StumbleUpon recently made the beta ‘final’ version of their upcoming patch available to the public. Between major redesigns and feature changes, this patch is proving to be one of their biggest to date. The real question is: How are these changes going to affect SU users? I’ll touch on some of the most radical changes and the ones most likely to affect your average SU user.
Friends
- For the purposes of sharing, the StumbleUpon ‘friends’ feature will be removed and replaced with the already existing subscription method. This is sort of a return to the way Stumble operated in 2007 and early 2008. Once the patch goes live, if you want to send content to someone you must be mutually subscribed to them. In other words… you have a lot of subcribing to do!
Note: You can only subscribe to 25 people a day. Stumble doesn’t provide any warning message indicating that you’ve surpassed the max amount of subscriptions for the day. Don’t feel bad when you share your Stumble user page and don’t see a lot of reciprocation right away. It’s not their fault!
- SU has added a “Two way” icon that lets you know if you’re able to directly share content with a friend/subscriber. If no icon appears, this friend can only access your discoveries in the course of regular use of the stumble button.
Note: During the beta, the “Two way” icon appears for your mutual friends not your mutual subscriptions. The change will only come into effect once the patch goes fully live.
Sharing
- If you were a Digg user circa 2008, you may find this style of sharing familliar. Unlike the easy 1-click share that was afforded to us in the previous Stumble patch, if you want to share with all your subscribers you need to select each individually.
- A “What’s New” feature has been added which allows users to keep up-to-date with their subscriptions in quasi real-time. This “Recent Activity” page shows content your subscriptions have thumbed-up, thumbed-down, reviewed and discovered.
- In order to be able to share content with another users you must both be subscribed and both have “accept shares to my toolbar” on their profile page enabled.
- Sharing is still done either through the toolbar (individually) or from the page with the mouseover Share button
Interface
- Stumble has shifted focus from the StumbleBar to the SU website. While the SU bar will still be in heavy use, the SU design will undergo a significant overhaul to make it easier for users without the Stumblebar to contribute to the community and add value.
- The “Star Rating”, one of Stumble’s most perplexing features, has been removed in favor of a simpler viewcount feature. Many of the pages that submissions and activity are displayed show this new viewcount feature which simply denotes how many times a link has been visited through Stumble.
User Profiles
- The “Similarity Meter” has been removed and replaced with a less obvious “Sites we both like” feature which is accessable when you navigate to another users page and select the “We both like” tab.
Tags
- You can now subscribe to Tags in the same way as you can with Topics.
This patch shows that StumbleUpon is taking real steps to appeal to a broader audience while trying to keep their current users happy. All these changes basically make StumbleUpon easier to use and understand for the new user and add some modest spam reducing features for good measure.
If you stay up-to-date, the new patch looks as though it will have few rammifications on your social media campaigns apart from having to re-add your friends as subscribers in order to share content. But then again, it could just be a good excuse to do a bit of friend spring cleaning…
UPDATE
- Another addition in this patch that I neglected to mention was the “Friend’s who like this” feature. For the first time in SU history you can see which of your friends have “liked” your stories.
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Posted by Katie said on 15.10.09 @ 10:59 am :
I am wondering whether these changes made in SU (Which is clearly followed by Digg changes) should not hamper the usability of stumbleupon. Hope things remains easy and cool. Thanks for such an elaborate article, you must have researched hard for sure.
Posted by katie marie said on 15.10.09 @ 11:05 am :
A timely and well written article. Thanks.
Posted by bernie kasper said on 15.10.09 @ 11:15 am :
This helps a lot, I have been away and never knew it even changed.
Posted by Bob said on 15.10.09 @ 11:16 am :
Thank you for the thorough post covering each important aspects of the new V4. Some of the ‘notes’ provided are very informative.
I have been playing with the Beta version for some time and found to be simpler and easier. So far…
Any idea when shall this be implemented finally?
Posted by Thomas Langdale said on 15.10.09 @ 11:58 am :
@Bob
It’s essentially already rolled out. If you check out the stumble blog they’ve announced it as live. They just haven’t forced the changes on everyone. As it stands, it’s purely opt-in.
They’re leaving the door open while they get more feedback from the community.
Posted by em2wice said on 15.10.09 @ 12:00 pm :
This article definitely answered some questions I had. Thanks.
Posted by Bob said on 15.10.09 @ 12:22 pm :
I thought this is the ‘Beta’ version and they will replace the current with modified version entirely soon.
Thank you, Thomas, for the clarification.
Posted by Nea said on 15.10.09 @ 3:00 pm :
Thanks for the helpful article. I’m not happy about the changes, but it was nice to have such a thorough explanation.
Posted by Tony said on 15.10.09 @ 3:11 pm :
I wasn’t even aware that things were changing, not until a friend told me. It does sound as if this will be for the better though. Looking forward to the new and improved Stumbleupon.
Posted by pekomeri said on 15.10.09 @ 4:50 pm :
I have been away and never even knew it changed.Thanks
Posted by pekomeri said on 15.10.09 @ 5:38 pm :
And finally learned
Posted by Elizabeth Abbott said on 15.10.09 @ 6:46 pm :
Thanks for this article. Sure is a great help!@
Posted by barryweber said on 15.10.09 @ 10:19 pm :
this set of changes might do me in, finally. I joined SU in June of 05..it’s been a lot of fun and I will continue for awhile until it gets to be work, which is what it seems to be coming to..
Posted by YogaforCynics said on 15.10.09 @ 11:20 pm :
So, basically, they’re demolishing their on-line community and telling the members to build it back up…not sure if I really feel like doing that…
Posted by deb said on 16.10.09 @ 12:14 am :
i havent come across ANYONE ONE PERSON who wants the new SU. it is not what any subscibers want that have messaged me. it destroys creativity. friends wont show and no one likes the way it look or works does that matter to anyone?
Posted by NotHappy said on 16.10.09 @ 12:25 am :
So…this means that the only way to continue sharing websites directly with my friends is to allow all of their “liked” content to be dumped into my stumbles? I don’t so much like that. If I really like someone’s “likes”, I’ve subscribed to them. My “friends”, on the other hand, I don’t always have much in common with - at least not in terms of what we give a “thumbs up”. Even in Facebook, I can be “friends” with someone without being deluged with all of their incessant chatter, and only interact with them when I choose. If I read this right, I now have to choose: either lose the ability to share websites directly with my friends or have all of their “liked” content (which I have little interest in) dumped into my stumbles. Or have I missed something? Is there a way to disable all their “likes” being dumped into my stumbles while still maintaining the ability to share websites directly? Others seem to like these changes, but for me at least, it sounds as if my stumbles will soon become far less relevant to me. Oh well…it was fun while it lasted…
Posted by Jason said on 16.10.09 @ 12:50 am :
Thanks for well descriptive post but i think most of stumblers still like the older .
Posted by Vitalka said on 16.10.09 @ 3:21 am :
It’s not so good, cause it’s a stright road for spammers. As for me - it’s more easy and safe to have a fellowship with 5-10 friends than to receive tons of pages from absolutely unknown people.
It’s looking as dangerous changes…
Posted by Dogbreath said on 16.10.09 @ 3:35 am :
I first read an article describing the new SU. changes. It claimed the visual editor is going to be removed from the new version. I have asked several friends and contacted the developers if this was fact, or fiction, no one has answered yet.
A lot of us try to be creative in our posts and with the visual aspects of our StumbleUpon pages. Will all this effort we put into “our pages” be whiped out by this change? I sure hope not,(for lack of a better term) I’d be pissed. It would be a good bet that other “Stumblers” would be too. My pages look bland compared to some that I visit.
I enjoy StumbleUpon just the way it is. I believe in the analogy if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Instead of changing what we enjoy, the StumbleUpon developers should work on a more comprehensive help section for those in need.
For now I’m keeping the one I’ve got, and hopefully that will be an option that remains open.
Posted by Colbyn said on 16.10.09 @ 10:23 am :
I think the article is well put together. We are taken through the changes step-by-step - a sort of, ‘idiots guide to stumbling’. I, for one, understand it a whole lot better now.
Having to subscribe to my list of friends, is not such a big deal. This way I can visit some friends, whom I have neglected for a while. I have not made the change yet seeing we have been given some time to do so.
Posted by Islandconquerer said on 16.10.09 @ 11:16 am :
This to me as a novice seemsto be a heck of a CHANGE!
I should have known not to start this SU business so that at least the others do not get affected (past experience, showing the way to the future!).
If somebody needs a lot of SUBSCRIBERS; why not say so and we will jam the doors of all local stores and only allow them out if they swear to God to subscribe. No getting round the bush with this Alfa -Omega Beta nonsense!
Posted by Thomas Langdale said on 16.10.09 @ 1:18 pm :
@Dogbreath
From what I’ve heard, Stumble will eventually restore the custom user page and blog features. I agree with you that it’s a shame it wasn’t included right away.
I suggest anyone who’s concerned with the changes should make use of the Feedback feature and voice your opinions directly to them.
Posted by Heidi said on 16.10.09 @ 1:42 pm :
Not sure about this ‘keeping current users happy’. I am not happy about it. In a way I wish they would stop messing with it.
Posted by ashok said on 16.10.09 @ 4:54 pm :
Thank you for this brief overview - I use SU a lot but had no idea these changes were coming and what exactly they entailed. I’m glad for an introduction to a few of them.
Posted by Michael Aulia said on 16.10.09 @ 7:14 pm :
Great article! I haven’t been active on StumbleUpon for so long.. Do they still have the policy not to submit your own post?
Posted by Kay Nicholas said on 16.10.09 @ 9:37 pm :
I tried the new version of SU….thoroughly did not like it. I received totally different kinds of stumbles….received almost no photos or other people’s favorite stumbles…and just did not like the layout. It seemed “cold” to me….not a friendly site. I hope they reconsider “making” us change over to it..
Posted by Jerry Johnson said on 16.10.09 @ 10:12 pm :
The great Stumbleupon experiment/experience has come to an end. In the spirit of Windows Vista and New Coke, by eliminating FRIENDS, the decision makers at SU will enter the business school history books with one of the greatest Marketing blunders in U.S. history. How sad.
Posted by Paul Harper said on 17.10.09 @ 4:44 am :
Have used SU on & off for quite some time, but now that I am pretty much full time blogging, have come back to it.
The new changes are (imo) welcome, as they should help to manage relationships much more effectively.
Posted by Roger said on 17.10.09 @ 10:31 am :
Wow, thanks Thomas for keeping us updated, I had no idea stumbleupon was changing quite this much.
Posted by Harsh Agrawal said on 17.10.09 @ 2:16 pm :
A well written article and I guess I will wait for a while before upgrading to the beta one..
Posted by candace said on 17.10.09 @ 9:53 pm :
THE SAME OLD SU BULLSHIT.
DO YOU TECHS/PROGRAMMERS/FOOLS EVER LEAVE
ANYTHING ALONE????
FOR GOD’S SAKE.
SU HAS BEEN FINE SINCE I FIRST SIGNED UP, BUT
ALL YOU DO IS CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE. FOR WHAT?
TO SCREW IT ALL UP. THAT’S WHAT.
IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT.
LEAVE THE DAMNED FORMAT ALONE, AND LEAVE US
TO STUMBLE IN PEACE.
Posted by mouse53 said on 19.10.09 @ 9:26 am :
Just when we had a good thing you mess it up. You will definitely lose us as users. Nothing like shooting your self in the foot. Half the fun was sharing the great sites we found. Now everyone has to be subscribed to each other. It was great the way it wa, s what a waste to change it.
Posted by Lizspeace said on 23.10.09 @ 12:00 pm :
I am really unhappy about the changes. I liked the fact that this was NOT all about being a social site. I had a few people whose “stumbles” I loved and I followed them, knowing that they had tagged great sites that I would appreciate. I will stay with the site until they force us to change over permanently.
Posted by crim said on 23.10.09 @ 10:35 pm :
I click a button, new page. Why complicate it?
Posted by StumblerJ said on 15.11.09 @ 10:39 am :
Wow, these changes suck for sure. Stumble is easy and fun to use now, this really turns it more into a social networking thing which is a bad bad idea imo. Stumble’s popularity is due to the ease of use and simple interface, and not for its social networking - why remove its best feature (accessibility)?
Posted by notusedupyet said on 19.11.09 @ 5:06 pm :
By removing the ability to customize my posts and create stories and visual pleasantries. SU will become nothing more than a place to store pictures. As soon as I am forced to change over I will be gone. I think it is AFU
Posted by Mojomikki said on 16.12.09 @ 4:42 am :
I notice that most of the positive comments to what SU are trying to achieve is at the top of the list of remarks and the negative ones follow on…… OOOooooo