Tumblring along 2...

It was good to hear how others feel about Tumblr and what it offers and how they use it. I definitely agree that it's not all that intuitive if you just land there and can't understand how it works - it takes a while and trial and error; and we don't all have that much time or energy to expend on yet another interwebby platform.

I promised to talk some more about the good the bad and the ugly of Tumblr as experienced by my friendly questionees and to also consider the vexed question of 'photo/picture pilfering' and the like.

In response to what they like most about tumblr, Ronnie mentioned that she might stumble over stuff that she wouldn't ordinarliy find and each questionee spoke about the opportunities tumblr offers to come across interesting things and to discover artists unknown to them; and a couple mentioned how easy it was - no pressure, no writing.

Leslie said "It's where I swoon. It's where I collect art" which I loved - that sense of a personal digital art collection.  Robyn spoke about getting lost in her own world and how much she loves her archive page - "a huge mosaic of ... whatever makes me feel alive".

And both Robyn and Leslie mentioned how it is still about connecting with other artists who are on your wavelength; and that tumblr offers an opportunity to learn more about those artists, what moves them and speaks to them.

The idea of learning about what we each respond to, and of learning about how other artists see their world were benefits of the almost totally visual format of Tumblr, and in addition Ann mentioned how useful it was to see  how other people respond to our own art when we post it.

The top of my Tumblr page earlier today

When asked what they like least about Tumblr, there were a couple of issues about the admin of the platform (it overloads sometimes, and they send you emails when somebody re-blogs your photo or starts following you which can clutter up an inbox and be annoying). For a few of us, the fact that sexually explicit sites are available without warning around their content has been a bit of a concern, as is when these sites start following you. You have to be vigilant to check new followers and block them if you don't want these sorts of folk to appear on your blog.

Sloppy referencing and not linking or acknowledging information properly was a real concern for Ronnie and a few of us noted how easy it is to spend a lot of time tumblring along.  For Leslie - the fact that there is no dialogue or conversation has been interesting; meaning Tumblr blogs tend to lack the depth of our other blogs.

My Tumblr archive so far for June

I also asked folk how they handled the permission to post or posting of images with links or references. This is one of the areas I have never felt totally comfortable with over at Tumblr, and I was so pleased the questionees shared their thoughts.

Everybody agreed that it was about each of us behaving with respect, honesty and integrity; and that we should all treat people as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

Always link to the person and give credit to the artist were agreed by everybody. For a few of us, if we see an image by an artist we know that is not credited, we go in and make the link and credit.

The way Tumblr usually allows for an automatic link is a real positive of the site; but some tricky people circumvent this by posting the photograph somewhere else first, then link to that intermediate posting; leaving the real artist's credit way back where...not good form.

An informal set of rules kind of appeared:

For most of us if we are re-blogging an image, we simply re-blog it;
If we are posting an image from the public domain we post it with correct links and credits; and
If we are posting from a personal blog however, we ask permission first.

Thank you again to Robyn, Leslie, Ronnie and Ann, and to others who have joined in the conversation; I've enjoyed pondering and learning alongside you.

My Tumblr archive for a quieter couple of months