Be Excellent To Each Other

Recently my OLL boss Ste tweeted a link to my VHS covers and suggested it's a tumblr waiting to happen.

I don't really understand the point in tumblr. Can anyone explain why it's better than me just loading them onto flickr?

I think Tumblr exists so that people can type 'Fuck Yeah VHS covers!' after everything you post.

I think Tumblr is often used more like a blog for people who have nothing to say and so 're-blog' (re-tumbl?) other people's posts, but if you have a Flickr account and have all of the cover pictures in a single directory you can grab the RSS of that directory and set it so that Tumblr detects the pictures and fills your Tumblr stream with them.

At the least it will provide another outlet for what you are doing, but if it does get picked up and people take interest it is a quick and easy way to 'share' your stuff around the internet, if that's what you are looking for.

I'm not a terrible fan of Tumblr myself, but that's because most the people I have seen use it have been morons. Maybe it is just because I don't 'get' it, like Myspace.

Countdown until Gaywood turns up to say "You're doing it wrong..."

5

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4

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3

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No, no, no.

Gaywood's Tumblr is good, but he is in the definite minority on this. I did say most of the people using it are morons. That makes Gaywood's food thing a shining example, but as a whole, Tumblr is rubbish because a lot of it is about the community sharing aspect and re-blogging, and when 99% of the people and content is utter nonsense then that community of ideas becomes a community of people re-tumbling

'fuck yeah cake!'
'fuch yeah unicorns!'
'fuck yeah RVs!'
'fuck yeah Rhianna!'
'fuck yeah acrylic!'
'fuck yeah Snoopy!'

Gaywood should clearly start that food thing

He does have a food thing. I remember reading it once.

Nope, you're right, he just talks about food all the time in the normal one. I thought they were separate.

They will be at some point, I believe. Craster is helping.

Personally, I'm probably more likely to read a Tumblr than a Flikr but that's just me...

Yeah. We'll get there.

I don't think people 'read' Flickr, but a lot of people do follow others on Flickr to keep an eye on their work.

I don't really check either, but am more likely to subscribe to a blog. Gaywood's Tumblr is a little bit more in depth than most Tumblrs, so I would regard it more as a blog than the majority of Tumblr accounts.

Shit. Logo.

No. You want a *good* logo.

You need to distinguish between what Tumblr is and what most people use Tumblr for.

Firstly, it's just a (lightweight) blogging platform with a (very lightweight) social networking layer. As a blog site, it has a few advantages over Wordpress and Blogger and the like:

• Very quick to sign up, and has robust multi-site support; you can add endless Tumblr sites all under the same account (I'm up to nine now on mine!).
• Very easy to post to, particularly good for media content like sound, picture sets, and video clips.
• Doesn't nickle-and-dime you for charges for things like using a custom domain name.
• Has a good selection of free themes and some outstanding low-cost commercial themes.

The social networking layer comprises of the following bits:

• You can build a list of people you follow, and the "dashboard" view shows you all their posts in chronological order -- a bit like an aggregated RSS feed.
• You can "heart" posts you like, letting the person know you liked it.
• You can "reblog" content, taking someone's post and putting it on your own blog, with some annotation you can add. Tumblr keeps a citation chain for this so people know it's not your content. This is how, say, wacky pictures get passed around the site.
• The dashboard view (which serves up several billion hits a month -- seriously) has a little boxout called the "radar" which cycles between half a dozen of the current popular posts across the entire site. Get something in there and millions of people will see it.

Now, Mimi is quite right that an awful lot of people are just using it for wacky pictures, pop culture ephemera, and quite nice photographs they've seen on Flickr and are now posting without any sort of atttribution to the photographer. Lightweight stuff, in other words. I hate most of those guys! But of course I don't read their stuff so I also don't care much. If you look, there's plenty of people using it as a straight blogging platform (like me!). And there's all sorts of weirdo sites too. http://dailybez.tumblr.com/ and http://whatsonstevebuscemisstoop.tumblr.com/ and http://eatingoffthepeoplesprincess.tumblr.com/ all spring to mind, and this sort of slightly deranged micro-content can find a receptive audience.

What your boss is getting at, Nirejhenge, is that scans of terrible 70s and 80s B-movie VHS covers are the sorts of things that would get popular on Tumblr -- people like that sort of thing. A snarky joke at the bottom of each one would be good too.

It's very different from flickr, because you'd want to post one a day or something (tumblr has a queue, so you just bang loads of posts in in one sitting and then tell it to put one live at a certain time each day). This is a much better way to build readers than a shitload of pics on flickr that hardly anyone will look beyond the first page of.

You've nothing to lose from trying it -- you could probably sign up, choose a theme, and get a post up in less than ten minutes.

We are, of course, pretending that it's all Malabar's fault that the site isn't all up and running and overflowing with magnificent content.

Cough.

A Bean Flickr is better than a Bean Tumblr, but that's just me.

See, I'm just taking a break while I pray for Gaywood's health. 24/7.

Yeah, that'll do.

Seriously though, kick me up the arse if you need a hurry on it. I'm excruciatingly busy with work, but I did promise to do that for you.

Objection: Mushroom Burger!

Right. I've signed up now and set an rss feed to go from flickr to tumblr.

Should you fancy looking at 70s/80s/90s video covers (and sometimes DVDs that take their covers from VHS tapes like the 23rd Century ones do) go to:

http://derekfme.tumblr.com


Oh and I feel that I should point out that Ste isn't my proper boss, just in terms of the One Life Left show he is.

Once you've got a few posts up I'll throw you a link, Nirejhenge.

Having dissed goofy pics, I am now laughing like a child at http://lindstifa.tumblr.com/post/328178 ... cat-i-died

Tumblr's certainly very easy to set up and post on. I hoped that it would make me more prolific at posting stuff but that hasn't exactly happened... I tend to just throw stuff in a Bits & Bobs post instead.

Derek -- do your posts as "photo" type ones, rather than a normal post with an image embedded in it. It makes some things work nicer, like post thumbnails, and makes the dashboard view better too.

You can quickly put a flickr pic up by using the "share on tumblr" bookmarklet on http://www.tumblr.com/goodies. One click of that when your browser is on a flickr page will make most of the post for you.

I'll look into that for future ones. Thanks. I'm curious to see what happens with the rss thing.

I also did a tumblr for sharing ephemera, but got bored after a few days.

I like to blog for a bit, then nothing for periods, then a spate again. Which is no way to build readership.

Although I'll take some photos of my food for the food blog if you want examples of nice food presented terribly, or terrible food presented in a pile. I am learning.

@Nirejhenge Keep it up! I'm loving the covers!

Loads loads more to come. I've even brought a few home to scan special.

I've finally realised why I don't really bother with Tumblr/A blog/my own website.

It's because it's damn hard to get people to keep reading and keep following. I wish I had a USP... The video covers seem like a perfect hook!

I've uploaded a request this evening. And done a bit of organising. Tagged release dates and various other things on the posts.

You need to be more nerdy about something. I obsess over things like video labels and such. I get overly excited when the video company's name is embossed in the case.

Thing is the handy thing about my obsession is it can actually lead to me making money.

If you put a link in your sig, I reckon the chaps here would keep track. I have a ream of RSS feeds in Google Reader that I flick through every morning (even Joans' Android blog!). If you add a website address to your profile, you'll get a WWW button under your posts.

Thanks, I think.
I guess I should probably write something else on there at some point.

Your loyal reader awaits your return

I did wonder if it was anyone I knew.
I might just turn it into an X-Construction blog (although I haven't played it in ages), because that seems to be the only thing people read about on there.

I actually do have a Tumblr account which I do use exclusively as a blog. Plumped for that as I liked the themes really and I'd had a poke around after my ex started using it.

I don't think anyone reads it though. But that's cool: it's kind of a part-emo-diary, part public goading material to force me into doing something positive about my shit life this year. It's very much a personal thing.

I read it.

Oh God, do you?

Thank God I've never met you in real life, that would be embarassing.

OH GOD I HAVE MET YOU IN REAL LIFE!

*runs*

That said: I'm thinking of turning my comedy life into a soap opera. Got plenty of material.

*cough* I read it too *cough*

Well now I want a link.

[quote="Mimi"]I think Tumblr exists so that people can type 'Fuck Yeah VHS covers!' after everything you post.

Fuck yeah.

I use it, I think Doccy G recommended it when I said I was after something free and easy to use....I didn't realise it was rubbish. But it's a bit like Twitter I suppose, isn't it? Can't you just follow people who aren't lame morons?

I haven't figured out how to follow people I want to follow, let alone morons...so, meh. I'm not a pro blogger or even a regular one, I'm pretty sure it's all nonsense, in fact and I have barely figured out how to post to it from my phone. So it suits me and my needs fine!

Me too! God only knows how to find you, Zio....

There are people who aren't lame morons on Twitter now?

People aren't posting things after I post. There doesn't seem to be an option to leave a comment anyway.

People can favourite your posts and then they get shown to all that persons followers.. I think.

I saw that the good Dr Gaywood did that with one of your posts.

I have never been able to work out the comment thing either. I think people are supposed to be able to leave 'notes' but I have never seen how this is done.

I've just seen an option. Do you have to enable comments under the "community" section of the preferences?

You can allow replies from people you follow or allow them for any Tumblr user.

Is that it?

I looked to se how to leave you a comment but couldn't work it out. I followed you to see if that made a difference, but it didn't.

Ah I see that now. Unfortunately people can't leave comments until they've been following me for two weeks. That seems silly. Wonder if there's a way of allowing any comments.

I've started following you now... that may make a difference?

**Edit** @Mimi.