“What’s so bad about reposting?”
“It’s easy to make gifs, who cares.“
Wrong.
And here’s why:
- Presumably, you’re reposting because you either:
a) don’t have access to the video that’s gif’d because you don’t know where it’s from or you don’t know how to download it. Which already proves that making gifs is difficult because of the time spent video hunting and downloading. (You’d be surprised how hard it is to download videos from certain websites.)
b) don’t have access to photoshop, because you’re not sure how to download it, or you do have it but don’t know how to work it. Which again, proves making gifs is difficult because it’s more than just right clicking then saving as (which is what reposting is - so if you catch yourself doing this, stop!) You have to learn how to use photoshop to actually make a gif, and to actually use photoshop you have to know how and where to download it. Some people even pay for it, and it’s extremely unfair to those that do because something they essentially paid for is getting stolen from them.
- Gifs are not even just about being able to do the basic load files into stacks or import layers from frames, whichever method of gif making you prefer. Nope. It’s about coloring as well, which makes your gif unique and different from someone else’s. People spend time making their gifs look nice in addition to spending their time looking for the right video and whatnot.
So have some respect for people that do their best to provide you with pretty gifs on your dashboard to reblog >:(
(No, it does not count if you repost someone’s gif and “give credit”, especially if the source is “it’s not mine but I found it on Google”. Tumblr made a beautiful function called a REBLOG. Use it. It’s your best friend.)
Next time you say, “everyone reposts” or “they’re just gifs”, keep in mind making gifs isn’t actually as easy as some people belittle it to be! Try making gifs for yourself and see how hard it is. Really, try.
(And if you’re thinking, “oh making gifs is so easy! I’ve tried it!” then it literally costs you $0.00 to make your own gifs and gain notes through your own hard work. Seriously. Stop taking credit for someone else’s hard work.)
Stopping reposts can happen if you take a step to stop yourself from reposting and letting others know why it’s bad too. If no one tells you what you’re doing is wrong, how would you know what you’re doing isn’t right? One by one, we can all eventually stop reposting because it’s very disrespectful to artists (yes, gif makers are considered artists too). If you want notes, earn them yourself just like how every original content makers do. And even if you can’t make anything yourself, don’t be mean. Support people’s works.
(This applies to everyone that makes original content, fan art, fan fiction, graphics, etc. The steps in between to make them are different, but reposts effect all of us the same. Please stop reposting and respect the artists.)
