StumbleUpon Blows It
StumbleUpon blew it. There is simply no other way to put it. The degradation of the community there has forced this user to discontinue its use. I decided it is not necessary to go into minute details, I intended to offer metrics, links, corroborative reasons, and so forth, but in the end just leaving is enough. Suffice it to say that social service has effectively become useless – to be blunt – a waste of time and energy. Our recent tilt with them over some of the issues, some flaming from people who work for or with them, and the general lack of value SU has become, have led me to this conclusion.
Once upon a time there was a great opportunity for StumbleUpon and similar, shall we call them “suggestion” engines, to genuinely provide a groundbreaking value for Internet users. The sharing and discovery possibilities there being the primary value propositions as far as users are concerned. From my perspective (let me say that again – from my perspective) StumbleUpon never really got much past what I will term the “coolness” factor in forging something more useful from their development. It was “cool” to be able to “trip” across beautiful images, to “hop” over the interests of “friends”, to play “hop scotch” with the idea that online community would take us all somewhere. Well in the end, though some old friendships were fostered and solidified (meaning most people who are real friends on any network are probably friends any way), for the most part SU community wise is rather shallow for most.
I cannot calculate exactly how many hours I have contributed to StumbleUpon, several thousand no doubt. At first SU was a curiosity for someone like me, someone who had tested and reported on so many startups. Then there was this “coolness” value, followed closely by some actual community interaction and sharing. Lastly, and I want to be very transparent here, Stumble was for a time a very good way to get attention for articles (one’s own or other people’s). This was true for my own articles, as well as those of friends and community members – even for PR clients in some instances (Yes, we too market stuff). Understand though, reciprocity and value having always been the ultimate criteria for any social media engagement. In short, suggestion and promotion are one thing, spamming the hell out of everyone being another. Then the bubble burst on all this value.
It is interesting that some of my contemporaries in the tech writing niche found very little value from SU in the first place. Tech blog moguls like Michael Arrington, Richard MacManus, and Pete Cashmore having established profiles on SU, but as you can see below – never having really invested any time or effort in them. Well, except for my old friend Richard, who appears to have struggled with spamming ReadWriteWeb stuff there (shame Richard – kidding of course – Richard never spammed anyone). So, these experts’ suggested opinion of SU should have taught me sometime (but then I was always more hard headed than them). Well old Pete did suggest how Stumblers could follow Mashable – LOL. I wonder what the bait there rendered?
Michael Arrington's massive SU participation
I would link to the articles from people griping that StumbleUpon Sucks, quote the forum flaming which goes on every time someone criticizes the service, or otherwise show reasons for my decision, but this is another waste of time. Luxuries like massive engagements on social platforms, or more particularly those which offer such reduced value, are not something I think most people should invest in. StumbleUpon, for all intents and purposes, is simply an abbreviated search engine, and an incomplete one at that.
Richard MacManus - hooked on red
For all its “implied” utility, aside all the initial “coolness” there, apart being a more aesthetic Facebook, StumbleUpon never took their development to the next level. In fact, I have hammered Facebook to pieces over messaging and the “next phase”, and now they are taking their show to another level. SU? They tossed in some crumbs, pissed off some users, banned some spammers (while leaving some of the worst transgressors alive), and in general just “goofed around” as far as I can tell.
Pete Cashmore engaged on the paper level
Sorry to be so negative SU, but I am not the one who sat on my thumbs while millions of people waited for that now famous PR term “next generation” StumbleUpon. Of course these are just my opinions. And, for the SU trolls who come to set me afire, don’t bother – really. I am entitled to my opinion. Of course it is a qualified one I guess? Well, maybe I will defer to my friends from TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, and of course Mashable as to the relative value for traffic or anything else. For the people still using StumbleUpon who shared things we me, back and forth, you know I am your friend and a grateful one for the experience. There are some great people out there, but we all know the same ones are on 20 different networks. As for the blatant marketeers? No one ever misses you guys, you muddy things up for everyone.
So long StumbleUpon, you join MyBlogLog in the personal dead pool of Phil Butler, perhaps the only tech blogger who ever took you seriously? Last word of advise? Emulate Facebook a little more. I will leave my stumbles there, but delete the tool bar. Sorry to all those who share via this, maybe we can hook up on the next great social experiment.
About the Author
Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.
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Comment by Peacock on 25 November 2009:
I will be sad to see you go Phil but I understand. So many good bloggers have left or are in the process of leaving because of all the reasons you mentioned, and then some.
StumbleUpon is much smaller than the developers want us to know, numbers of around 8 million are thrown around but I suspect it is about 3 million, if even so many. There are so many inactive accounts and bloggers with more than one account, and then we have the multitude of spammers. SU has become more about quantity than quality.
A major factor is the over moderation by the mods; they do not allow criticism or any negative feedback; if you don’t glow with appreciation your comments are removed and you are threatened with the deletion of your account. They killed spontaneous comments and feedback. (CH, are you reading this?)
For some silly reason the owners and developers were trying to fix something that wasn’t broken, and in the process broke it irretrievably.
PC
Comment by Phil Butler on 25 November 2009:
Thanks Peacock, You have always been a positive friend and contributor to this new Web. There is no missing going on, just a shift to more versatile and connective tools I think. I just want the time spent with you and other friends to be fun and productive. We have had a lot of fun with SU. It is sad they did not put some rocket science or just simple logic in the system. You know you can ping me any time and we can share via the other 49,000 tools out there.
I really and sincerely do appreciate great folks like you.
Always,
Phil
Comment by The Dude Dean on 25 November 2009:
I like SU and I think its kinda funny that most users are beating these tech giants stat-wise.
Comment by HMTKSteve on 25 November 2009:
Let’s not forget how SU got its start. It was much like Digg in that it began as a very niche service (Digg was tech, SU was images). Neither one of those services handled growth very well.
Both services realized that others were profiting off of their ability to send traffic and did not like it one bit.
Comment by Glenn Gutierrez on 25 November 2009:
Hitting the stage that Stumbleupon has achieved isn’t easy. I think every web company’s popularity will ebb and flow as time goes on. However, in Stumbleupon’s case it isn’t a matter of people just finding other “taste of the day” alternatives. There is the fundamental concern of interactivity or lack thereof with members who matter. If people are to keep on coming back, Stumbleupon needs to re-engineer their functions to focus on the core group of users who matter. In essence, it needs to reconnect with its loyalty base and find ways to halt spammers and build out quality content aggregation (Spammers are the reason I left myspace). If it can build features around it’s core users by building out stickier features or providing spammer restrictions, there could be a big Stumbleupon comeback. But until then people will continue to leave Stumbleupon.
Comment by Phil Butler on 25 November 2009:
Very good points Steve. I am about two shakes from deleting the Digg one too. These things are a huge waste of time compared to what is possible. We all helped them and they pretty much left us all hanging for one reason or another.
Always,
Phil
Comment by Phil Butler on 25 November 2009:
You hit the nail on the head there Glenn. As you know from developing Popscreen, a clear interface and simplicity does not mean lack of function. SU, like so many others, has under and over engineered and at the wrong times.
Thanks for the insight my friend.
Always,
Phil
Comment by fugitive247 on 26 November 2009:
I began using StumbleUpon in early 2005, long before TPTB got a crazy notion to sell out their membership to eBay. This was only one gaffe in a series of mistakes, which I have zero desire to outline in great detail.
Trollish behavior isn’t limited to any single online service or forum, so blaming any such provider/host is somewhat unfair, even in StumbleUpon’s case. It’s not like SU intentionally rolled out the red carpet expressly for Cyberia’s problem children, however, SU’s consistent lack of timely attention to such issues has been nothing short of legendary.
Then there’s the matter of all those pitiful re-vamps. Functionality? Ease of use? Um, not any more. This applies to profiles, groups, and worst of all: group moderation tools.
My parting shot to TPTB of StumbleUpon is this: Happy Thanksgiving. You may now stick a fork in me, because this turkey is DONE!
Comment by Phil Butler on 26 November 2009:
Exactly Fugitive…..they are all doomed to this if they do not watch out for the Big Bad Wolf of shortsightedness.
Always,
Phil
Comment by patrickdh on 26 November 2009:
What’s particularly worrisome in the lack of response from SU to this post. This issue has gone beyond the personal and alarmist viewpoints. I for one wasn’t aware of this divide with dedicated supporters.
Comment by Phil Butler on 26 November 2009:
Hi Patrick, You are correct in your assessment, and intuition I am sure. For me personally, there is not so much of a divide as a realization about social networks in general. My perception on these things has been clear for some time, but obscured by the need to engage people for one reason of another. We, all of us that is, spend entirely too much time on these vehicles, when their usefullness is clearly declining for one reason or another. SU was the subject of this post for only two reasons. First, so I could sincerely bid farewell to some good friends who inhabit all of these networks from Facebook, to Diigo, to Mixx, digg, Bebo, MySpace and way beyond. Literally every, single, solitary friend or collaborator we have has a multiplicity of identities on these.
Secondly, this is a last ditch effort to get SU and some others to push on through to the other side, so to speak. As you can see, SU is probably more happy that I am gone than they are sad. This is indicative as well. Without tooting my own horn too much, if an A list blogger, and social networking “expert?” feels this way about one’s development (especially if there are more than one), then what is wrong? As far as bloggers, PR, marketers, or just attention getters go, I suspect my profiles and activities are among the best out there (I have never been banned from a network). The situation is sort of like the US pulling out of the United Nations in a way. Perhaps that makes me seem too important, and I do not mean (or think) this to sound this way at all. I am just propping up your feeling on this.
I expect Mihaela will bid her fond farewells to SU in the next few days, and believe me this action will be far more indicative than mine. She has engaged people on StumbleUpon as no other person on the platform has, that I know of. Aside all our notoriety (if we can call it that), there are so many people who are much more tied into StumbleUpon than we are. Good people who have invested millions of hours so that they can? Well, I will let you complete that.
The thing about social networks which seldom comes out, is the actual value and essence of the people there. I mean the humanity of the people. There is a guy I know, perhaps the most prolific inhabitant of all these cumulative social media or networking sites I ever heard of. He is not a paid networker like some I know of (yes they exist), he is a social being. The guy reciprocates like none of the top diggers, SU people, Propeller ones, Mixx, Sphinn, Facebook, Twitter (or whatever you want to name) are …out of his time, free, and though aggravatingly sometimes, genuinely. He just got banned from Digg because he was being attacked and struck back. WTF is that? Especially on digg, the home of the hate brigade, how does one get banned for pee peeing on another digger? This rabbit hole goes on forever actually.
So, I do not even know what to suggest to SU or the others at this moment. I do know that if top networking people are not finding a value, these places will dry up like ghost towns sooner or later. So you know too, when I started to send messages to folks on SU to bid farwell, some of the most prominent ones I know of no longer were there. Some of the ones gone were super duper spammers which is no loss to anyone, but some were people who could have given SU an edge they will never see now. I am talking about people who have essentially made social networking. Really.
The average person goes to a baseball game to watch highly skilled athletes perform. In a similar way millions of people go to these networks to see a different kind of performance, one which skilled people can provide the value for. The collective intelligence of these places can be quite astounding, but particularly when highly motivated people contribute – whatever the reason. SU is effectively ostracizing superstars of social behavior. I know this is a lot to think about, and certainly inconclusive to a degree, but I know this has merit. You are correct Patrick, waving bye bye to people who helped make your service what it is, is bad karma. This is true whether they publicized the service, suggested massive innovation, contributed images, or just interacted with the community. Enough said I think.
When Mig leaves StumbleUpon, there will be many who wonder WTF is going on there. For my part, I am just glad I don’t have to worry about it any more.
Always,
Phil
Comment by Phillip on 27 November 2009:
Digg died when the owner started spamming the site with Sarah-Palin-is-the-devil articles, and killing accounts of anybody that objected. The signal-to-noise ratio shot through the roof, especially for those of us who don’t live in the US and have no real idea who Sarah Palin is anyway, and so we went back to Slashdot. Their spelling is still appalling and there are less articles to get your news ‘fix’, but at least they do tech news and aren’t the plaything of a Murdoch wanabee. With judicious use of filters Reddit is not too bad either.
Social networking mirrors real life politics. It all starts off as a democratic ideal. Then people start forming cliques and lobby groups. Some start gaming the system for financial benefit. If it doesn’t receive frequently fresh blood then there starts to be political infighting and petty squabbles. Keeping a social eco-system alive takes time and skill. Many of these large social networking sites have the idea they will make millions, yet don’t treat their intellectual capital (ie YOU) with any respect. Sure you are using their service for free, but they are using your services for free too.
Most sites have a small number of people contributing a disproportionate amount of time, sounds like a couple of you are on this board. Phil is trying not to sound arrogant but he obviously knows his worth. Assuming he doesn’t get sick of social networking sites and quit, shifting his allegiance to another social networking site will be like a politician changing party. It will have a significant impact.
Sites like Digg and StumbleUpon couldn’t pick a worse time to piss off their user base. Providers like Dreamhost and Slicehost mean people can have their own dedicated virtual servers for pennies. The sourcecode for these sites are maturing and free under the GPL, such as Pligg and Pinax. Soon anybody will be able to set up a social networking site in a few mouse clicks, much as people can now set up their own blogs using sites such as Blogger, etc. With the spread of RSS aggregators, we won’t need monolithic sites such as the above discussed, we will be subscribed to a dozen different niche sites giving us quality content just for the subjects we are interested in. In fact, if you have a passion for something and think you can delivery consistent high quality meta-blog content then now would be a good time to set up.
Finally, you may feel you have invested a lot into StumbleUpon but it’s not your wife or your best friend. It’s just a web site. Move on. They will miss you more than you will miss them.
Phillip.
Comment by Phil Butler on 27 November 2009:
Hi Phillip, No way I could have said it better. All this is such bad timing for these platforms. I am testing things all the time which, if promoted properly, could eclipse the utility of Digg or SU. Part of the rub for many is to get people to switch just like getting people to switch browsers. As for my arrogance, I have my share but try to keep that realistic too. I know that the level of content and interconnection someone like me provides is pretty significant for them, that is all. Thanks a lot for your concise and spot on input Phillip, maybe they will listen to you.
Always,
Phil
Comment by Grateful on 9 December 2009:
Hey Phil, I have successfully weaned myself off SU in preparation of the official switchover and while I once raved about StumbleUpon as the greatest thing on the Web, I am ready now to take my leave without regret or even the pain of having lost a close and dear friend. I spend all my time on Facebook now and while I don’t get the creative aspects of the old SU, I do get all the social interaction I need and more. I’m not closing my StumbleUpon account but rather am leaving my site up as a static exhibit in the SU museum and as a way for my SU friends to contact me should they wish and hopefully still enjoy my content as there are many pages of my time, sweat, joy and tears to go through. SU is dead to me but did give me 4 years of happiness and I thank them for that.
Comment by Willlburr on 10 December 2009:
Well Phil, It looks like some time next week Su will make the switch. I am so sad. I put many years into my su pages all for nothing. On a further not. regarding the first story that was posted about Su, by Mihaela. In all the stuff that was said and the person Serinadruid, denied that she worked for su, well I have written proof of the fact that she does indeed work for su. read the following Quote. Take a look at the comment made
“Serinadruid commented 1 day ago”
“I found this, now tell me SD doesn’t work for SU:
#
Neva replied 1 day ago
I too wish to return to the old way. I am also noticing that when I click on one of my favorites in my blog the page appears and it is not reflecting a rating on my taskbar. Something is wrong here.
sad I’m frustrated
Sprite_screen this solves the problem
1 Comment Sprite_screen Add a comment Sprite_screen This solves the problem Sprite_screen I no longer think this solves the problem
# Comment_icon
Remove
Serinadruid commented 1 day ago
That is normal.. it happens every time we update a toolbar but if you hit the info button you will see your thumb-up/down is still there.
http://getsatisfaction.com/stumbleupon/topics/make_option_of_deleting_review_only_available”
I have sense moved on to as I said I would to Multiply.
Willlburr
Comment by Mihaela Lica on 10 December 2009:
Willlburr, I couldn’t find that comment on the link you sent, but apparently there are so many people frustrated about SU nowadays. I personally deleted my SU toolbar as well, and decided to no longer waste my time on the site either. SD is one of the reasons why I left. Her trollish behavior is a turn off for many I guess, but what bothers me more today is her hypocrisy. On the Getsatisfaction link you sent there are some comments by her begging the staff to listen to the users and postpone the switch till the end of January when all the bugs and other issues are fixed. Boy oh boy! If I said that he would mop the floors with me, because in her tiny brain, my SEO experience is a drawback, and the only reason I say something about SU is to get traffic. LOL. SU gained popularity when the SEOs and marketers promoted it. And it will now lose the popularity because, despite the special category for SEO already implemented, the users are trolling the SEOs, calling them names, spammers etc. Well, not all SEOs are spammers, as not all painters are talented. SD is an artist, she thinks a lot of herself, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Comment by Willlburr on 10 December 2009:
It’s still there. I just looked. listed under
“Neva replied 14 days ago”
Comment by Willlburr on 10 December 2009:
And I am not out to try and start more problems, I just wanted to show this. for If I did not work for su I would not have used the word We. I would have used the word they.
Comment by Phil Butler on 10 December 2009:
I am sorry for all this too Willlburr, you seem like a great contributor and a nice guy on top of that. I will see you on Multiply and some of the others. I hope to have another one ready for you soon
Always,
Phil
Comment by Willlburr on 10 December 2009:
created my own little social network at Ning, called xAliens.
Comment by fugitive247 on 11 December 2009:
If folks are getting serious about Multiply, please feel free to send me a shout (see ID url). I’m game for a good excuse to get active there again, thanks. =)