xmoonyxbunnyx:

Tumblr is a horrible platform for artists/creators of any kind. It’s been like that for as long as I was on here, and long before that from what I’ve heard. But it’s gotten so much worse recently. 

At first it was mostly unfair to new people who aren’t known yet, as the tag searches favour popularity over “freshness” of posts, and ‘newest’ area has always been neglected quite a bit. But that was something you learn to deal with relatively quickly. It’s a basic part of the struggle to climb through and get noticed by any community you decide to join. It’s rather fair compared to what is happening now.

Now, you can’t reach people anymore, no matter how many followers you have. If you have a decent number, that makes things a bit more bearable because you already have an established audience. But if you’re new, or relatively unknown, you have only people who accidentally find you to rely on. The tags – main means to reach the audience – don’t work well. Dashboard – the only way to be seen – has a very bad algorithm, and no matter how much people tweak their settings, somehow still works against artists/creators. We are unseen. Suddenly you get maybe a third of notes you used to get. New people get none whatsoever. 

And you might say ‘you shouldn’t be posting to get notes’ but who re you kidding, we create to share our interests and show people what we made and are proud of! The notes tell us we indeed did good, and we maybe made someone’s day a little better with our work, and we get a positive response in return, making us happy. Everybody wins! But without being seen? Well, be it new, or just seeing a drop in notes, we feel discouraged. 

“Have I gotten worse?” 
“Am I really a bad artist/creator?”
“Should I even bother?”
All of these doubts start arising, and we stop wanting to create. But here’s the thing.

It’s not that we’re bad, nor do people ignore us.

It’s the shitty algorithm that hides us from everyone. And I doubt they’ll care to fix this. 

So, share each other’s work. Reblog your favourite creators. Reblog NEW creators. Check their blogs for new content every now and then. Leave a positive message in each other’s ask boxes every once in a while.

You’ll make their day. You’ll give them a reason to keep creating.

Because if tumblr won’t help, we only have each other to look out for.