Still On The Clock
In the July update, I discussed the collection of tags and commentary from 136,199 reblogs of Martin and Bosco’s post from Tumblr’s /posts API endpoint. Now that it’s the end of August, I wanted to provide a quick summary of my progress.
So, Laura, how is the data collection going?
Figure 1: 88% complete after 66 days of collecting tags and commentary from the reblogs. In July, progress was 54%, so this represents an increase of 34 percentage points (pp).
Just like the extreme summer heat is finally starting to break here in southwestern Ontario, I’m nearing the end of a major data collection step. If you’re enjoying the new progress bar, just wait until reblog data collection hits 100% because the design will become even fancier.
Stay Tuned
In September, you’ll have two posts to look forward to (as a little treat). Expect the second post of the five-part series on the analysis of the blaze tags. I’ll explain the meaning of the subthemes and finally deliver the much-hyped interactive dendrogram. With a background in organometallic chemistry, it’s impossible for me to resist a cool data visualization (chemists adore diagrams!).
Another blog post will revisit the daily note count line plot from the /notes API dashboard. Now that we’ve celebrated a second Martin and Bosco Day (July 13, 2025), it’s the perfect time to visualize the engagement. Did the Tumblr community’s participation exceed the original holiday spike? Let’s find out!
Thumbnail Image Credit
The thumbnail image for this post, featuring a weathered roadwork sign and a perfect stack of orange cones, is by Sergei Starostin on Pexels. The worn road sign motif makes another appearance on the project’s website as a nod to my manual, never-ending data collection process — not unlike the summer season of road construction. The abundance of safety orange? That’s my aesthetic now. You’ve seen my progress bar.