When I was on Facebook throughout middle and high school, every few months there would be some huge update which would completely change the layout and style of the site. One of the biggest changes was the addition of Facebook’s timeline in September of 2011. When the changes were implemented, everyone went crazy. The people I followed on Facebook hated the change, and it took a long time to get used to it.
This happens on Tumblr as well. One of the running jokes in the past year or so was that, every time the staff made a minor change, Tumblr would rally for the real change they needed: improving the video player, which took a ridiculously long time to buffer videos. Recently, the video player was changed, but Tumblr still isn’t satisfied; the new player starts videos automatically, much like Facebook’s video player, although you need to click for sound.
The most recent change came last Thursday, October 30. Here’s an example of what the new layout looks like:
I scrolled down my dash, but one of the differences is that the top bar now stays on the page as you scroll. On that Thursday, the staff sent out a post explaining the “li’l” changes they had made:
The post from staff.tumblr.com
This article explains one of the main problems with the wider posts: user’s graphic images are now distorted and most of them have to be updated, which takes a lot of work. The sticky header is more of an irritation which users will likely grow accustomed to very soon, just as Facebook users eventually got used to the timeline feature.
However, other Tumblr users have taken advantage of the fact that they can now make the background of posts the same color as Tumblr’s background rather than have a white border around it. I’ve included some examples below. You can still click the links for the original posts, but unfortunately they are best appreciated on one’s dashboard. Let me know if you see any more examples of these great new posts!
It’s good to know that even an awful layout change won’t affect Tumblr users’ sense of humor. If you’re curious about what Tumblr looked like in previous years, check out the screenshots on this post.
