Okay, I'm now 100% convinced HE posted those things on Tumblr herself at the times that it said they were posted. JMO as always.
I dug around in the code of her theme to see if it differentiated between queued/scheduled posts because I thought it was weird that some images said "posted on December" and some said "posted on December 18," which only the text posts said. Didn't luck out there, nor in the code to my theme.
Next question was, can a post inadvertently show a strange time like :53, :49, etc, if it's queued or future-posted? The answer is no. (I know PeterThomasFan pointed that out a few pages back). You CAN specify that a post gets published at 1:58 AM (separate from the queue feature), but why would you? The suggested format in that text field says "Next Tuesday, 10 AM" or something. That would have to be done post by post, by hand. You cannot immediately reblog something with a date from the past. It gets queued in a limbo. So it takes an extra step.
Queued posts only have the option of being posted between two hours if you're scheduling it to happen automatically. I played around with combinations of hours and amounts of posts and their scheduled post times were always even number/ten minute increments.
So the above lead me to conclude that they were posted on HE's tumblr via manual reblog, leaving the question:
1) were they posted by
her, or backdated by someone else?
Check out HE's tumblr likes (different from reblogs and follows). Not every user has their "likes" page public, so I didn't think to check this early on, and I haven't seen it posted on here yet. It also reminds me of my "likes" page because it contains far more posts on it than ever end up posting. Nitpicking to a theme, not wanting to reblog something seen as too personal, etc.
http://www.tumblr.com/liked/by/hazy-dayys
(Also note how lighthearted most of her likes are. Lends credence to the idea that she used her Tumblr to send a message or put forth a specific image.)
That night, HE "liked" a number of posts that she did not reblog (or deleted the reblog after the fact).
Chronologically, her likes and reblogs on these posts occurred at the same time as other users'ie, user X and user Y were looking at their feeds at the same time and both reblogged/liked the same post. This can be seen in the notes history of each post she liked.
So that would make it a highly coincidental overlap if someone really did backdate the posts for whatever reason. Based on the clusters of notes from other users, the posts were posted on the 17th and 18th for the most part, as well as the reblogging activity. So could whoever backdated the posts have just "snuck" HE's into that time period?
IMO it would be impossible. I tested this out on my own feed and liked or reblogged a number of posts, backdating some but not others.
The actual time you like or reblog something is what determines your placement in the "notes" section. For example, I "liked" an image a few months ago without reblogging it. Today I reblogged it and changed the date to match the "like." On that post's notes, my "like" shows up far down the list, and my reblog shows up at the very top, despite the changed date.
So it can't be said with absolute certainty, but IMO nobody could have backdated HE's posts, because the notes surrounding her activity on that post happened around the same time. They would have all had to have been backdated after the fact for that to happen. Admittedly, I'm operating under the premise that this hypothetical backdater would be covering their tracks many hours after HE's last confirmed communication, maybe even on the 19th. This would show a noticeable gap on the notes list, unlike backdating done before 9 AM or so.. but for me, that's a cause for hat-eating.
I also think liking AND reblogging something (ie, some of her last posts) shows the process of a typical Tumblr user, and not someone trying to emulate it. What would be the point of clicking a tiny heart icon before reblogging, and why only do it for some posts and not others? There's no public link to most users' "likes" page. You'd have to be in friendly stalker mode.
http://www.tumblr.com/liked/by/hazy-dayys HE's tumblr likes, once again. If anything, they add more dimension to her personality, sense of humor, taste in art and poetryand paint an even lovelier portrait of her.
Thanks for bearing with me as I tried to explain my potentially flawed reasoning here! I would never have given it this much thought, but that somewhat ominous (albeit technically factual) note in the HC article has been bugging me.