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Seven Things to Hate About StumbleUpon

August 29, 2007 at 3:33 am · Filed under StumbleUpon

Su Banned

First of all, I love StumbleUpon! None of the social bookmarking sites available today can come even close to it (Sorry to say this Diggers!) . The best thing is, it makes all the better things on the internet available for everyone & It has a remarkable ability to produce unimaginable levels of traffic to a website. Believe me, I know.

If you are a relatively new user or if you have never used StumbleUpon, you may not get what I’m trying to explain in this post. You should become a part of the StumbleUpon ’s forums, social activity & networking if you really want to understand what I’m on about.

We know, SU can be seriously addicting and alot of fun. However, most of the general Stumblers are unaware of many things that goes on StumbleUpon that just pisses you off! - particularly if you are a supporter of freespeech or if you are simply looking for a place to relax. Here is a list of SE7EN Things to Hate About StumbleUpon. This list is in no particular order & I’ll provide maximum number of links for reference.

 

 

#7 - We ‘don’t’ want to hear from you!
suhate1001.jpg

I’m sure, most of you have read this line before. StumbleUpon urges its users to leave reviews on new features, updates and News. But its almost like making fun of the stumblers - SU will go ahead with their plan no matter how many thumb downs they get from its users.

For an example, StumbleUpon just launched the New Layouts for profiles, and naturally, there were reviews. Most new features released by SU occasionally gets a negative review from a few stumblers. However, Instead of all balloons & ribbons about the new looks, the stumblers went ape-shit! (including myself). I couldn’t help but sit and watch the stumblers leave countless number of Thumb-Down reviews for the new feature. I almost felt sorry for GMC. (look him up!)

Why did this go unnoticed? Why isn’t there an official vote? Why were those who voiced their claims about this banned from the beta production forum? They completely ignored the majority of responses from its users and decided to move on with their initial plan and is now finally coming closer to what I like to call “MySpace glitter”.

& by the way, more glowing thumb-downs and hate-reviews are available here on a duplicate Advertisement page. Most stumblers looked somewhat happy about a second chance to thumb it down once more!!

Hear this SU; THUMBS DOWN! (a million of ‘em!)

#6 - They like to “mislead” & shove it down your throat!
suhate1002.jpg
This is an image of the place where my Explore & Buzz buttons used to be. New stumblers are automatically loaded onto the Beta profiles, but the older users (myself included) have a nagging “Try out the NEW (beta) version of this page!” banner stuck on our home page (To add more frustration, this banner doesn’t even match with any of the themes! - not even gray)

I’ve recently recommended a friend to stumbleupon and she kept asking about how to use StumbleUpon. I wasn’t able to give her proper guidance on the new layouts. All that knowledge the senior members gained after years of working around stumbleupon was for nothing??!!

Take a close look at these images, These are 2 versions of the same page for New & Senior users.

New Users see the page as,
suhate1005.jpg

While Senior Members get this,
suhate1006.jpg

Its obvious! the senior members are not shown “Soon, the classic version will no longer be available” I wonder why StumbleUpon is hiding this information from Senior members? Why are we are we being mislead into thinking that the new layouts are only a matter of choice? Once SU completes the beta, they will move all stumblers into the new beta layouts (Even Top, Sponsored and Senior Stumblers; of which, some even date back to the year 2000) - it doesn’t matter what you want, this change is almost a complete certainty as you can see.

“More than 100,000 stumblers have already switched” within a group of TWO million (a greatly exaggerated number published by SU itself) just doesn’t seem like a ringing phrase for a promo anyway.

“If you make it go away, I’ll promise I’ll buy stuff from eBay.” - wolfone

#5 - oh wait! forgot about eBay!

(this thoughtful image was made by xzy)

Just like every other big fish on the internet, Ebay bought StumbleUpon on May31st 2007, not because they wanted to help make the world a happier & smarter place, but just because it would look good in their showcase! It makes me wonder if the new layouts are to make spaces for new Ads by eBay.

We all learn to live with change one day or another, however, change without a purpose is complete stupidity! Just one simple question; WHY? if it was money, I can think of many other partners with a common or similar goal than a corporation like eBay that has nothing to do with a social bookmarking site. I have never seen this many stumblers hating the merge with eBay - We Don’t want it, We Don’t need to see it, We Don’t even want to hear about it.

#4 - No FreeSpeech?!. I’m a big supporter of everyones right to speak their mind. Which is one of the main reasons why comments, forum threads & chats submitted to my websites are never deleted or hidden.

suhate1003.jpg

StumbleUpon’s forums are run by general stumblers - just like you and me (except that they pay for sponsorship)

Most of these people do a good job at keeping the StumbleUpon Forum Rules. But some of these people (see them quite often these days) are good people, but they should have never been given the authority. Most of these biased forum leaders ban members just because they have conflicting view points. They could have be quite useful stumble buddies if they weren’t using a Taser each time you opened your mouth.

The most famous group which does this is The Apologetics Forum! Personally, I have no problem with people of different religions or faith - No matter how much they insult my state of faith, I choose to take in what’s good and reject what’s bad. This is in total opposite for the group leader of this group (current: usmjam) bans all “those who speak ill of HIS God” - I’m sure Mr.God will like to listen to everyones view points. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the numerous folks who got a ban by simply not being in sync in religion with this group’s owner. Same is true for a few other related groups.

A leader shouldn’t let his emotions & faith deal with his members. *shrug* This reminds me of the Witch Burnings.

#3 - Tags are NOT gold.
suhate1007.jpg

I use *alot* of tags. On StumbleUpon, you have a limit of 5 tags per stumble. What is the deal here? StumbleUpon must have a huge backbone and their bandwidth seem pretty comfortable. Why in the world would they not allow you more than a measly five tags? Not to mention that each tag has a character limit of 32. This limit is not mentioned ANYWHERE, I found it out after many attempts to add the tag “Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism” Then again, the limit is Thirty Two? why the hell did they pick this number? why coulnd’t it be 50 or 100?. I can’t even add a tag with the scientific name of most plants since most them have more than 32 letters (there goes biology)

If I try reviewing under Campylorhynchus-brunneicapillus-Lafresnaye for pages about cactus, SU eats the tag without a warning or before giving me a chance to save time typing (just posting it under botany wont help me find it later). They are so busy adding new features that no one has asked for, they completely ignore the basic requirements of a bookmarking site. Del.Icio.Us is already starting to look a lot more tastier now.

#2 - SponsorShip - not any more.

GMC has opened a new world for me. If it wasn’t for his great ideas, I wouldn’t be sitting here with something to do; I’d have been bored to death. (& I’d probably not be typing complaints and hate blogs about his inventions). Here is a little something that TheJesusMyth has sent my way for this entry,..

TJM says; I hate the sponsorship option. You want me to PAY for what other sites basically give me for FREE? Let’s see, for my “sponsorship” (also known as money to the everyday ordinary person, ) I get to start a forum (in the hopes that it does not get shut down by some idiot who got his/her “wittle feewings hurt” by something in it, see #1 reason for more on that) and email integration (POP access). Email integration? I already have more than enough email accounts! Besides, with the SU toolbar, I am INSTANTLY notified about any messages I may have waiting anyway. And guess what? When I push the little mailbox icon on the toolbar, I am directed to my….you’re never gonna believe this….MESSAGES! So what exactly am I getting for my money…er, I mean “sponsorship?” -TheJesusMyth

One of the major reasons why I wont pay for SponsorShip is the last and most important point in my entry.

#1 - You can’t talk about it like that!
suhate1004.jpg
A couple of months ago, a StumbleUpon staff contacted me about one of the StumbleUpon Forums I own. I’m not pointing fingers but his name starts with Mr.StumbleUpon.

Apparently, one of his friends had written to him asking him to delete a forum that I own. I’m not posting this because I’m pissed about my forum being deleted, I’m just sad that StumbleUpon has started deleting groups over Religious Disagreements.

Links to verify:

Holy Trinity will be one of my Stumbleuponlikes forever.

Bottom line: Its the Stumblers that keeps SU going, if they keep pissing people off, more and more stumblers will leave the place. eBay & the new layouts have marked the beginning of the end of StumbleUpon as we know it. StumbleUpon says its time for a change, Maybe. But its definitely time for me to try out TrailFire & Digg.

[Disclaimer: These are My views (and a few other stumblers). Not the opinion of all other stumblers. We can see if they agree or not by the reviews they leave for the entry. I better quit whining and get back to stumbling]

FOOT-NOTES:

Emily L said,

August 29, 2007 @ 4:40 am

What a lovely rant!! Nicely written.
Em

Doug W said,

August 29, 2007 @ 9:38 am

…I truly get a kick out of new,usable information…..I have lost many hours to stumbling…I just took a look at TrailFire….onward and upward…

Scrawl said,

August 29, 2007 @ 9:54 am

rel=”nofollow” on links to pages, which have significant positive review, is insulting.

In English the code means “not necessarily relevant”. When en stumblers have said a link is good / relevant, it’s an insult to their efforts for SU to encode it to imply otherwise. - Ian

john said,

August 29, 2007 @ 12:36 pm

haha. so funny!

David said,

August 29, 2007 @ 8:18 pm

Not sure if Digg is the type of site that could replace Stumbleupon for certain things. The toolbar with buttons to randomly come across good photos, articles and videos was good and not something I could find in Digg to replace this ability!

Have to agree with the article as a whole though. I’ll have a look at trailfire!

Edward Thorstein said,

August 29, 2007 @ 11:52 pm

I gotta say, everything you’re talking about has never affected me. Why use the forums and the main site? SU is about what its name implies, stumbling upon new things based on your interest. The community part isn’t really that important unless you’re looking to find people with similar interests. David is right, Digg wouldn’t be a good choice to replace Stumbleupon especially since the quality of stories on Digg has been gradually decreasing for a while. Alright that’s my 2 cents. Not too bad of an article by the way.

Matt C. said,

August 30, 2007 @ 3:05 am

Funny you mention the religion thing. I’ve been asking them regularly to stop combining, under “Religion”, atheism and agnosticism together. While it may seem like splitting hairs, they seem to have no problem separating Paganism from Wicca. I have nothing against atheism or atheists, but a lot of the atheism sites StumbledUpon are too overbearing (and rather childish).

Jayne said,

August 30, 2007 @ 4:21 pm

I’m pretty new to SU, but have found that it can be a great way to meet people with similar interests and bring some new traffic to my site.

I haven’t really gotten into the forums yet… so I found your article very interesting!

James said,

August 31, 2007 @ 11:27 am

I’ve been stumbling for a little over a year now. I liked Stumble the way it was before. Click a button, stumble upon new and interesting sites. But they had to ruin it just like every other site that’s only unique, cool and novel in it’s embryonic stage. After that, it’s all about selling out to the biggest buyer. They only need us to give them the attention they need to abandon us. And such is life. Okay now I’m gonna go jump off a cliff. I’m kidding. But I’m still disgusted.

Melani said,

August 31, 2007 @ 8:12 pm

Good list. I personally hate that, when stumbling by topic, once you have reached the ‘end’ of a topic you can no longer search that topic alone. If anyone out there knows a way around this I’d love to hear it.

jaloopa said,

August 31, 2007 @ 9:16 pm

I never use most features of SU. I just stumble sites. I don’t particularly like the idea of eBay knoing exactly what I like but from a usability standpoint, nothing has changed for me. I click stumble and see good sites. That’s all SU has ever been for me, and probably all it will ever be.

Rod Todd said,

September 1, 2007 @ 12:50 am

Great I wish I’d read this B4 I blew $20 US I tried the new Beta system & couldn’t follow it at all Almost every complaint in this article is valid but what really pisses me off is WHAT HAPPENED TO FREEDOM CHOICE I guess I’ll have to exsersize mine & go somewhere else

Bob C cock said,

September 1, 2007 @ 11:26 am

boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. look how many thunbs down you get.

Bob C cock said,

September 1, 2007 @ 11:26 am

wow i like how u screen everyone so you can only let the people who praise your crappy blog post. good job.

Chris said,

September 2, 2007 @ 12:55 am

No plans to shift from v 2.89 here, mate. I prefer an easier way to send stumbles to my friends. Also, I saw the myspace look at myspace. I hated it there and hated it more on SU. A bright pink background option? Oh, how bleeding wonderful. That must look great with all the shrunken text and images, tabs and buttons everywhere, and giant sidebars full of useless links and ‘information.’
It will also nicely set off the future advertising.

I gave up on the beta forum long ago. Anyone with any problems, dislikes or criticism was treated like a whining idiot, told only constructive criticism was welcomed, called a luddite, laughed at, or some/all of the above. Folks were told, “No matter what you prefer about the old SU, it’s all going by the wayside; just put up or shut up and go away.” One of the mods, an alter of a stumbler mentioned above, was the most abusive person there.

The categories provided when we either discover or recategorize a site are sometimes different from the tags stumble uses. Television is a category, but SU automatically tags sites TV.
There is an Atheist/Agnostic category, a Religion category, a Paganism category, and a Wicca category. I rarely stumble such sites so I haven’t noticed any reassignment of those tags, but I certainly believe the stumbler who says he experiences it.

Forums (Forae?) aren’t the only censorship issue. A stumbler was recently banned after breaking a new rule, which was invented just for said stumbler by the aforementioned stumbler/mod: No Negative Reviews Of Other Stumblers.
I thought one of the main points of SU is finding, rating, and reviewing content to let others know whether it’s good or sucky.
Said stumbler had been given some incredibly hateful reviews, ones which would have seen the reviewers punched out by disinterested bystanders had the words been spoken aloud in meatspace (real life). e.g., What sort of ‘person’ wishes cancer on another? What sort of ‘person’ posts personal information about others on their blog? Those folks weren’t banned or told they can no longer write negative reviews.
Granted, the banned stumbler had a sarcastic bent, but certainly was no twisted bastard when reviewing others.

I’m sorely tempted to learn code-writing.

Why said,

September 3, 2007 @ 9:23 am

By your logic…
1.They shouldn’t advertise new features
2. I should be able to make an anti-Jew group without consequence
3. They shouldn’t have rights to their own programs but you obviously should.
4. They shouldn’t ask for money without giving you something in return

I think this is just another case of that if you don’t like it don’t use it sort of thing and thinking before you post.

lerryn said,

September 6, 2007 @ 12:30 pm

what a load of rubbish! why would you want to tag something with over 32 characters anyway?tags are meant to be shorthand!
what are you scared of? have the courage of your convictions and stop hiding behind a nom de plume!

Katy said,

September 6, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

I absolutely abhor the beta….. totally sucks……… I am going to stick with the classic version until the beta is (if they really can) forced on me. THEN, I’ll download Ken’s Grease Monkey script. I have it on my “beta” test machine and it works great………… http://furman87.stumbleupon.com/

Hopefully, there will be others that will follow in Ken’s footsteps and “fix” what wasn’t broken to start out with…………

Orun said,

September 6, 2007 @ 11:32 pm

Well.. AM, I have to disagree with you in a few places. I kind of like the beta now, I’m used to it, I wouldn’t go back to the old profile pages if they were available =)

I don’t mind the whole eBay merge, I think it’s too soon to tell what would come out of it.

But I do have something to complain about =)

The New 3.07 beta toolbar (released late august–stumbleupon.com/beta/) totally sucks. I mean, what the hell happened to the “Forums” button? I clicked that almost as often as “Stumble” =(

Nick said,

September 7, 2007 @ 3:59 pm

I use Stumbleupon to stumble, not to argue, internet style. Just keep on stumbling, press the button!

Lord Matt said,

September 10, 2007 @ 3:40 pm

As a mildly efficient coder I can tell you that while stumble is cool it is not inherently hard to clone. We have a learning system that any sane antispam system uses, XML based communication that all Web 2.0 API use (even blogger) and a tool bar that any soul can create. The forums are a little more work but then there are plenty of open source packages begging to be used. The biggest forum on the web (gaiaonline.com btw) uses a php open source forum package (plus mods).

Tagging is not hard. I can tell you three different ways that it can be implemented and three more if you give me powerful servers to index with. Reviewing stuff - see forum, blog or review site(s) - again not hard.

The only challenge is putting it all in one place and getting a critical mass of users so that the numbers cause the “stumble effect” that produces good sites. I’m not even going to suggest that a server could “spoof the tool bar” and get a starting stock of good ideas from stumble. Whoops.

That leaves raising $5000 p/year to get some servers to get started with…

Chinnese said,

September 24, 2007 @ 12:00 am

You are right someone plz save SU!!!

Linda ForeverGreen said,

September 27, 2007 @ 10:01 am

DON’T READ ALL OF THIS NEGATIVE STUFF! BE GRATEFUL FOR THE FRIENDS YOU’VE MADE! WHAT GOOD HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM SU?
HOW FULL IS THE GLASS?
HOW EMPTY IS THE GLASS?

IF YOU ARE HALF EMPTY, GET SOME COUNSELING!
LINDA

Reply:
Sheesh, lady, get a grip on yourself. & By the way, what the hell are you talking about?”
-Ruben Babu

dopey2 said,

October 12, 2007 @ 10:15 pm

A truer word has never been said.Having tried the new beta version and totally hating it, things should stay the way they are. EBAY keep your hands off our home.

Pumpelly said,

November 2, 2007 @ 2:33 pm

Try contacting SU for help on things that aren’t listed on their FAQ page - They’ll NEVER respond - And the help forums are a joke

Bas said,

December 10, 2007 @ 4:40 pm

Why would we pay sponsorships btw if SU is going commercial??

Recently I’ve been getting a LOT of repeats by the way.. that I stumble upon the same stuff like 2-3, sometimes 5 times. Filter.

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