You’ve definitely opened up my eyes and have me rethinking the benefits of StumbleUpon. Thanks again for sharing that information with us.

I can’t speak for Susan, of course, but I’ve gotten into Stumbleupon myself, and I can say what I’ve like about it and why I use it instead of delicious.

Stumbleupon offers more of a blogging platform, with larger character limits for posts, along with a limited use of html, enough to allow the embedding of images and links into text. This isn’t as much functionality as is offered by most blogging platforms, but it is enough to allow one to discuss the sites one bookmarks and not just point people toward them. In fact, one can discuss them at length, just by linking the end of one post to the beginning of another, if one so pleases, or by taking the discussion onto another site, if one so wishes.

One is stuck with a very limited set of templates and few customisation options, but one can get past the plain text look of del.icio.us and simpy, and create something much more presentable. While I’d like to see more functionality, what functionality is present lifts Stumbleupon into an entirely different category.

Downside: Stumbletrolls are as bad as is often alleged, and the company does little to keep them under control. However, these trolls don’t seem to wander much, so as long as you avoid the forums, they’ll probably never bother you. One doesn’t really need to use them to socialise on the site, anyway – just wander the review pages for the sites you like, find somebody whose blog looks promising, sign up as one of their “fans” and you’re on your way to making a connection. That’s how I found my contacts, or rather, in most cases, how they found me.