Posting Conversations on Tumblr

Because Tumblr is both a social network and a blogging platform, much of the content its users post includes the details of interacting with other Tumblr users. Tumblr enables you to post conversations on your blog as individual posts in a variety of formats, depending on the medium in which you participated in the conversation and your formatting preferences.

Chat Transcripts

Tumblr's posting format allows you to choose from several different kinds of posts, including a chat transcript post. Chat transcripts can be from any speakers, including people who aren't on Tumblr. When posting a conversation on Tumblr, you can select the "Chat" icon from your dashboard and then enter the conversation with the following format:

Speaker 1: What Speaker 1 said. Speaker 2: What Speaker 2 said.

Replace "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2" with the names of the speakers, and "What Speaker 1/2 said" with the content of the conversation. You can transcribe more than two speakers as long as their names precede a colon and as long as you hit "Enter" between each speaker.

Manual Formatting

You can post conversations to Tumblr as regular text posts by manually formatting them with Tumblr's formatting buttons. For example, to differentiate between speakers, you can bold the speakers' names or use any other visual means you prefer, such as putting one speaker's words in quotations, which, in most native Tumblr themes, adds indentation and other formatting markers such as different background color, font and font color.

Reblogged Conversations

Tumblr's reblog feature allows you to have ongoing conversations with other Tumblr users through posts. When you reblog another user's post, the original text of the post displays along with whatever response you included in your own post. The user can then reblog the post with another response. Other users can join in the conversation by reblogging with their own responses, as well. Each instance of reblogging appears as an individual post on your blog.

Responding to Asks

If you receive a message via your Ask box, you can respond publicly by clicking the "Publish" button after typing your reply. The original message, including a link to the Tumblr user it was from (or the word "Anonymous" if it was an anonymous Ask) and your response display on your blog as a post along with a direct link to your Ask box. Users can reblog this post and respond to your reply on their own blogs or send you another message to continue the conversation.