ATTN: Tumblr - Please display full-size images in the dashboard instead of thumbnails in Text posts with multiple inline image uploads.
Or, at least explain the logic as to why you do so in the first place.
Thank you, in advance.
Related:
Self-reblog.
Still bothers me.
UPDATE:
Feedback from Tumblr CEO, David Karp to my query:
The issue is simply that, w/o limiting the number of inline photos in a post, those posts can make the Dashboard unbelievably slow and unwieldy. The only other solution I’ve seen is auto-expanding all of the post’s images when any thumbnail is clicked. That sucks for some other interface nuances.
That said, we haven’t looked at this in a while, and it would be a nice one to fix! We’ll give it some thought. Please drop me a note if you have any ideas. :)David
Have at it, team.
More Tumblr Dashboard Feedback
I like the neighborhoodr-eastvillage feed, but something is starting to bug me. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Thanks for the feedback, Ted!
The signature, or “Dashboard Spam” as you referred to it, was an attempt at combating a nagging Tumblr deficiency, namely that site/post content doesn’t always appear as completely as one would like it to when read via the Dashboard. Whether it’s an embedded video that doesn’t get parsed correctly (or at all), or in this case, that important header/sidebar information isn’t visible to readers, the Dashboard needs work.
Neighborhoodr is a slightly different beast than a typical, personal Tumblr. It’s designed to be: a) a reader-generated community blog/bulletin board, and in the end b) a valuable source of news for said community. The former, of course, is only true if/when readers submit stories (or, in the least, tag their posts “East Village”) and, having moderated for about a year now, I’ve found this did not occur as often as this volunteer moderator would like… The latter won’t materialize to any large degree if the blog has no audience (or, the content may just end up limited to what moderators find interesting).
The header of the main Neighborhoodr | East Village site contains a call for submissions, a contact e-mail, Twitter, and RSS subscription links…just like most every news site/blog.
“So, what’s the problem, Matt?”
For one, most people read Tumblr via the Dashboard.
Therefore, they don’t see that header regularly, if ever again after initially choosing to follow the blog.
vs.
Two, and I can’t speak for others, but I do about 85% of my Tumblr consumption via the iPhone app.
For those that don’t browse Tumblr on their mobile phone, this is how posts appear on an iPhone (same goes for Blackberry/Android apps) within the Dashboard and the mobile-optimized version of the native site:
and
And, we don’t auto-post to Facebook, but here’s how posts appear there:
See? Between browsing via the Dashboard or mobile phones, one rarely sees the header.
So, I thought I’d experiment by adding a signature reminding people that they can submit and providing direct, inline links to do so.
Spammy? I can see your point. Most personal Tumblrs don’t do this, though others may not think about Tumblr from a design/technical/feedback/UI standpoint as much as I do.
Overkill? I often post multiple posts in a row, so, yes, I see how the signature can seem redundant when three or four posts from us take over your Dashboard.
Perhaps utilizing the queue more would help alleviate that effect.
Was your beef just with the folksy, interstitial language? I can pull that out to minimize the Dashboard footprint.
For the record, for the few weeks that I experimented with the signature, we received more new followers and more submissions/tips/feedback than ever before.
In the end, the experiment worked, but we obviously care first and foremost what our readers think.
Again, this stemmed mostly from my frustration with the limitations of the Dashboard. Maybe the Neighborhoodr reader-generated design will eventually have to fall by the wayside for a more curated editorial model.
For now, and following word of your post, I already have and can continue to dial back the signature usage. I thought at first that I’d only add it to original posts vs. reblogs. Of course, we never know which posts will end up resonating with the community, and the way Twitter and Tumblr make going viral very simple, again, I’d like to always remind people that they can add to the conversation. Maybe just a once or bi-weekly post with a reminder and submission links will be less of a bother to readers.
Will continue to tweak.
Again, thank you for your input, Ted, and please don’t hesitate to reach out in the future.
Related:
ATTN: Tumblr - Please display full-size images in the dashboard instead of thumbnails in Text posts with multiple inline image uploads.
Or, at least explain the logic as to why you do so in the first place.
Thank you, in advance.
Related:
ATTN: Tumblr — The Dashboard needs work.
Why doesn’t Tumblr, particularly the Dashboard, support native mixed media posts?
Not those Wordpress tool embeds for when you want to post, say, a picture in a “Video” thread, or vice-versa.
For example, I often see a “blank” post when someone embeds code in the Tumblr html editor from an uncommon video source, i.e. not YouTube or Vimeo, when I’m viewing my feed from the Dashboard. I’m usually careful to check how my posts appear beforehand, and will add a direct link or a note suggesting readers “click through to view,” but not everyone does. When blank spots appear, or an image that helps explain a narrative is “invisible” (see image above), or requires viewing from the actual Tumblr post page, it makes the platform appear “broken” and that reflects poorly on you, not the poster.
The Dashboard is basically a simplified RSS reader. “Follow?” That’s “Subscribe” in layman’s terms.
Other RSS readers parse mixed media Tumblr posts just fine (see images above).
Come. On.
I can just about mimic the behavior of the Dashboard in my RSS reader (To those curious: Create a new folder in your reader of choice, name it ‘Tumblr,’ and subscribe to the RSS feed(s) of the Tumblogs you follow). Doing so, I can actually see entire posts as they were meant to appear without having to click away from my makeshift “Dashboard,” the way a majority of Tumblr users are consuming content on the platform.
If someone would write a Tumblr FeedFlare for Feedburner, with Follow, Reblog, and Like commands, I’d be set.
Any work being done on this?
Thanks in advance.
Reblog if you bump up against this issue, as well.
RE: Tumblr traffic and the Dashboard
“Half of our traffic now is generated from the dashboard. That’s unheard of for a publishing platform. Wordpress has nine times the audience that Tumblr has, but they only have two times the traffic.” The reason for this: “We have a community that uses the site rather than people who come across a Wordpress post every once in a while.”
From Leon Crawl: I talked to David Karp and he said some things about Tumblr…
Especially neat, as that number was only 10% a year and a half ago.
And the line continues to blur between Tumblr, the blogging platform, and Tumblr, the social network.
