Juiced On Writing

Via Mashable! I was made aware of the news that a new social networking tool is available for the microblogging platform, Tumblr. Tumblr Submissions now allows a community tumble blog. This means you can set up a Tumblr blog and have the content submitted by other users.

Now, I’m all into microblogging, but am a little uncertain about this one. The news reminded me of the fact that I have had a Tumblr blog myself for a very long time, but I’ve forgotten to use it. Tumblr allows you to post up images and quotes and links to other internet content very quickly. It has the microblogging function also, of course – where you can post up your own quick blogs, but you can do this on Twitter and the many other micro-blogging social networking systems anyway.

Tumblr, for me, felt a little like cheating. I could post up the links to graphics and sections of other people’s content, and completely not provide any original content of my own. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t used it for a long time, because if I find content out there I do like, I prefer to link to it or even respond to it, on my own blog here. As a device to share snapshots on a theme, taken from all across the web, I think that Tumblr is fantastic, kind of like a personal but shared scrapbook – of other people’s content.

As a writer, I’ve also noticed a large decrease in my own usage of tools such as Twitter and Plurk, even FriendFeed. FriendFeed still feeds in most of my lifestreams, but I find that with writing actual blog posts and fiction, I simply don’t have the time to be the huge tweeter or microblog / lifestream reader that I used to be. And I must admit, I have not missed it at all.

As the owner of a Diigo bookmarks list for writers, I am aware of the need to administer such tools also. Community members can post up any kind of content, and some of it will be inappropriate to the theme of the collection, and some, unfortunately can be abused, in either spam form or in content which is offensive to many. There are huge bonuses for me personally out of the Diigo group, in that I gain knowledge of writing links which are of interest to me, but…

I am sure that those opening up their Tumblr blogs for submissions may find the same requirement – free content submitted by other users is generically a good thing, but it’s not necessarily an easy thing – it requires administration and overlooking if the microblog is to be taken seriously.Many communities can work like that, and I’ve been witness to it on many occassions. But there’s always going to be somebody within it who sees an opportunity to “feature” their own causes or content to a ready-made audience.

I ponder if I should open up the old Tumbled for Writing tumblr blog for community submissions myself, or whether people even think about where their own content might be appearing on elsewhere. However, there are positives, to see some more content appear on Tumbled for Writing which is fed all around the interweb, that would certainly be worthwhile, and I would certainly gain some more personal writing content for my own reading privaledge.

LinkMes:

1. Mashable! post on Submissions for Tumblr
2. My own Tumbled for Writing Tumblr blog.
3. The Juiced on Writing Diigo group for sharing writing links.

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