#reblogs graph

Oh my God you guys… Tumblr Admin actually listened. The Reblog Graph has been upgraded, and it is MUCH more readable and user-friendly now. 😍

Instead of being just a beautiful constellation of reblogs, you can now actually go in there and find out exactly where your reblog sits in the overall scheme of things (and you no longer need to plod through the whole thing 200 reblogs at a time!).

I've been looking at it over the past week or so (not sure when the change actually dropped), and here's what I've managed to find out (caveat – the graph is apparently only available on desktop).

First of all – you can now expand the view, so you no longer have to squint at a complex graph in a tiny window. Click on the double-arrow "Expand Graph" icon in the top right of the window after you choose the "Reblogs Graph" option under the menu for reblogging.

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Perhaps the best update of all – if you click on any node in the graph, the reblog appears in a window to the right. You can now GO DIRECTLY TO THAT REBLOG by clicking on the meatballs (three-dot) menu and right-clicking on the date and time stamp to open that reblog in another tab or window.

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Previously, you could only view the Reblog Graph like a constellation. You still can, but this is no longer the default. The default graph is now a tree, much like the Tree of Life.

The Tumblr Tree Graph arrays each reblog according to its generation, in rings around the original post. You can see which reblog has had a lot of direct engagement by noting which has the biggest number of reblogs fanning out from that reblog. You can also see which reblog has a lot of reblog descendants by noting how much reblog branching emerges outward from it. Reblogging in the tree is represented by outward branching that spirals in a clockwise direction.

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In Expanded View, you can now move the Reblog Graph along 1000 reblogs at a time by clicking the "Load Next 1000" button. This expands the graph much more quickly if you want to locate your own reblog that is many generations away from the original. If you want to watch the graph grow more slowly, just click the "Load More" button, which only moves it ahead 200 reblogs at a time (this was the old pace and the only speed previously at which you could expand things).

Your own reblog (or rather the reblog that you've opened the graph under – the current reblog) will be represented by a green or purple circle (black if the reblog has no new content or tags added) around a node, with a blue line tracing its genealogy all the way back to the original post. This blue-line feature was introduced some time back, and means we no longer have to search for our own reblog (or the reblog we've opened the graph under – the current reblog) among hundreds (if not thousands) of other reblog nodes.

If you miss the constellation-type graph, you can toggle the view to call it up. While in Expanded View, click on the button in the top right that says "Force". The constellation-type graph is also called a Force-Directed Graph, hence the name on the button (I guess it isn't supposed to mean you're forcing the Tree Graph to become the constellation graph, though that's an easy way to remember it 🤣). Click on the button that says "Tree" to toggle back to the Tree Graph if you want to view that instead.

There is also a Legend in the bottom left corner of the Expanded View that tells you more about each reblog you click on. You can see which reblog has added content, which reblog has added tags, which reblog added no content or tags and which reblog has become unavailable. I don't know what "Not Yet Explored" means though. These markings will show up if you click on a node. When you click on another node, the previous markings stay visible.

The other buttons in Expanded View are pretty self-explanatory, so I'm not going into them.

The Reblog Graph in its previous incarnation was pretty to look at and could show you patterns of engagement, but it was terribly slow to load (especially for posts with thousands of reblogs) and a pain if you wanted to track engagement at a more detailed level (e.g., seeing who'd reblogged from whom, reading their additions, noting when the additions were made).

This new incarnation is really neat and much more user-friendly, in my opinion. Kudos to Tumblr @admin for listening! 💖👍

This is @grelleswife and I's Sebamey RP thread... which with the original Reblog Graph design, used to look like a CUTE long snake like thing, floating around...

However... FOR SOME STUPID FUCKING REASON....