I'm way too involved in everything.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[tributary]

this is the same girl in a raincoat

[magrittr]

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[eggshellsareneat]

Alright, I think I like tumblr now.

A pun post crossed my dash, and I reblogged it with an equally bad pun in return. A couple of my followers find it funny, it's a good day for everyone.

That was on July 7th.

Virality on Reddit was entirely algorithmic. You could garner a couple crossposts, but the success of a post was entirely dependent on whether or not it hit r/all--the main page of Reddit. If your post does that, it's immediately exposed to 10x the number of people and immediately gets upvoted.

On my pun post, I get a couple reblogs. And those reblogs get a couple reblogs--nobody really adds any content to the post, it just gets a couple reblogs here and there.

There's a specific chain of reblogs that I'd like to focus on. The most popular post on this chain has about 25 reblogs on it. Half the posts have three reblogs or fewer. Five posts in this chain have just one reblog total.

But the reblog chain keeps going. And going. It breaches containment many times over. And finally, after a chain THIRTY SIX posts long, at 9:30 AM, July 22nd this morning, it hits a popular account.

ALT

99% percent of the people who have seen the post--virtually unchanged from how it left my dash--have seen it because it was curated by 36 different people. That's insane to me.

None of those 36 people know that they're part of this chain. They saw a post, reblogged it, and moved on. If any one of these people had not reblogged, the post would have a fraction of the impact it has.

And yet, after two weeks, the post has effectively hit the main page of tumblr. It was picked up, only because people liked it enough to show it to their followers. There were no algorithms necessary.

You really, truly, cannot get this on any other website.

[brightlotusmoon]

[cdrlogic]

Reblog the reblogging post.

Like to ignore its wisdom.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[weedle-testaburger]

not to post about heartstopper again but tao is one of the most characters ever. it's like alice oseman said 'right so i've got this one guy who's cishet so as compensation i'm gonna make him just the best'

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[hardboiledleggs]

I think this is something young people in particular are confused about. My dad has always had a slightly off color sense of humor, he always feels the need to privately ask me “boy turned girl or girl turned boy?” if I mention a friend and stress said friend’s pronouns, and yet when we had repair work done in the house and the worker was listening to a podcast discussing the evils of transgender people and how to cleanse society, he went out of his way to contact the owner of the business to discuss his disappointment with that worker’s conduct and stress the negative effect that could have had if there had been trans kids in our home.

Our allies will never be perfect. They will never use the perfect language or have the perfect politics. But we have to appreciate those allies and meet them where they are, especially if they are willing to learn.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[drill-teeth]

You know. Some people could really stand to get more comfortable with the idea of “you shouldn’t say that because it’s mean”. Especially with really common body shaming and straight up bullying lines.

“You shouldn’t make ugly bald jokes because what if a transman on T sees it!”

“You shouldn’t make virgin jokes because what if someone who’s asexual sees it!”

How about you just don’t make them because they’re mean. How about people can be balding or a virgin for a number of reasons and also don’t deserve to be routinely made fun of. How about saying that the reason you shouldn’t make x joke because it spares x specific identity’s feelings also let’s them know that you actually have no problem saying or thinking bald people are ugly or virgins are stupid or etc but you’re just not saying it in front of them. How about you understand this kind of body shaming and bullying especially in a very public setting online are always going to have way more unintended damage to people who did nothing wrong than damage to the person you’re upset with.

Sometimes the best reason to not make a bad joke like that is because it’s fucking mean.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

Hey, so…

[seananmcguire]

…”Will you tag (something that is not a common phobia or trauma trigger)?” is always an appropriate request.  Even if you’re asking “will you tag for the letter ‘e’,” you’re not crossing boundaries unless the person you’ve asking has already said, clearly, that they will not tag for a thing.

However, “no,” is an equally appropriate reply.  It’s nice to have reasons (no I will not tag frogs because I post too many frogs and I forget, meaning that the tag will not protect you; no, I will not tag Disney princesses because it says “Disney princesses” in my blog description and you knew this was a dead dove before you took a bite), but they are absolutely not required.

“Will you tag for birds of prey?”  “No.  Please unfollow me if you require that tag.”  is a perfectly polite exchange.

[bibliophilecellistsoulsearcher]

It amazes me when people forget this is a common courtesy. Also, if you like following someone in particular and they post things that trigger you, you can sometimes find ways to creatively block things they don’t tag for and continue to enjoy their other posts. 

For example, Seanan posts a lot of frogs. Pics and vids of frogs squick me, and are related to some personal triggers, so if I’m already having a bad mental health moment seeing those can make it much worse. I love everything else she posts about and would be sad if I had to unfollow her just for the frogs. So instead, I have the name of the blog she usually reblogs frogs from as a blacklisted tag on xkit, and that knocks my chances of seeing frogs on her blog down to like, 5%. Doing that keeps my dash a safe space for me to relax and have fun, without asking her to second guess posting the things she relaxes and has fun with.

Sometimes you need to unfollow people, for the sake of your health in internet usage. And sometimes there’s workarounds you can put in place yourself to tailor what you see of someone else’s blog. But putting all the work of protecting yourself on the internet into someone else’s hands is unfair, to them and to you.

[rainbowloliofjustice]

Many people have this idea that if someone doesn’t say yes or bend over backwards for them specifically then it must mean they’re a terrible, shitty -ist or -phobic person who doesnt care.

No, sometimes people just have boundaries and those boundaries can conflict.

[the-haiku-bot]

No, sometimes people

just have boundaries and those

boundaries can conflict.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[wilwheaton]

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[louisegluckpdf]

thr funniest part of therapy to me is when you first come in and you're exchanging niceties and they say "hello! how are you" and you say "im fine how are you :)" and then 30 seconds later they put on their therapist voice and say "so how are you doing?" and you go well lisa. believe it or not im doing Bad

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[i-am-a-fish]

I'd really appreciate it if you drank some water. nothing will happen if you don't, you can keep on scrolling if you want.

I won't be mad, or disappointed. I won't even be aware that you didn't drink water. you can just not interact with this post. I'll never know what decision you made.

it's up to you honestly.

[I'm way too involved in everything.]

[girlwithsword]

hey rwrb fandom, hey take my hand, look me in the eyes right now; the strike means that the cast will not be able to promote the movie going forward, they can’t do interviews or appearances, I don’t know how much they can even respond to your well wishes online

no one, and I mean no one, is going to bother or pressure or even joke about doing otherwise you hear me? if you have a complaint it goes to Prime execs, it goes to Bezos - union strong y’all