Don't get Tumblr archives

October 7, 2011 7:17 AM

How to browse Tumblr archives?

I'm new to Tumblr, so maybe this is a stupid question, but I'm not getting how to view Tumblr archives. I like to visit image Tumblrs, and when I find one I like I want to view everything that has been posted on it, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this:

1) I can scroll down and view everything at one sitting, but I don't have the time for that, and there is no way to save my place. If I close the window my place is lost. My place can't be bookmarked. Also the further I scroll down the slower my computer gets. Eventually my browser just starts to freeze up.

2) I can click the archive page, which allows me to see everything that was posted month by month, but the pictures are all in tiny thumbnails.

Can I view the posts month by month in the larger format in which they were posted?

Thanks.

posted by fucker to computers & internet (5 answers total)

You can use this--put in the site and you get all the images at once, then click any one to enlarge and you can go forward and backwards.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:28 AM on October 7, 2011

That looks like a good link for a few different reasons, thanks. However it doesn't seem to allow me to save my place, or at least view month by month. So like the original Tumblr, I can't exit the link, close my browser, or turn off my computer and resume my place. And that was my main problem. I can't view an entire archive in one sitting. But if I lose my place I can't start over with the endless scrolling and loading.
posted by fucker at 8:15 AM on October 7, 2011

Thank you, Admiral H!
posted by IAmBroom at 8:18 AM on October 7, 2011

This is not something that tumblr does very well. There should still be permalinks on individual posts which you can bookmark and then you could page through by individual posts? Otherwise yeah, it actually kind of sucks for reading through archives. I think the endless scrolling thing varies by chosen theme. I'm not a fan of it.
posted by SoftRain at 1:03 PM on October 7, 2011

This is a sort of awkward way to do it, but if you reblog something, you'll be taken back to a page that starts near where you reblogged--often a few posts before, but we're talking half a dozen, not three hundred. When I've had to bookmark where I am on Tumblr, I've reblogged something (anything--just adding something to your queue will do it) and then left the return page open.

So far as I can tell, Tumblr shows things in increments--it loads, say, 20 posts at a time, and each set of 20 posts *could* be a page. When you reblog something, you're returned to the top of the twenty-post set to which the reblogged post belonged.

Hopefully that made sense...
posted by MeghanC at 1:38 AM on October 9, 2011