may i ask you abt tumblr ettiquette? what are likes for? i see people say stuff like "dont just like something reblog it as well" but you and a few other people i've seen say you use likes as a way to remember to reblog a post later but i thought that was what drafts were for? and other people like nearly every post they see? idk what theyre meant to be for.

right so: part of tumblr etiquette (in theory) is answering asks in a timely fashion, and I have no idea how long this has been sitting in my inbox but it was buried under a few other things so I missed it for who-knows-how-long. Sorry! >.<

On the likes... it depends on who you ask. And tbh it's changed over the years. Used to be that a heart was just like on any other social media site -- showed that you, ya know. Liked something. Nothing more, nothing less.

But because tumblr doesn't work like other sites, likes don't get you any sort of engagement with a wider audience, so people quickly started saying "Please don't just like my posts, reblog them so other people see them."

Which is valid. BUT we creators also need to remember that just because someone enjoys something we put up doesn't mean they necessarily want it on their blog, and that's valid too. But yeah: you'll see some people get real militant about "don't like spam!"

(and, granted -- going into your notifs and they're just full of one person going through and hearting everything you've posted in the last 48 hours is... a little obnoxious. But you CAN filter your notifs and hide likes so it's not as if it completely ruins your ability to find reblogs and comments and stuff so... annoying, but not the end of the world.)

But if someone constantly posts "Reblogs over likes!! Reblog with comment, don't just like!!" I'll be honest: I'm going to be less likely to reblog at all, even if I do genuinely enjoy the content. Don't tell me what to do, lol. Maybe I want to show you as an artist that I appreciate your effort and work, but I don't actually want to show everyone else the thing? If I reblog something it's because I want my followers to see it to, and that doesn't necessarily apply to every single thing that I see and think "Oh cool/pretty/neat!" about.

So personally, I use likes as a bookmark to go back and find things later. Sometimes I use drafts, but only if it's something I know I'm going to want to add to -- otherwise, it's way faster to just hit the like button and keep scrolling. If I've got time to save it as a draft, I've got time to put the tags in (...I tag everything. Everything. If I didn't, I'd like less and just reblog more.) If I'm in a hurry or on cursed mobile, I don't want to bother with tags, so I hit "like" and come back to it later when I'm on desktop.

And these days I sometimes just use likes as... ya know. A like. Because I LIKE something. Which seems. Obvious. But tumblr culture means it's not or we wouldn't be having this conversation.

so... tl;rd -- use the hellsite (affectionate) however you want. It's your experience. If you think something is cool but you don't want to actually reblog it, like it. If you want to come back and find it later, like it. Or save it as a draft. Or reblog it with #tag later. Or literally whatever you want. Maybe don't go on like-spamming sprees of individual blogs? Especially if you then don't reblog anything or at least give them a follow? But even then -- who cares. You still showed appreciation for the content. As long as you're not re-uploading stuff, you're fine.