hello!! i hope you don’t mind me asking, but i’ve seen a lot of very rude and hateful posts about how users should reblog things instead of liking, with a lot of debate surrounding whether or not reblogs are “better” for the tumblr algorithm and sharing content than likes or whether or not likes also help push posts in the algorithm. is there a definitive answer for this?? or is there at least an answer to how exactly likes function, if they do anything for a post and it’s circulation or if it’s just a fun little button to let someone know you liked a post??
cyle:
there is a definitive answer to this, i feel like i’ve answered it a dozen times or reblogged posts with commentary to help dispel this myth.
likes absolutely help, even more than reblogs in some cases. the argument that “reblogs are better than likes” rests on a few assumptions, but one of them is that every one of your followers will see your reblog. that’s simply untrue: most people using tumblr do not catch up with every post on their dashboard. they look at some of them, and maybe come back the next day to a whole new set of posts in their feed.
this is why “Best Stuff First” / “the algorithm” was created: to optimize what those first-seen posts are. the way we “rank” those posts via the algorithm (not just for the dashboard, but for “For You”, for recommendations, etc) uses a number of signals. the loudest ones are reblogs and likes! i don’t have the exact weights, but i’m fairly certain a like is more or equal weight as a reblog.
i think a lot of this misconception stems from the fact that we’ve never made “what do likes do” clear in the tumblr interface until recently. the only way you’d ever see “what a like does” is via the notes view or via your own Likes list – so it makes sense people won’t know that their likes were used for so much more.
but now we have “Based on your likes” and “Liked by…” recommendations on tumblr, so you can directly see the result of people using likes. but it’s actually always worked that way! we just didn’t make it clear.
so please, spread the word that liking a post is valid, it’s a perfectly fine function of tumblr, and it does help surface content across the platform. reblogs are still super important – but they’re not “the right and only way to use tumblr” or the only way content spreads around the platform.
Other than the part where no one uses “for you” or “based on your likes”, but sure. Well, I suppose maybe the tiktok immigrants do…
Please don’t confuse “I don’t use this” with “no one uses this.”
Respectfully, you are allowed to not use any algorithmic Dashboard feature, that’s why they all have on/off settings, but many many [tumblr] users do make use of the algorithmic Dashboard features.
All your interactions matter and are important! It helps us help you discover cool new content 🙂
