That’s where Top Posts come into the picture. Thanks to this newest feature from Tumblr, your blog now automatically puts your best posts straight up at the top. But do you have control over what shows up as a Top Post? What exactly is deemed to be a Top Post? What if you don’t like the feature? Do read on to find out everything that you need to know.
So What Are Top Posts?
In short, Top Posts displays your blog’s most popular posts published anytime in the past three months. Users can simply tap on the preview pane listed just under your blog’s header to open up a dedicated Top Posts page, from where they can then check out twenty pieces of your craziest stuff. However, only mobile visitors should see them — desktop users can’t, at least for now. What criteria must a post meet to show up under the Top Posts page? Tumblr determines that merely by the number of notes (a fancy word for comments) a post receives over the past three-month period, with at least a single comment coming in during the last two months. Hence, the ones with the most comments are ranked, with the top twenty then deemed as Top Posts. Tumblr doesn’t just rank your original posts, it also includes any reblogs that you perform. But when it comes to the latter, Tumblr only counts the new comments that your reblogs receive directly, and not any original ones that the post already had.
Do I Have Any Control?
It would’ve been fantastic if you had the ability to determine what exactly showed up as a Top Post. But sadly, Tumblr doesn’t allow that. At least an option to remove certain posts and make way for other published posts — for those that you’d have wanted more exposure — would’ve made a world of difference. Perhaps such a thing is in the works, so don’t give up hope just yet.
Can I Disable Top Posts?
As useful as Top Posts can be, there are several reasons why you would want to disable the feature. Perhaps you don’t want your visitors to be distracted by the Top Posts preview pane, or you don’t like certain posts — such as reblogs — that show up there. Thankfully, Tumblr does let you disable Top Posts feature quite easily. Step 1: Open the Tumblr app, and then tap the Account icon. Step 2: Select the blog that you want to modify, and then tap the Settings icon. Step 3: Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings screen, and then turn off the switch next to Show Top Posts. Mobile visitors should no longer see a Top Posts section when viewing to your blog. If you want to re-enable the feature, simply re-visit the Settings screen and turn the Show Top Posts switch back on.
What If You Are a Visitor?
When it comes to surfing Tumblr, Top Posts can be a great way to check out the most popular posts on your favorite blogs. If you find the feature to be distracting, however, getting rid of the thing is unfortunately impossible. The Show Top Posts switch within the Tumblr settings only works on your own blogs, and doesn’t act as a sort of a toggle to enable or disable Top Posts when viewing other blogs. But you can always consider messaging or sending out an ask — or even an anonymous ask — to a blog admin and try to get them to disable the feature. Something along the lines of how distracting it is might just do the trick.
Exposure Can Be Good … Or Bad?
Additional exposure to your best posts can be an extremely good thing. How many times have you seen popular posts eventually get buried under dozens of other posts and reblogs? However, the lack of control over what exactly shows up can be quite bothersome, not to mention Top Posts acting as a potential distraction from newer posts. Hence, it’s ultimately up to you to weigh the pros and cons when it comes to using the feature. And Tumblr has made it easy to enable or disable the thing, right? So feel free to experiment.
