11 replies to this topic

[Mr. Brown]

Do any of you use Tumblr as a blogging site?

I had a Tumblr blog, which I started back in April. There, I posted movie reviews, interesting links, images, videos, music, etc. -- ultimately anything related to serious cinema.

Well, Tumblr ended up tossing my account, with no explanation to why. I had around 350 posts (and counting), along with about 200 followers. I imagine that it had something to do with copyright issues, as I often posted music from films that, naturally, did not belong to me. For example, I held a week-long John Barry tribute, and posted a few tracks from his albums. On Bernard Herrmann's birthday, I posted a (rare) track from his score to "Obsession", as well. I imagine I had it coming, but it would have been nice to get a warning first.

The thing I don't understand is that kids can get away with posting Pokeman nonsense and tracks from Hans Zimmer's "Inception" score like it's going out of style.

Very odd, and a bit unprofessional, in my opinion. Should have stuck to Wordpress.

[Darryl A. Armstrong]

I would say posting copyrighted material without permission is also a bit unprofessional.

[Mr. Brown]

Fair enough. Thanks for the input.

[Ryan H.]

Were you just linking to YouTube videos or actual hosting of content? If it's the former, I'm surprised they went after you. If it's the latter, I guess it's kinda to be expected. I believe I've heard that Tumblr is less willing to look the other way than other blog sites regarding copyrighted materials.

Anyway, as a site, Tumblr is a pretty neat thing. I had one for a bit, but didn't update it much. But I've had a great time following Alan Jacobs' Tumblr page, which offers an abundance of thought-provoking content. Lord only knows how he reads as much as he does.

Edited by Ryan H., 19 February 2011 - 01:10 AM.

[opus]

Ryan H., on 19 February 2011 - 12:39 AM, said:

Anyway, as a site, Tumblr is a pretty neat thing. I had one for a bit, but didn't update it much. But I've had a great time following Alan Jacobs' Tumblr page, which offers an abundance of thought-provoking content. Lord only knows how he reads as much as he does.

Ooh, thanks for that link. Looks very interesting...

[Mark T. Ingham]

Mr. Brown, on 18 February 2011 - 03:00 PM, said:

Do any of you use Tumblr as a blogging site?

I had a Tumblr blog, which I started back in April. There, I posted movie reviews, interesting links, images, videos, music, etc. -- ultimately anything related to serious cinema.

Well, Tumblr ended up tossing my account, with no explanation to why. I had around 350 posts (and counting), along with about 200 followers. I imagine that it had something to do with copyright issues, as I often posted music from films that, naturally, did not belong to me. For example, I held a week-long John Barry tribute, and posted a few tracks from his albums. On Bernard Herrmann's birthday, I posted a (rare) track from his score to "Obsession", as well. I imagine I had it coming, but it would have been nice to get a warning first.

The thing I don't understand is that kids can get away with posting Pokeman nonsense and tracks from Hans Zimmer's "Inception" score like it's going out of style.

Very odd, and a bit unprofessional, in my opinion. Should have stuck to Wordpress.

I've been curious about Tumblr. What's the main draw to it? If you already have a Wordpress blog (as I also do) it seems sort of redundant. Is it the more social network setup that you wouldn't get, as much of, with a standard, WP blog? It's intriguing, and I do like some of the layouts Tumblr offers.

[Jason Panella]

Mark T. Ingham, on 28 February 2011 - 03:30 AM, said:

I've been curious about Tumblr. What's the main draw to it? If you already have a Wordpress blog (as I also do) it seems sort of redundant. Is it the more social network setup that you wouldn't get, as much of, with a standard, WP blog? It's intriguing, and I do like some of the layouts Tumblr offers.

The draw, I think, is how easy it is to post quotes, links, brief thoughts, and so on. I think Wordpress is fantastic, but (maybe?) better suited to essays, longer reviews, and so on. Tumblr and similar sites (I just started using Posterous and like it a bit) works well if you want to quickly post thoughts on something, or draw attention to an interesting quote. There's overlap between the two types of blogging here, but overall they're primarily focused on different types of output.

I guess they're might be some social aspects to the microblogging, but I haven't really thought much about it.

[opus]

The beauty of Tumblr is that the interface is specifically designed to cater to different types of content, e.g., long articles, photo, video, quote. So it makes it very easy for people to post a wide range of content types, and present each type of content effectively and optimally to your readers.

You can, of course, do that with other website content management systems such as WordPress and ExpressionEngine (my personal fave), but it takes some additional work on the site owner's end.

[Overstreet]

Okay, Tumblr users, please teach me something that's probably obvious...

A friend is setting up a new Tumblr site. She likes a certain theme called Colophon that seems to be popular, and she's asked me to help her use it as her own theme. But I cannot find it in Tumblr's Theme Garden. Are we out of luck? Or is there a way to get it from one of the existing blogs that uses it? (Or, can *you* find it by using some trick I don't know?)

I am just a Padawan learner.

[opus]

Are you sure the theme's name is "Colophon"? A Google search doesn't return any Tumblr theme by that name. Can you provide a URL of a site that uses that theme?

[Overstreet]

Jason, I'm going to email you, so as not to take up thread space with this.

[opus]

Overstreet, on 11 March 2011 - 02:41 PM, said:

Jason, I'm going to email you, so as not to take up thread space with this.

Sounds good.