I’ve got about 250 followers, which is nothing and I’m sure you’d get more, but with that caveat in mind I’ve found that it is more manageable than I feared that it would be. My experience is that you’re less likely to run into randos and trolls than on other social media: people who find your blog will be, in the vast majority, people who actually like your work. The comments will be supportive, a little community will spring up, and it’s a great way to encounter things like fanart that might otherwise pass you by (Tumblr users seem to be very creative!). I still don’t think I’ve yet found the perfect balance of what I should be posting, but it’s been a really positive experience for me overall.
9 Likes
Don’t let the very active part discourage you, the asks are the most interactions you will have with the community. The asks will stay in your inbox for whenever you’re ready to respond.
You can ignore and delete the ones you don’t want to respond, no one will come at you for that like I’ve seen on Twitter.
Some authors reply to the asks weekly, or on a quiet Sunday night when all the chores are done, and the children are asleep, me, I do it daily because I’m always online and hate having stuff sitting in my inbox (I have a personal grudge against notifications) lol My head explodes when I see people having 37575 unread emails.
Really there’s more pros than cons. 
5 Likes
I definitely think it’s worthwhile to make an official Tumblr account for CCH, even if you don’t plan on using it a crazy amount or checking in every single day! I started a Tumblr account for Shepherds later than I think a lot of people in “my generation” did, and I bypassed Twitter and Instagram (and MySpace back in the day, lmao) entirely, so I was a complete novice when I started out! My experience with it has been overwhelmingly positive, though! The interaction and engagement with fans (and the possibility of being discovered by new ones) is really great on Tumblr, though slightly different from the lengthy critical feedback you can get on the forums. But it’s a really great place to have little Q&As and back-and-forths, flesh out the world or characters of your games with trivia tidbits you wouldn’t be able to include anywhere else, see and share fan creations, and otherwise! I think creating an account couldn’t really hurt!
There’s also a thread here that discusses some pros and cons of Tumblr for writers specifically, and I’ve made a breakdown of my own thoughts if that’s helpful! 
Pros:
-
Discoverability and reach are definitely expanded on Tumblr. Every now and then, someone reblogs (shares) one of my posts, and I randomly get an influx of new followers as a result. Word-of-mouth and sharing content is really great on the platform, and probably the best out of most social media that I know of!
-
The ability to type longer blog posts (rather than being limited by wordcount on Twitter or even having posts on the forum get lost in a thread of subsequent replies) is really nice for sharing original content, thought-dumps, updates and announcements, etc. So is the ability to “pin” posts to the top of your blog!
-
Fan engagement is wonderful on Tumblr: people can send in questions, you publish your answers, and it’s more focused than mass-replying to multiple questions in a single thread: people don’t have to read through 300 of the latest replies to get an understanding of what’s going on or follow the thread of the conversation. The whole thing is more focused on your content having a singular repository and everyone accessing that repository individually. Also, again, things like fan art and fanfiction or reviews or other people’s blogs talking about your game are much more common and widespread on Tumblr than anywhere else, which is always fun to see!
Cons:
-
It can feel time-consuming or overwhelming if you are easily stressed out by unread or unanswered messages. Back in the day, I used to try and clear my inbox of asks every single day, which resulted in hours of extra work for myself… Now, I pop in and answer what I can every few days, which takes maybe half an hour to an hour if I’m slow, and I’m still having fun! But I also have–(checks)–uh, 2,065 unanswered messages in my inbox, so if that’s something you don’t want to invite into your life, it’s something to consider! But, as noted, they stay in your inbox for whenever you want to answer them (if ever), so there’s not a lot of external pressure to reply if you don’t have the time or inclination.
-
Potential drama. I don’t think you could ever seem too old or uncool for Tumblr: there’s a huge mix of people on there! Neil Gaiman hangs out on his Tumblr regularly and is extremely popular–and people on there range from, like, French farmers making bread to young fans of Sherlock to academics dissecting vampire literature, so I don’t think it’s intimidating in terms of a single monolithic culture. There are definitely some bad takes on there, but you curate and follow your own content, so I think it’s easy to avoid a lot of that toxicity and exhausting snark that runs rampant on Twitter. However, as with any social media that enables anonymity, there are still occasional nasty elements and–as @CC_Hill put it–a handful of people who wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide to try and ruin your day, and no ‘moderation’ other than your own to appeal to. But simply deleting and blocking has worked excellently for me so far!
-
The level of “feedback” (as you would get with beta-testing) is not as robust on Tumblr: it’s more about enthusiasm and fandom and sharing than it is about receiving lengthy testing feedback, but if you have other means of gaining such feedback (i.e. the forum, Patreon, Discord, Google Forms), this isn’t really an issue–in my mind, they serve different purposes!
Finally, as someone who started Tumblr relatively late and felt absolutely ancient as I tried to figure out what was going on, I whipped up some tips I wish I’d known when I started my account!
Tips
-
Tumblr uses a tagging system so that people can sort through, filter, block, find, or search your posts easily. This serves two functions: organizing your blog’s posts internally, and making them discoverable externally. For example, if you tag a post with #CCH, anyone on Tumblr who follows the #CCH tag might see your post pop up in their feed, even if they’re not yet following your specific account (this is closer to how Twitter and Instagram use tags). However, tags also work as an internal method of organization. If someone asks you a question about Hedonist, and you tag your answer with #Hedonist, anyone going through your blog could ‘sort’ with that tag, so they could read all your posts centered around Hedonist rather than having to slog through every single general reply to get to the content they were looking for. I hope that makes sense! I did not understand that aspect of tagging at all, and it really bit me in the butt when it came to organization down the road.
-
One of the first things you should do when creating your Tumblr account is to make a ‘master post’ that you’ll pin at the top of your blog. This should contain all of your game’s information and links, and it will make it very easy for people to share that post and thus boost visibility and awareness of your game! You can’t ‘share’ accounts on Tumblr, but sharing and reblogging specific posts (especially posts that have all of the pertinent information gathered in one place) will be really helpful in attracting new followers. Here’s an example of what my master post looks like!
-
Tumblr features something called a ‘queue.’ Rather than publishing all of your replies all at once, you can have Tumblr auto-post them at predetermined times (say, 4 times a day) and essentially drip-feed content at your own set pace, if that’s your preference.
-
There’s a browser extension called XKit that adds several quality-of-life features to the Tumblr experience. This is absolutely not necessary to use or install, but I wish I’d known about it when I was first getting started!
-
You can attach custom domain names to Tumblr accounts. The default URL format is something like communitycollegehero-tumblr.com, but if you own a domain like communitycollegehero.com, you can link your Tumblr to that instead!
-
Again, deleting and blocking unwanted messages is totally okay!
Sorry if this is over-long or overwhelming; I don’t want to put you off with an excess of information, but I totally remember facing this question myself a while back, so wanted to lay it out in a hopefully cogent manner… 
I do think Tumblr is 100% worth it, and if you have more questions, feel free to ask!
11 Likes
This is incredibly anecdotal and I am not at all trying to be a Sociological Media Authority Figure with this comment, but I definitely get the impression that tumblr asks–and especially anonymous tumblr asks–are a massive draw for fan interaction. It seems like a lot of fans are shy about asking questions, and from what I can tell I feel like tumblr asks are one of the primary ways authors are interacted with. (Authors specifically, not other fans.) I know there are other ways to get questions from audience members–you can ask an author questions on Twitter, and I know CuriousCat is A Thing although I don’t know how popular it is–but it just seems to me like a lot of author-to-individual contact goes through Tumblr asks.
6 Likes
Yup, I would absolutely agree with you there, I think like 90% of my interactions on Tumblr come through receiving and answering fan asks–and of those, I’d say 95% of those are anonymous! (I’m reading this as you expanding on my point, but if I wrote something that gives the opposite impression, please let me know!!) Asks are definitely a big (if not the biggest) draw for fans to interact with an author on Tumblr!
What’s nice is that, after you publish your answer to an ask, other people can share/reblog the whole exchange to their own blogs, so it’s another way to pique the interest or curiosity of other followers or readers, who might think, “I wonder what this situation or character this ask is in reference to?” and follow the trail back to your blog! It’s like a cool web/ecosystem in that way that’s hard to replicate on other platforms!
5 Likes
Okay, first of all, I’m sold! I’m sold! I’m sold! I’ll look into creating an account this coming weekend.
@CC_Hill @Schliemannsghost @rinari @HomingPidgeon you’ve been very generous with your time breaking things down for me like you did. I’ve digested every word and I’m beyond impressed with what I’ve seen. Holy crap @rinari your master post is a work of art! That’s an amazingly inviting post you’ve created. I just want to click click click all over it. Yours too, @CC_Hill , I just kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, wanting to learn more and more about your work.
Reading all the tips and guidance, I feel SO much more equipped to tackle this new platform, and surely other folks will these posts, so I’m grateful that this very helpful information is out there for hopefully others to benefit from as well.
I’m definitely excited about interacting with players and other creatives. Time is at a premium for me, but hell that’s likely true for everyone here, and I think I can carve out a bit of time each week to enjoy the platform. I’ll start following you all soon! If I can ever return the favor, please just let me know! Oh, if you get hurt in a car accident (I hope you don’t!) and live in Kentucky (I hope you don’t! lol), I can give you a sweet 20% discount off my legal services!
11 Likes
I can’t resist a bargain. I’m off to Kentucky to get hurt in a traffic accident.
7 Likes
By Grabthar’s Hammer…what a savings.
Also, to keep this somewhat on topic, Tumblr feels like the closest thing in our modern age to MySpace. This is both a recommendation and condemnation in one sentence.
11 Likes
Not all Tumblrs have the same level of activity. I have two very lowkey WIPs – one of them with almost no romance – and my dev Tumblr has a fair number of followers, but it gets almost no asks. On the other hand, the very first ask I got was so great, it pretty much completely makes up for it.
6 Likes
I created a Tumblr when I started out my WIP and it only takes a few posts and reblogs to start building an audience there. It’s really nice to communicate with other IF authors too, and also interact with those who are excited about your writing.
5 Likes
I started a Tumblr a while after Creme de la Creme was released, and it’s been very nice! Sometimes it can feel a bit of a time sink but at the same time, if you build up your queue it doesn’t have to be a case of spending loads of time on it a day. And sometimes a question sparks off an idea that can be really valuable! It’s also been good for maintaining visibility when I wasn’t doing much in the way of updates or releases during much of 2020 - the audience was there and enthusiastic for when I did start updating again. I also don’t know if I would have had as much immediate success with my Patreon if I hadn’t built up an audience there.
It is different, and like people say upthread, the anonymity is a big change from the forums. Some askers I’ve come to recognise over time, but it’s generally anonymous, and it can feel a bit strange not knowing who you’re talking to or how many are the same person. A con is also that it feels pretty ephemeral, and it’s hard to navigate - searches are very broken - to find something you remember writing but can’t quite recall.
My advice is to be judicious about following people back, and/or use filters to trim down what shows in your feed. For a while I followed back everyone who followed me and didn’t use filters… and I ended up scrolling through a ton of kpop and missing out on all the IF writers I’d followed - no shade on kpop but I have a lot more understanding and interest in IF!
11 Likes
Makes me a bit sad I haven’t cultivated mine. Created one (well, actually rediscovered it; I had made it like ten years ago when I was heavy into Twitter) for TPS, but it was a cyclical thing: I posted rarely, when I posted I got minimal feedback compared to being on here, Reddit or Twitter, so I summarily focused more on those platforms.
At the same time, the high drama quotient that seems to be present…I mean, who has the time? I want to spend my writing time creating stories, not lengthy blog posts full of shade and tea and whatever other buzzwords have been contrived to romanticize the age-old issue of people being mean-spirited gossips. Nothing sucks away productivity faster than drama.
7 Likes
Yeah I mean, I have zero time for drama. Of course, does anyone really say, “Yeah, bring on some of that sweet sweet time-consuming whiny drama?” Maybe? 
I’d love some new fan interaction, and I’d love to interact with some HG/CoG writers who may not be on the forums, but time is so limited. It’s always a trade-off between writing and “other writing-related things” I’m just trying to make the wisest trade-offs possible. I figure we’re all in similar boats.
My gut still tells me that Tumblr might get me more bang for the buck than Twitter will.
6 Likes
I’ve found that Twitter is much more game-industry and writer focused than fan-focused, IF wise. Which absolutely has its own positives, but I haven’t had much interaction on there with audiences of my stuff. Tumblr lends itself much more to fanart, which is wonderful to see!
3 Likes
I’d say this is true for games and the game industries in general.
4 Likes
Hello, welcome to the forum! I’ve moved this post here as it seemed better for it to be grouped with the related wiki, although this list doesn’t currently include a ko-fi list.
I do know that @Gower, @Barb and @Morgan_V have ko-fis, and so do I, but they have rewards on theirs and mine is just a tip jar. I’m sure there are lots of others that I can’t think of off the top of my head.
@rinari if you have a moment, do you think you’d be able to add another column to this for ko-fi usernames? I tried fiddling with the wiki but in the process did something peculiar to it that and I don’t want to break anything!
1 Like
I added it for you and also sorted all the entry’s into alphabetical order as the formatting guide said they should be. Also just fyi the weird line break on the Ko-fi column is because the column width is determined by entry’s not the column name so it’ll go away once someone adds an actual entry wider than “–”. Also also I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to update the formatting guidelines, so I didn’t but that should be done now that there is a new column.
Thanks so much!
1 Like