'public' vs 'private' on tumblr
increasingly, i am running into the following viewpoint: that all posts people make are, by default, open to the public and available to be commented on by strangers, regardless of stated wishes in tags, readmores, topics of…
more snippets from 2013:
“….I really like the term “outbound information source” to describe Tumblr. That’s what tumblr does best: spread information/opinions/art, promote fleeting contact with people who have similar interests, and often make it difficult to maintain that contact for longer periods of time.It’s very different from a meatspace coffeeshop or a run-of-the-mill blogging platform (I would attribute this difference to the tagging and cross-referencing system) because it is not about the person, it’s about the subject….
…. This is the inter-blog level of tags, wherein lies the real power and uniqueness of tumblr. Strangers see your stuff. I was used to speaking to my followers only, in a conversation that was a lot like my irl or lj conversations. But with the tag system that links your interests thematically with others, you aren’t connecting with specific people, you’re connecting with a stream of interests. This is part of the reason two-way conversations are so difficult to wrangle in tumblr, imho: the medium is designed so you’re nearly never speaking to one other person. Instead, tumblr is a place for shouting….
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tl;dr version: tumblr doesn’t sustain secretiveness because you’re not connecting with (trusted) individuals, you’re just broadcasting to a (receptive) audience. TAGS, BABY.”