Things that make me a bit unpopular, but I don’t care about the link-trail. Citing sources is great but only if they’ve contributed anything. Going through three different cross-platform curated aggregators just to find the link to the person who took a photograph or drew a picture? There’s something wrong there — especially when cross-platform. If you have to choose between the creator or where you saw it, I’d say go with the creator. 

There was a time when the rail was important, there was no real reblogging to speak about so you’d almost have to see the the previous writer in order to get the context. And then that’s fine. Really. But now? When the previous is mined for just a tiny bit and context doesn’t matter? Fuck the trail. I want to see more of what the creator did, how things evolve or fit together in their narrative. I’m really not that interested in what an unknown curator fills they blog with — nine out of ten times it’s just boring, especially since most of these adds nothing themselves and all content is very random. And if nothing is added, that “contribution” doesn’t really matter.

One thing that’s deeply fascinating is what people classify as private. It’s more apparent here than on screw-the-users-places like Facebook and it makes it clear that the social web has a long way to go and that there needs to be more choices with real differences. Sort of a pick and choose you own adventure but with content. No one has the same definition, no one shares things to the same degree. What’s deeply personal to me isn’t for you, not completely even though mostly we do agree on certain conventions imposed by society, upbringing and well, weather?

Some very private people may post nude photographs of themselves while at the same time feel anxiety about writing about their thoughts and days. For me, it’s the opposite. I’m not comfortable with myself enough to be naked except in special circumstances that almost never happen. At the same time I’m pretty open about my depression. Perhaps too open even if I hesitate to write about thoughts on suicide — they have happened — but even that feels easier to do than photos of my chest. Too me, even GPOYW is about learning to like myself.

I think what I’m trying to say is this: I’m thankful that there isn’t a faux-privacy option like Facebook or bolted shut like Livejournal here. That you have to decide what to share and not, I think it makes it more personal somehow. It’s less about catering to a select few and more about actually reaching out. Cryptic is good and can blow minds of people it’s not intended for. I don’t want to hide for half the world I inhabit — even if I might hide for the other half, the one that’s flesh and bones and cheese.

The “friends only” is one of a few reasons why Livejournal and me never clicked. I have friends who use it but I haven’t logged in to read for years. Locked away one-way content is not for me in any direction. That’s what mail is for.

LOL they got rid of the directory

prettybooks:

flashfiction365:

As I understand, Tumblr is in the process of changing it so that you could search for certain types of posts rather than types of blogs… but isn’t that what “tracked tags” are for? Lame.

Argh. That’s really annoying. It was already hard to find blogs about a specific topic even with the directory! I was already annoyed that the “tracked tags” only, uh, tracked tags. For example, it used to find posts mentioning “books” even if someone didn’t tag the post as “books”. Now it doesn’t. Now all I see is spam. 

The problem is that the directory was broken from start. Forcing people to beg for recommendations just so they wouldn’t be buried deep down in the categories ism more of a pyramid scheme than a directory. The only was a directory would work with out turn into  a popularity game is to chose a category to belong to and then the listing is randomized. Or based on who you follow, and that makes it a personal order.

The tracked tags have a different set of problems. The curated ones though, seem to share the popularity problem in that it’s a competition about lead editor. Shiny and popular over quality. As usual.

One of the other editors is posting a lot of crap.

blueberrynocturne:

Just because you want to be in the lead doesn’t make it ok to post shitty artwork. That’s not what we’re here for. Quality > Quantity.

[End of rant.]

So it’s an internal competition between the tag-editors? Ugh, I’m starting to think that what Prez said in the Wire applies here too: ”No one wins. One side just loses more slowly.” See also: “You juke the stats, and major become colonels. I’ve been here before.”

On curated tags

Parts of me had hoped that when the tag illustration got curated, it’s radar would shift towards things tumblr users had done themselves. I know. It’s a silly thing because that’s not how things operate. The radar there right now is a bit of a disgrace I think. One third of the first two pages are from the same person, most of them in a row. The one image from DrawGabbyDraw is sourced to her etsy and not her tumblr, that’s a bit frustrating considering that she posts lots of her own drawings and are not one of the hundreds of “cool things I’ve found” art tumblrs. I don’t want to judge any of the editors individually — I follow one of them and like what she posts on Fuck Yeah Illustration.

I know, I know. “Cool things I’ve found” is the prime mantra of the radar and just as the Daily What it doesn’t really care that much for the original poster. I just think it’s sad and it doesn’t have to be like that. I think it should highlight the creative users rather than fffound.

But what the fuck do I know, right?

(I promise, that if I get to be lead editor of the socks tag, your socks will be radared.)

There’s been a sudden rash of anonymous hate in people’s askholes and I don’t get it. Well, I don’t get anonymous hate which makes me feel left out but that was not what I meant.

Being anonymous is a way to protect yourself from hurt. It can be sensitive information, things you don’t want to let others know but still know — nice things can come back and haunt you emotionally later on. But if you’re going to hurt someone, even with words, I don’t get the anonymous. I’m not one of those “if you got nothing nice to say, it’s best to say nothing at all,” if needed I will call people a cock/cunt/fucking waste of human fucking genome/television executive at FOX. The least one can do then is to accept the fucking consequences and stand by what one just said. Insult and tear down anonymously? That’s just cowardly and spiteful. 

It’s really not that hard. But then again, if you are a cock/cunt/fucking waste of human fucking genome/television executive at FOX you probably don’t understand fucking decency. You should be able to have the anonymous option on without being shat upon repeatedly.

(Edited a bit for clarity. And I really don’t mean calling names in the middle of  a very frustrating discussion — I think we’ve all done that when all the wrong buttons are pressed.)

I don’t think it’s healthy to become this upset about the Daily What’s inability to reblog each time they themselves get reblogged into my dashboard. Great start on not caring about what idiots do 2011.

So this anonymous thing. I’m all for that but there is a problem: how to respond. Obnoxious and trolling anonymous people I have no problem with,  I could in theory have fun with those for hours — in theory as I never seem to get any of those. Am I not good enough to be annoyed by idiots that can’t spell properly?

No, it’s the other kind. The nice anonymous I have a moral dilemma with. To me, they’ve chosen to be anonymous for a reason and as such, it seems to me a bit rude to just expose them to the public. Except there are few other ways to respond so it’s tricky and problematic.

Anyway. To the anonymous yesterday. Gosh, I’m flattered. Wish that would happen with people outside of Internet too.

People have been a bit nostalgic for the tumblr of old, when there were no askholes, no replies, only reblogs. Because then the focus was on the content and not the people. In a way that’s true but in another it’s not. Tumblr without the ways of means in communication is very much like a scapbook. Have you read scrapbooks made by other than yourself? They’re very boring. At best they’re memory aid, at worst it’s vanity exercise.

And a tumblr without commentary, without an anchor and then there’s no context for why it’s there. I’ve stopped following a few very well curated image/art tumblrs because in the end all those images floating around with a link and a title as only context provider, it’s just noise.

Furthermore, you just know that in most cases the link is to another aggregator and not to the creator. This means that the image and only the image is what matters, the one who made it in the first place is forgotten and not explored. It’s not a favourite artist of the poster.

Not everyone will agree, but to me Internet is about communication. It’s about things that hopefully stays after the few seconds you look at something. There needs to be a feedback loop, be it a string with cans or a mailbox. There needs to be a context. Why should I sit and read a blog about literature if the poster thinks that the greatest book of all time is the Da Vinci Code or Atlas Shrugged? Who is just as important as what.

Hi there. It’s Tuesday. Not a good one as my stomach… Well, you probably don’t want to know right?

Tuesday is the day when answers are made for what ever questions gets dropped in the askhole. I’ll do that.  So ask away. Make this day a little bit brighter.

But! I thought about that whole recommend me claptrap too and what I came up with was this: Recommend yourselves to me. (This does not apply to the usual suspects as I already know you but you might do this for kicks anyways.) Chances are I don’t follow you, I don’t know who you are. Because you’re silent. Don’t be silent. Speak up even if in private. I like to know who’s reading this and why and all that other things, but fuck, even an “hallo” is enough really. Tuesdays is a bout reaching out.