Puzzling Out the Tumblr Queue ☀
Observations I have made about the Tumblr queue:
1. It seems to update ok whenever I am not actively using Tumblr. If I, say, leave my browser open on the Tumblr homepage, it either stops updating from my queue, or it posts things in gluts.
2. Once it gets off track, it seems to stay that way for the rest of the day.
3. If I post something in the middle of the day, the queue seems to get entirely confused. Say I notice something I like or want to respond to and reblog it, for example…the queue cannot handle it and just stops working for the rest of the day.
4. Why is it so hard to make this function, uhm, functional?
As I’ve been nearly completely incapacitated (other than short bursts of uptime) due to a nasty respiratory infection that cut me out of working life for the past week, the Tumblr Queue feature has been a godsend. Hitherto, I’d only employed the mechanism on occasion, leery of ceding the bulk of my posting to the auto-publish function. However, since beset with sickness, it’s been running the show here at the AZspot station.
Perhaps some regular readers recognized the uptick in post volume (though, certainly, a hearty portion has always been served up daily here), though there were some other significant consequences that may or may not be due to my new queue-cation.
- More efficient and productive blogging sessions. Logging posts to the queue seems to enact a more rapid mind mode, when I’m whipping through my feed reader (or just general web site browsing). It seems that, previously, in my non-queue (or partial) queue usage, I would temper my posting speed down a throttle. Whereas in short bursts where all output is queue directed, I zip through posting. Later, then scroll through my blogged entries to study and probe in further depth.
- An explosion of new followers. Which might be a coincidence only due to having a post or two featured on the Tumblr radar. Or traffic from the directory. Not certain, because I don’t really delve too deeply into the data — that time is better spent reading and blogging.
- Becoming enamored with the interval posting. Assuredly, rapid fire posting is a put-off for some readers. And especially on my Tumblr-Twitter feed, where I’ve received complaints and feedback. It should be obvious, as I too, am weary at looking at massive dumps of feed items at the same time. One local free alternative newspaper publishes once a week (well maybe a few items drift in before the weekend) and drops hundreds of items into my Google Reader. It doesn’t help that the headlines are short, cryptic and pithy bursts, including scant article text. Give me a 100 items at once, I scan through and maybe focus on 3-5, tops. Space them out, and most still won’t draw my attention, but my eyeballs will certainly lock onto more than just the few of the instant spew.
All is great, that is, when it works.
Today, as I compose this, my queue seems to have been plugged shut. Other mishaps and missteps:
- Spontaneous queue dumps. Scenario: I set queue interval to 2 hours before hitting the sack. A rough calculation apprises that I should be greeted to a half-dozen posts in the queue, ready to pop out when I revisit my Tumblr dashboard next day. But, as a Tumblr-holic, I’m actually back at the dashboard in half the time I expected to be away, only to note that all the queued posts got dumped out hours ago.
- Out of order posting. It seems to only occur when I move more than one item to the top, but I’ve not fiddled with it enough to establish a definitive hypothesis. But the posts won’t show up in the order I thought I arranged and what appeared to be plainly visible to me.
I’m always hesitant to lob grief at the Tumblr crew, as it, by and large, meets and exceeds my ideal tumblelog requirements checklist, and I believe David, Marco & company have implemented just about every feature I desired. It’s been a fun ride, as I think its been 3 years since I started this humble Tumblr space, and have enjoyed being part of the Tumblr experience and watching Tumblr grow and explode across the interweb.
