Stumble Upon: Thumbs up to pages you don't like
Submitted by shabam on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 10:51
in
When you stumble a page on Stumble Upon, does that mean that you like the page? Stumble Upon says that a thumbs up means that you like it. I feel that this means that one should click the Thumbs Up button only if they like it. If you do not, then Stumble Upon is likely to become just a bunch of junk spam that people do not like. People will stop using it.
Others disagree with me. They think that stumbling is a good way to build traffic for your site and they build groups for the sole purpose of stumbling each others posts. I joined in on one of these groups, but I told them that I would only stumble those that I liked. A while later, I was "called out" because I did not stumble someones post. I assumed that everyone was playing the game the same way I did, because I did not get as many stumbles as there were sites to stumble on the list. I guess I was wrong.
In reading the reviews I would get from this group, I wonder if they even read the post. It is clear they put no thought into the 2-3 word reviews they wrote. It is also clear that in most cases, I got only a few hits from their reviews. I think this had to do with the poor tags and reviews they wrote. Every once in a while, I'd get a good haul off of one of the stumbles from them, so I kept going. Once I got more than 900 hits. That makes it well worth the time I spent working on their stumbles (I read every post I stumble and think about any reviews I write.)
Sitting in the actual tests of 350-001 and VCP-310 is easy as long as the student has written 640-802 and 642-812 already.
I'd sometimes stumble mediocre posts. I feel like this was a little dishonest. I did not "like" the post. I was stumbling them to get my own stumbles. I'm getting pickier all the time about who I'll stumble. I've gotten some very good results out of just stumbling my own pages too.
I like helping out other webmasters and bloggers. I do feel that I have to be honest though, and I expect the same from those who help me. If you don't like my posts, please don't stumble them or digg them. How do you feel? Is it important to only stumble those you like, or does it matter? Is stumble just a tool that is used to get more traffic, or should you play by their rules?
If you would like to reciprocate useful Stumbles, Diggs, Etc, post here or use my contact form. I'd like to start a list of like minded people who would like to take the time to build each others networks.
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Agree
I've been stumbling for a long while, and the content has gone downhill.
Taking my account as example:
* 18,884 stumbles
* 4,895 liked
* 9,716 disliked
More than half of the sites are bad or crap (average sites get no thumbs)... maybe I should stop stumbling. Or stumbleupon's staff could make it mandatory for users to stumble a couple hundred pages before being able to suggest new pages, that could stop some of the lazy persons that want easy traffic.
Yeah. That might help. You
Yeah. That might help. You have stumbled a lot more than me. I've kinda given up on it and just jump to another blog when it is recommended to me, or they comment on one of my sites. If I like something, I might stumble it though.
If I like a page, I'll give
If I like a page, I'll give it a thumbs up, if I don't like the page, I give it a thumbs down.
I'm more likely to not bother looking at it if it appears boring, or otherwise uninteresting though, and when I don't look at it, I don't bother upping or downing it.
This page shows a gray
This page shows a gray rectangle on the left side and I can't read the article. It happens in FFox 3.0.4 and IE 7.0.5.
Thanks for the input, but I
Thanks for the input, but I can't replicate it. If you by chance see this, would you mind sending me a screen shot? Does it happen on other pages, or just this article?
Thanks!
The big grey box of doom
It happens on other pages as well. It appears to be a faulty ad. The code that creates the problem is this:
I'll email you it instead
You blog rendered the HTML. I'll email the code to you.
Stumbling
I love stumble upon. i am disappointed when I get true commercial site but am always careful to thumbs up or thumbsdown. My rational is I like hte page I was served or I did not like the page i was served. I can spend hours just stumbling and side sliding to different sites. yeah ther is some shitty bloggs served up but WTF gotta take the good with the bad and either thumb it up or down
Valid Criticism
While I'm sick to death of meta-Stumble stumbling (fucking stumblecards, anyone?)... you make a good point. I wish this were the last time stumblers would have to discuss stumbling (it's becoming more of a circle-jerk than Digg), but it won't be. But at least you are pointing out the thing about stumbling I hate the most - the people 'gaming' the system to build hits to their shitty sites and blogs. I cannot tell you how many terribly-written blogposts I've stumbled in the last couple of months that consist only of 'Tips to get more stumbles and clickthroughs'. WTF? I stumble because I want to be entertained, or at least mind-numbed into complacency, not to read some shitty blogpost about how to bastardize the process. What happened to coming across something cool on the web and showing others? Fuck that, we got to *monetize* this shit now.
And now, for no called-for reason whatsoever, a short list of why SU sucks eggs lately:
1. Stumbles to pictures that are older than dirt. Yes, everyone's seen that picture of that guy with his finger through his eye socket. Yes, it's a fucking shop. Yes, my great-uncle includes pictures like that in his stupid fucking emails "Fw:FW:RE:fwd:FW: UNBELIEVABLE! MUST SEE!" Please just stop.
2. Stumbles to forums that require registration to see *any* page. You couldn't see shit on that awesome warez site until you registered, why the fuck do you think we will be able to?
3. Stumbles to other stumblers' profiles. Um, doesn't SU already have a 'Network' function which allows us to actively seek out others if we so choose. I guess this is good for pedophile stalkers with a used panty and/or sock fetish or the above-mentioned circle-jerkers to love to wank each other until they blow their load on their own SU profile page which they've printed out for fap material. But for me, not so much.
4. Stumbles to fledgling forums. I understand people want others to join their awesome new BB Board about medieval spell-casting, but bringing in the unwitting to a forum with 3 retards yelling "Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!" and 4 topics with 2 posts each is not helping your cause.
5. Stumbles to pages in other languages. You may be so kawaii desu that it makes your tentacles hurt, but I have no fucking clue what you're babbling about. The exception is the occasional Russian site with half-naked blondes swimming in some geological wonder of a spa. Why people want to swim when a polar bear's dick is retracting like a frightened turtle is beyond me, but hey, I'll take a look-see.
6. Stumbles to blogs about Stumble Upon. Like this one. I'm thumbing this one up, and then NEVER FUCKING AGAIN.
Almost agreed
I know you would enjoy the hot Russian blondes, but as a female user those are one of the most frustrating things. More than any other category, I end up being shown pictures of female celebrities in varying states of undress. I see at least 2 every time I try to use stumbleupon. Everyone knows who Megan Fox is, and they can search for pictures of her if they want to jack off or just admire her tits or whatever. That's cool with me.
But it is not entertaining to stumble on a pic of her in a nude-colored bikini, and it can be embarrassing if I am in a public place, too. It's really annoying how some men on stumbleupon think it's appropriate to add images of mainstream celebrities, thinking maybe that only men and lesbians use stumbleupon? I've never stumbled on a pic of a male celebrity with his shirt off, and that's good. I don't want any more pictures with no entertainment or artistic value clogging up this thing.
Oh this. This exactly. I'm
Oh this. This exactly. I'm not into chicks. I thumbs down that stuff every time it comes up. Sorry guys, but tits isn't on my list of things I care about seeing. It's one of the things I hate most when I stumble. Just today I stumbled some pic of a tan girl looking into her panties like she never saw her own privates before while squeezing her melon-half breast. Wonderful. Wonderful I tell you. Yeah, I'll take the frigid polar bear penis over that any day.
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PMS moar
srsly it's a time killer not a business
the internet =/= serious business
How did I stumble onto this
How did I stumble onto this crap :)
Hits coming in
Just an update. I stumbled this page myself and did not ask anyone else to stumble it for me. I have already received over 400 page views and I am watching the numbers go up as I am doing other work on this site. Each time I change pages, I see on the top content list that the number of views rises.
This shows me how useless that group really was to me. I made sure I was using the right tags and that I wrote a review that summarized the article. I may have gotten more hits, had I done that, then asked them to give a thumbs up; but again, I don't want people saying they like my pages when they do not. I don't want people to be dishonest for me.
[**Edit. In the time it took me to write this short comment, I got nearly 300 hits. I'm going to research how Stumble Upon figures who to show the page to and write up an article on that. Perhaps understanding the algorithm will help us use it.]
I agree
Stumbleupon is already becoming a cesspool for the Internet's backwash. I would say about a quarter of the stumbles that come down the pipe to me are total crud... no entertainment or informational value whatsoever. It sometimes gets worse, to the point where I have to click [Stumble!] six or seven times before I get something that I feel is actually interesting or entertaining.
Stumbleupon was a great idea, and it was awesome for a while, but I think the toxic retards who make up the vast majority of the Internet have managed to poison it pretty badly with lolcats and inane crap from break.com and collegehumor.
I'm glad to hear people agree
I'm glad to hear people agree with me on this. I'm happy to hear the other point of view though.
Do you thumbs down when you think it is crap? I have not been, but I'm going to start doing so. I think we need to be more ruthless with the thumbs down if we want to continue to make good use of the service.
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