Tumblr
Tumblr is unquestionably the easiest-to-use blogging platform, but it is as limited as it is easy: comments, widgets, and other basic blogging features cannot be added without editing the blog code, which essentially nullifies the easy-to-useness. Consequently, I couldn’t think of a use for Tumblr except as a very basic introduction to blogging for people with anger management issues (no comments = no drama) and OCD (no ability to tweak means no obsessing about making the periods rounder). I did register http://raincoaster.tumblr.com, at first as a fitness diary, later as a place to cross-post Lolebrity, but basically allowed it to gather dust for the past few months.
That’s all changed. I’ve found a new reason to use Tumblr, considerably outside its original purpose, which was basically a Livejournal for hipsters in the NYC media circle. Social media platforms seem not to come into their own until the public adapts them for purposes their inventors never anticipated; Twitter is the best example of this. It simply didn’t achieve any heat outside techie circles until it became a platform for conversations, which was not something in the original plan at all. And what’s the use I’ve found for Tumblr?
Tumblr is the world’s best web scrapbooking service.
That may not sound like much, but it’s huge. We all have things we’d like to get back to sometime, just not right now. If you’re on the web and you use the Share on Tumblr button that Tumblr provides as a Firefox add-on, you can instantly bookmark the site you’re looking at, adding comments if you wish. Over time, your tumblr becomes a repository of notes on a particular theme or group of themes, adding an additional dimension to your online presence. Academics may use this to bookmark papers, entertainers to bookmark venues or gigs, bloggers to corral blog fodder for future reuse.
While there are many existing bookmarking services, del.icio.us being the best-known, Tumblr’s great advantage is its accessibility, both in terms of reading and writing. A Tumblr is itself a kind of blog, and so it makes sense to the reader as a web browsing experience in and of itself, which other bookmarking sites do not.
Having given the Wiki a turn around the block, I have to say that unless you’re running a site for a specific, and emotionally invested, group, a Tumblr may be a better addition than a Wiki to collect resources. It’s far easier to post to, and easier to read as well.
raincoaster media 
timethief
March 12, 2009
Tumblr can be used for bookmarking and scrapbooking. However, Tumbr can also be used as a full blog with comments. There are three comment systems one can choose from to install on a Tumblr blog:
haloscan;
intense debate
disqus
raincoaster
March 12, 2009
True, but as you said, you have to install those systems. For someone who finds basic blogging to be a challenge, that’s one giant step too far. You can do almost anything with a Tumblr if you’re good at hacking code. Just check out http://cvxn.tumblr.com/ but good luck doing that yourself if HTML is Greek to you.
Muskie
March 12, 2010
Hmm, call me old fashion, but I just use the bookmark button on my laptop browser. If I want to share something there are lots of ways already. I think some of these sites are going to have to make money at some point.
Facebook is winning, LinkedIn is second all others don’t have the revenue model or user base or whatever. Those are the lead horses for social networks online IMHO.
raincoaster
March 12, 2010
You have no idea how many sites I take note of in a day; it’s not unusual for me to put 20-40 in Facebook, Tumblr and True/Slant’s Headline Grab.
Mihir Nayak
August 30, 2010
Awesome Post RainCoaster !
I stumbled upon Tumblr for my bookmarks (no pun intended) and I have been using it ever since.
I must admit though that I find Twitter, not Tumblr the world’s best bookmarking service !
Cheers
Mihir
raincoaster
August 30, 2010
How on Earth do you use Twitter as a bookmarking service?
Mihir Nayak
August 30, 2010
Hahahahaha
I simply retweet every interesting article I find that I want to read later.
That serves 2 purposes:
1. I go through all my RTs when I have the time and read the entire articles.
2. My friends and followers are also able to read the articles that I find of importance, thus establishing my credibility as an opinion leader in the hotel marketing community.
Cheers
Mihir
Less complicated that posting it on Tumblr and then pushing it to Twitter…
raincoaster
August 31, 2010
Thanks, interesting. I tweet so much it’d be lost in the noise. Twitter only has the last 3000 of your tweets; the rest are deleted. Tumblr at least keeps them.
Maybe this is the world’s way of telling me I tweet too much?
Mihir Nayak
August 31, 2010
Hmmmmm I never knew that Twitter only retained your last 3000 tweets.
That might get me shifting to Tumblr from now on as my bookmarking service #1 It’s all about making it a habit I guess.
Another thing I never knew:
That you are a woman. Just saw your picture on your blog. Always presumed raincoaster was a man ! A nice gravatar of you might help :)
Cheers
Mihir
raincoaster
August 31, 2010
I actually enjoy the cognitive dissonance people experience when they find out I’m a woman. I always try to find out why they’ve assumed I’m a man: it generally comes down to how brash I am.
Besides, I sweated BLOOD to earn enough to buy my actual logo, the eagle eye moon, and it comes across far better both tiny and huge than my humble mug does.
Mihir Nayak
September 1, 2010
Hahahahaha Somehow raincoaster is a very masculine term. Hence my presumption.
I disagree with you on the logo bit though. Personal branding is the future and even on Twitter, I find myself following more people with a humble mug shot than an expensive logo.
Cheers
Mihir
P.S. Men aren’t brash at all ;)
raincoaster
September 1, 2010
Well, I can see that your avatar is a picture of a human being, but I sure couldn’t pick you out of a lineup. As people Follow more and more on Twitter, an eye-catching sign stands out more than a murky headshot, and I’ve found it works well for me. I have a background in heraldry, so I know this comes from a long and honourable history, whereas most contemporary people think more in terms of corporate logo. Ah well, like I said, I’m into cognitive dissonance.
Christopher Parsons
January 5, 2011
The core thing that tumblr offers over delicious (other than not being part of the Yahoo! Death spiral) is the ability to backdate posts. This is invaluable if you use Tumblr to generate a temporally accurate bookmark history. That said, it’s a pain (or at least was a year ago) to export data in a truly nice format to work with, and integrating Tumblr with third-party social networks (*cough wordpress*) can be a bitch. I don’t count iFrames as a nice external presentation mechanism I’m really not sold on Tumblr just yet (for the kinds of writing and social media that I engage with), but that might just be because I’m so used to the functionality provided by my non-WP.com wordpress install that I’ve customized over the years.
raincoaster
January 7, 2011
Oh, I would NEVER recommend Tumblr as a writing platform. It’s purely a storage cabinet for me, and as I get more experience with the appalling state of the search and tagging there, I’m less and less enchanted with it even for this function.
lifewith4cats
May 25, 2011
hmm this looks really promising to me for the answer to my suggestion in the forums. I don’t know what Tumbler is about but I plan to sign up for is as soon as I leave here. Thanks.
Also it never occured to me to think of an avatar from a heraldry perspective. Thats cool! But I always thought you were a girl because the name makes me thing of a springtime mist over a blue sky, who makes good conversation with drinks in hand. :D
raincoaster
May 26, 2011
That’s a pretty cool association. The artist whose work the icon is based on just started following me on Twitter, and that was pretty awesome.
Tumblr is a useless blogging platform. It’s primarily used by junior would-be journalists to suck up to New York media figures, who have Tumblrs. I should do a post on that, too.