Can someone explain to me the fascination with Tumblr?

I'm so confused about this. NaNo taught me I need to write more consistently in order to improve. I'd like feedback on that writing to see how many people identify with what I'm trying to say. So, I decided to start up a blog. I thought Tumblr would be a good choice since it's so popular, but I'm getting pretty discouraged. I might not be looking in the right places, but I'm not sure Tumblr has the attention span for a text-heavy blog. Every blog I've visited (OK I've only seen like 5 or 6) has been nothing but a center to reblog funny pictures and MAYBE two lines of text every now and then. Would anyone on Tumblr actually read a blog? And if not, where should I do this instead? =/

I thought I'd ask this here instead of somewhere else, because this seems to be a thing where I need to connect with others around my age who might better understand or could explain to me how I'm supposed to do what I want to do through technology. I have nothing against what Tumblr seems to be doing, but I'd like something that would allow me to gain a small following through my WRITING. Seems impossible? :(

I... can't really understand Tumblr, to be honest. But one of my friends, who love it, told me that it's mainly for... well, being a fangirl/banboy and so... it's all about fandom.
I tried Tumblr, but I just couldn't really connect + it really irked me that there's no option so visitors can comment on a post (I know now I can use disqus for that, but back then, I haven't heard of it).

If you want a blog, I suggest you blogspot.com or wordpress.com . They're both free and I find it lets you connect with other people more easily. And there are lots of writers who use these sites :)
Check them out and maybe some writing blogs and see which one you like more, then do it!

But I still really don't get Tumblr. Maybe someone can enlighten us here?

I've learned that tumblr is wonderful for pictures, not so much for conversation and actual community-building. A know a lot of the groups I frequent on livejournal were worried that tumblr was going to take over everything and that everyone would migrate over there and leave livejournal a husk. But I think it's safe to say that's not going to happen.

But yeah, don't blog on tumblr. Unless you have gifs of Tom Hiddleston or something, you most likely will not get noticed.

I have a Tumblr account but I never use it. I just don't "get" Tumblr. I have Twitter for micro-blogging. And I'm not bothered about tons of gifs.

Well, what is an easy way to build a small fan base and keep in touch with them?

Tumblr is mainly, for me anyway, just to post pictures and gifs...gosh I'm so lame >.<

I don't have a Tumblr myself but I'm following a couple but just for looking at funny pictures.
If you want something for you writing blogger is better.
I have a blog there and I really like it. You can have a look at my blog there but it has nothing to do with writing. http://intotardis.blogspot.com/
Maybe you can get an idea of your possibilities there. I also like that you can personalise the design of your blog and that people can leave comments etc.
Tell me when you start a blog there and I wil follow you. ;)

I use Tumblr, and I write. I never reblod random shit, I rarely post pictures, and quite frankly I'm growing increasingly annoyed at the flood of pointless pictures and gifs flooding my dashboard. But it just seemed like the easiest place to start blogging. And now that I've slowly come to realise that I'm just about alone with my sentiments about Tumblr's picture-spammy nature, starting "fresh" somewhere else just feels awkward.

Yeah, tumblr is.... weird. It took me a while to sort of get what it's about. It's more sort of a place for sharing pictures and things than anything else, or for micro-blogs a little longer than 140 characters. It's not at all like twitter, though. Twitter is a community place, tumblr really isn't.

You'd be better off with livejournal or dreamwidth, I think. I have a few dreamwidth codes if DW looks like your sort of site.

That's a pity, though. I took a look at blogger and wordpress last night, and both of them seemed massively complicated to use, compared to tumblr. I made a blogger account and can't seem to follow any blogs. It keeps telling me I'm not currently following any blogs, although I've added a few, one of them like five times. Wordpress, well, I just couldn't get it to look nice, but maybe I'll keep at it and figure something out.

Livejournal I've used at some point in time, but it must have been like... 7 years ago? And never heard of dreamwidth. I shall check them out (again), I suppose, as so far I'm very unimpressed with my experience with blogger/wordpress. (I'm not saying they're necessarily bad; it could be that I'm just IT-challenged, but the end result remains the same.)

How do you guys feel about DISQUS and using Facebook/Twitter integration? That way, no matter if I decide to use Tumblr or Blogger, I can reach a larger amount of people, I would hope.

What do you think is going to happen? Some boogeyman gonna slice up your every internal organ simply because he/she learned your name?

I'm thinking I've found my solution in Posterous. Commenting is a key feature (can even comment anonymously AND moderate each incoming comment if necessary), has an easy option to follow through e-mail and NOT just through the website, and you can, in fact, update your website just by e-mailing a unique Posterous e-mail ("yourblog"@posterous.com) also, easy autoposting of your posts to your Twitter and Facebook feeds

Overall, this looks like a pretty awesome option for someone like me who a.) knows NO html beyond the bare minimum and b.) wants to reach as large an audience as possible (well, I know many of them will leave but whoever stays would hopefully remain loyal)

Er. I love Tumblr. No, it's not for ~serious~ writing things. It's for fun, mostly light-hearted jokes about fandoms or celebrities. It's the oddities of the internet rolled into one place. There are many funny things floating around tumblr as well as serious things, but text-heavy blogs will get skipped over in a flash. I use wordpress and LJ for that kind of stuff. If you are in a fandom, tumblr is a good way to grab followers with fanfiction. The Glee community over there is pretty much insane (and not always in a good way).

So yeah. I like my tumblr. I also get information way quicker that way... like people will come up to me weeks after I've seen something on tumblr and be like, "did you hear that..." and I'll say, "Um, yeah, I saw it a month ago on tumblr."

So there is that.

Tumblr doesn't have to be just for fanboys/fangirls. While I do get a lot of Dr. Who and Harry Potter graphics on my dashboard (which I don't mind because I love both), a lot of really lovely photographs and illustrations pop up too. It can be a useful tool to find inspiration for a setting or a scene. But I don't think it's really a useful tool for building a fanbase for writing. It's for microblogging. Quick little posts. A snippit of a conversation here or a graphic there.

A wordpress or a blogger blog might be more useful for posting writings or keeping in touch with fans.

Tumblr is somewhere in-between Twitter tweets and a blog.

There are a few fun Tumblrs, like "Dear Photography," that have great depth and popular. Some companies use Tumblr.

Tumblr seems to be more for sharing quotes, photos, art... while blogging is more for, well, blogs, how to's, etc.

A lot of people who don't blog tend to use Tumblr-- it's quick and easy to "reblog" on Tumblr, without having to write posts or add your own photos.

Tumblr seems like a mix between an imageboard and twitter.
You find a lot of stuff there.
Like, photography. Then, fandom stuff. Sometimes fanfiction. There are tons of "ask [character]" accounts ...
I like looking at some blogs, like birdsbirds and lots of fandom stuff but I wouldn't want my own account for something like that. xD (Also, some people have weird layouts and background images that start jittering while scrolling down.)

I got a Tumblr account, but I don't quite understand it either. It's many things I suppose. I just use it for some fandoms, but I really need to understand it because I put down on my resume that I have an understanding of social media sites like Tumblr haha. But I like Blogger for creating blogs. You can get traffic by putting your link on various forums and other sites. Good luck with your blog!

I had a tumblr but I deleted it after a couple of days. While I enjoy collecting quotes and images, I don't really need a website to do that.

I use blogger for my blogs. I feel like it's more writing oriented, but who knows?

Tumblr is far better for building up a fanbase and making friends online, but I definitely wouldn't say it is free of text-based blogging. If you follow the "writing" tags, you'll find hundreds of people who just blog their writing. There are people like me, whose blog is about 50% gifs of the latest Merlin episode and 50% literary criticism. It's just a matter of finding the blogs that appeal to you. Some of them do nothing but post pictures of cats, others will engage in essay length debate that would put any site like livejournal to shame.

I would say that if your blog is only going to be your writing that Wordpress is the best. But from my experience, you can post a blog post a week for a year and never get more than a dozen people who've so much as put you in your RSS feed, and maybe one person who ever thinks to comment. Tumblr allows for a lot better community building, and while you might not find people willing to read your stories right off the bat, you *can* find people eager to discuss writing with you.

Basically what I'm saying is, you should have both. One for actual writing, one for talking about writing and making writer friends.