StumbleUpon? I Am Stumble Gone!
Yesterday, I made an executive decision which has deeply personal ramifications for me: I canceled my StumbleUpon account.
Yes, after nearly three years of stumbling with about 40,000 stumbles and some 2400 discoveries to my credit and countless numbers of friends to call on, I decided to give StumbleUpon (SU) the heave-ho.
And my decision really was not all that difficult to make.
For starters, SU has become an albatross around my neck. I get more stumble requests than I possibly can handle which frustrates me – I am the type of stumbler who actually likes to visit submitted pages, read the material and leave a comment with my stumble. If what I like is of interest to me, I may leave a comment on the blog as well.
New SU? I Hardly Noticed.
My decision to leave SU may seem as if it coincides with the new platform released. No and yes – No, because I am adaptable and can work through most changes particularly if they are intuitive and not a chore to figure out and use. Yes, because now that SU has cast off the “friends” function, everyone wants me to subscribe to their personal feeds.
Though I am certain that many sites are worth visiting, I simply do not have the time to keep track of them to that degree. Hence, my underlying frustration.
Cut Off From SU
SU has not been my ally for some time anyhow. For instance, when I stumble a page, I no longer provide juice to drive traffic to a site. People say I have been “ghosted” while others claim they never receive my own stumble requests. I find that frustrating especially if I am trying to bring some stumble love to a customer’s site.
I work primarily with six web addresses, four of which I own. Therefore, I know that for some of those sites hundreds of pages have been stumbled. Yes, I have squeezed out every last drop of my stumble juice and realize that the fruit has withered.
Rethinking Social Media
What will I do? Probably not much besides tweeting my finds and on rare occasions using Digg, Reddit and a handful of social media sites, some of which I detest. Quite honestly, I am rethinking my entire social media strategy because what once worked so very well no longer works at all. Plus, I have grown bored of the whole thing.
Thank God – literally – my writing business is thriving, therefore my need to stumble, tweet, digg and work my pages has diminished considerably. I am where I want to be in life – content with my writing and getting paid for what I love to do. Social media had always been the gravy, but now it has become the side dish — a tasteless, graying, odorless morsel I no longer desire to consume.
Still Visible Online
No, I am not going into hiding as I plan on visiting my favorite blogs and websites and discovering new ones, but without the SU toolbar to help me with that endeavor. Come to think of it, I have been visiting more and more blogs belonging to my commentators and leaving my own comments behind when appropriate.
SU says it will take up to two weeks to cancel my account and they have even supplied a link if I wish to undo what I have done. I am not giving that link another look because I feel strongly that it is time to move on.
Sometimes you have to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. In this case, SU is a deck of cards that I no longer wish to shuffle.
See Also — Have I Been Sending Stumble Thunder Your Way?
Tags: social media, StumbleUpon
Social Media | Matthew C. Keegan, 16 Oct 09
By LD Jackson, October 16, 2009 @ 4:49 am
Well I have to say, I am sorry to see you leave Stumble, Matt. I have seen some of what you have experienced and have wondered if it was worth the effort to continue using the service. I am subscribed to your feed, so I will be able to follow your writing. Keep up the good work.
LD Jackson´s last blog ..Obama endorses $250 payments to seniors
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 4:52 am
@LD Jackson
Thanks, Larry. In all honesty I can say that StumbleUpon is not working out for me.
I am a regular visitor to your blog so we’ll be in touch. Though I no longer will possess “stumble thunder” I can still leave comments and tweet your articles up.
Eventually, I may land on my feet using another service, but for now I’ll concentrate on what works for me.
By LD Jackson, October 16, 2009 @ 5:14 am
@Matthew C. Keegan
I do appreciate you stopping by my blog and leaving comments. What you have to say is always relevant to the topic and insightful.
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 6:49 am
@LD Jackson
Thank you, Larry. Your blog keeps me up on what is going on in the world — I’ve moved away from national and political news coverage, so I still need my sources for accurate and up to date information.
By Mikey Bee, October 16, 2009 @ 7:52 am
Sad to see you leave SU, Matt. I have to say, though, I like the new look. The ability to view how many views a stumble has received is brilliant.
Must admit that since pulling back from regular blogging that I’ve not been using SU as much as I used to but I still see it has a place. Each to their own, I guess.
Mikey Bee´s last blog ..Holy Crap! I’ve Got A Blog?
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 8:03 am
@Mikey Bee
I like the new look too, Mike. And it is that ability to see how many views a stumble actually gets which convinced me to move on — I was getting little to no return on my stumbles.
By Mihaela Lica, October 16, 2009 @ 8:19 am
May I just say… congratulations on the happy event? LOL
Although I am not a ghost (despite bashing SU in at least one occasion and promoting that negative review) I understand and second your opinion. This gave me an idea for a new post: SU and How to Alienate Your Users. LMAO.
Mihaela Lica´s last blog ..BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange Under Scrutiny – Without the Hype
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 8:27 am
@Mihaela Lica
Well said, Mig! Let me know if you plan on writing that post. I may share some additional comments with your readers not previously mentioned here.
SU seems to have gone over to the dark side, much in the way that Reddit and Digg have allowed the kiddie brigade to dominate their sites and squeeze (or shove) everyone out of the way.
Most annoying about social media sites is this — they lure you in and then they undercut your efforts down the line. Who needs that?!
By Laura Spencer, October 16, 2009 @ 9:18 am
I certainly understand your decision.
For what it’s worth, I recently spent some time browsing through SU – I used to use SU as a sort of random search engine to find good articles in topic that I like. In the past, this has worked well for me and I’ve met some interesting bloggers as well. This time, however, I was amazed at the high number of advertisements and what I would simply call SPAM sites.
I’m not giving it totally up yet, but I’ve cut way back. It just doesn’t seem worth the time any more.
Laura Spencer´s last blog ..Professional Writing – A Key Component to a Professional Image
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 9:23 am
@Laura Spencer
Laura, I agree with your assessment. It seems that so many of the “finds” sent to me over the past three- to six-months have been from people who were sending me pages of little value to me.
I would happily stumble most pages of people I knew, but then the inane stuff began to appear.
Slowly, but surely SU began to change — going from a site where information of great value was being bookmarked and passed around to one where the spammers and advertisers have taken over. What a shame.
I will continue to stop by Writing Thoughts and Freelance Folder on a regular basis to follow your updates.
By Mihaela Lica, October 16, 2009 @ 9:49 am
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the amount of spam, mfa, and pointless image shares with flashy gifs & co. Besides, SU doesn’t even count for traffic anymore. Heck, one tweet brings more traffic than ten stumbles with reviews! Well, it shouldn’t be about traffic anyway, but about sharing quality sites. However, the percentage of quality is hardly 10%. And what’s more annoying is that they ghost-ban valuable users!
Did I tell you how arrogant their staff are? I offered them to cover the news when they launched this new version, and the reply I got was “for media inquiries go to…” Basically I had to make the effort – they were too lazy to send me an email with the details. So I passed. SU is a dead venue in my view.
Mihaela Lica´s last blog ..A Twitter Startup Package Is Worth a Lot of Dough
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 9:57 am
@Mihaela Lica
LOL — someone just stumbled this page. Will SU notice? Will they even care?
Mig, you are correct — SU was too much of a temptation for people who wanted to get the traffic wave going. I am guilty as much as the next guy or gal for pushing that angle too. Seems as if the tsunami has finally become a mere ripple.
I think that the Iron Curtain of Redoubt is what eventually turns off many users from social media. You try to contact someone with authority and you get a canned message back instead. I know that these sites are free and probably inadequately staffed, but there needs to be some sort of reaching out to your most trusted users.
By Dominique, October 16, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
This is a very interesting article. The comments were even more enlightening. I hadn’t realized that people were having so much trouble with SU. I will miss you. I just subscribed to your feed because I wanted to make sure you went with me. So sad….
One thing that has really gotten on my last nerve is how SU stumblers send you tons of stumbles regardless of whether or not they are of interest to you. I just had someone send me cats – which I am not a fan of. I asked the stumbler not to send anymore and his reply was “I send everything out to everyone. Some like them. Some don’t. Just skip it if you don’t. (my paraphrase!). I wrote back and explained how his endless cat sends or other sends that I don’t want take up my valuable time I don’t have.
I have decided if he continues to “send to all” I will delete him as a friend. Friends don’t let friends over-stumble!
I spent yesterday and today thinning out my friends list as I am receiving over 300 sends a day now. I am very careful with what I send and to whom but apparently not everyone works that way.
I hope I don’t have to eventually leave. I have noticed a lot of people are not stumbling for months at a time. Perhaps that is a sign of what is to come.
I won’t say goodbye because I know we will keep in touch my friend. You have been an incredible blessing to me!
Dominique´s last blog ..HIATUS alert
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 16, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
@Dominique
Hi Dominique! Are you still on hiatus? I know you’ve been in the process of moving and I certainly hope that your journey was a smooth one.
I must admit that I’m disappointed even somewhat sad that I’m exiting SU. I’ve invested so much time and energy with the site, but it just isn’t doing the job for me.
People who continually send junk are annoying. Okay, once in awhile I don’t mind but after awhile how many animal pictures can you send?
I’ve quietly deleted so-called friends but that doesn’t get to the bottom of the problem — I’ve been ghosted or my stumbles have been rendered ineffective. Something is wrong there!
Yes, I’ll be in touch. I’ve got your blog on my list and will stop by again soon after you resume posting. Thank you for your kind comments too.
By Mihaela Lica, October 17, 2009 @ 6:04 am
@Dominique
I have another who sends me at least ten images a day, from a number of Russian forums. But these are not as bad as the “shares” that tell you: stumble, review, reddit and digg. or “stumble and click on the google ads” – have you ever received one of those?
Haaa, Dominique, I think I know who is sending you the cats – MerrySparrow, isn’t it? She sends me a bunch of those too.
Mihaela Lica´s last blog ..Krupp Kommunications Chosen by Empowered Media
By sharkbytes, October 17, 2009 @ 8:44 am
I haven’t been to SU much lately. Interesting. I am pretty out of it with the whole social media thing anyway since most of them don’t recognize that my topics of interest even exist. Glad you are making a go at writing. I’ve been doing a lot of that too, but I’m also getting just too tired of writing about rubber bracelets and internet marketing. I feel like all my creative energy has been sucked out.
sharkbytes´s last blog ..Only Two Holiday Seasons Here
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 17, 2009 @ 9:45 am
@sharkbytes
Shark, I hear you. However, I recommend that you expand your subject matters especially if you enjoy writing.
If you have a passion for writing, then you can take that to other subjects of interest to you. Don’t allow social media stop you — you can excel elsewhere.
By Laura Spencer, October 17, 2009 @ 10:22 am
@Matthew C. Keegan
Matt,
I certainly appreciate your visits to the Freelance Folder and WritingThoughts communities. I hope that you find something of value there, at least.
For what it’s worth I also sometimes blog about marketing topics on Everything PR too.
Your comment, however, highlights an important point. Readers will return to their favorite sites that they like and avoid the spam sites, regardless of how well SU highlights the spam. Readers aren’t really fooled when something bad is presented in social media.
The only difference is that, without a tool like SU, it will be hard to find new sites that might also offer excellent content. That’s a real shame, but I have a feeling that something will rise up to take SU’s place.
Laura Spencer´s last blog ..Are You an Adequate Writer or An Excellent Writer?
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 17, 2009 @ 10:48 am
@Laura Spencer
Laura, I did read your articles on Mig’s site. I’ve contributed one there myself. I like what she shares too — a good mix of entertainment, business and social media articles.
I may miss some new stuff, but I’ve also found that if I visit the sites of commentators on Freelance Folder, Copyblogger and elsewhere, that I find good stuff there. Plus, when people visit here I’ll stop by their sites too.
No, it isn’t perfect, but it is rather liberating not being tied down by the whims of one social media site or another.
By Mom, October 17, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
We all must continue to change and grow, making adjustments where they are needed and letting go of those things that are no longer working.
I have a Stumble account, but don’t really “work it” for my own purposes as of yet. Perhaps I’ll get around to doing that one day…
Mom´s last blog ..There’s a New Kid In Town
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 17, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
@Mom
Thanks, “Mom!”
SU may still work quite well for others and for them I say, “carry on.” There are so many other ways to connect with people online, with SU part of that crowd.
By Deborah, October 18, 2009 @ 3:14 am
Very sorry to hear you’re leaving SU, Matt. We’ll always be in touch, so I’m happy in the sense that this is not to say goodbye.
Deborah´s last blog ..Bizarre and Extinct Thylacine Creatures
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 18, 2009 @ 5:23 am
You know it, Deb! Email still works well for me so please send me your links that way. I’m much more apt to comment on a blog directly than through SU anyway.
By Dominique, October 18, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
@Mihaela Lica
YES!!!! I send a “polite” message back to anyone who TELLS me to stumble it, digg it or whatever, that if they do so a second time, they are gone. Several people didn’t believe me but found out I wasn’t kidding. One of the hardest one to delete was this nice guy who write poetry but it just wasn’t…well…very good. I tried to read his stuff and like it but I just never could. I finally let him go to which made me feel a little bad. I’ve down-sized to about 280 friends now and I actually spend time talking to most of them so I think I will get a better selection of stuff. Crazy, huh!
Dominique´s last blog ..HIATUS alert
By Dominique, October 18, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
Matt – I will be back to writing November 1st. The trip was physically tiring and I ended up in a really bad flare-up when I finally settled in. I felt like I really needed the down time plus I am praying about the direction to go next with my blog and other writing. I have had several people tell me I should be writing a book but I’ll be darn if I know what about. I feel I have a book or two in me, but just not there yet.
Dominique´s last blog ..HIATUS alert
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 18, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
I hope that you feel better, Dominique. This transition can be beneficial — it will allow you to physically recover and to seek what direction you should take going forward.
Lillie Ammann, who is a frequent commentator here, is a book editor. I think that you may be familiar with her site, but just in case you aren’t and you’re looking for book writing tips, Lillie’s blog is certainly worth visiting. Lillie is an author herself having written “Stroke of Luck” and “Dream or Destiny” too.
By sandy, October 18, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
I joined, but really haven’t done anything with it since joining. I have the code on my blog; but things take so much time. I’m currently having the debate about to do with EC.
Good Luck to you, and hope you’ll swing by for a visit.
Sandy
sandy´s last blog ..Traveling with Flat Stanley in Illinois and Indiana
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 19, 2009 @ 7:41 am
I understand, Sandy. I, too, am considering dropping EC — it just doesn’t seem to be worth it anymore. Some social media devices don’t have have the return on their “investment” in the form of traffic for time expended.
By Brandon Elliott, October 19, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
I personally think that StumbleUpon can bring in more visitors than any other social media service. That all depends on how and how much you use it, of course.
Brandon Elliott´s last blog ..The Cupcake Massacre (Poem)
By Matthew C. Keegan, October 19, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
I won’t dispute that fact, Brandon. Whether it brings in quality traffic is something that can be argued, but it might not matter to some bloggers.
By daokta, November 3, 2009 @ 8:36 am
I am not sure why people are complaining that that they get too many stumbles. If I think that I am being spammed or being asked to do too many thumbs up of articles that my “friends” send me – I just un-friend them. Voila, problem solved!
I assume in many cases, the problem arises because you “friend” too many people so that you get more traffic to your site. If that is so, then you have created your own problem. Anyway, the new SU does away with the ‘friends’ concept now.
By Jared, January 17, 2010 @ 11:51 pm
I have been a Stumbler since 2003. I have been a web dev for a while, and am now an IT professional specializing in network security. Through all my sites I have never used any social media to drive traffic. For me Stumble is a time killer, and a great one at that. True I have Thumbs Upped my own sites, but that is as far as it went. I didn’t even notice the removal of the friends functionality….
I guess what I am trying to say is….have fun without stumbling. I love it and will continue to love it so long as the content is thumbs up-able
Jared´s last blog ..Seafood Primavera
By Matthew C. Keegan, January 18, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
Jared, you have a very good approach to SU. That approach puts the emphasis more on fun then on it being a chore.
I am still using SU, having reversed my plan to leave. These days I use SU more for fun stuff, finding plenty of good information which helps me in my research.