Post(s) tagged with "notes"

Tumblr Just Makes It Impossible To Communicate

I know Tumblr is not email, or Twitter, but why make it so infuriating to communicate with others on Tumblr?

marksbirch created a note on a post of mine, and of course I can’t reply to it (see Notr). So I went to his blog and asked a question, which he answered. But of course I can’t then add a follow on question to that existing ask. Of course not. So I tried to ask him a follow on question in a new ask, with a link to a post. Got this:

Hmm. Of course you can’t put links in questions. Why would you want to do that?

So I tried to send him fan mail, thinking maybe I could put a link in that. Turns out you have to follow someone to send fan mail. So I followed him, and tried to send fan mail:

Ok. I give up.

1 August 2012 4 Permalink
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Re: Tumblr Notes Design Ethos: How Threaded Replies Can Work by Greg Battle

Gbattle throws down on my suggestions about fixing Tumblr notes (a la Notr), suggests how it might all fit in with Tumblr’s (or David Karp’s) prickly sense of nice communication, and then offers this up:

Gbattle via Leftover Takeout

For Stowe’s threaded replies to work and also adhere to the Tumblr Design Ethos, a few enforcements are necessary:

  • Authentication for involvement in reply threads are based upon the relationship between the replier and the original content post author, not among the repliers.  Specifically, each replier must have a bidirectional following relationship with the content owner or be a follower of the content owner for at least two weeks.  Hence, in Stowe’s example, he should absolutely be allowed to reply to me (gbattle) on an indented, threaded basis.
  • Just as all Tumblr Notes can be throttled, any subset of threaded replies can also be throttled to improve visibility in the Dashboard.  Users can optionally expand threaded replies to reveal thread details.
  • No replier can reply to his or her own reply.  This safeguards against thread spam and unnecessary threading.
  • Once a threaded reply has been started, the parent reply can no longer be edited.  The preserves context for the threaded discussion.

Like Stowe, if Tumblr, Missing-e, or an independent browser extension developer would like to discuss the details on implementing the above, I’d be happy to help.

Note: Given the above restrictions, I don’t think Disqus integration into the Dashboard, however cool, would support everything necessary.

For Disqus (or some other external group) to pull all that off would require a very deep access into Tumblr, where I bet the APIs don’t go today. The best thing would still be Tumblr (or Karp) deciding that it would be cool, or simpler, to make replies/notes work and drop the fan mail, asks, and so on.

Source: leftovertakeout.com

31 July 2012 2 Permalink
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Dear Tumblr, Why do you have a set up where people can ‘reply’ to my posts, but I can’t reply back? Are you sadists? Do you hate the idea of social communication? Can you please fix this? Sincerely, Stowe Boyd, on behalf of millions of Tumblr users [PS Gbattle — It’s about social operating systems, not social apps, per se.]

Dear Tumblr,

Why do you have a set up where people can ‘reply’ to my posts, but I can’t reply back? Are you sadists? Do you hate the idea of social communication? Can you please fix this?

Sincerely,

Stowe Boyd, on behalf of millions of Tumblr users

[PS Gbattle — It’s about social operating systems, not social apps, per se.]

28 July 2012 40 Permalink
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Web anthropologist, futurist, author. My focus is the future, and the tectonic forces pushing business, media, and society into an unclear and accelerating future. (More.)

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