That's right! More explanation tumblr is on the way! I can't believe the first two posts have been doing so well, and I keep thinking that there is still so much more to explain. Well, highlight; and so here's a part 3. Now I like to be SUPER clear. I hate nothing more than explanation posts where I'm still confused at the end. That's why I'll be going into some serious detail. If your still struggling with how tumblr functions as a site, this will hopefully still be clear for you. Today I'll going to be discussing the Queue -- what it's for and how to use it.
What is the Queue
The Queue, I think, is one of THE BEST features of tumblr (besides the ability to upload high resolution photos AND seriously easy usability). First: a queue, for all my American readers who didn't watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or catch much British tv, is basically a line. For example, if you waited in line to see Harry Potter at midnight, you queued up to see Harry Potter.
This (above) is the how the queue looks. As you can see, the queue does not look different whether your using it for a personal blog or an fyeah (and it looks a lot like the regular dash). On the left is my personal queue; on the right is the anything period queue. To get to your queue page, click on the title of your tumblr (at the top by Dashboard) and then look on the sidebar to your right. Queue is the button with the little clock before it. When you click on that button it will turn green and bring you the queue page (seen above in duel view). If you have any posts already queued, the amount will show up on the right. Confused? See the image below:
I've already clicked on "a lovely girl" so I can get to my sidebar with the queue button. As you can see I have 143 posts/reblogs queued up. If I clicked on the button, it would bring me to my queue page (which you've already seen in the top example image).
The tumblr queue allows to you spread out posts over a given period of time (tumblr time is set in days). So, say you only have 1 day a week to search tumblr and upload/post/reblog interesting things. With the queue you can take everything you find on a Sunday and set it to post throughout the week. This is what I do for anything period and it seriously frees up my everyday. Also, with the queue you're able to pick which day you want a specific post to be published and if you want 1 or more posts published on the same day.
(Sidenote: There is also a wonderful feature like the queue that allows you to specifically time when you want a post to be published. This feature can be found when actually on the upload post page to the right. I can see this feature being amazing if you use tumblr as a blog. Say you write a blog post recapping what happened in season 1 of Game of Thrones. You could set that blog post to be published a week before season 2 begins to air. Talk about blog planning. This thing is like set it and forget it.)
Why use the Queue
For a photo blog like anything period use of the queue is indispensable. I'm able to set up photo posts for weeks and the blog blogs itself. Its all about consistency for me. With the help of the queue I'm able to provide a new photo(s) every day without having to upload, tag, and post them everyday. This is an even better option for anything period because very rarely do I reblog other people's photos and my timeline is not set around the airing of episodes. So, if I find a jackpot of costume pictures, I can upload them all in one shot and not have to worry about looking for new ones on a daily basis.
For a personal blog, the queue might seem silly. But actually this is the real reason I'm writing this installment of explanation tumblr. A few days ago I went looking for a photo that came through on my dash. I knew I'd had either reblogged it or faved it, but couldn't remember which. When I didn't find it on my archive page, I knew it had to be in my mess of a favs page. At that time, I had over 600 posts faved. Now the fav page is much like your regular dash stream or queue page. You have to scroll through ALL of them. You don't have the luxury of the mass photo wall that the archive has (on blogged/reblogged posts) or the ability to search by tag in the fav stream. To find the picture I wanted, it took 3 hours to go through my favorites. I knew I had to do something.
So, I started going through the images/posts I had faved and started putting ones I really liked in the queue and unfaving ones I didn't like anymore. In another 3 hours, I had cut my favs list in 2/3rds. Now I use the fav function for ideas/images I will want to use as inspiration later. Everything else, will either be reblogged or queued and eventually end up in on my archive wall for an easy find.
How to Queue a Post
Uploading some original content/queuing from a faved post/or a reblog -- its all the same: you start by selecting what you're going to upload (main dash, queue dash -- its all the same, and looks like below) or reblog from your dash.
Now, it doesn't matter how you get there, the point is once you're on the upload/reblog an item page, you'll get to something that looks like this:
And we'll mess around with the information on the right side (look at the red above). Note the button at the bottom that says (check!) Reblog Post. This is a reblog page. We went over posting in explanation tumblr part 1, so if you're confused about how to reblog/post something, head over there to read about it. As you can see, "publish now" is circled in red. It is a drop down menu. And in the drop down menu, you'll see the queue option:
Select it to queue the post. Then, remember we noted the (check!)Reblog Post button...well its turned into (check!)Queue Post!
Now the post you've just added to your queue will show up on your queue page. All the way. At the very bottom. So this Spotless Mind photo is now #144 in my queue line up. BANG! You've just utilized your queue.
Moving Queue Posts Around
Is VERY user friendly...unless you have 144 like I do in my personal queue. Its still doable, but I would not do it. The load time would be INSANE. So, to show you moving queue posts, I'm returning the anything period queue page.
As you can see, I have it set that a photo from Chicago will be posted on Sunday @ 7:30 and a photo from The Sound of Music will post on Monday @ 7:30. But I want to change this. I want The Sound of Music photo to be published first. (Whatever is higher up(or first) on your queue is what will be posting first.) All you have to do it click on the sound of music post (the white part) and drag the photo up. Try it. Go ahead. I know it sounds like it won't work, but it does:
See, I'm dragging. This works either way. You can also drag down.
And hello! There are the VonTrapps at the top!
Problems, Issues, Shortfalls
There have been times where the tumblr server has posted EVERYTHING is a user's queue. This happened a few month back actually, and people who had over 300 items in their queue had a huge meltdown. While this can happen, and is inconvenient all around, the glitch seems to have been taken care of.
Load time to move pictures around can take forever. Dragging pictures in the queue takes a lot of gusto for tumblr. Load times are always something that try my patience.
Setting the number of posts you want to auto publish can sometimes have a glitch. I can't tell you the number of times I've changed that little drop down from 1 to 4 and it NEVER SAVES. This is an issue in the tumblr code that has yet to be addressed. Eventually, if you're persistent (or get really lucky), it will save. (This happens once for every four to six times I change posting amounts.)
Your queue images are not searchable or easily found until they've been published. The queue is basically like the fav page, only with the promise of the post being published at a later date. So, while it will eventually solve my problem, it is not an immediate fix.
Sometimes the queue goes crazy and the block to the left of your queued post (that tells you when it will be published) will have the wrong date and time. Eventually, tumblr knows what you mean and will fix it, but it has spazed on me for about 5-6 hours at a time. Likewise, if your loading your queue with 7 or more images back to back, expect to get an error loading page 3-4 times. The queue was not really built for fast-past or high volume tumbling.
Wrap it Up!
There you have it. An EXTREMELY long post about queuing on tumblr! Its actually one of the more complicated things you can do on this easy to use site (unless you're making layouts, and if you are, God help you because that crap is confusing). All in all, I hope this has been a one-stop-shop for you and that the info about the queue is helpful. Enjoy!
If you have any further tumblr questions, or would like a feature or piece of tumblr explained, please feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment below. I'll try to help the best I can!