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uncleboatshoes' thoughts on Tumblr

MatthewMatthew
edited December 2010
http://twitter.com/#!/uncleboatshoes/

I'm curious how others feel about Tumblr. I was starting to think it was an awesome platform, but during the time off I started to realize how much junk there is in my dashboard. Like dumb a lot of dumb pictures that I just waste time looking at. Although a lot of my favorite blogs are on Tumblr (like Frank Chimero or Bobulate), I hardly ever read their posts in the Dashboard. I'm not completely sure of my feelings about it. But AlFarouqsTux_StevieP negative comments are interesting to me.

Comments

  • the_owlsthe_owls
    I love tumblr and I missed it.

    That comment about Tumblr making beautiful things less special everyday- I understand what you're saying. I just don't follow those kinds of tumblrs, the ones that are an avalanche of re-posts, a waterfall of soft focus pictures of pretty things.
    Just like any other blog, there's real shitty ones, and also good ones that have content or are well curated.

    The people I follow are really interesting to me, and I get to see a lot of things I wouldn't have through them. My tumblr is interesting to me! It's my bulletin board, and serves a pretty vital role in my visual research, notes, and thoughts.
  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    UT OH! I went neg!

    I've also totally had this discussion with the_owls and totally think she's out there doing good stuff on tumbl.

    It's just that the absence totally made me actually like all of the internet more.

    Maybe I need to follow different people, maybe I could get more out of it, but I just feel that it totally take analysis and complex thought out of the internet. It feels basically just like a filing system for individual peoples interests (personal tumblrs)/ imagery of popular things: celebrities, food, memes (fuckyeah_insertthinghere_). Also it is SOO repetitive. These things combined make me dislike the things I see over and over.

    Tumblr has turned me gay due to the onslaught of beautiful woman imagery that has numbed me to the female form/face.

    There is also such a specific culture of things that you see over and over again: pictures of Bruce Springsteen being cool, what if Home Alone was part of the Criterion Collection what would that box look like. There is this overwhelming fixation, celebration, and re-hash of a very limited amount of HUGE pop culture phenomenons. It feels like another generation falling prey to celebrating the things of their childhood over and over again.

    I think most people agree that one of the greatest things about the internet is learning about new things, the ability to find almost every thing ever created (art, movie, music, scholarly, historical) and I think tumblr (as a whole, cause I have found out about some things from it) falls short in those regards.

    People have cool tumblrs, just as a whole I think its kinda dumbing/numbing.


  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    Also please don't get me wrong, Bruce Springsteen is rad. I just find very little value in seeing every photograph of him ever.
  • the_owlsthe_owls
    I feel you, dog.
  • Judar_SpitzerJudar_Spitzer
    gosh. I really like tumblr.

    I like it because to some extent, you get to choose the types of information / posts that you are following. I don't follow people who just post pictures of beautiful women or reblog e-memes, so maybe I'm having a very different experience.
    I followed this kid once who started just posting pictures of babes, like in a real emo just boring way. And I dropped him, just like that.

    I didn't feel bad at all.

    Internet freedom at it's finest.
  • Judar_SpitzerJudar_Spitzer
    I also would like to add: I don't think tumblr is meant to replace the "blog". I still read a lot of awesome blogs, and I think the format of tumblr just isn't ideal for the written word (I tried having a text - only tumblr).

    but as a service to fish out the content you are interested in on the WWW, I think it's kind of an amazing project. Part of why I'd argue this point is because of access. People who have no knowledge of html / blogging / etc can use simplified publishing services like tumblr to post content, and I think that's fantastic.



  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    "a filing system for individual peoples interests"
    This is essentially what I use it for. Hence "Archive Fever". I don't really use Tumblr as a thoughtful platform, although many people do indeed use it for interesting and thoughtful content (see http://www.marco.org/, http://azspot.net/, etc). I use it as a place to dump my brain and also repost stuff from others that I find funny or cool or interesting in some way.

    Even if nobody followed me, I would still use it as a place to easily post videos/photos/text/audio that I like, for my own archival purposes.

    But I totally hear you in terms of the repetitive content/celebrity worship/pop culture/babe blogs that seem to happen quite a bit. Luckily, I don't follow many of those people.
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    Also, I kind of hate how anonymous most people/blogs are on Tumblr. And how stuff is posted without appropriate credit SO OFTEN. I like knowing the author. Tell me about yourself! Tell me about the things you are posting! The lack of context bugs me sometimes.

    I'm probably guilty of this occasionally, but I usually try and source my shit. And you can tell from visiting archivefever.tumblr.com that Alex Mahan is the author by looking at the Tweets or the Flickr or the Last.fm feed.
  • 12341234
    i'm not sure why anyone would follow kmikeym.tumblr.com, because there is no real reason for it. but 2020.tumblr.com has proven that there is value in topical tumbling. Tumblr was made by designers, so those criterion home alone things speak to the initial audience of design people.

    I didn't miss it when it was gone, except I wanted to post on 2020.tumblr.com.
  • 12341234
    Additionally, this unreliability is exactly the reason we shouldn't trust "the cloud."
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    And if you do have stuff in the cloud, back it up!
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    Of course, even if you host content yourself, web hosts lose stuff all the time...although they should be backing up with multiple redundancies. Depends who you're hosting with.
  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    I agree with the points made here, except when Bobby_Briggs said that Tumblin isn't replacing traditional bloggin', cause it totally is. I mean trad. bloggin' still exists and stil will but to a much lesser extent. Tumblin is so easy that it automatically because the answer if you want to make something quickly but this is also my problem with it, OH I HAVE AN IDEA, MAKE A NEW TUMBLR. It's too easy, the great things about things that are take some effort is that it makes you actually think about if you actually give a shit about the idea and weather it holds water.

    Once again, my qualms with Tumblr as stated here are in no way universally. 2020 is great! UHX's own HASSELBECK has a very popular Tumblog that represents none of the pitfalls I've described.

    Alex, you are right about those examples being thoughtful. I sorta have to assume the thoughtfulness of Marco because it's mostly beyond my nerd knowledge. It seems like nerds are good at alway providing a level of analysis, but unfortunately there's very little in it for me or the more common person (which is okay). AZSpot is a great resource for political/economic understanding.

    What's interesting to me is that so much Tumblr culture is based on pop culture imagery but I feel like I've never ever seen anyone spend more than a sentence on talking about/analyzing/being thoughtful about any kind of pop culture (film/music/tv).

  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    Also, there is the possibility that my feelings have some root in me feeling like I never figured out to do with Tumblr/do it wrong/and too old/these damn kids/"BACK IN MY DAY..."/"WASN'T LIFE THE BEST BACK WHEN..."/boredom/winter/the crushed up Vitamin 3 I just snorted.
  • MatthewMatthew
    skatetit is pretty good.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    I am totally THESE DAMN KIDS/BACK IN MY DAY about a lot of things

    probably would be about tumblr too if I even knew what it was, really
  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    if anybody wants to share tumblrs they get enjoyment from i would appreciate it.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    I like Gary's about all the wrong emails he gets.
    but he doesn't update it much...

    that's the only tumblr I really know.

    Is Nerd Boyfriend a tumblr? I don't think so. But maybe that is similar to a tumblr? I like that one.

  • 12341234
    Not knowing which blogs are a tumblr is pretty cool of you.
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    You can back up your Tumblr if you have a Mac:
    http://staff.tumblr.com/post/286303145/tumblr-backup-mac-beta

    Gonna do this tonight.
  • UncleBoatShoes2011UncleBoatShoes2011
    Nerd Boyfriend is totally a tumblr and is totally PICTURES OF CELEBS LOOKING COOL! (but really well done, except for including a picture of Eric Clapton)
  • 12341234
    Well. I tried backing up my tumblr...

    image
  • swamp_knobbler_mahanswamp_knobbler_mahan
    HAH!
  • 12341234
    seriously getting to a "fuck tumblr" point in my life with all the outages.
  • YoursTrulyYoursTruly
    edited December 2010
    Is Nerd Boyfriend a tumblr even though it is a dot com?

    It's funny you ref the Clapton because that was the FIRST TIME EVER on nerd boyfriend that I was like "really?"

    not that cool, also not that great looking in terms of nerds for boyfriends. Let me tell you, he's no STEVE MERCHANT

  • MatthewMatthew
    Tumblrs can totally be dot coms too.

    It makes sense that they are having so many outages. Something like 3 billion pageviews or something and they give it all away for free. I imagine whatever they make off of premium themes and directory listing and "stickers" doesn't begin to pay for that amount of traffic.
  • 12341234
    I like my content more than I like my platform. So if Tumblr becomes unstable then it's time to find a new tool. It's been three days of spotty/no service. Of they need money, charge for accounts!
  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    i admit i don't know much about tumblr, but i tend to avoid that stuff because it feels too closed off. tumbr, facebook, and all that stuff just feels like the mall to me- there is a big parking lot and a contained space and sure you might just find everything you need but you are in a fucking mall. i want actual websites, that if i like i will bookmark. i don't want to have to sign in, and then be confused by what's original content and what's a re-post. that is why i like the urho blog model so much- it's just a place, not a member's only club with a secret handshake. no sign up necessary to see and comment on the blogs.

    but then again i am old and don't really understand these things.
  • Log_GaryLog_Gary
    Have you seen the New Tumblr site "Andy's Mail"?


    Not sure if It's addressed to you...



    Best,
    gary
  • LelandLeland
    I've used the dirty-T for the last three years or so, mainly as a tool to map my subconscious attraction to various image and discourse memes in the nets. I've had the fantasy of someday going back through the three years of posts and writing up further research and analysis about what I was doing there.

    My net activities have taken an interesting turn since I'm no longer living in a space with net connectivity. In general, I'm less involved in mass daily streams of all sorts. I like to think that there has been a correlative uptick in my personal generation of content. There is a good chance that this is true.

    Still believing that cream rises, ie strong content matters, and that stuff has a longer slower burn than the 2 second attention span that drives most curation on the dirty-T.
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