Official StumbleUpon Blog

A StumbleUpon Christmas Story

Monday, December 21, 2009

Hi!

I'm CH - I'm based in the UK and I help out with Community Support at StumbleUpon. There's a story behind that nickname, but that will have to keep for another day. I've been a member of StumbleUpon since 2003 - never saw anything like it - still haven't, and I was hooked straight away. I liked it so much that I started pestering the founders, Geoff and Garrett, to let me help out somehow... me and my big mouth!

Take a look at this, for example:

They are all Stumblers. They all met each other right here on SU and are all members of one of our groups.

I asked Vortexfugue - the group "leader" - about this project, and he told me that it was just one of many. As a group, they've already done readings of Jabberwocky, The Raven, The Cremation of Sam McGee ... and have more planned. Each of the participants - and there are different "players" each time - recorded their chosen parts and sent them to Vortexfugue, who then arranged for them to be merged into the single piece that you see here.

Vortexfugue - a member for four years - tells me new members are always welcome to join their group. Stream of Consciousness is, he says: "a place to have fun, with word games, random thoughts, observations ... not an adversarial place at all, just a place to have fun and feel safe".

I love StumbleUpon! I've seen so many people doing so many crazy, wonderful things, so many fun projects - and so many people finding kindred spirits and making life-long friends here. I've got so many stories - but I'd love to hear yours. Let me know if you are part of something good here on StumbleUpon or if you know of something amazing going on, - we'd love to hear about it! Write to me at community [at] stumbleupon.com and tell us about your stories.

Oh and, Happy Holidays to you all!
Barry

The New StumbleUpon Officially Released to All Users

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Hello everyone,

Earlier today we switched all users to the new StumbleUpon. Getting everyone on the same platform is important—and we’ve now developed a solid foundation so we can build more cool stuff.

To prepare for this transition, our team has spent the last few weeks polishing the site and making enhancements based on your feedback, such as:

• A Tag Cloud
• A more dynamic Visitor list
• The ability to set the default homepage for your profile to Reviews
• The return of profile themes and Similarity Meter

Some of the new features introduced in the new StumbleUpon include:

• Better Search functionality, including the ability to search within your own Favorites.
• More dynamic updates on recent activity from your Subscriptions.
• A faster and enhanced Web Toolbar (for those of you not using the installed toolbar).

We know change is not easy sometimes, so we are committed to help and are here to answer your questions and listen to your suggestions.

You can learn more about the new StumbleUpon from the following tutorials and FAQs:

• Frequently Asked Questions about the New StumbleUpon Interface
• The New User Profile
• Friends and Subscriptions

We hope you love the new StumbleUpon – and we hope to continue to make it even easier for you to discover the best of the web.

~ The SU Team

Use the power of your thumbs-ups for a good cause!

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Last week StumbleUpon had its annual holiday party and began a new tradition of a raffle, where employees contribute money for the chance to win fun prizes - all proceeds collected to be donated to a cause of our choosing.  We ended up collecting over $1000!  What’s more, the company has matched that amount and we now have $2000 to donate to a cause!

Photos by Daniel Kokin

Here’s where we need your help: we’ve narrowed down our list of favorite charities to 6 organizations that mean a lot to SU employees, but we want you to help us select which one will receive our donation!

Please take a look at the selected charities below and give the ones you support a thumbs-up!  The site that has the most new thumbs-ups between now and Friday, Dec. 18th will be the charitable organization that receives our $2000 donation.

We love what these organizations are doing to help change the world!  Please learn more about these causes and donate to your favorite if you can!  But above all, please help us spread the word by thumbing-up these sites!

Selected Charities:

Make sure to spread the word and this post, so others can also show their support!  Although our community will be selecting only one winner for the donation, we can help share support for these worthy organizations by getting them more exposure and thumbs-up love!

If you don't have the toolbar and are unable to rate these sites, get your own toolbar here!

Thanks, and Happy Holidays from
The StumbleUpon Team

New Topics On StumbleUpon!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Dear Stumblers,

As the volume and variety of content in our community grows, there is also a growing need to better categorize it. After reviewing your feedback, we’ve added a few new topics based on frequency of request and tag popularity.

Below are all the new topics and the categories where you can find them. Go to Settings > Manage Interests to subscribe to your favorite topics:

If one of the new topics above was already one of your most frequently used tags, we made it easier for you by automatically subscribing you to that topic. Please also note, as they are still new, the topics don't have many websites yet, so you may Stumble through the entire category.

Update Your Interests on StumbleUpon!

We hope these new topics make it even easier for you to discover websites matching your specific interests and encourage you to submit sites you like.

Sincerely,
~ The SU Team

New StumbleUpon Website out of Beta

Monday, December 07, 2009

Hello Stumblers!

At the beginning of October we released a new website design for StumbleUpon. For the last two months, the new interface has been available in Beta to all members, allowing us to collect your feedback and implement popular feature requests.

We are now ready to turn off the old interface and will be switching everyone to the new platform in the middle of December.  Users who have not tried the new StumbleUpon yet have about 2 more weeks to get familiarized with the new layout and features. To switch over, click here or use the link at the top of your account.

You can learn more about the new interface here:

Thank you for being part of StumbleUpon!

~ The SU Team

StumbleUpon Sticker Giveaway

Friday, December 04, 2009

Get your StumbleUpon Stickers!

We got a new batch of SU stickers at our office and want to give some away!  Our employees have been putting them on their laptops, staplers, backpacks and anything else they can get their hands on!  We want to send them to our fans, so you can get Stickered up as well.

To get some StumbleUpon stickers, send us a self-addressed stamped envelope by January 1st, 2010 to:

StumbleUpon - Stickers for me too!
P.O. Box 247
660 4th Street
San Francisco, CA. 94107, USA

Make sure to include necessary postage so we can send the Stickers back to you! In the U.S. the regular postage stamp of .44 (USD) will be sufficient. Please use your own calculation for postage on International requests. 

We hope you enjoy the stickers and please spread the word to fellow Stumblers!

* Please note: Your mailing information will not be stored in any way and will only be used to send you your stickers! Please only use stickers for good not evil. Offer available while supplies last.

Cheers!

~ The SU Team

Learn Different Ways to Stumble

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Stumblers,

This week's tutorial will present different ways to Stumble, either from the installed toolbar, web toolbar or our website. Follow this guide and explore all the fun ways to get the content YOU want.

Read the entire tutorial in our Online Help Center and email us your questions or suggestions.

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving today, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving and we are thankful to have you!

Keep on Stumbling!

~ The SU Team

Exercise Your Thumbs on StumbleUpon!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Hello Stumblers,

In this week’s tutorial, we are going to talk about one of the core functions of Stumbling: rating.

Rating sites is essential to improving the quality of your stumbles - we want you to exercise this right and tell us what you liked and what you didn’t like.  Our Recommendation Engine will learn your preferences and bring you even better sites.

Read the entire tutorial in our Online Help Center and email us your questions or concerns.

Keep on Stumbling!

~ The SU Team

Similarity Meter and Default Homepage Are Back!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Hello Stumblers,

We have a few exciting announcements for you! A couple of weeks ago we posted a guide to the new SU look, where we committed to bring back a few popular features from the old interface.

The Similarity Meter and the Default Homepage setting are now available in the new SU!

For those of you who are not too familiar with these features, here’s a quick overview:

• The Similarity Meter is a diagram displayed on every Stumbler profile that indicates how similar in interests you and that person are.
• Default Homepage (or View) is the ability to set either your Favorites (All) or your Reviews to be the homepage of your StumbleUpon account. Go to Settings > Customize Profile to access this option.

Have a great weekend!
~ The SU Team

How to Discover Similar People on StumbleUpon

Wednesday, November 11, 2009