2015-11 Tumblr explained for lolita

Tumblr is a microblogging site. That means you can have there a bog, but the blogs entries tend to be short. The blog entry can be a text, image, video, or others, but most blog entries are images.

You can find several general types of blogs: 

• Personal blogs, where a person writes about their life, daily coordinates, and such.   
• Theme blogs, where one collects pictures on some theme, e.g. classic lolita, pink pictures,..
• Blogs which allow uploads by other people and so are a group effort.

There are different ways to interact with posts on tumblr. You can:

• upload your own posts (images and videos ect from computer or other sites)
• reblog posts of other users (and so add them to your own blog)   
• like posts of other users (which does not add them to your own blog)

A lot of lolitas have a tumblr blog where they reblog pictures from other tumblrs they follow, and also upload their own pictures, or whatever catches their fancy around internet - yaplog pictures for example. To search or sort through the content, tags are used. They are a bit like computer folder, but one post can have numerous tags. 

Tip: think out your tags strategy beforehand. For example, a drawing of Cosmic JSK ccould have tags: #lolita #angelic pretty #cosmic #white #drawing or whatever you like.

Legal rights 

However, what most ignore is that to upload a picture to tumblr, you basically state that you own copyright rights to the said picture AND you grant that right to tumblr. Which means that you should upload only pictures you own copyright to (or were given permission by the owner) but you can reblog anything on tumblr within tumblr. Thats the legally correct way, but most people upload even other content and just state the source they took it from. Its not legally correct. What is also frowned upon is to save a tumblr picture to your computer, then upload it as a new post - because then it no longer states original source and you steal the credit for it.  

Tip: Write the name of your blog on your own pictures! Even when re-uploaded, the name of your blog stays, and will direct people who see the picture to your blog.
 
More reading...
 
Unwrapping Tumblr is a kind of encyclopaedia I found useful. It explains many nuances, features and workings of Tumblr. Not satisfied with Tumblr webpage's capacities? Theres ways to tweak and enhance the interface. Not having enough own photos? You can use Creative Commons Licence photos! And one another article about Creative Commons, Fair Use, and Copyright I found insightful.