Blog Doesn Show Up in Tumblkr App Search

psa; when you don't show up in tumblr's tag searches

For months after the NSFW ban in late December 2018, I had an issue where I wasn't showing up along with the rest of the roleplay community's promo posts. I hadn't broken any rules or TOS… no rhyme, no reason. I had been showing up before, and suddenly I just wasn't — I wrote to Tumblr about it, to which they responded (more than a week after my contacting them and a day after me reminding them) with a very copy-pastey email:

For artists and for writers, it can be pretty crippling to your growth as a blog when your posts don't show up in the tag search, and when Tumblr won't provide any support beyond a repetitive response that can already be found in their Help Centre with a simple Google search. Which I'd done before contacting them. And after providing staff with a bunch of details (informing them that I didn't violate any TOS) and providing links that Support clearly didn't look at, I finally got pointed in the right direction by friends.

Tumblrdo tell you there that your posts likely won't show up in tag searches if you're a relatively new blog, and they do provide a decent list of reasons why you may not show up in the tags. What Tumblr don't tell you, however, is that anything even vaguely NSFW after the purge in December can get you filtered from searches. And also that the "Review Flagged Posts" function is probably mildly broken and could be a part of the issue.

If you're having trouble with showing up in searches:

Check the body of your post, the tags, and the captions to make sure SWEARING anywhere in the post. I got hit by Tumblr for saying "I'm here to FUCK shit up" in one of my self-promotion posts.
Check that you don't have any mentions of vaguely NSFW things in your ask related to nudity or sex. One of my mutuals got flagged for saying "nipple" in the post's content and had to backtrack and change it to "n*pple" to have her artwork show up.

This goes for violence as well. "Die" and "kill" have apparently been known to get users hit occasionally.

Check that you don't actually write the words "NSFW" in your actual post or in the tags. You will definitely get hit — sucks for people who want to filter out raunchy content from their dash, but I suppose you'll have to use some other code word.
I've heard that the word "promo" will get users filtered out from the searches sometime; whilst I have no personal experience of this, I do suggest you shy away from the word!
Try reposting your content in a fresh post. The "Review Flagged Posts" function does not always work or inform you that you have something that the algorithm thinks is against its guidelines, especially if your post was made before the purge. Sometimes reposting something will kick the flagging system into action and cause it to flag the post as NSFW, at which point it will backtrack and flag down your other post as well. Maybe it was just an issue for my blog alone, but it's worth the shot.

Check your email (and Social and Spam if it doesn't show up in the main inbox) for the "flagged content" email notification if you don't see the post flagged right away!

As a last resort, try making a test blog, removing all text and tags, adding things / rewording them, and checking if you show up in the "Most Recent" filter on the tag search. Do it until you hit what removes you from the Tumblr search!

The worst thing is that whilst Tumblr has given a rundown of its NSFW ban and its TOS, it doesn't blatantly tell you that you aren't allowed to do simple things like curse in your post or in its tags if you want to show up in the tag searching system at all. I had to rely on friends and on trial-and-error to fix my issues. And honestly, what a shame I got more support from the userbase than I did from Tumblr Support itself.

Blog Doesn Show Up in Tumblkr App Search

Source: https://zweiherzen.tumblr.com/post/183906782291/psa-when-you-dont-show-up-in-tumblrs-tag