Asks are more of a one-off Q&A, not a two-way conversation like messaging. And unlike messages, asks can be published to a blog and reblogged by other users.
As the asker (the sender) you can choose to submit a question as yourself or as an anonymous phantom. As the askee (the receiver) you can choose to respond publicly (by publishing to your blog) or privately.
One quirk: You can only respond to anonymous asks publicly, since we don’t know who sent it.
Enabling asks
To enable the ask feature on the web:
- Click "Settings" under the account menu at the top of the dashboard, then on the right side of the page, choose the blog you’d like to update.
- In the Ask section, enable “Let people ask questions.”
- Fill in “Ask page title” with whatever you’d like to name the Ask page (and the Ask link on your theme if it shows one).
- If you want to allow anyone (not just Tumblr users) to ask questions, check the box that says “Allow anonymous questions.”
And in the app:
- Tap the account icon (the little human).
- Tap the blog name at the top of the screen to select the blog you’d like to update, if it’s not already showing.
- Tap the gear icon.
- Turn the “Let people ask questions” option on.
Note: You can send up to 10 asks per hour, and only five of those can be anonymous.
Sending an ask
To send an ask (assuming that the blog has it turned on):
- In the app: Go to a blog, tap the person icon, and then Ask.
- On the web: Hover over a blogname, and then choose “Ask” from the meatballs menu (●●●).
- From the blog: Look for the ask link, or add /ask or /submit to the end of their URL.
Accessing your asks
To get to your asks:
- In the app: Go to the account tab (the human), then tap the gear icon and choose “Inbox.” Note that the "Inbox" option won't show up if you don't have any asks or submissions at the moment.
- On the web: Click the envelope near the top right corner of the screen.
Making sure the ask link shows up on your blog
Most themes automatically detect when you turn on asks. But if you know that you turned them on and you’re not seeing the link on your public-facing blog, go to tumblr.com/customize to find the right switch.
If you enable this feature and the link does not appear on your blog automatically, you’ll need to manually add the link to your blog’s description.
- Click "Settings" under the account menu at the top of the dashboard, then choose the blog you’d like to update on the right side of the page.
- Click “Edit theme” in the Website Theme section.
- Edit your description to add the links. For example:
<a href="/ask">Ask me Stuff!</a> - Click “Save” and “Exit.”
Troubleshooting
If you suspect your asks aren't getting delivered, these are the most common reasons that could happen:
- The sender exceeded the ask limit. You can only send 10 asks per hour, and only five of those can be anonymous.
- The ask included links, paragraph breaks, special characters, emoticons, or ellipses, or didn’t have spaces between sentences.
- The ask was longer than 500 characters.
- The recipient blocked an entire network location. This can happen if a user blocks an anonymous ask sent from a library or other public location. When that happens, no one from that location can send that person an ask.