Tumblr’s Curator-in-Chief: A Red Couch Interview with Christopher Price

Christopher Price joined Tumblr on February 28, 2007, just a week after the micro-blogging site launched. Since then, the site has grown to over 56 million blogs, generating more than 15 million posts a month. As Tumblr’s editorial director, Price (better known by his Tumblr username, TopherChris) is also its curator-in-chief, always on the prowl for cool, new content.

You started using Tumblr at the very beginning and have remained a loyal user ever since. What did you see in Tumblr that early?
There was an API—application programing interface—that lets you build your own apps onto the system. I was a coder at the time at a small college and was desperate to create new things. It’s easy to get burned out on college app programming so this opened up a whole new realm that mixed all my interests. I wanted to make silly Photoshops and post them. I also wanted to code apps that could make a cool gallery of those Photoshops based on my Tumblr because it was new, interesting and no one else was doing it. It was really easy to get noticed when you made these little API toys or themes and that got you a lot of attention right away. It was addictive, and I started to thrive off it.

What does the editorial director of Tumblr do, exactly?
It’s pretty insane, between the way the job has changed and the sheer increase in blogs, to try to find amazing, original content to promote. That is really the core essence of my job: to surface up the people who deserve to be seen, who are making really great stuff. Whether it’s art, GIFs, traditional, non-traditional or disruptive content, if it’s original I think Tumblr users deserve to see it.

Who deserves to be seen?
You know it when you see it. It helps that we have community editors, people I trust who are actually illustrators or GIF creators. We look at their ‘likes’ or their re-blogs—the whole re-blog tree of the way Tumblr works—and it allows us to find who, or what, is good at the moment.

Tumblr is home to some very obscure but very humorous and successful blogs.
(An example of this can be seen on KimJongIlLookingAtThings or Pretty Colors.) The topics are very niche yet the blogs become mainstream. How do you think this happens?

The time it takes to start publishing to the world is about two seconds. I think that means we’re cycling through them faster, too. The lower the barrier of entry for creating things, sharing it with the world, the better. You’re going to get more crap, but you’re going to get those ideas that are just wacky enough that wouldn’t be worth the time to post if it took half a day. But, if it’s just a few minutes—well, any wacky idea is worth trying. Make a few posts, and if it pops—like if suddenly The Fluffington Post reblogs it—you’re on your way.

What are some of the weirdest blogs you’ve stumbled upon?

What do you think drives people to keep using Tumblr?
It’s a lot of factors. It’s so quick and easy to get something started on Tumblr that looks relatively good without having to know any coding. We’re at the point where no one needs to know HTML to have a successful web presence, the ease of use, the fact that somebody with a huge following can show you to millions—that’s the motivation, to get noticed, to have that validation.

What’s the biggest challenge or hurdle facing the Internet or Internet culture?
The biggest issue we may face is information overload. We’re going to need smarter and smarter programs to aggregate stuff for us. There is just going to be just too much for us to handle. I mean how many Tumblrs will there be in five years? It might be impossible for one person to manage all that.

Two of Price’s favorite Tumblrs: