Sorting, Saving and Tossing StumbleUpon Friends

Reviewing SU Subscriptions

StumbleUpon's recent upgrade dramatically changes the online sharing game. Some Stumblrs are looking to jump ship, sniffing out other social media like FaceBook for the first time.

Version 3 friends are now "subscriptions" in Version 4. The transition started in early October. Like many of you, I assumed my friends were safely labeled for the upgrade. As the launch date moved nearer, I read the instructions clarifying Friends and Subscriptions in the new SU.  You can no longer interact with all of your V3 friends in the same way. You may need to take action to save the old friendship perks. It's time to figure out how/if SU still helps your blogging.

Note: If you only recently became a Stumblr, you may want to read 'how Stumble Upon works' or  an overview of the SU toolbar.

Definition of Friends in the New StumbleUpon

• Subscriptions - by subscribing to specific Stumblrs, you set their favorites to populate your “Recent Activity” page. This gives a nice cross-section of interesting articles to read or share with others.
  

  Want to see their favorites.

• Mutual Subscribers - means you subscribed to that person's stumbles and she subscribed to yours.
• Mutual Subscribers who can “Direct Share” - Notice the dual share icon (bi-directional arrows) next to Stumblrs' pictures in your Stumblr list.
  

  Sharing

  This means that you can share pages from your browser toolbar, rather than sending  emails from the dashboard. Toolbar shares are "in your face," appearing instantly as a flaming mail icon on your friend's toolbar.

First Step: Find holes in your network and mend them fast.

Sort subscriptions without the direct share icon.

Not Sharing?

Log into your upgraded SU account. Press "Stumblr," then "Subscriptions." Look for old friends who don't have the "direct share" arrows. I visited Zacariasyan's profile, where it was clear I had not checked the box to "accept shares to my toolbar."

Should I accept shares?

So I took a look at his stumbles and found we liked the same two pages. One was an article I discovered that he gave a thumbs up. Not much to pin a relationship on. I decided to unsubscribe to his stumble activity.

In the future I'll resist subscribing simply because someone liked my discovery (or visited my profile – how shallow). The old days of collecting friends that way are history.

Repeat!

Similar Likes?

Repeat for others who are not direct shares. In some cases you'll find you have lots in common, but they did not subscribe to you. If you're a complete fan, then you want to keep up with their favorites.

In my case, SuperMomInNY and I have very similar interests. The share icon is missing because she had not returned my V3 friend request. To make matters worse, she does not accept messages from non-friends! But I left her on my list. For people who accept messages, you can send them information to decide if they want to socialize:

Hi - if you're interested in my stumbles, we need to subscribe to each other in SU Version 4. See http://www.stumbleupon.com/help/Friends_and_Subscriptions_in_the_new_SU/
"In order to direct-share in V4 with another Stumbler, you must both be subscribed to each other and both opt in to accept shares to your toolbar." Here's my page: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/SBANow/. Hope you want to subscribe and/or share. Thanks for taking a look!

Second Step: Thin the subscriptions herd - strengthen your network.

Scrutinize subscriptions with the direct share icon.

This is a good time to look at the folks who send you shares that don't fit what you like. You can visit their profiles, review things you have in common, especially tags. Then decide if you want to unsubscribe and/or turn off the share feature.

I unsubscribed to a few popular/ pro Bloggers that I read on RSS already – often our only common favorites were their blog pages!   Their non-blog stumbles may be about hobbies or tags you're not interested in seeing on SU. Others who don't allow messages were also nixed. One of the primary reasons for V4 is to "socialize" through shares or messages.

Third Step: Expand your network of quality stumbles.

Rescue Friends whose stumbles and shares you may lose.

Time to Subscribe!

Scroll down on the same Subscriptions page to see "Friends who are not Subscriptions." This is where you find out who you've innocently slighted. Imagine my surprise to find Mr. I and Sebastyne! What's more surprising is we currently share stumbles via the toolbar. So I can only guess that they are using V3. Heaven knows what happens when they're forced to use V4. So I need to save them!

I had never subscribed to Ishan's stumbles, although we are V3 "friends." Likewise, he is subscribed to only one Stumblr (TimeThief). (I'm a bit jealous, but let's move on!) I subscribed, then put him on notice to reciprocate. (Dare he not?)

As for Sebastyne, I like her graphic design tags, so I did subscribe. Under the new system she does not receive a heads-up notice of new subscribers. We haven't exchanged many toolbar shares. I doubt if she's interested in my stumbles on her dashboard, so I didn't send her a note. Let her surprise me with a subscription. (She's not reading this, is she?)

Repeat!

Reviewing the others to whom you have not subscribed is similar to thinning the herd above. Do you really want a flaming SU arrow from them on your toolbar? I subscribed to a few without sending a message, leaving the rest in limbo. They can make the first move when they realize my SU is off-limits for shares! If I hadn't thumbed up many of their shares, they just might cull me out of their network. Then I wouldn't have to be the bad guy. This is so much like the teenage years!

Summary

On October 28, 2009, StumbleUpon dashboards defaulted to V4. However, SU gave us an out by allowing a switch-back to V3 during the "transition" — big mistake. People love to procrastinate and resist change. Some are in for a shock when the switch option goes away in "early December 2009." They may not realize we must define how we share pages and whose stumbles appear on our dashboard. Likewise, we need to know if our stumbles will show up on a  friend's recent activity list!

If you're oblivious to the changeover, follow the steps above. Make sure valued friends are intact. You'll be glad you made the adjustments, since SU continues to be a valuable resource for finding blogs and other pages that increase your knowledge and exposure.

As you complete the steps, you have a few questions to ask yourself and some key decisions to make:

• Are you still interested in their favorites and reviews?  If not, unsubscribe now.
• How many stumbles and tags do you have in common? If not enough, unsubscribe now.
• How important is it to share pages directly with them? If that's your primary goal, then "unrequited love is a bore." Make sure that they are on notice to subscribe to you and select the toolbar share option.
• Do you love their stumbles but hate the constant sharing? If so, subscribe, but turn off the direct share feature. Turn a cold heart to any requests to share! (You remember what it was like to be a mean teenager?)

Leave a comment about your tactics for handling this social issue! We won't judge you.

Edited by Cheryl