Tumblr rolled out a long-overdue change to its reblogging feature yesterday, fixing what it termed a “crazy-long, indecipherable reblog chain” problem. The blogging site will now order reblogs below a post chronologically, and show comments as a streamlined list, but only on your dashboard.
Tumblr reblogs just got a lot cleaner, and a little less charming
The website uprooted its confusing comment trees
The website uprooted its confusing comment trees
With the old format, as Tumblr posts gained popularity, the back and forth of reblogs and comments formed a confusing tree of block quote indents, which made it hard to read comments or figure out where a post originated. This was especially true when viewing the site on a smaller smartphone screen. Compare the designs below — the old version is on the left, and you can see the new version on the right.
The redesign makes the website look a whole lot cleaner, but the old format had a certain nostalgic charm that will be missed. Comment trees — like this one from coffeespiral.tumblr.com — reflected the chaotic and random nature of Tumblr. By cleaning up comments, Tumblr is sanitizing a feature that many users had come to love.
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