I'll tumblr for ya

[morgandawn]

Don't use it as I don;t have much time/painfree moments left for short attention span computer interactions. In my cost benefit world of pain free moments the tumblr math does not (yet) add up.

All that being said, I am using RSS feeds to follow a few tumblr accounts and am enjoying them. One word on RSS feeds - if you are using tumblr and want your content to be available only a week having readers use RSS feeds to keep up with your posts should work. If you want people to find older posts (say a rec list or vids) the RSS feed will carry only the latest content and won't have tags. The same in reverse for readers who use RSS feeds - the only way to find older content is to go to the tumblr account and try to use the navigation there.

Cross-posting is the way to go but tools are scarce. Here is discussion of a wordpress crosspost plugin

This tumblr to LJ crosspost tool looks promising: http://2livejournal.tumblr.com/ anyone tested it? edited: as someone reminded me, a cross-posting tool would defeat the purpose of using tumblr to avoid social interaction/social pressures/discussions. But I know that tumblr usage varies and people have different reasons/motivations for using the platform so I think the tool may be of interest to some.

Are there any other tumblr/lj/dw cross-posting methods in use?

Comments

[embroiderama]

a cross-posting tool would defeat the purpose of using tumblr to avoid social interaction/social pressures/discussions.

Wow, that right there is why I won't touch tumblr with the exception of occasionally if I'm linked there. There's no interaction, and it just feels like an endless void of people throwing stuff out there and no discussion happening, no way to really connect. I fear it's the future of fandom. It gives me the shivers.

Anyway, yeah, sorry I have no answer to your question. :)

[morgandawn]

I look at tumblr as another flavor of communication? And yes, if this is the only method we all end up using to interact, then our fannish community will be much different than it is today. But then again, our fannish community today is so much different than it was 15 or 30 years ago. I take heart that fandom has a tendency to warp spaces to fit our needs - and those needs, for the most part, have not changed. To talk, laugh, share, create and squee. Not everyone who wanders over to tumblr has the goal of limiting direct social interaction. That would be like saying that everyone who blogs really only wants to hear the sound of their own voice talking and talking and talking (which was what many of us were saying when fandom migrated over to LJ...and is what many of us are are still saying). The reason I mentioned the crossposting tool is because some fans, like fourthvine, are musing how to get their fannish recs over to tumblr without dropping LJ altogether. And some fans are equally adamant they will not use a cross-posting tool - in either direction.

Life is like a banquet

[morgandawn]

Pre Net fandom was like gathering in a friend's living room - for real. People brought things to share, conversations were around a central dinner table and debates were more or less civil. Loud and drunken guests were quickly shown the way out. Mailing list culture was like gathering in a friend of a friend's living room. You didn't know everyone there, but the talk still took place around a central dining table and it was understood that the hostess set the debate and etiquette. This was after all her 'living room.' LJ culture is more like hotel room parties - where every blog is a rented room. You enter someone else's room knowing it was smaller and less 'social' - and you, the room owner, expect everyone who came to your room (blog) to really behave or get the hell out. The room windows and curtains are most often left open. Eating is done off the bed or table or floor. It is a bit crammed and chaotic but still fun. Tumblr culture is like running past a room/living room and grabbing fast food on the way. There is no 'room" and everything is out in the open. There is no central dining table - heck there is no table at all, or a bed or chairs - and if any eating is being done it is by eaten standing next to a mobile food truck. You really don't have to talk to anyone or participate- but you could if you wanted too (as long as you keep everything short and simple). But everyone and everything is in motion and you quickly move on to the next fast food place or mobile food truck. It is still loads of fun and exciting and you rarely get the name of the person you just slept bonded with. But that's OK because look, up ahead - there's another one. Wheee!

Re: Life is like a banquet

[embroiderama]

Yeah, tumblr culture makes me make this face IRL: D: I wish I could enjoy it, but it just sounds so horrible to me and makes me feel nervous and sad. I honestly and very seriously wish it would stop existing. Entirely. I wish I didn't feel that way, but I do.

[tonicollins]

I can't say I'm a tumblr fan - to me it's the communication equivalent of throwing leaflets from a plane.

Re: Life is like a banquet

[liviapenn]

What is funny to me is-- from my personal perspective, there may not be a lot of discussion/meta on tumblr, but there's a lot more *creative* interaction happening on Tumblr than on my DW friendslist or wherever. Someone will draw a piece of fanart and then a couple of people will write a ficlet based on it, and then someone else will draw a little "sequel," and then someone will do a cosplay photo based on the fanart...

(Just for example, there was this funny cat sweater with button eyes that somehow became a meme in Sherlock fandom on tumblr, and it seemed like literally every single artist drew some variation of the characters in this silly cat sweater and it turned into this huge fandom-wide thing and it was so hilarious.)

To go with morgandawn's food analogy, to me non-Tumblr fandom feels more like, I dunno, a diner, where people at one table don't necessarily talk to people at the next table, while Tumblr feels more like a potluck, or Thanksgiving dinner-- everything is getting passed back and forth and commented on between everybody. It really can feel at first like nobody is interacting, but that really hasn't been my experience. I'm really just saying this because I hate to think that anybody feels nervous and sad because of Tumblr! There's not just one "tumblr culture" any more than there's one mailing list culture or journal based fandom culture, really.