Siskel and Ebert had it right…or Its all in the thumbs
Back when I was in college, I used to enjoy watching Siskel and Ebert. It wasn’t that I agreed with their recommendations, in fact, more often than not, I didn’t agree. But I did enjoy seeing the two (often quite different) reviews side by side, and listening to their reasons for why they voted like they did.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like StumbleUpon so much. Visit almost any Stumbler’s page and you’ll see some pages that they liked, and possibly some that they didn’t.
I’ve said before that the thumb-up icon is the most important tool on your SU toolbar, with the thumb-down coming right after it. Why is that? Well, each time you thumb up a page it does two things. It tells the StumbleUpon system that you like pages of that type. AND, your thumb up adds credit to the page, so that it will be sent out to other people.
The thumbs down does the same thing in reverse. It tells the SU system that you don’t like pages of that type, and it takes away some of the credit for the page.
Now, notice I said it tells the system what you think about that type of a page. Each time you thumb up or thumb down a page, that information is added to the system’s picture of you, refining the types of pages that it will send next time. If you don’t like the information on a page, but want more pages of that specific type, be cautious about thumbing it down. Also, if you don’t care for what a page says, but want others to see it, a thumb down won’t help to pass it along to others.
Okay, so I understand the theory behind using the thumbs, but what about practical use? I have a blog that I want people to see, but I’m never sure whether I should thumb up the pages I write or not. I got in trouble on Digg for posting my own stuff.
Good question. StumbleUpon is unique among most of the social page-ranking programs because it doesn’t penalize you for promoting your own stuff. I’ve mentioned before that as soon as you create your StumbleUpon page (the http://yourname.stumbleupon.com page), you should thumb it up. You like your own stuff, right?
By the same token, when you write a blog post, thumb it up if you like it (and if you don’t like it, ask yourself instead why you’re writing articles that you don’t like). If you really like an article, quote it on your SU blog, but please, please, please, don’t make your blog entirely links to your own (or other) advertising sites. A link like that here and there is all you need to draw attention, and you’ll keep people coming back to both your SU blog and your own site.
