StumbleUpon Stumbles: Hundreds of Thousands Flee to Tumblr
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I enjoyed the share site Stumble-Upon for a number of years, at least until someone decided to radically change its format and render it virtually unusable for its millions of subscribers.
Back on February 21st, 2012, StumbleUpon announced its intention to switch all of its users to the newest reincarnation of the site. The user response to that new information is overwhelmingly negative and it goes on for 8 pages (although logged out users may only view 6 pages).
“Rated by mbhigdon on Mar 01, 5:58pm
i’m not one who typically moans and groans about changes, but everything stumbleupon changed in this “upgrade” made the experience completely dull. when it switches over completely, i’m uninstalling.”
“Reviewed by sher1lock on Mar 01, 8:35pm
New stumble sucks. it is for intelligence deprived; terminally stupid; ad obsessed; photo mad saps. really truly sad that some thing wonderful has become a debased image of itself.”
Rated by mhlayel on Mar 01, 5:18am
It’s ugly and depressing.
Reviewed by abandoned-echoes on Feb 29, 10:22pm
Tried the new version and HATED it. With so many people voicing distaste for it, why would they decide to go ahead and implement it anyways?
The users have spoken and most agree The New StumbleUpon is a Huge Fail! Still, StumbleUpon’s CEO Garrett Camp is convinced he is doing the right thing. Continuously stroking ones own ego with trivial sites like this “StumbleUpon Love” aren’t keeping certain people in close relation with reality, if you don’t mind my speculating. People had plenty of hate for that blog post as well.
All the dedicated users have spent the last year begging and pleading with StumbleUpon not to go in the devastating directions they keep choosing. Posting thread after thread in GetSatisfaction to no avail. For many the last straw was when reading these words; “StumbleUpon has announced that as of October 24, 2011, the ability to blog and add text reviews — part of the service since its origin — will be removed in an attempt to appeal to a less literate class of users“.
True to their word, on October 24, 2011, StumbleUpon deleted years worth of user-generated content, removed HTML blogging, standalone blog posts, and photoblogging capabilities. Additionally, all previous blog posts were converted from HTML to plain text, and all photos were deleted from previous blog posts. In the following months, many of the die-hard users deleted their accounts and moved on. Ushered by staff members to “find somewhere else to blog, like tumblr”, they did just that.
StumbleUpon vastly underestimated the value of the bloggers who left. Without the die-hard content adders, beta testers, SU cheerleaders, miscategorized site fixers that made up the “unimportant” blogger minority, the quality of content within the Stumble system has suffered greatly and continues to decline, as does the once thriving social media sites popularity. In what appears to be a somewhat desperate attempt to regain some of what it has lost StumbleUpon is practically begging for people to care again.
Feedback and Insider Knowledge:
- Give us valuable feedback on new features we’re considering developing
- Test out new features and improvements before we release them to the whole StumbleUpon community
- Provide general input about StumbleUpon and ways we can improve the service
- Meet with the StumbleUpon team and the rest of The Council in person (as well as via conference call) to discuss your perspectives
Public Love and Endeavors:
- Be a general StumbleUpon advocate in your social networks
- Promote StumbleUpon in your daily personal life
- Organize and host StumbleUpon-sponsored meet-ups in your city
- Help other Stumblers organize their own meet-ups in their towns
- Represent StumbleUpon at exclusive events and important meet-ups
And always…
- Be an advocate for all things StumbleUpon!
What do you get for all that hard work? “We’ve given this elite group the esteemed title of “The Council” …rofl
That truly does make me giggle. All the things they are reaching for were once in their clutch, given enthusiastically and freely without ever being asked. StumbleUpon spat in the face of its most dedicated volunteers and now they miss them? The entire community support staff was replaced/relocated within the company to make room for a new support staff who seem utterly clueless about everything that has happened over the last few months. Probably so they would be able to “brave face” the outraged users without full understanding of said outrage. After all, it is easier to tell a lie when you do not know that it is a lie.
What can perhaps be considered a Last Stand by some of StumbleUpon’s most dedicated users, those who loved StumbleUpon through and through and had their back all along is fizzling out in GetSatisfaction as they say their final goodbyes and pack up the last of the picket signs. The final, final straw is the newest version of SU as it is considered completely unusable (broken) and anti-social.
Me, I switched to Tumblr and am glad I did.
Story courtesy of Best of StumbleUpon.
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I just wanted to add to my previous comment. Besides really hating all sports, I got pages of every conceivable sport there is, frequently. I despise anything Apple, the company, and ALL their products. I was, and I am not in the least bit exaggerating, getting Apple related pages every other page, sometimes more! I also hate the so-called “Rage Comics”. They are stupid, look like a two year old drew them, and completely unfunny. I tried giving all these Thumbs Down-not for me. I kept getting them, if not more frequently. Tried this several times. Even tried blocking sites. Finally, I contacted StumbleUpon. The reply stated “that is not how the Thumbs Down works”! And that they did not see any of this in my searches!
My experience with StumbleUpon was the best for years. Lately all I get is pure crap. I get foreign language pages, even though I have English selected as my language. I get sports related pages, even though I don’t have sports selected. I could go on, and on. I brought this to StumbleUpon staff attention, and was told, “we didn’t see any of that here”. They have ruined a once wonderful site!
Sorry to be this way, but I told you soooooo! Back when StumbleUpon! decided to get involved with Internet Explorer, I knew first that the company did not understand it’s users AT ALL -AND- that the twits who rely on that hackneyed browser would inevitably be submitting garbage at an alarming rate. The Firefox only model served as a kind of idiot test, ensuring that the only people who had access to the network were people who had some vague notion of what a quality web experience was and thus, were more likely to recognize novel sites when they were encountered. Now, half of my stumbles are some asshat’s ebay listing for junk nobody wanted to begin with and fucking FONT pages. I did not even SELECT the option to receive this crap but apparently there’s as many pages going “herp a derp, I haet teh comic sands” as there is porn. Who knew? I wish -I- didn’t.
Fuck you StumbleUpon! for ruining what was once the absolute BEST way to experience the world wide web.
is nobody going to comment on the fact that the picture is a humanized pinkie pie?
damn, guess there aren’t too many bronies that use stumbleupon…
LOL! By golly it is. Why didn’t I notice that? 🙂
SU committed suicide– now since I an no longer angry –and have moved on to Categorian , where I can post what I find beautiful and meaning ful , and to Tumblr- where I post anything I like , not forgetting FB where political stuff and humor goes,I have broadened my own outlook , have more fun , look ahead
Was on SU 5 years- had a blog that was , I thought, nice , with 10,00 Discoveries and 64,000 Reviews– all gone now- still use it tho– for bookmarking—but anything else–:(
I no longer mourn SU , and have no feelings for the empty headed twits who ruined a good thing , Garrett is an arrogant young jock it- seems—
Oh well– it was great while it lasted–So long
Pasatter I agree with you, although I still use my Stumble account from time to time, but really like Tumblr. I tried Categorian but couldn’t figure it out.
Michael , Cat took time and was pretty hard to figure out– but I learned , like Tumblr also and do use it daily–
Thanks Pasatter. Maybe I’ll check it out again.
Mike I was on stumbleupon until about 6 months ago and just got tired of the inane B.S.
I was on StumbleUpon for at least 5 or 6 years. Had collected many thousands of photos and videos and hundreds of thousands of stumbles. It was made for me. The drastic Castration it was then given killed StumbleUpon. Looks different. Feels different. My friends left. The fun left. Then I left. Thank you Tumblr.
Same here Centerman. I even sent several letters, along with thousands of others. Only one was answered and it was just a computer generated bullshit response. Too bad.