roymaes:

Ok so reposters on Tumblr are a HUGE PROBLEM. It’s incredibly frustrating when you see that things you put hard work into have been reposted and are getting reblogged over and over again whilst the original post sits sadly in the depths of your blog. It’s essentially theft, as somebody is stealing something which YOU MADE and taking all the credit for making it, and it sucks.

Personally I have a strict “don’t reblog reposted stuff!” rule with myself, and here are some of the ways I try to spot and avoid reposts:

1. Look at the source. If it looks like this:

 or this:

DO NOT REBLOG IT!! And please for the love of sanity do not EVER post ANYTHING from either of these sites! Everything on them is stolen from original Tumblr posts and I’m so so sick of seeing them used as sources.

2. Look for a watermark. Most graphics creators put watermarks on their work - usually their url hidden in a corner somewhere. They’re really not that hard to find though. If the watermark doesn’t match the original poster, don’t reblog it!
Sidenote: if you’re feeling really nice, go to the watermarker’s blog, try to find the original post, and reblog it. This will help circle the original post around and hopefully make people ignore the repost.
Further sidenote: sometimes the watermark doesn’t match the source because the OP has changed urls since then. That’s a bit harder to work out but people usually turn their old url into a redirect page, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take a look.

3. Look at the tags. First of all, look for a “#mine” type tag. Most reposters don’t actually take credit for the graphics they post, whereas most graphics creators like to have a general tag to keep all their stuff together. Also look for any weird/unnecessary tags, like this:

Reposters often put excessive amounts of tags to try to reach as many people as they can (which is dumb, as only the first five tags actually show up in the main tags).

4. Look at the quality of the graphic. Does the gif look oddly-sized and ridiculously pixelated? If so, it might be because it’s supposed to be part of a gifset, but the reposter has posted it on its own, resulting in it getting stretched. Graphic makers care a lot about the quality of the stuff they post, whereas reposters don’t.

5. Look for inconsistencies in style. Most graphic makers keep a consistent style in their graphics. If the same blog is posting multiple graphics which all look like they were made by different people, they probably were.

6. Block repeat reposters. If you hover your cursor to the left of the notes, an “ignore” option appears like so:

If you’re seeing someone repost things over and over again, block them so their posts don’t appear in the tags. This will a) stop you from getting annoyed at them and b) stop you from accidentally reblogging one of their reposted things.

7. Confront reposters and signal boost! Sometimes reposters don’t realise that they shouldn’t be posting the things they do. Some of them aren’t aware that WeHeartIt isn’t a real source. Send them a message and (POLITELY) ask them to remove the post. If possible, direct them to the original post. If their ask box is closed, if they refuse to remove the post, or if they respond rudely, inform your followers and tell them to stay clear of that blog. Don’t abuse reposters! That won’t solve anything.

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Honestly, all of these steps aren’t that hard to follow once you get used to them. And if you think it’s a waste of time to get so bothered about reposts, just think about how you’d feel if something you worked for hours on was posted by someone else and got thousands of notes whilst your original post got just a few.

Thanks for reading!