If you are like me, you quite probably won’t read this because your attention span is similar to that of a freshly hatched fruit fly.
That’s why the good people of Tumblr have created their service: It caters to the ones with no attention span whatsoever and to those who just can’t be bothered to turn every idea, link, photo, video, conversation or quote into a full-fledged blog posting anymore.
Now, if I haven’t lost you yet, you are indeed not like me, but I’ll still show you what Tumblr does. Basically, it’s a blog hosting service (complete with your own subdomain or even the option of using your own domain name), but the whole setup adheres to the principle of the tumblelog. From the Wikipedia article:
A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author’s creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.
So, here’s the good news: Using Tumblr, you are relieved of the burden of adding witty commentary to everything you post. The bad news? It can get really messy, and people just may get bored by no commentary at all.
The good people at Tumblr probably anticipated that, that’s why in addition to simple text and link postings, they added a template for conversations. And this, my friends, really can add a lot of personality to your tumblelog. Just take a look at the conversation I posted yesterday on my very own log at Tumblr:
As you can see, the possibilities to wow your audience are endless. Here’s what the backend looks like:
Obviously very clean, very simple.
Overall, a tumblelog seems to be a very good idea. When usually I’d just let certain links, photos, quotes and whatnot slip, simply because I couldn’t be bothered to actually comment on them, Tumblr now provides me and everybody else with a template that’s perfect for the lazy blogger. And the way it’s implemented, it may well become as fun as blogging once was.