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Tumblr reblogs just got a lot cleaner, and a little less charming

Tumblr reblogs just got a lot cleaner, and a little less charming

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The website uprooted its confusing comment trees

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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.

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.

tumblr redesign

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.