How to Set It Up So People Can Ask Me Things on Tumblr

By Irene A. Blake

Tumblr allows you to communicate with other users through Fan Mail and reblogging, but it also allows you to set up a link to a Web page where users and anonymous visitors can ask you questions directly from your blog. The questions then appear on your Tumblr account's Messages screen where you have the option to answer them publicly or privately with text, images, links or a combination of response types. To set up the Ask feature, you will need to access your blog’s Settings screen.

Go to your Tumblr dashboard and click the gear icon to go to your Tumblr account's Settings page.

Pick the name of the blog you want to customize with an Ask link and page to go to its Settings screen.

Click the “Let People Ask Questions” box in the Ask section to turn on the feature.

Type a word or phrase for the Ask page link text, such as “Ask," "Messages," "Ask Section" or “Ask me anything!,” in the “Ask Page Title” field.

Scroll up to the top of the Settings screen, or down to the bottom, and click the “Save” button.

Confirm the setup. Go to your Tumblr blog and look for the "Ask" page link.

Tips

To allow blog visitors to ask questions anonymously, click the “Allow Anonymous Questions” box in the Ask section and then click “OK,” when prompted, before saving your changes.

To see new questions, wait for a Messages Inbox alert in the form of a number to appear at the upper-right corner of the envelope icon on your Tumblr dashboard. Click the icon and look for any new message titled with the name of a user or the word “Anonymous,” followed by the words “asked you."

Warnings

You can experience delays in receiving messages for various reasons. A Tumblr user or visitor can only send five anonymous questions and 10 questions total in an hour. Additionally, certain text characters and emoticons can cause errors. Some people might use the Ask feature to say things privately that they wouldn’t otherwise say publicly. If you receive an offensive question or note from someone, click the X icon located under the message to ignore the person. Using this option permanently blocks any Tumblr user or anonymous visitor from using the Ask feature through your blog. Tumblr logs computer, IP address and Tumblr account data, if applicable, and blocks future contact.

Information in this article applies to Tumblr as of September 2013.

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