On the Tumblr #Politics Tag

February 17, 2012

There is an interesting and it seems to me entirely appropriate debate going on on Tumblr right now about how the #Politics tag works, the kinds of posts that get marked with it, and in particular whether the vile and hate-filled bloviations of one of the Tumblr #Politics editors, Ryking, ought to lead to his removal from his post as a #Politics editor.

I must confess to more than a little frustration over the #Politics tag. I have seen lots of posts of mine that I thought–perhaps wrongly–were reasoned, insightful and timely be utterly ignored; others, snarkier or less filled with original content, made the show. But I’ve never been able to figure out what makes it and why–pretty much across the board.

I have so far forborne to discuss the #Politics tag because at some level anything I would have said in the past would have been navel-gazing: a plaintive wail shouting “why not me?” into the ether. And while I have drafted a few such wails, I took the time to reflect and delete them: “Send” may well be the most dangerous command on the internet, followed only by “Post” and “Reply all.”

But the debate over Ryking’s status as a #Politics editor has sparked a thought I hope isn’t “why not me, #Politics overlords?"

I think many of us greeted the creation of the #Politics tag as a hopeful thing: a place where interesting, unique and perceptive thoughts about complex issues might be highlighted for consideration and discussion. And to be fair, some of the editors treat the #Politics tag that way.

But I don’t think that’s what Tumblr wants. If Tumblr has a vision with its tags, it is most likely a vision of driving traffic to highlighted links. It is a vision of encouraging people to spend more time than they already are in the Tumblrverse. (The same is true for Facebook and every other social network site, for that matter.) And this is what Ryking does well. His outrageousness and savagery drives business … which is why he is a consistent "Top Editor.”

It’s good business. It’s just horrific politics.

So I would love to hear from the Tumblr staff about their vision for the #Politics tag. Given that there is no mechanism by which other editors or commenters can revise, remove or otherwise challenge posts in the #Politics tag, ala Wikipedia (except by reblogging them), #Politics has become a receptacle for some of the worst elements of our politics, not the best.

If we want a #Politics tag that is meaningful, it has to be curated by administrators with the power to challenge and remove posts and with the training to know what meaningful political analysis is (even if they don’t agree with a particular piece). As it stands, what we often get looks the “comments” section after an online article: nasty, brutish, and rarely short enough.

10:16am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZPUuPyGZ83Sv

(Notes: 125)