Honestly it's nice how the update strikes a balance between appealing to the discourse-mongering QRTer and the karma-obsessed r/196er. Who we all know are the two best demographics to cater online spaces around
Glibness aside it's frustrating that "separating reblog chains into distinct entities within a post" is something with the potential to actually be useful. Being able to block/report users interacting with specific chains on my posts featuring doxxing, harassment, etc. is something I've wanted in the past. But from their description this just seems like a really really bad way of implementing that (by superseding one of [tumblr]'s core appeals)
Like, I don't understand why it can't just be "if you've added to a post then you and OP receive notifications for interactions with that post". That's how replies work already, and it'd do the job of encouraging interaction more (which is presumably the motivation behind this change?). That subtle difference would (imo) make this a wholly positive change.
But separating out notes to make it more like every comment is an entire new post seems like it's only designed to appeal more to engagement-bait and gimmick accounts. and if spam bots are a problem now then I can't see this making it any better. y'know
