What type of Social Network user are you?
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Ahoy! From which port do ye hail?
An online multi-player game that I enjoy playing shows this whenever anyone asks the standard asl (age, sex, location) question. The game, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, is one of the social networks I am involved in online.
Disclosure: If you click either link and sign up for YPP, it will give both of us extra game currency. No real money will be gained though.
PC Mag’s Encyclopedia defines social network as “An association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby.”
While offline social networks usually stay small enough that you can at least recognize the other members even if you only say “Hi” in passing, online networks sometimes have millions of members.
Recently I was discussing different social networks with a friend. Allan came to StumbleUpon after he had used Facebook for a while, and had become quite knowledgeable about their TOS and their rules surrounding it.
I’ve had a theory for a little while, that you can tell which website a person starts with by how they use a new site, particularly StumbleUpon.
When you join a new group offline, you probably don’t walk in to the first meeting and expect it to be like every other group you’ve been part of. You don’t expect a computer club to be interested in the same things as the astronomy club, nor do you expect the chess club to act like a baseball team. Even within the same category, most of us realize that things are different from one place to another. One preacher doesn’t sound like another and different football coaches aren’t going to give you the same playbook.
But yet, when people join a social networking site online, they seem to expect things to be the same as the last site they were involved with.
I can understand it, in fact, I’m guilty of it also. I had been using Del.icio.us when I first joined SU. At the time, it wasn’t that easy to organize your bookmarks on Del, so when I found StumbleUpon, I thought it was a great replacement bookmarking system. Most of my first stumbles were merely moving my bookmarks over to the new “list.”
I think it was about the time that I learned how to add pictures to my SU page that I realized StumbleUpon wasn’t just for bookmarking.
So, which type of StumbleUpon user are you? Do you use it like:
Del.icio.us and other bookmarking sites? Storing bookmarks is what it’s all about. The rest is just added benefits.
Digg, Sphinn, Newsvine, or any of the other voting sites? It’s the numbers that are important here. Friends count as votes , and the thumbs up makes a pretty good voting system. After all, it did work for Siskel and Ebert.
Facebook or one of the other befriending sites? I almost listed Facebook by itself, since Facebook users are usually cautious. They’ve gotten used to the vagrancies of Facebook and expect other sites to act the same. I really don’t know enough about the other befriending sites to tell their users yet, but I’m sure they also have distinguishing characteristics.
Of course, the beauty of StumbleUpon is that anyone can have a great time with it no matter how they use it! 
Comments
Comment from Brian Auer
Time December 7, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Interesting theory you’ve got going here. I think StumbleUpon is unique in that it can be used in many different ways. It’s such a flexible system and the features are powerful.
Personally, I use 3 main networks: SU, Digg, and Del.icio.us (my name is “auer1816″ on all 3). I kind of use them all the same way though, mostly as a method of bookmarking and sharing of information.
Del.icio.us is at the base — I bookmark everything I find useful or interesting. If it’s more interesting than the norm, I’ll submit to SU (or give it a thumbs up). And if it’s particularly interesting and outstanding I’ll submit to Digg (or add my digg).
Brian Auer’s last blog post..December Challenge: Day 7 - Paul Meissner
Comment from simon
Time December 7, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I am writing to ask for your assistance in reading my post on the definitive list of stumbleupon articles, hope you can leave a comment, maybe promote my list or just social bookmark the post, by the end all will get a back link.
http://www.yeepage.com/stumbleupon-articles
rgds
Simon
simon’s last blog post..What, Why, When, Where and How of Comments
Comment from Buzzing with Ange
Time December 8, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Well Teeg… I use many social network sites, and the ones I spend the most time on are SU, which is pretty addictive, Facebook is great to get to know other online friends, BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog are great for community building and learning from others blogs, and bookmarking sites are varied.
I have my favorites installed in my tool-bar for easy access like, Del.icio.us, Faves, Clipmarks, (note: when I use either Clipmarks or Faves, it automatically saves to Del.icio.us as well), the Sharethis button, so it makes for easy and quick access.
I found an interesting article by Caroline Middlebrook which discusses quick methods of bookmarking. You can find it here http://tinyurl.com/38xc77 with how to set up some shortcut keys too.
It does keep me very occupied to say the least
Buzzing with Ange’s last blog post..Forgiveness and Emotional Intelligence
Comment from Teeg
Time December 8, 2007 at 11:11 pm
@Allan: Thanks! I’m glad you’re having fun with StumbleUpon! That’s been my main goal for this site from the beginning.
I still haven’t really explored Ma.gnolia.com but I do like BlogCatalog.
@Brian: I like Del.icio.us much better than I used to. I think I first signed up when they were in beta, and bookmarking things was a chore if you forgot to do it when you first added the link (which of course, I always forgot to do). I like how it’s set up now, I just have to remind myself to use it. I do like your process of using the three sites. Now if I could be as organized.
Comment from coozies
Time December 10, 2007 at 2:31 am
StumbleUpon is probably my favorite social bookmarking site, simply because of the personalization factor
StumbleUpon has a little bit of a myspace vibe to it for me
Del.icio.us is just too raw and simple
Comment from Teeg
Time December 10, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Simon, I visited your page. All of the articles you have written about StumbleUpon (and linked to on that page) mention exchanging stumbles, a procedure that is against StumbleUpon’s Terms of Service and can result in both the stumbler and anyone involved being banned:
“StumbleUpon does not allow personal accounts to be used for the purposes of incentivization or promoting sites. This would be considered a breach of our Terms.
The practice of sending PM’s encouraging or inviting other stumblers to rate/review sites in exchange for reciprocal reviews/ratings, monetary, or any other form of reward is strictly forbidden.
The practice of actively soliciting a rating or review for a site is also forbidden. Should you receive a PM, or encounter forum postings that breach this rule, you are encouraged to report this via feedback.
Accounts participating in such practices will be deleted and banned, and the related sites deleted and banned from the system.”
Comment from Teeg
Time December 16, 2007 at 8:38 am
Coozies, it’s probably mine too, although twitter has become a close second. Del.icio.us always feels like a site that has potential, but hasn’t quite obtained it yet. Too raw sounds like a perfect description.
TzuVelli, that’s true. Even the pure submission sites are all different in some way or shape. I wonder if it’s because offline so many businesses are starting to think that every shop has to look exactly the same, so we expect the online sites to all be alike too. Personally, I prefer Apple’s old catch phrase: Think different. (Just wish they still encouraged innovation and uniqueness.)
Pingback from What Is An Online Community And What Are The Rules | Coffee With Allan Cockerill…
Time December 28, 2007 at 6:07 pm
[...] Teeg wrote about this a little while back, and asked a similar question. [...]
Comment from TzuVelli
Time January 3, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I agree so many people treat all social sites nearly the same. And then they wonder why their content never becomes popular. Each site is different. There are many things I would submit to Digg but not StumbleUpon and vice versa.
Comment from Sid Savara
Time August 14, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I use SU for finding new sites and cool things to read, and but I like to bookmark things in delicious.
Of course, occasionally I’ll forget to delicious something, and it’s great to know that I can hunt through my past stumbles and look for sites I enjoyed reading!
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Comment from Allan
Time December 7, 2007 at 6:30 pm
That’s a great post Teeg.
Our existing environment and mindset are usually what we go by when we encounter a new situation, and so it’s only natural that this carries over to the online world as well.
I’m enjoying my Stumbleupon experience, and this is largely because of the quality of your posts on the topic!
At present I am having fun exploring BlogCatalog.com and Ma.gnolia.com. I find that as I learn my way around different sites, that I meet friends from other networks as well, and that some seem to follow mee from place to place.
Whether these sites will have the same pull as other players in the field, it is great getting to know others…
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