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On Tumblelogs

nostrich:

[…]

Commentary adds to your tumblelog, it doesn’t detract from it. Take my most recent post before this, Comstockery, as an example. The overall point was: “comstockery” was coined in relation to Anthony Comstock, by the great George Bernard Shaw. With the added commentary I included, not only did it become more informative, entertaining, and interesting (I hope), it also got some context. That’s a good thing, right?

But that’s just a matter of preference. This whole disagreement can be settled in one short sentence (and I think that’s how AATW would like it): do what you want with your tumblelog. There are no rules, or guidelines. Sure, there’s a definition of a tumblelog, but choosing to follow it to the dot is boring and uninteresting. Show a little personality, and creativity. Personally, I view my garrulousness as a good quality, rather than a bad one.

[…]

Fundamentally I agree that commentary elevates a tumblerblog above a glorified scrapbook, and I completely agree that it should be what you want it to be, but I think some aspects of a tumblerblog speak for themselves and I try and reflect this how I use my own.

I’ve only been posting on here for a few days (it feels much more considering the amount of stuff I’ve offloaded), yet I’ve already developed a bit of system of approach when it comes to how I post about the varying types of media:

• Image: Short of requiring context, I leave it at a link to the original or the owner’s site. Images, by their nature, speak for themselves and I prefer people to experience what they see without my rambling to colour it needlessly.
• Quotes & Chats: These quite literally speak for themselves.
• Link: I sometimes quote the article, or if the headline says it enough I leave it without annotation. I know I could comment on why it attracted my attention, but it would only ever amount to this is great, check it out. It’s the downfall of being so horrendously articulate, I’m afraid.
• Video: Likewise; sometimes they requires a bit of framing but usually just the title or brief explanation of their content is enough.
• Music: This, however, always gets a note from me. Be it a quote from a review that articulates things better than I could, or my own flowery gushings, music just demands a certain degree of explanation for its choice. There’s no reason why it deserves it more than the media mentioned above; it’s simply how it encourages a reaction in my personally, hitting a certain combination of emotional and intellectual responses in my brain that demand articulation. Still, music feels too important not to tell the world why you love it so much.   

Anyhow, I thought I’d add to this with how I approach my tumblr. There are definite merits to the varying extremes and I’ve found plenty of tumblrs that excel at both, but a happy medium is how I roll and so far it’s working out brilliantly. I’m still hopelessly, hopelessly addicted (much to the chagrin of my dissertation). I should probably get back to work, actually …