"Reblog as link"

[yvannairie]

Since there was that kerfluffle with thisweekmeta, I've been thinking a lot about the benefits of sharing stuff as a link -- about how it limits spread, but also limits wank and dogpiling because each linked instance has a shorter reach, and also how a lot of the problems on Tumblr were because people could add to posts and dramatically change their meaning in the process, and it reminded me that once, Tumblr also had that feature

and people hated it.

Comments

[wolffyluna]

I got the impression that people hated it because it had a tendency to cut off long posts? I do still see people posting links on tumblr (even to things that are on tumblr*).

*Those cases are definitely about preventing conflict. Eg 'I had some thoughts on this, that OP really doesn't need to see.'

[yvannairie]

Yeah, I've seen that too. And you might be right, although I remember linked text posts always cutting something, and figured it was hated because it moved the interaction off the dashboard.

[cimorene]

I used it a lot, and I do use the "link post" format sometimes... but um, I hate it because the default format, on the dash, is so stupid/hideous. I mean, it makes a huge block of a highlight color and then it sticks a headline over it in like, what, h1 size? So when I actually do post links a lot of times I use the text post style to do it.

Although yeah, the fact that posts were cut off - the actual substance and not just the form! - was an even more serious problem. (And also OPs probably didn't love it because people linking to it as a link don't show up in their post notes.)

[wolffyluna]

Yeah, those posts truncated things weirdly, and you often didn't have a lot of control over where, so you ended up having to forensically find the middle chunk of posts.

[grayestofghosts]

I wonder if there's actually ever going to be an end to dogpiling culture, or if it's just too enjoyableand we've made it too easy.

[yvannairie]

... I honestly don't know but I also want to believe that we can at least mitigate the damage of bullies with social design.

[cimorene]

Yeah, I mean... to DOGPILING, no, dogs do it, birds do it, etc. But to dogpiling CULTURE, to culture that encourages it instead of discouraging and to infrastructure that enables it instead of making it a bit harder? Yeah, we can do something about THAT.

[yvannairie]

Okay, yeah :D