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StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

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Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#81

So SU tangentially provided me with the singularly most embarrassing moment of my life about 9 years ago. So we are showing our office to a design company a few buildings over and just chatting about the business and the stuff we make (we were all starting out and in our early 20s), there were lots of prototype bits around and adhesives and stuff, basically the office had a slight chemical smell to it. One of the guy…

That's hilarious. I can totally relate.

And don't pay any attention to these alcoholic fratbros. You be you, man!

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#82
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urgh, Reddit is indeed an addictive, toxic timesink of a filter bubble. It reminds me of Slashdot, but on a much larger scale. I have been reflecting on ways to fix it lately. I was imagining something like reddit, but... 1) not completely anonymous / pseudonymous. Maybe a profile photo with you holding a sign with your username for verification (like certain subreddits do), first name, and SMS / phone number verific…

I hate to be that guy, but each subreddit is different. This is arguably the main selling point of reddit vs other link aggregators like facebook. Grouping all into the same toxic culture is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Unless a subreddit is heavily moderated, I've yet to see one that's gained popularity outside of its core users that didn't turn into a meme/clickbait/karma-motivated cesspool.

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#83
Computer science blog gems I found using stumbleupon were priceless when I was in college. I would spend google portion of night stumbling good blogs of computer science and DIY projects. I could never find them through google because I didn’t know what to look for.

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urgh, Reddit is indeed an addictive, toxic timesink of a filter bubble. It reminds me of Slashdot, but on a much larger scale. I have been reflecting on ways to fix it lately. I was imagining something like reddit, but... 1) not completely anonymous / pseudonymous. Maybe a profile photo with you holding a sign with your username for verification (like certain subreddits do), first name, and SMS / phone number verific…

Hate to be that guy, but while people being somewhat shittier anonymously is a real thing, there are whole cadres of incredibly horrible people that will post horrible stuff under their real names and be proud of it. Losing anonymity means losing protections for actually vulnerable people. The shittiest people are often the ones with the most secure positions in society. I think our online personas are just a reflect…

This information does not have to be made visible to other posters - just to verify that you're a unique human at account creation.

You could still call yourself KatDude420.

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#86

If one wanted to build a barebones SU replacement, what would be a good approach to get an index of random pages these days? (Or is there an underreported replacement out there somewhere?)

Comman crawl may be good place to start

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#88

StumbleUpon was a key driver in traffic to some of my early blog posts. They didn't stay long (compared to search referrals) however the exposure was great.

Ditto; I remember a few years ago seeing a few massive traffic spikes (larger than Slashdot in its heyday) to some posts, and the traffic from SU was a lot more sticky than from other tech sites.

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#89
post #14

I've been mulling a form of charity where instead of closing down a once famous website, you give it to some talented developers in a poorer country to maintain it remotely. There are good developers in third world countries who get paid a pittance for basically busy work. They would certainly appreciate the challenge and money around a service like StumbleUpon. What do you think of this idea and is there anyone doin…

I was once involved with a somewhat popular social network that was closing down, and some people in the user community would say this. It's not really practical, as there are lots of operating costs for hardware, bandwidth, looking after the domain names, DNS, security issues, DOS attacks, dealing with subpoenas from law enforcement, DMCA takedown notices, getting rid of illegal material, the list goes on. This work…

Isn't the largest cost of most online business the staff? This cost would reduce 10x if given to third world devs and surely that will put most of these flailing websites in the black

Re: StumbleUpon closing after 16 years, accounts can be migrated to Mix

#90
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be that guy, but each subreddit is different. This is arguably the main selling point of reddit vs other link aggregators like facebook. Grouping all into the same toxic culture is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Unless a subreddit is heavily moderated, I've yet to see one that's gained popularity outside of its core users that didn't turn into a meme/clickbait/karma-motivated cesspool.

> Unless a subreddit is heavily moderated, I've yet to see one that's gained popularity outside of its core users that didn't turn into a meme/clickbait/karma-motivated cesspool.

Well that's a weird condition given that all the good subreddits I know owe this entirely to moderators. Why are you looking for lightly moderated content?

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