TWCL

Fat Bunny · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 49

I'm thinking about converting my website into a tumblr account instead. Right now I'm hosted on blogger. Seems like a lot of work to transfer aaaaaall my comics over to Tumblr... but it seems like kind of a cooler community. Has anybody done this? Was it worth it?
Also, if I do it... I can't imagine it'd be smart to just open a Tumblr account and post my 300-some entries over to Tumblr all at one time, right? How should I go about making that transfer?

http://www.TheFatBunny.com

sailorptah · Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 26

Have you used Tumblr for anything else yet? It's a site with a lot of cool features, but it's also complicated and there are things it will just plain refuse to let you do.

Off the top of my head, attributes of Tumblr that would be relevant to webcomics:

--Most layouts support image posts up to 500x750 pixels. Anything larger than that will be sized-down, and needs to be clicked on to see the larger version, which can be up to 1280x1920 pixels. You can change your main site layout to display images larger, but people following you via their own Tumblr accounts will still get the sized-down versions.

--There's an automatic queue feature, which will let you set up items to post between 1 and 50 times per day. (Less than once-a-day auto-posting is not enabled.) You can also set future posts to appear at designated times, which could be used for something like a M-W-F comic.

--Default layouts are only set up to accept comments and feedback from Tumblr users, and then only using its rather esoteric system. You can get the Disqus plugin installed to allow a more traditional comment thread setup (I've never done this myself, though, so I can't tell you how).

--Tags are a staple of Tumblr browsing. Users will track a given tag ("cats", "Sailor Moon", "tentacles", etc.) and, when the site is working properly, see everything posted by anyone with that tag. If you're doing a pop-culture-y kind of comic, it would be sensible to get noticed by using the relevant tags -- "The Avengers" on a comic that makes a joke about the movie, for instance. Also a good idea, if your comic has a relatively unique name: use it as a tag for all your posts. (If it has a generic name, like "Tentacles", you're probably just going to end up cluttering up a tag that people are trying to follow for other reasons. That will be counterproductive.)

vaslittlecrow · Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Posts: 613

Tumblr is a lot of fun if you are really involved in the community. I am kind of meh about it and wasn't too impressed. But, I think that involvement is the secret to success there. If you are social, you will love it.
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Visit Catnose Comics and Velvet Rasputin to see my comic art and graphic novels.

ewomack · Grand prize winner! Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 337

I get quite a few links from Tumblr, but I have to admit I don't understand it...
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Ed Womack

iaviv · Joined: 03 Sep 2011 Posts: 251

I still don't get the commenting process.
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sailorptah · Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 26

iaviv wrote:

I still don't get the commenting process.

First person makes a post. Second person (with an account) can simply "like" the post, or can reblog it and add new text beneath. The original post will contain a record of all likes and reblogs, with links to the reblogs so you can read the commentary in full.

For example, here's an original post: http://dailyreportsfromlastnight.tumblr.com/post/34109906668/913-some-guy-just-got-out-of-his-chair-quietly

And here's somebody's reblog, with commentary: http://talkshows.tumblr.com/post/34120947651/dailyreportsfromlastnight-913-some-guy-just

If you scroll down on both posts, you can see the list of responses: a lot of "username liked this", some "username reblogged this from otherusername", and one "username reblogged this from other username and added:" with some of the commentary following.

But I'm A Cat Person

iaviv · Joined: 03 Sep 2011 Posts: 251

But you can comment without reblogging. I've seen it. How do you do that? And can you respond to a comment?
I'm still confused.
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Fat Bunny · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 49

vaslittlecrow wrote:

Tumblr is a lot of fun if you are really involved in the community. I am kind of meh about it and wasn't too impressed. But, I think that involvement is the secret to success there. If you are social, you will love it.

Okay.... so I made a Tumblr (http://the-fat-bunny.tumblr.com/ Woot, follow me!) But I agree with Aviv, I don't really understand it. How can I "get really involved in the community" without being able to comment on things and have conversations with people? How does one get involved?

vaslittlecrow · Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Posts: 613

Fat Bunny

As I understand it, reblogging has a lot to do with it.
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Visit Catnose Comics and Velvet Rasputin to see my comic art and graphic novels.

Fat Bunny · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 49

vaslittlecrow wrote:

Fat Bunny

As I understand it, reblogging has a lot to do with it.

What about blogs that mostly just want to post their own content, though? Or is that just not how tumblr is? I thought there were lots of 'themed' type blogs but I don't know how it works.

pjperez · Joined: 22 Jul 2009 Posts: 6

Tumblr is good for some things. It's basically Twitter-meets-Instagram. But unless you're a code guru who can go in and customize it like crazy, I wouldn't recommend using it to host a webcomic. While the potential to spread the comic is exponential (thanks to the "reblog" feature), you really want to have your content primarily hosted on a server you control, and to which anyone can easily find and/or comment/share your comics.

I have two Tumblrs. One is basically an art blog, where I cross-post stuff from DeviantArt or upload in-progress shots and other behind-the-scenes stuff. But my other one, Homemade Comics, I kind of wish I'd just created as a standalone blog. While it has gained some notoriety thanks to the follow/like/reblog functions (195 followers is a lot more than any of my other webcomics allegedly have according to stat reports), I wish I had more robust commenting options for non-Tumblr users, as well as expanded navigation. But oh well, I lived, I learned, and now Tumblr - as a user - is one of my favorite social media sites, even if it makes me feel old as crap.

TonyDiGerolamo · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 326

I say, build your own site with wordpress. More control. I think Tumblr, blogger or any other site can limit you. You can always promote on Tumblr too.

pjperez · Joined: 22 Jul 2009 Posts: 6

TonyDiGerolamo wrote:

I say, build your own site with wordpress. More control. I think Tumblr, blogger or any other site can limit you. You can always promote on Tumblr too.

Exactly.

Tricksfortreats · Joined: 27 Dec 2012 Posts: 4

TonyDiGerolamo wrote:

I say, build your own site with wordpress. More control. I think Tumblr, blogger or any other site can limit you. You can always promote on Tumblr too.

I've recently started a Tumblr and have to agree 100%. While I like the site and have had some success with a few followers, I don't want to reblog the work of others. I'm gonna look into Wordpress and try using Tumblr as a meet and greet.

smbhax.com · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:14 am Post subject:

iaviv wrote:

But you can comment without reblogging. I've seen it. How do you do that? And can you respond to a comment?
I'm still confused.

When you make a post and end it with a question mark, a "Let people answer this" check box appears--apparently if you check that then people can respond with a comment.

There is no reply to a comment feature as far as I know, so what you do is just highlight the comment, CTRL+C (or whatever) to copy it, then paste it into a new post and type your response in below it. :P
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