Ughhhhh, I'm wondering if I should get a Tumblr soon too, crotchety old person that I am. I confess to being a fellow Tumblr hater, just because I find the LJ interface a lot more usable for my purposes (also, FLOCK, FLOCK IS A GLORIOUS THING). Fuck this reblogging business; why can't we just have comment threads? D:

I used to actually have a real tumblr, but it made me so unhappy that I had to stop. I don't want to start ranting about it now XD; But I just really hate tumblr for a lot of reasons (just to name a few, it's really easy to commit artistic theft because of the platform, things get taken out of context both in political and fandom things, the people are generally awful, and it takes all the community out of fandom since everything is just one click to anonymously or with relatively no involvement recycle the same tired material), so I hate being a part of it. That said, my friends who have tumblr and link it to their fanworks get a lot more traffic on said fanworks, so I broke down and make one just to promote my blog.

I agree with you 100% on LJ being more usable for my purposes (and general fandom purposes)... so basically, yes, fuck this reblogging business, give me back comment threads!

You just covered all of why I hate tumblr. ;P

it takes all the community out of fandom since everything is just one click to anonymously or with relatively no involvement recycle the same tired material

Especially this, since conversation is a big part of what makes fandom more than just a bunch of girls collecting photos of cute guys.

I'm glad you agree! I really feel like tumblr has taken a lot out of fandom and it upsets me >__

It makes it more about "me, me, me, me" and personalization rather than community building and collaboration. :(

But this is a sad trend in a lot of different venues... I wish we could stop it.

Sadly, from my perspective, I don't even feel like it's about "personalization" most of the time on tumblr... or at least, it's not even about showing off something you made/drew/wrote/scanned/uploaded yourself and bragging about it... it really just seems like everyone wants to sit in her own little corner and and reblog images without a second thought about anyone else. So yeah, "me, me, me, me" I guess. It's sad. No one wants to share their thoughts and build communities of people who enjoy the same thing anymore.

It's not even that I think tumblr is inherently bad-- used in conjunction with another platform, it could be great for sharing media and fanworks quickly and easily. But people are lazy, and would rather click a button and never think about it again rather than actually interact...

Ah~ yeah, that's what I meant. It's "personalization" the same way that listing a bunch of movies on Facebook is "personalization." There must be some new sociology word for that. But that's how I feel about what most people use tumblr for.

There are some fun tumblrs, though, like the Rich Kids of Instagram. XD And a few people making great gifs and things but you're right that they inspire more "likes" than anything else. How depressing to do the work of making a great series of gifs and all you get are 100 likes and not a single word of conversation about hips...

Ah yeah, I see what you mean. XD But even on facebook, I feel like... people want to have a list of movies to show off about themselves-- they're decorating a permanent profile, even if it's in a frivolous way. But with tumblr, people reblog hundreds of images in a week, and they all fade into the background, so it seems even more meaningless to me.

There are definitely people who use tumblr really well! But yes, exactly. It's like getting a ton of page views on your journal but no comments; it's really unfortunate when meaningful conversation just dies out because of laziness, imho. :(

To butt in on this thread... I totally agree :< Whenever I look at the list of notes for a post on tumblr, it's always a hundred people liking and reblogging without even adding any comment of their own, with only one or two people who've said anything at all. When it only takes two seconds to at least add in your own comment to the conversation...that's really the height of laziness |D;; Comment threads like on LJ definitely make for a much better way to make friends and build community in fandom.

Yup... basically, I agree with everything here.

I'm not a fan of tumblr, either... I feel like I get too distracted while on it.

Good luck, though! I do occasionally creep on people's tumblrs, though, so I'll add yours to the list. XD

Yeah, there's a ton of reasons why I hate tumblr, but the fact of the matter is, tumblr means exposure, which is why I'm promoting my LJ there. The other content besides my LJ stuff is just my comments on pictures I thought were cute, but... feel free to check it out XD;