potofsoup | Reblogs, redux

I added a bit to my "DW for tumblrites" post about reblogs as I see formatting and other social norms establish themselves over the past week or two. Here's some of what I added:

[Framing the concept of "reblogging"]
Before we get into the meat of "alternatives to reblogging," I want to point out that DW has a culture that is centered around privacy and control of content, so be very mindful that most people are writing things here *not* intended for tumblr-style reblogging, and in fact, many posts are designed to be protected, not shared.

That said, reblogging is a core way people interact on tumblr, so let's start by figure out *why* our fingers itch to hit the "reblog" button:

To save something so you can find it later:
Use Memories and tag it. (See above)

To add to the conversation:
- Click "Reply", and type up a quick comment! DW automatically emails you if someone responds to your comment, and you can actually reply to that email to automatically add to the comment thread. (I love comment threading so much)
- It's *totally okay* to comment on other people's comment threads! If you see an interesting comment, you can add on to it, the way if you see an interesting post, you'd reblog and add on to it.
- If there's already a large number of comments on that post, I suggest middle-clicking on that post to open it up in a new tab and read through existing comment threads.

To share a cool thing with your followers:
Pop a link into a blank post, write a quick blurb, and post it. That link could be to a post, an external page that someone shared, or to a specific comment thread or tag. The key here, for me, is that it's (a) fast, and (b) short.

Format would be: [user] made [a post about blah].

Here's how the html would look:
<user name="USERNAME"> made <a href="POST LINK">a post about blah</a>.

To add to a conversation AND share it at the same time
On tumblr, the solution is to reblog and add to the bottom. This leads to a lot of Dash filler if it's an active conversation. On DW, I think we're fortunate in that there's more of a choice:
- You can comment on a post and then post a link to that comment thread.
- You can link to the original post and write your response on your own blog, and then share a link to your post in the comments of the original post.

I think I prefer linking to a comment thread if I want to be part of the same conversation. But if it's something that is a few steps removed from the original post, and also something that I want to start my own conversation on my own blog, I'd use the latter.

Formatting "reblogs"
For about 90% of the time, I think a quick "[user] made a post about blah: [link]" is sufficient. However, sometimes you may want to include a snippet of someone's post in your reblog post -- maybe to highlight a particular point that you want to point people to.

shy_magpie suggested a way of formatting reblogs, which is basically putting the quoted snippet in a <blockquote> tag.

Here is an example of what it looks like:

potofsoup, in her Likes and Reblogs post, said:

blah di blah blah blah

(note: blockquotes show up differently on different styles, so don't rely on it always looking the same)

Be mindful that many people don't want their posts quoted, especially ones intended for a private audience. So before including a snippet, consider a few things:
- Is the post private? (there's a little lock icon next to the title of the post) If so, don't share any part of it
- Is the content of the post personal? If so, it's probably not intended for a wider audience.
- Are you still directing people to the original post and the comment threads there?
- Is your snippet short enough to count as "fair use", or can it be seen as you're stealing other people's content wholesale and reposting? (Even if you provide a link back, it's still reposting.)
- Instead of quoting a snippet and adding on, can the same thing be achieved by linking to the comment thread with a short blurb about what you said?

I'm a tumblr-ite so you have blanket permission for me, but when in doubt, double-check!!

Reblog starter snippet
You can help facilitate link-share style "reblogs" by providing some pre-formatted text snippet for people to copy-paste into their post. Anything enclosed in a creating a <textarea> like above is raw code, which people can then copy-paste into their post and then edit/append their own blurb.

Here's the formatting again: <user name="USERNAME"> made <a href="POST LINK">a post about blah</a>

It feels weird to pre-include the post snippet that you want people to reblog, so... maybe not?

I'm currently undecided about images. On the one hand, I want more images on my dash/reading page. On the other hand, it's basically reposting my work.

Keep in mind that these "reblogs" *are* editable, so we're dependent on social norms to make sure things aren't mis-attributed.

If your reblogger want to help facilitate the spread of your post, they can simply paste the reblog snippet a second time and put it inside another <textarea> </textarea>.

Notifying and tagging reblogs
One thing that's I miss is knowing that someone reblogged my stuff. What I've been doing is leaving a comment on the person's post that I'm reblogging it, and linking to the reblogged post if possible.

[edit 1: I was wondering why

shy_magpie wanted to use dd and dt tags instead of blockquotes, and it turned out they didn't know about blockquotes! so I changed it to be blockquotes instead, and changed the link to their new post about it.]
[edit 2: edited the original post better highlight respect for privacy and existing comment norms, and copy-pasted the changes here.]

Reblog starter snippet:

[Edit: Thanks for everyone's comments! I need to focus on RL and other projects, so I'll be ignoring comments on this post for a while. Thanks for understanding!]

Current Location: next up is updating the post about Drafts

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

shy_magpie

I really appreciate the nuance you've added to this guide, like when and how to use this effectively! As you say linking usually makes the most sense, but I like it for cases like when someone else is pointing you at the post where the conversation is. You want to credit the person who brought it to your attention, and keep their reasons for pointing you to the main post, but don't want people to have to go through three layers to get to the main post.

From:

shy_magpie

reblogged here

From:

Reblogs, redux

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