The Reblog Button


Newcritics is a year old this week and Tom asked us all to do an anniversary post about the one media moment that moved us the most. When I think back over the past twelve months, the first year of newcritics, I can think of many photographs, paintings, books, movies, songs, albums, and TV shows that moved me.

But the thing that had the most powerful effect on me and may be fundamental to the future of media is the reblog button on Tumblr.

Reblog Button

It’s a simple idea really. And it’s been done before. But I don’t think its been done as well and as powerfully as it has been done in Tumblr.

You have to have a tumblog on Tumblr to be able to use the reblog button. Which limits its ubiquity and I think that should change. I hope it will.

But each and every form of media that is posted on tumblr - a quote from a book or an article, a song, a photo, a video – has a reblog button next to it (as long as you are logged in to tumblr). If you like something that you read, see, or hear, you simply click on the reblog button and you’ve added that to your tumblog.

I came across this photo the other day on didyouevernotice and was struck by the wonder in her face. I hit the reblog button immediately.
wonder

I’ve been blogging for almost five years now. And the vast majority of what is on my blog are things I’ve created or posted to the web. But that has changed with my tumblog. I find myself reblogging things all the time. I didn’t create them, I didn’t even post them to the web. In some traditional or conventional sense, they aren’t mine.

But when I reblog them, they become mine, or at least I am putting my stamp of approval on them. I like them enough to share them.

Reblogging harnesses the viral web to surface the most interesting media and make it discoverable for others. I would like to see the front page on tumblr feature the most reblogged items the way that digg and delicious/popular do. But instead of links to blog posts or news articles on the web, the most reblogged page would feature a smorgasbord of media in all of its glory.

We are in the midst of a cultural revolution in which the distribution system is moving from being controlled by the creators/funders of content to the consumers of content (the newcritics). When we are done, we will have a more efficient and higher quality media experience for everyone.

They reblog button is an important step in getting there and that is why it was the most powerful piece of media I came across in the past year.

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January 26th, 2008
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Tom Watson
Posted on:
January 26, 2008 at 7:54 pm

Hey Fred, good post. What if Tumblr freed this thing up so anybody could integrate the reblog button on their sites - it would be very cool here, for instance.

I’ve also seen other blogs use clipmarks to good effect.

I think this thing has legs - it turns your blog (or mine, or ours) into more of a wire service, and makes us desk editors in addition to bloggers (to use an old school analogy).

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
The Reblog Button « CauseWired
Posted on:
January 26, 2008 at 8:04 pm

[...] clipped from newcritics.com [...]

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
W.B. McNamara
Posted on:
January 26, 2008 at 9:02 pm

What’s interesting about the Reblog button (and Tumblr as a whole, for that matter) is that it takes the creative “vices” of blogging and transforms them into virtues — which in turn makes blogging more accessible.

In the “normal” blogging world, bloggers who just republish stuff created by others, rather than getting scoops or generating new content, are widely disparaged; in a Tumblog this behavior is explicitly encouraged via Reblog. You like what someone else posted, but don’t have anything in particular to add? Cool, no problem, reblog.

Similarly, the “strongly typed” nature of Tumblr reduces the friction associated with blogging. As I wrote a month or so ago:

“The Internet is littered with long defunct, three-post blogs in large part because ‘blogging’ is generally viewed as ‘writing,’ and therefore every blog must apparently carry the burden of high school English classes: What’s my thesis? Have I developed my arguments? Spelling counts! Jeez, haven’t I written 500 words yet? Tumblr tries to eliminate some of that friction by scaling down the ambitions of blogging; if you just want to post a picture, post a damn picture and don’t worry about whether it constitutes a ‘blog post.’”

I’m really looking forward to seeing how Tumblr and its community evolve.

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Joe Lazarus
Posted on:
January 26, 2008 at 9:53 pm

I like the idea you mentioned about opening the reblog feature up to sites other than Tumblr. I posted some more thoughts on that particular point on my blog…

http://joelaz.com/post/24732775

If I’m lucky, someone will reblog my reblog of your reblog post ;)

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
sull
Posted on:
January 27, 2008 at 5:31 am

don’t forget about the simple purpose of using the bookmarklet to post anything you want from anywhere on the web.

the reblog feature is a cool intratumblr feature but the bookmarklet suffices for everything else. no?

in either case, human filters are key.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Greg
Posted on:
January 27, 2008 at 6:40 am

Superb post.

“When we are done, we will have a more efficient and higher quality media experience for everyone.”

The above text struck me as odd though. When are “we” done, or at least how would you define “done?” And please explain the difference between “we” and “everyone.” What implied distinction are you making between we/everyone?

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Fred Wilson
Posted on:
January 27, 2008 at 12:55 pm

greg

good question

we means all of us, the consumers who are taking control of the media distribution system.

as for being done, i think that was the wrong word to use. i don’t think we’ll ever be done.

fred

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
teaandfeathers
Posted on:
January 27, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Why don’t you try soup.io It has what tumblr lacks.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
shadowfirebird
Posted on:
January 28, 2008 at 11:25 am

I’m afraid I can’t agree. It’s just as easy to hit the bookmarklet than the reblog button; arguably easier, since that’s what you do with non-tumblr sites. That makes the feature an also-ran, at best.

In the same way, it is considerably more convenient (for me at least) to “follow” someone by adding them to my RSS reader than to click on the “follow” button.

When I see “you have n followers” or “n people reblogged your post” in the Tumblr dashboard, I know that the numbers don’t mean much.

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Steve Poland
Posted on:
January 28, 2008 at 4:34 pm

Fred — tumblr’s homepage could become like a techmeme of sorts; indexing the page daily, and keeping an archive of each day [possibly multiple times per day].

I’m sure they’re working on this [and I'm sure you may know about it ;)], so look forward to seeing it. It’ll be a great daily “newspaper” — by the people, for the people :) Maybe there’s a way for this to also start providing localized versions in the future [to get your localized newspaper concept]. Tumblr + Outside.in = localized newspaper.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
space shank media - blog - archive » Re-Distribution
Posted on:
January 28, 2008 at 9:45 pm

[...] Fred Wilson at NewCritics has a great piece on “Re-Blogging” on Tumblr. [...]

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Put Together Quickly » Tumbleblogs and reblogging
Posted on:
January 29, 2008 at 4:28 am

[...] One thing Tumblr does very well is allowing people to use their “reblog” button to quickly add content from other sites hosted on Tumblr and still give attribution to the original author. The drawback is that both the original content and the persons site needs to be hosted on Tumblr. I think we would be better off if popular CMS’s like WordPress, Drupal and others started adding the authors name, blog’s title, and the post’s title in one of the available microformats (not sure which if any would be the best to use, still reading through them). Not only would a bookmarklet or other tool be possible to work just like the “reblog” button for any site supporting this, but other services like Ma.gnolia and Del.icio.us would have an easier time pulling in some basic information for a site or post. [...]

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
Tumbleblogs and reblogging
Posted on:
June 28, 2008 at 11:35 pm

[...] One thing Tumblr does very well is allowing people to use their “reblog” button to quickly add content from other sites hosted on Tumblr and still give attribution to the original author. The drawback is that both the original content and the persons site needs to be hosted on Tumblr. I think we would be better off if popular CMS’s like WordPress, Drupal and others started adding the authors name, blog’s title, and the post’s title in one of the available microformats (not sure which if any would be the best to use, still reading through them). Not only would a bookmarklet or other tool be possible to work just like the “reblog” button for any site supporting this, but other services like Ma.gnolia and Del.icio.us would have an easier time pulling in some basic information for a site or post. [...]