StumbleUpon Top Users Interview – MrGrum

Posted on 03. Dec, 2007 by DeanHunt in Online Marketing

StumbleUpon has had a whopping 4 million downloads, and to celebrate we have a world exclusive interview with the top 30 users of Stumbleupon.com

Today we are speaking with Stumbleupon top user: MrGrum

How long have you been an active user of StumbleUpon?

Three years

What makes you use StumbleUpon more than the other social sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us etc…?

The demographic of regular users here seems to skew older and more mature than most of those sites. I like Metafilter quite a bit, but the other big content aggregating sites don’t have much that interests me; too much juvenalia and repetition for my taste. To be sure there is some of that on SU as well but seemingly less or at least it’s easier to avoid. I imagine part of that is thanks to the design of SU which allows for a more selective browsing experience. I browse by individual user not by random while using SU which allows for a much more cohesive group of stumbles.

If you could make one positive change to the current Stumbeupon platform, what would it be?

Other than more color choices for individual pages, I am happy enough with the design. SU does seem to work much better with Firefox than Internet Explorer, so perhaps there could be a little bit more attention paid to that as well.

What don’t you like about the current StumbleUpon platform?

Without having a ready alternative to compare, nothing really leaps to mind. It seems as good or better than the other alternatives I’ve looked at. I take it for what it is and don’t worry much about what it isn’t as long as it continues to provide me with enjoyment.
What are the main factors you look for in content that you feel is worth stumbling? Is there anything that puts you off stumbling an article?

I dislike screeds, agitprop, or content that is too dogmatic unless it is extremely well written, well argued, or very amusing, all of which are difficult to pull off. I like well reasoned and not too insistent articles that provide room for additional thought after reading them and don’t try to railroad the reader into a single preconceived response. Originality or a different point of view is also a plus.

What sort of topics interest you the most?

Anything I didn’t know before, I like to read up on a wide variety of topics, which was one of the reasons I started using SU.

What advice would you give to a brand new user of Stumbleupon?

Be yourself, be polite, and try to add new things or interests to the site.

Do you ever get thanked by the site owners after you stumble their content?

Only on rare occasions, I find it a bit disconcerting. I tend to forget that they might notice I’ve rated them.

Has anyone ever tried to bribe you into stumbling their content?

No bribes, but people often try to guilt me into rating some site or occasionally berate me. I ignore those people.

Do you own a website? And if so, what have been your biggest StumbleUpon successes from your site?

No, I don’t have a site of my own at this time, which is one of the reasons why I use SU so much. It’s easier than having to completely create my own content.

What are your thoughts on stumbling your own content?

I have no intrinsic problem with it. If it’s good it’ll be be given other good ratings, and if it’s not good, it’ll either be ignored or given bad ratings and snide comments which, on Stumbleupon itself, will probably cost the person more than they might gain in bad word of mouth.

What are your thoughts on Linkbait and people creating content with the sole aim of getting traffic from sites like Stumbleupon?

As I said above, it’s just a bad idea. If the content isn’t worthwhile you are as likely to get flamed as you are to gain visitors, and even if you do gain a few visits, they’ll be one time which will boost a sites hits temporarily perhaps, but won’t help much in the long run. There is no good substitute for worthwhile content.

Are you influenced by factors like authority of the website, design of the website etc? And if so, what sort of things do you specifically look for?

In certain circumstances, of course I am. I wouldn’t trust medical articles from any site that isn’t affliliated with a medical authority, for example, and the same holds true in varying regards with all factual information. A good opinion piece, art or humor does not need to meet the sam standards of course, but I try to look carefully at the things I post or rate. Photoshopping and bluffing is rather rampant on the web so checking for confirmation from other sources is always a good idea if it is something that is in question.

Why do you feel you are in the top 30 most powerful users of StumbeUpon?

I have no idea what metric is used to determine such a thing, if I had to hazard a guess, I would suspect that it has something to do with the amount of new sites I add to the stumble database, in addition to volume and possibly other people favorably rating sites I “found”. If not those things, I have no idea how that could be decided other than some sort of random chance…
What advice would you give to anyone who wanted to get into the top 30?

I don’t know if it’s worth shooting for the top thirty, but if someone finds new and interesting sites and tries to find a wide variety of interesting content, I imagine that should be it’s own reward, it’s all I do this for anyway..

Thanks a lot for the questions, have a good weekend.

greg

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