

Usage Analysis: Tumblr - smith7018
http://ohiocsguy.blogspot.com/2013/04/usage-analysis-tumblr.html

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shanelja
This article raises several fairly depth-less points, as a frequent user of an
anonymous (but tech related) Tumblr blog I feel fairly confident in giving a
short analysis of one of the key points it misses:

The first thing I tend to notice is the amount of damaging or "triggering"
posts, anything from eating disorders to mental health, depression, sexual
fantasies and more. The anonymity of the site allows a lot of people to "come
out of their shells" and start to talk about what's on their mind.

Unfortunately, when you take away the shame of public and open speech, you
tend to find that the worst parts of humanity start to see through - there are
entire blogs devoted to losing weight, anorexia and pictures of women with
impossible physiques, creating a circle jerk culture of unhappiness and
lustful ideology.

Of course, in regards to user experience, the content is user created, so if
the prevalence of these kinds of posts says anything it is that this is what
the people who use the site want to see, judging by the tens or hundreds of
thousand of re-blogs they tend to receive.

However, if you ignore the seediness of the anonymous world for a moment, you
can also see the good in the site, there is a lot of art which would otherwise
be hidden from the world, beautiful poetry and pictures and there seems to be
an inherent nature in the people to stick with each other, giving one another
support and advice whenever they need it.

This can be seen especially in terms of suicide and depression, where there
are people posting about their self harm troubles and other people sending
them "asks" to support them and tell them it will all be okay, it becomes
somewhat of a massive online support group. These people don't feel like they
can talk to people in the real world, their counselors and family don't
understand so they come online for their fix of advice and help, to actually
feel wanted and loved and cared for.

This is something which websites like Facebook and Twitter tend to miss, for
better or worse, our profiles there are normally tied to our identities, we
can't talk about these private things because then people in our real lives
will know our most inner most fears and troubles, the sick people behind our
normal exterior, so they use Tumblr to express this part of them.

~~~
smith7018
I thank you for the feedback and the great insight but I'm not terribly sure
how I miss your point? The first point discusses how the users are able to
shed their exterior, show who they truly feel they are, and that it's not
possible to do this on Facebook or Google+. Sure, I didn't paint it in the
possibly-self-destructive sense you did but I thought the point was conveyed?
I'd love to hear how you think I could've done better! This is my first time
having the HN community notice something I've done and I deeply value the
community's (usually very intelligent) input!

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Wilya
One thing that I feel Tumblr does better than most social networks is
discoverability.

My experience is that as long as they are relevant/focused enough, tags can
actually work. One can discover good content and interesting people by
following the relevant tag, and if you tag your post well, (at least some)
people will see it (and like, reblog it, whatever). Because of that you can
login without knowing a single other user on the service, and still quickly
start to interact with like-minded people.

Somehow, it's not true for all topics, though. Tech related tags are fairly
empty.

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jmduke
I don't mean to be negative, but this is hardly a 'UX analysis.' All three
"insights" -- ability to have a 'hidden identity', firehose approach to
content, and follower count as a valued metric -- are also applicable to
Twitter.

I'd argue a much more interesting look at Tumblr would take into account:

\- how corporate tumblrs are incredibly effective compared to often-terrible
corporate Twitters (part of this is sort of predestination: if a person is
smart/savvy enough to have a Tumblr, he'll probably have a higher level of
social media acumen overall)

\- the theming system of tumblr. before tumblr became large enough that it's
userbase was attractive on its own merits, the customizability was a huge
selling point, and attracted the graphic/web vertical to contribute both as
developers and users

\- the overall shift of tumblr from production to consumption, with stuff like
the in-dashboard compose form and the relatively new emphasis on reblogging

~~~
smith7018
On your first point, do you think the corporate tumblr's have lead to
commercial success? All I've seen so far as far as company tumblr's go are
Denny's and National Geographic so I don't think I could make a valid
assertion on the subject. I know that company Twitters usually seem very
hollow so I'd love to be pointed to some great company tumblrs if you have
them! I thought about your second point, but I personally determined that the
intense amount of customizability wasn't a real reason for tumblr's success
with its user base. Many tumblrs use the same 20 themes and those who overly-
customize it lead down a MySpace-esque road. I've actually found myself being
more annoyed with the immense amount of customizations. Please remember that I
wrote this in an attempt to understand why users used tumblr, not discussing
every aspect of the site. Finally, I joined a month ago so I imagine I missed
the "overall shift" of posts, so I apologize for being unable to write about
that!

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k-mcgrady
>> "One of the first things I learned about Tumblr was that it's not like
Facebook, Google+, or Twitter in that it's a "social network" mostly for
strangers."

Is this not also the case for Twitter and Google+? Most people use Twitter to
follow news, celebrities, and taste makers. And with Google+ it's likely
you're friends and family aren't all on it and with Circles it's meant to be
used to follow more than just that select group of people.

Edit:

>> "Tumblr did something remarkably intelligent; they made your follower count
private."

I think that's a very good point. It prevents users feeling 'embarrassed' that
they don't have enough followers. I'm sure Twitter sees huge numbers of people
drop off after a few days because they don't have any followers - it's
something I've seen amongst my own friends. I would argue though the followers
aren't much of a reward system. I feel much more rewarded when I see my post
get reblogged and quickly pick up steam getting reblogged by people that don't
follow me. I think reblogs are the main reward system, followed by likes, and
finally followers.

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roldie
Sorry to add the the negativity, but no screenshots is not very good. How can
we expect to take your UX critique seriously if you don't provide good UX for
your own users? Screenshots are an essential part of any UX analysis.

Use the screenshots to show what Tumblr does well or not so well. Use them to
show how other sites do it well and what Tumblr should copy/implement.

------
JulianMorrison
Bad things about tumblr: the block facility doesn't stop them stalking you or
reblogging or you seeing their reblogs indirectly. They keep futzing with the
UI in trivial ways that are so far from their major UI annoyances it isn't
funny. Why the heck are asks not rebloggable? Why such a consciously limited
mechanism for asks? Why are replies broken? And so on.

------
danso
This analysis is pretty generic...I'm not sure what real insight it offers
specific to Tumblr. One of the things it doesn't go into detail is the actual
user-to-user interaction...which is extremely limited. I've been using Tumblr
for years and I still don't know how to directly comment on someone's content
without reblogging it...or how to reply to someone else who has commented on
my content.

Also, the OP doesn't touch on the most unique part of Tumblr, which is its
not-quite-a-blog but more-than-a-tweet niche. Its format is very limited...you
have several types of posts to choose from (photo, quote, text, video) and
when you pick a format, you are stuck to a rigid form...for photos, you enter
a caption and upload a photo (or photoset)...and that's it. You can hack
around the constraints but it is difficult...and yet, this ends up making
tumblr more inviting, because of the lack of setup involved. Constraints are
freedom, sometimes.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "I've been using Tumblr for years and I still don't know how to directly
comment on someone's content without reblogging it"

I think reblogging doubles as a commenting system. If you look at the original
version of the post you reblogged it will show that you reblogged it with your
added commentary. Most themes also make it easy to add Disqus just by adding
your Disqus site name.

There is also the 'ask' feature which allows for more direct user interaction,
and I believe there is an option on one of the post types to pose it as a
question and allow users to respond.

~~~
danso
Yes, but disqus isn't easily accessible from the dashboard, and most of my
followers seem to just see my posts from the dashboard...and of course, if
someone reblogs the post, disqus (from my end) won't caper any feedback,

It's a pretty stilted system for feedback...but maybe it's by design, that
tumblr is more about just sharing and disseminating content. At least that's
been my perspective

