How Tumblr can make me forget about Posterous
I’m getting excited about blogging again, thanks to newly-discovered express-blogging services that make blogging easier than it has ever been. I have decided to abandon Multiply completely and have been spending less time on Twitter as a result.
I am both on Tumblr and Posterous, and I can’t seem to let go of either one of them. But right now, I am more inclined to stick to Tumblr because the three or four people I know who are also starting with this whole microblogging thing will probably not give Posterous a second look, mostly because of Posterous’s lack of customization options (which are coming soon, by the way).
However, as much as I enjoy looking at my tumbleblog, there are times when I can’t help feeling like I’m missing out on some great stuff by not sticking to Posterous. And here are the ways Tumblr can help change that.
1. Tumblr has to have comments out of the box. I will say it over and over again. I don’t care if Disqus is the best commenting platform in the entire bloggyverse. Disqus is a hassle for newbies, and I don’t see how Tumblr can be harmed by comments. Posterous has comments built-in, and any person can comment by logging in to Twitter, Facebook, or Posterous itself. If the Tumblr guys really like Disqus (and they do promote Disqus for comment-seekers) and can’t concoct a good home-brewed alternative, they should at least pre-install Disqus on tumbleblogs.
2. Tumblr needs to do a better job at email. Email is Posterous’s turf - in fact, Posterous IS email. But that doesnt mean Tumblr can’t improve on email too. So what if Posterous did it first? Tumblebloggers can only benefit from an improved email experience. Make the addresses easy to remember, and by that, I mean post@posterous.com instead of cwnd754@tumblr.com. And support formatted text in emailed posts! Tumblr doesn’t even recognize line breaks (enters) in emails.
3. Photo albums have to look better. While Tumblr’s slideshow implementation does provide a lot of eye candy, it is NO MATCH to Posterous’s photo gallery solution, which looks nicer, is more functional and makes for easier navigation. Head over to http://posterous.com/faq to see what I mean.
4. All posts should have a title. When you upload a single photo in Tumblr, you can give it a caption but NOT a title. If you upload multiple photos, you can give each photo a caption and give the post a title. And I hear that audio posts don’t get to have titles too. Some posts have titles, some don’t, and it doesn’t look good. At least make it an option, please.
5. Scrap the tumblarity. I’m so over Plurk’s karma. We don’t need another reminder of how unpopular we are.
I’m not trying to be nitpicky. Posterous may be a newcomer, but it is really gaining momentum, and if Tumblr can’t get around to fixing these things, I might one day switch to Posterous for good (could be the day themes get rolled out on Posterous).
