applznorngz/stumbleupon

Bravo!  I think this is the reason the bad changes elicit so much emotion.  Even though the SU Powers deny it now, originally, SU itself had a desire to allow for folks who don't fit a mold.  (Their statement does include a tip of the hat to marketers though, so I guess we can't deny that that was built in from the beginning as well.)

From the pages of NightSky:

~out of utter
frustration at the up & coming dreaded new version, i searched for
"sites similar to StumbleUpon"..this is an excerpt from the first hit-""



What Makes StumbleUpon Unique?



When observing the hundreds of social media websites that exist,
StumbleUpon sets itself apart from the crowd by being completely
unique. While many other sites use a cookie-cutter approach,
StumbleUpon is truly unlike any other social media site. That unique
approach is part of what makes it so attractive to users and marketers."

No, it's not about getting more stumblers (well, that too)... It's about providing advertisers with a population that mindlessly stumbles... so they are getting rid of the blogging and other artful capabilities, so that we don't spend so much time on one page... and especially not our own! Where's the money in that? Pretty soon they'll get rid of the conversation sharing as well... how does that contribute to the bottom line?

Yeah, I hate to be all negative too, but it's alarming when they are determined to dismantle all the stuff I liked about SU... starting with community!  I used to go to "reviews by friends and visitors to profile" (once I figured out that that meant: "stumbles by people who's pages I like" and "Visitors"), more than I stumbled... Now... It's different... I have to go elsewhere to find visitors... and then the subscribers/subscriptions is somehow strange.  Yes, in a few months some of that will feel more natural, I suppose, but everything feels very disconnected.
The Stumble Powers say they are working on stuff, and at the same time, they say out loud that people who blog are anomaly's that really don't belong here.  How can you make a community by just thumbing up?  What is the point of that?

Well said, Mr. Bytemeister!   I still don't know why SU can't let us
be, even as it adds the other changes... Apparently those of us who
like our SU Villages and Outposts and Family groups are a very small
minority, SU has said this.  But, why "cleanse" us out of their
universe... it didn't seem like we added a negative effect.  I just
don't get it...

From Page:
In the natural course of our community's development, we have naturally
become friends with the people we like the most and share common values
with. We enjoy our SU community being like a virtual living growing and
thriving New York City, Chicago, or San Francisco. But like most people
we also enjoy vacationing in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. That's why we
VISIT such sites as Facebook and MySpace...but it's where we
vacation...not want to necessarily live. If some of us like that life
style, then we will move there permanently. But you don't have to force
all of us to become and live in a vacation playland!

That said, I have to admit, I haven't felt been this connected to my people since...oh, since Bush and Cheney were rearing their ugly heads.  (Apparently, I respond to negative stimuli.  )

I disagree. SU has inexplicably sacrificed all kinds of functionality that we took for granted. Who cares if you are labeled a Friend or a Subscriber? That is just semantics. But, why have they stopped the little changes that we could make when writing a blog? It's strange that we are now all alike...

Well, thanks for this explanation... What I like about New SU:
* "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." [Now, I certainly Never even knew that people could do this! Well, good, now people have to think about if I'll appreciate it when they send a share out. Because when it's too generic, I don't.]
* "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 subscribing to do!" [Really. No different from "friending", if you ask me.]
* "You can only subscribe to 25 people a day." [Again, I don't understand why anyone would want to subscribe to that many people in a day! Maybe when you're just starting out and trying to build up a community, but after that... really... what are you, and SCU or REI or whatever those SpamPeople are? I come for content, not quantity.
* "Sharing is still done either through the toolbar (individually) or from the page with the mouseover Share button." (Wha? I never even knew you could share by Mouse!)
* "You can now subscribe to Tags in the same way as you can with Topics." [That always made no sense to me, how they limited what topics you could stumble.]

What I don't like:
* "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." [Really, just too much information.]
**** That it is so hard to default to Review pages... bah!
**********THAT WE NO LONGER HAVE CHOICE OF FONT, SIZE, OR COLOR WHEN WE WRITE!!! WHAT THE HECK? ISN'T THAT THE SIMPLEST OF SCRIPT TO PROGRAM????

Just a comment on Shares in general: sometimes it's nice to get a "message". For one thing, you get to see the little flag go up on the mailbox. And sometimes I like to save the comments, for those rainy days when no one comes to call... .