I don’t want to cover all of the new features.
I only cover one which I don’t use and I believe there are many people who don’t want to use either. I’m talking about the “save as local bookmark if thumbed up or if tagged”.

Maybe you noticed it already:

You stumble a site, you like it and you give your thumb up – Pew, and it is bookmarked.
You want to tag a site – Pew, and it is bookmarked.

I wish StumbleUpon wouldn’t set this feature to auto enabled, or at least they could ask us if we want to use this feature before enabling it. I’m not sure if they mentioned it somewhere and I’m a bit too lazy too Google for it.

Anyway, time to get rid of this feature:

1. Open the StumbleUpon ToolBar Options
2. Select the tab “Search & Tagging”
3. Look for “Bookmark upon Rate or Tag”
4. Uncheck the box next to “Save favorites to a Firefox bookmark folder”
5. Click “ok”

And we are done. I don’t remember if I had to delete the auto-added bookmarks on my own, so just have a look if they have been removed. If not, I guess you know how to delete bookmarks.

What do you think about this feature?
Do you have it enabled or disabled?

P.S.: I’d appreciate it if someone can tell me if he or she had to delete the bookmarks after disabling the feature.

Fortunately I paid enough attention to the “stumblecard” to see the short description explaining what it is:

Congratulations…you have found a “stumblecard”!

The latest sensation sweeping the web, “stumblecards” are simply an online version of the humble trading card.
What’s so great about “stumblecards” is that you never know when you’ll find one.
There are many out there to collect so keep your eyes peeled.
When you find a card, be sure to bookmark this page or give it a thumbs up so you can go to collect them all.

I myself found two cards via StumbleUpon so far. I did not try a Google search as I believe it spoils the sensation of this, well, game.

Upon my research for this new StumbleUpon “thing” I had a few questions, like who created it and if there is a place which tells you how many are out there. Some questions I was able to answer.

Who created the stumblecard?

Adam Atom, know as upnatom at StumbleUpon, invented this kind of game.
Before I start quoting or create any kind of plagiarism I will link to an Interview with StumbleCards Creator, Adam Atom.

How many StumbleCards exist?

I’m not sure how many exactly exist. On the upnatom.org website you learn that there are 25 of them floating around on the Internet.
However, it won’t surprise me if many other people decide to create their own cards to promote their website/blog.

Is that some kind of viral marketing strategy for StumbleUpon?

Again I found an article, this time about Stumblecards: Viral Marketing For StumbleUpon?.

What do other people think about the stumblecards?

If you use Google to do some research you will find a wide spread range of opinions. Some people literally hate them, as you can conclude from the amount of thumb downs (and sometimes quite vulgar reviews). There is even at least one blog post giving 4 reasons why the stumblecards suck.

And there are people who enjoy the “trading card game”, giving them thumbsup and of course a good review.
Despite my intensive research I had no success at finding a blog post giving reasons why the stumblecards are great.

Although I prefer a neutral opinion on the whole topic, I decided to get at least 4 reasons to like stumblecards:

1. They give Stumblers, who are getting somewhat tired of StumbleUpon a new goal. A target they can go for. Just keep in mind that you have to stumble about those cards thus you have to keep on stumbling.
2. It is a fun game and way better than those lolcats and the many plagiarism posts stumbleupon tends to serve.
3. They kind of reflect the way StumbleUpon works. I mean, you won’t be able to stumbleupon all the stumblecards in a short time. At first StumbleUpon has to learn about the fact that you like this game. Then it still randomizes what you see as the next page. In short, even after StumbleUpon learned that you like to see stumblecards, it still takes your other preferences into consideration.
4. Websites/blogs who have their own stumblecard receive a little bit more traffic than usual.

Which cards did I find so far?

No, I do not provide a link to the cards. I don’t show screens either although all stumblecards are copyleft.
The cards I found are “Piece o’ Cheese” and “AC/DC – Back in Black”.
I know two cards aren’t many, but I keep on stumbling.

Last Thought

Maybe I’m not that much neutral as I like because I do give the stumblecards a thumbup.
I see it the way it is: a fun game which keeps me at using stumble. Especially after I considered stopping to use StumbleUpon as I got a bit tired of it.

If you find my stumbleupon account and you have a look at it, you will see that I’m not one of the “pro stumblers”. I don’t participate in the community either (Actually I do participate occasionally, but not enough to be one of the greater StumbleUpon users). It is not because of the community itself, it is just that I don’t have that much time and I don’t really bother much about giving a review. Maybe I change it in the future…

Anyway, what are your thoughts about StumbleUpon’s stumblecards which weren’t created by StumbleUpon?

Update:
Nick at e3internet.com sent me an email, explaining that the name of the creator used in the original interview was wrong. For now, the creator of the stumblecards prefers being known as Adam Atom. As a result I updated my article.