Are You Sick of Bad Stumble Friends? I Am!
November 16, 2007
So I figured I’d do an off topic post about something that really bugs me. I have 70 stumble friends and last time I went through and send them a post only 3 people gave my post a thumb up! When and of my stumble friends send me a website it not only gets stumbled, I comment on it in order to give them the greatest benefit possible.
The first purpose of this post is that I plan on seeing which of my stumble friends are still active and will stumble me and give me at least a thumb up, those that don’t will be deleted as my friend.
The second thing I wanted to do was give a few tips on being a good stumble friend:
1 – Thumbs up sites your friends send you **If you like it, but strongly consider it** (the basic do unto others what you would have them do unto you). Preferably you should also leave a comment on the post. It doesn’t take long and it makes things a lot more personal. I can look through my friends list and see who I think I would actually want to talk to in real life.
2 – Thumbs up your friends’ profile (and again comment preferably), it benefits you both. The more people who like your friend the more value it has when your friend stumbles your posts. It’s a win-win.
3 – Stumble sites your friends have liked. It’s as easy as clicking a button. Again this will benefit you and your friends if you all do it. They will more likely have their personal pages stumbled, and so will you.
4 – Add people as friends who add you as a fan. I rarely personally add people as friends out of the blue anymore. If people add me as a fan, then I make them a friend, and will continue to do so until I hit my 200 limit. Take an interest in people who take an interest in you.
5 – When your friends thumbs up a post report it as useful – I honestly have no idea what this does, but I’m going to operate under the assumption that SU does not just do things to be useless.
*** If anyone has any more tips to being a good friend please leave a comment. I will add it to this list and give you credit (a link) if you wish**
If everyone starts doing these thing it will add a great benefit to you and your friends alike.
Again I’m also using this post to see which of my friends are still active and I will be deleting those who are not.
Your Stumble Friend,
Justin DeMerchant
www.american-election.com
http://demerchant.stumbleupon.com
Comments
16 Responses to “Are You Sick of Bad Stumble Friends? I Am!”
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Thanks for blogging about this. As a newbie to stumbling, I am learning how this works. Your post gave me insight.
Happy Stumbling
Thanks Justin, it bugs me too
I just added a bunch of friends this morning…I had about 20 fans, and had not added any in sometime…oops…
Anyway, I was going through them, and quite a few included only stumbles of their own blog posts or site pages.
I wonder if there is a ratio of how many of your own pages to pages of others can be stumbled? Others should be higher I would say.
Adam – I believe technically stumbling your own posts is against the rules of StumbleUpon, even though everyone does it. I personally try not to stumble more than one of my own pages a day. People who only self stumble are the ones who wont hit you back and you can root out with a post like this one!
I understand how you feel, and sometimes feel that way too, but I try not to let it get to me too much. I just go on stumbling people in our group and hope that one day they’ll get it and reciprocate.
Good Luck to all…
When a social media is created this way, i guess everyone just followed what the rules plays and that is just thumbs up, great call there!
im not a good stumbler .. but i will appreciate all blogs or posts that sent in my stumble toolbar or in my inbox as i appreciate my own. I dont think i have to like the post to thumb it. I did it to appreciate the effort of the writer.
anywhere.. I thumb this one
Best wishes
Susanno
Demerchant,
Speaking only for myself, I sometimes find that I get a bit trigger-happy, randomly clicking the stumble button until a post catches my eye for some reason. I’m usually good about giving a thumbs up to blogs or posts of interest to me, but sometimes I miss an opportunity.
More often than not, I now find more interesting posts when stumbling friend favorites, and that’s how I stumbled this post just now.
Sometimes a stumble “friend” will send me a post on a topic that doesn’t interest me in the least, so I just move on. I no longer thumbs up my own posts, not because it’s possibly against the SU rules, but more to give others the opportunity to find my posts of interest and get the stumbling-ball rolling.
Just my two cents.
Good point Lin… I suppose there is no need to thumbs up every post people send you, but give them a fair look. And I never really never thumbs anything down… I just move on
Thanks for the insight. I myself am trying to be a better friend. I enjoy stumbling, but haven’t figured out all of the blogging nuances.
Best Wishes
Dan
Hi, good tips for stumblers. I totally agree with you and sometimes I too feel let down. But make our efforts and try to help others is what I think. I observe that you always see to it that the posts are stumbled & reviewed.
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This STUMBLE friend says, “You get the shotgun put in your face and what you gonna do?”
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“You gonna give him a thumbs up for SURE!!! “
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Excellent traffic move! Seriously.
I’ve just recently discovered the social part of stumbling, and I’m going to make a point of keeping my friends list clean and tidy so that my time isn’t wasted on people who don’t look at stumbling as networking, the same way that we do. Sure, I’ll give anyone/everyone a thumb to help them out with their efforts, but the most valuable ‘StumbleUpon Friends” are the ones you exchange comments and messages with. Also, from what I understand, reviews of your stumbleupon blog/profile make your thumbs draw more traffic to the sites you visit – and you shouldn’t stumble every single one of your posts – they won’t count after awhile. Someone posted somewhere that the threshold is 15 stumbles of your own stuff before your stumbles stop counting, so think of it this way: That’s what friends are for. So go for the reviews, stay active, and keep in touch with your friends. Everyone who comments on this post is invited to add me to your friends list, BTW. Best of luck to everyone (and great post!)
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I believe I already have been doing most of what you’ve written there. Except for number 4. I usually add as friends those who are a fan of mine and I do carefully check out each of their pages usually finding something to comment on from their pages. However, I don’t add every single one as a friend since sometimes the page doesn’t seem to be very compatible with my own interests so it would seem not quite honest or right to add them as a friend. I don’t know that I’d have that much to share back and forth with them consistently.
At any rate, I am one of those for whom stumble upon is not really my “home” blog. I find some of the features wonderful and some quite awkward. I AM really enjoying stumbling through friends pages and “similar” stumblers!
You make some very good points, I have other blogs and administrate at a fairly high profile site online in addition to having my stumbleupon page, which I really use mostly for fun and learning for now. Though it certainly has consumed more of my energy than I ever expected it to! I will certainly keep these points in mind while stumbling!
Thank you so much!
Having have slowly learned much of this on my own, I found the rest of these tips very valuable. I enjoy stumbling in and of itself and am only just now discovering the social networking aspect to things.
On the other hand, one of the most troubling things is having one of your own images or quotes nipped without any credit being given to the “nippee”. Even if it is just a simple sentence without a link, that would be okay, but to claim it as one’s own, by default, is not honest nor is it helpful to anyone.
Just my two cents! And I promise to try to be a good Stumble Friend, scout’s honor. *smile*
I can’i believr the soldiers can’t vote. They have more to vote for then any of us, because they were told to go fight for us and many have had to give their lifes AND BODY PARTS UP FOR THIS COUNTRY, and now have no say in or choice in who is going to be PRESIDENT. This is not at all fair to them. It’s not their fault, the votes were send out late, and they have more insight, then ANY OF US. Can you please check into this for me. very upset