Tumblr: idgi

[studyofrunning]

Just got a Tumblr. Does anyone on the flist understand Tumblr? There is so much I don't get that isn't covered in the help and I can't find any good newbie guides that answer the obvious questions instead of regurgitating the site help pages

Comments

[blue_aeon]

I have one and yeah, the help pages aren't very useful.

The reason why the image is scaled down when you click on it is because Tumblr uses Lightbox (or something similar) which is set to automatically scale the images so that they fit in your window (it also allows you to use the arrow keys to go through all the images in a photo-set). Some layouts do add a link icon on an image when you rollover so that you have a direct link, like the Effector theme (which I use).

As for everything else, these links explain the whole system better than I can:

http://www.guidingtech.com/6378/get-started-with-blogging-on-tumblr/

http://sunshine-hippie.livejournal.com/129143.html - Tumblr 101

http://vickyblueeyez.livejournal.com/136006.html - in-depth explanation of reblogging.

http://tumblring.net/ - full of tips, tricks and tutorials.

[studyofrunning]

Thanks for the links! That last one looks like it has an article for everything.

I'll look at that theme. Maybe with the help of Tumblring, I'll be able to add anything that's missing.

What I don't get about the image scaling it that it's obviously scaling down from the full size, not up from the thumbnail. So when I right-click on it, it should be impossible for the options there to save or view only the thumbnail. But that's still what happens.

[blue_aeon]

You're welcome! I think the only thing missing from Tumblring is a tutorial on adding a shortlink to posts, but that might turn up at some point. I've hacked the infinity icon in Effector to turn it from 'permalink' to 'reblog' but, for me, that's the only thing missing from the original theme so far.

I've just taken a look at the image sizes on one of my posts, and it turns out that Tumblr automatically creates a separate, smaller version of an image to use as the thumbnail (i.e.: images that are 500px wide become 250px wide as thumbnails). The lightbox images, however, are full-size and scaled down with javascript. Given how much RAM Tumblr causes Firefox to use, I'm glad they do it this way.