DW Style Reblogging

[dendriteblues]

(EDIT: This practice poses some format and ethical issues, which were brought up to me in the comments. I think it is natural and healthy for our population of users to try out new things and develop our own ways of using the site, but it also important for us to respect DW's existing users and adapt ourselves to their ways of doing things. I'm going to leave this up so that other Tumblr immigrants can benefit from what we learned here.

We have taken the feedback and stopped using this format, which makes this post no longer relevant. I'm going to freeze comments since I think everyone has had ample opportunity to express their opinion. For new users looking for the proper way to signal boost other's posts, please see shy's guide to blockquotes. Thank you all for your input.)

So my friend shy_magpie has found a really great way to emulate reblogs, and it's actually quite simple to do. While threaded discussions are a vastly better way to talk one-on-one they really aren't good for Tumblr style memeing. (and personally, I am very, very passionate about the good old fashion shit post! I can't quit, you can't make me!) So for those times when you really, really want to copy someone's entire post and then add to it, here is a very simple method:

The codes in use are <dt> and <dd>. In normal HTML they are used to generate lists. <dt> is used for list items. <dd> is used for list details.

Example:

 

<dt>Coffee</dt>

<dd>Black hot drink</dd>

<dt>Milk</dt>

<dd>White cold drink</dd>
<dd>Hated by Edward Elric</dd>

Would create:

Coffee

Black hot drink

Milk

White cold drink

Hated by Edward Elric

So in order to create a faux reblog, all we need to do is put our username and the OP's username in <dt> brackets, and put the content of the entry/response in <dd> brackets. Out of respect to the OP, I think we should be in the practice of linking to the original posts and to all the journals involved in the discussion. So, with all that taken into account, the standard code would be formatted like this:

<dt> <user name=OP USERNAME> said <a href="ORIGINAL ENTRY URL">in this entry</a>:</dt>
<dd>COPY/PASTE ORIGINAL POST'S CONTENT</dd>
<dt> <user name=YOUR USERNAME> said:</dt>
<dd> YOUR RESPONSE</dd>

And when previewed should look like this:

dendriteblues said in this entry:

questionoftheday Do you like strawberries?

my answer: Oh my god I love strawberries. When I was a kid my mom would always make the most delicious pies...blah blah blah.

dendriteblues said:

my answer: I like them too, but not for the reason you would think! As a kid I had a puppy named Strawberry Pie. What a great dog, let me tell you all about him for thousands and thousands of words. Blah, blah, blah.

There is no limit to the number of "reblogs" you can add to the list, it just gets longer and longer as it did on Tumblr. When you copy and paste the contents of the entry all of the links and HTML in that entry are preserved AS LONG AS YOU PASTE INTO THE RICH TEXT EDITOR. If you paste into the HTML editor, you will lose all the code and have to manually recreate it. EW! Likewise, if you paste into Rich Text and forget to switch to HTML before typing your <dt> and <dd> tags then your code won't work.

So to be as clear as possible, the procedure for posting a reblog should go like this:

1. Copy the entry you want to reference.


2. Click "Post Entry"


3. Click "Rich Text" in the top right corner of your text box.


4. Type CRL+V on PC or CMD+V on Mac to paste the entry.


5. Click "HTML" in the top right corner of your text box.


6. Paste the template code into the text box.


7. Change the username to the OP's username and the URL to the original entry's URL


8. Put <dd> and </dd> on either side of the original post.


9. Move the second half of the template code below the OP's code and add your own username and comments.


10. Hit preview and make sure everything looks correct.

It sounds like a lot, but once you do it a few times it becomes second nature. Obviously, it's quite a bit more work than just clicking a reblog button, but I think it will go a long way in helping us Tumblr refugees preserve the meme culture we are accustomed to. And all that while being able to have a civilized, threaded conversation when you want to. In a way, it's actually really cool. The best of both worlds.

Please let me know if you find this useful, or if you find it confusing. I'm not a coder, but I'll do my best to explain it!


(EDIT:   Also worth mentioning, reblogging is much easier after the intitial reblog. Because if a friend of yours reblogs a post and you want to reblog your friend's reblog, all you have to do is copy your friend's post and add <dt> and <dd> tags around your own comments. Your friend will have already done the formatting on the OP's post. So in theory, reblogging gets easier the more people do it.)

Comments

(frozen)

[kore]

I feel like it is bad form to divert conversation away from the OP's answer in favor of your own.

OK, right there, that is a Tumblr thing, not a DW thing. LJ thrived on lots of conversations, digressions, diversions, posts starting out as one thing and comments becoming about all kinds of other things. It can be fun, it can lead to great discussions, it can be silly, it can lead to connections you wouldn't ever think of on your own. DW shares that culture. The whole thing about "You can't add comments on Tumblr" (because Tumblr tried not very hard to implement Disqus) and "you shouldn't add your own text to reblogs, do it in the tags" -- that's Tumblr. Not here.

The initial post is just a question from one user to another about which rare pairs they are interested in. In the comments, my ship (FrostIron) was mentioned and I strongly disagreed with people classifying that as "rare" when it's really very common. My comment triggered a very long string of comments discussing that ship, it's history, and it's popularity. This conversation had absolutely nothing to do with the OP's topic at all.

That....is what happens here. I mean, if you really don't want to divert conversations like that, there are a bunch of things you can do. You can make a new comment with a title that other people can block if they're really that upset by seeing digressions. You can make a link back to the original post in your own DW, and add your own comments. You can also just not add "well actually I don't think this is a rarepair" if you are that worried about digressing from the topic.

It also undoubtedly spammed their inbox with comment notifications that did not interest them or pertain to their post. I would argue that this is a case where reblogging the initial comment and continuing discussion from there is valuable. The goal of the coding in my post is simple to give structure and clear attribution to the source of the discussion.

That's for the person whose post it is to decide, though -- not you. If they don't want your comments in the post, they can say so. They can screen the comment, block you, delete the comment, or they can just say "this is getting kind of out of hand, could you take this elsewhere"? When you "reblog" the original question and your own comment to it in your DW, you're cutting off the original question with no link, and taking the discussion away from the original post that inspired it. You are starving the community.

I feel my comments on your post should pertain to your own answer and talk about things relevant to you. But if I want to add my own answer and discuss it with my own subscribers then I think it's appropriate to reference your entry in my post in an organized and attributive way. If I were to blockquote in my own post then it still has the same privacy and honor-system issues as reblogging, just with less obvious links back to the OP entry.

Again, that's not the DW culture. The links back are part of DW and LJ culture. It's in the site's DNA. You're coming here from Tumblr and trying to do a Tumblr thing, which is fine for Tumblr. There's no need for it here, and indeed, most people don't want it to happen like that here.

So for those specific circumstances, as an existing user of DW, what is the appropriate way to share those kinds of thoughts and discussions? I feel that the vast majority of conversations should happen in threaded comments with standard coding, but how do we engage in these types of memetic or iterative discussions without hijacking someone's comment section?

Again, you are taking "hijacking" in an incredibly narrow way. A lot of people like digressions in their comments. If they don't, the comment section is considered "theirs" to an extent that they can say, "This argument about rarepairs doesn't seem productive," and you'll see people actually writing up how they would prefer people to behave, in their comment spaces, in profiles or sticky posts. You are profoundly misunderstanding the liminal nature of comment spaces. It's not the same thing as Tumblr where you have the "original post" and a lot of reblogs and tags trailing behind it comet fashion. Comments build up to a sense of community and it's how people get to know each other and interact.