! Artists often struggle to gain traction on here; reblogging will give them a boost.
Not every reblog needs a comment or tag in it
You can go all out with tagging your stuff to organize it, or you can just leave it all blank. Someone might ask “hey, can you tag these posts as [x]?” and you can decide if you want to do that or not. It’s generally polite to oblige, but “no” is still reasonable.
Avoid discourse like the plague. Filter it, block people who start it, scroll past it when you see it. Just don’t get involved in it. Ever.
Don’t put fandom tags or jokes on someone’s posts about serious matters or personal shit
You’re responsible for curating your own dashboard; if you complain about constantly seeing stuff you don’t like, that’s probably on you. Don’t be afraid to unfollow.
Follower count doesn’t matter much here and you don’t have to make yours known if you don’t want to.
Reblog, don’t repost. Reblogging keeps the credit and doesn’t “steal” engagement like Twitter retweets.
If someone likes something a LOT, they might reblog it like 30 times in a row. This is normal
Having a post blow up is actually kinda a bad thing, since it floods your notifications. There’s a sort of in-joke about how having a big post is awful and people jokingly try to stop their own posts from blowing up, often in vain.
Tips:
Get XKit Rewritten if you’re on desktop, it’s a really helpful extension
In the little drop-down menu next to the ‘Post now’ button you can either save a draft, schedule a post, or add it to your queue. The queue lets you post things in order at a certain interval, which you can change. It’s good for spreading stuff out over time.
You can use Shift+R to quickly reblog stuff and Shift+Q to queue!
Filter your notifications under Activity - you can also see some neat graphs
Find each other! If you want your old Reddit communities to stick together, seek out other refugees and follow them.
a lot of people think narcolepsy is just ‘being sleepy’ or even ‘being lazy’ but it’s so much more than that. symptoms of narcolepsy include:
extremely intense, vivid dreams/nightmares. narcolepsy is defined as a disorder in which most of, if not all of your sleep is REM sleep. this is what causes daytime sleepiness; your body is NOT RESTING CORRECTLY and is physically incapable of doing so. we have little, if any deep sleep.
sleep paralysis and hallucinations.
cataplexy, found in type 1 narcoleptics. cataplexy is very similar to a seizure, though it is not classified as one. episodes of cataplexy are usually (but not always) brought on by strong emotions, and cause you to lose control of different parts of your body, ranging from muscle limpness to full on collapse.
EDS, or excessive daytime sleepiness. often times, narcoleptics will suffer from something called a sleep attack, where they fall asleep uncontrollably. this can happen while working, driving, or doing hobbies.
increased risk of all cancers and other (yes, narcolepsy is suspected to be an autoimmune disease!) autoimmune diseases, as well as an increased rate of mental health issues. ADHD, diabetes, heart disease, and depression are often co-morbid with narcolepsy. tying in with this, we have an increased rate of suicide.
insomnia due to the nature of extremely fragmented and disrupted sleep. intense and vivid nightmares can often make WANTING to go to sleep difficult as well. pretty much any other sleep disorder can be co-morbid with narcolepsy.
decreased cognitive function. memory issues are common in people with narcolepsy; even a mild case of narcolepsy can be compared to going 48-72 hours without sleep in a normal person…except its every day.
not a symptom, but it often takes narcoleptics several years to be diagnosed w this disability; it is EXTREMELY under-diagnosed, and testing and treatment are very expensive even with insurance.
there is no cure for narcolepsy, only treatments. the only treatments we currently have are various stimulants (adderall, modafinil, ritalin, etc) or just straight up GHB. many people cannot tolerate these medicines, making treatment even more difficult.
(keep in mind that i am writing this post from an american perspective; i know treatment is often more accessible in some ways in other countries, though i also know it can be worse/harder in different ways too.)
just in case y’all would like More Neil Gaiman, his Masterclass on writing is available on Hoopla (the library app!). So if your library uses Hoopla for their ebooks/shows/movies, it should be available to you.
Hoopla is a free app, you’ll just need your library log in information once you sign up for an account. Your library’s website will say if they use Hoopla or another app.
