Lonely Coast

August 2, 2012

elledark:

Stumbleupon’s Woes Increase.Interesting article showing that Stumbleupon is sliding deeper into the grave it dug for itself with its recent disastrous re-design.That awful and ill-conceived ‘re-design’, revolution rather than evolution, was embarked upon to ‘dumb-down’ the user experience and make it attractive for mobile apps, but it has backfired and resulted in a continuing dramatic loss of traffic plus the hasty stepping down of Garrett Camp, CEO behind the change.Unfortunately neither the person writing this article or the Stumbleupon ‘spokesmen’ quoted in it seem to have grasped the problem. The company execs complain that users don’t stay on the site very long now but fail to make a connection between that and their own actions.The fact is, they destroyed the blogs that had been a feature of Stumbleupon right from the start, dismantled the ways in which community could express itself, and discarded most of the social functionality which encouraged people to spend time there. The sites most enthusiastic users, who curated its best content, were driven away and there was nothing in the re-design to engage or retain new users.A commenter in the article pinpointed the basic flaw in Stumbleupons new design, that the experience is now isolating compared to other social media. Nick Douglas, the editor of humor site Slacktory, said “I didn’t really need yet another discovery method, on top of Reddit and Tumblr .. both of those include decent discussion; they have an actual culture. [StumbleUpon] seemed like a toy I was using, alone.” Back when it was attracting loyal users it wasn’t like that.Stumbleupon is rapidly heading for irrelevance if it’s not already there and apparently the guys running the show still don’t get it. They think the answer to the mess they’re in is more of the same. After having their mistakes explained to them over and over by their users, after seeing their traffic go down the pan so dramatically, they’re still willfully clueless. It’s like a corporate death wish.The old saying is true. There’s none so blind as those who won’t see.Read the article here

Stumbleupon’s Woes Increase.

Interesting article showing that Stumbleupon is sliding deeper into the grave it dug for itself with its recent disastrous re-design.

That awful and ill-conceived ‘re-design’, revolution rather than evolution, was embarked upon to ‘dumb-down’ the user experience and make it attractive for mobile apps, but it has backfired and resulted in a continuing dramatic loss of traffic plus the hasty stepping down of Garrett Camp, CEO behind the change.

Unfortunately neither the person writing this article or the Stumbleupon ‘spokesmen’ quoted in it seem to have grasped the problem. The company execs complain that users don’t stay on the site very long now but fail to make a connection between that and their own actions.

The fact is, they destroyed the blogs that had been a feature of Stumbleupon right from the start, dismantled the ways in which community could express itself, and discarded most of the social functionality which encouraged people to spend time there. The sites most enthusiastic users, who curated its best content, were driven away and there was nothing in the re-design to engage or retain new users.

A commenter in the article pinpointed the basic flaw in Stumbleupons new design, that the experience is now isolating compared to other social media. Nick Douglas, the editor of humor site Slacktory, said “I didn’t really need yet another discovery method, on top of Reddit and Tumblr .. both of those include decent discussion; they have an actual culture. [StumbleUpon] seemed like a toy I was using, alone.” Back when it was attracting loyal users it wasn’t like that.

Stumbleupon is rapidly heading for irrelevance if it’s not already there and apparently the guys running the show still don’t get it. They think the answer to the mess they’re in is more of the same. After having their mistakes explained to them over and over by their users, after seeing their traffic go down the pan so dramatically, they’re still willfully clueless. It’s like a corporate death wish.

The old saying is true. There’s none so blind as those who won’t see.

Read the article here