Reem is a 27 year old woman in a relationship from Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.

Likes 2,022 pages, 27 videos, 566 photos • 301 fans • Received 37 reviews

Member since Oct 03, 2007 Born in Jerusalem, I have lived in five countries and traveled to many others. Please feel free to reach out to me. AIM - rabeidoh
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1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

Some friends were discussing StumbleUpon and were talking about its great features. I decided to try it out and immediately got addicted.

2. You have quite a life story! Can you flesh it out a little more for us?

My father was the bureau chief of Reuters and that took us to many countries around the world. I am originally from Jerusalem. I have lived in five countries since - UAE, Cyprus, Egypt, Morocco and now the U.S. I moved to Missouri to pursue my undergraduate degree. Many people have asked me, “Why Missouri?” While in Morocco, one of my teacher’s parents taught at Mizzou. I spoke with them about the university and applied shortly thereafter. After completing my degree in Political Science, I moved to St. Louis to obtain my master’s degree in media communications. I graduated two years ago with honors. Since then, I met the most wonderful man and have gotten engaged. The wedding will be on 9/5/2009. I currently work for a wonderful company and serve as a social media strategist.

3. I love your blog. Where do you get your ideas, and where are you heading with it?

I created my blog almost two years ago. It was on Blogspot and discussed politics and current affairs. In October, I decided to move it to Wordpress and changed the name from “Introspect” to “Social Impressions.” During that time, my focus shifted to social media. My topic selections are inspired by observations of the social media space. I am intrigued by the online culture and how users interact with one another. I hope for Social Impressions to become a resource for users needing information about how to navigate through building and maintaining a strong online community.

4. Your life seems very full! How do you fit everything in?

That is a really good question. Fitting everything in isn’t my priority. It is to continue to nurture the amazing friendships I have established online. As you have seen in many of my posts, I reiterate that “social media is about being SOCIAL.” I invest a lot of my time online because I am passionate about social media. I believe in its power to share valuable and diverse information that wasn’t offered during the traditional media era.

5. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

I really enjoy Arts/History, Health, Social Media, Science/Tech and Political articles. I have always been intrigued by these topics and I continue to learn from all the stories I am introduced to by my friends and StumbleUpon.

6. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

The groups I am a part of on StumbleUpon have minimal activity. Perhaps when you discover a story, StumbleUpon could ask if you would like to share the story in Groups you are a member of.

7. How often do you Stumble? Do you keep track of about how much time you spend Stumbling every day?

I try to Stumble daily. I am on the site throughout the day, but I have no idea how much time I spend on Stumble. As aforementioned, SU is really addictive.

8. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

Of course! You can find me on Mixx (Nomadelle), Digg (Nomadelle), Reddit (rabeidoh), Twitter (rabeidoh), delicious (rabeidoh), Myspace, Facebook, etc. You can find all the links to my accounts on the About section of my blog.

9. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

You can see that a friend has shared a site with you as soon as you open a new window.You can also bookmark stories that you enjoyed and share them with all your friends on StumbleUpon. I love the fact that StumbleUpon has multiple purposes, unlike some of the sites mentioned above.

10. Five random facts about you that are not in your profile?

1- I come from a long history of musicians. My grandfather was a composer. My father and his twin brothers own a music academy. The love of music has been inherited by every Abeidoh.
2- I have a sweet tooth and I really enjoy ice cream (vanilla with cinnamon sprinkled on top) and milk chocolate.
3- Every time I go to the movie theater, I like to indulge in popcorn and Whoppers mixed together. (Don’t knock it until you try it!)
4- My fiance and I have two wonderful dogs, Amira and Dakota. They are mixed breeds.
5- I routinely screw up colloquiums. My best friend calls them “Reemisms.” Her favorite is: “Blood is more important than water”

Kathy is a married woman from Missouri, USA.

Likes 522 pages, 8 videos, 11 photos • 83 fans • Received 27 reviews

Member since Mar 29, 2007 Hi, I am Kathy. I am one of the owners and President of Shakadoo, a weblog devoted to life around the home. From decorating, to family life, to lawn and garden, to real estate matters, we cover all the topics. One of my capacities on Shakadoo is as the real estate advice guru “Jill”. My experience comes from being a top selling Realtor for over 11 years in the Suburbs of Missouri. I am married, have 3 kids and a dog. My life is insane but never to busy to make new friends!

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I joined StumbleUpon after I launched my family of Blogs called Shakadoo.com. I was looking for good content and other great blogs that I could promote on my sites. I also wanted to reach out to friends knowing that others likely knew more than me and I could learn from them. I have learned a lot.

2. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

I don’t know that I have just one favorite. I love all of the beautiful photos that I get to view, but I think I gravitate mostly to the home and family topics as well as topics pertaining to running a blog and social networking; and of course, real estate.

3. You have so much going on, with your real estate career and the Shakadoo website. How do you keep it all in balance?

Uuuhhmmm, balance? Yea, still trying to figure that one out. I pretty much work 24/7 and that’s killing me. Even if there were 48 hours in a day, I still don’t think I would get everything done that I’d like to accomplish. I have a pretty great staff that works for me, but my goal is to put a few more systems in place to free up a little bit more time for my family. The problem is I love to work! It’s addicting and exhilarating.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

Yes, I hate that you can’t send to multiple friends at a time. I know they have this set up to avoid spamming your friends, but if they are truly our friends, then we should be able to control the spamming ourselves. You can always cast away a friend if they are abusing the system. It is just so cumbersome to send things to each friend separately. I would spend a lot more time on stumble if they changed that set up.

5. How often do you Stumble? Do you keep track of about how much time you spend Stumbling every day?

Every day is different. For a while there I was Stumbling a couple of hours a day. But I am really picky about what I thumb and review. I don’t want just any old thing reflecting on me. But I took a bit of a hiatus the early part of this year. I was traveling almost every other week, from February through April and it really cut into the Stumble time. I am picking it back up again now, but I plan to keep a limit on my time spent stumbling to about 30-45 minutes a day. I was a bit addicted before, and now I have to manage my time better.

6. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

Not actively enough to say that I do. I tried to get started on a couple of others but the time restraints limit me. I can only do so much in a day. I did have my partner start on Digg, Mixx and Facebook. She still prefers StumbleUpon too though. It’s a little easier to get started on and our results are better.

7. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

Even though my answer was technically no, I do feel that StumbleUpon is a very easy format. It’s a lot easier to make friends and then your off and running. It’s idiot proof for the most part.

8. Could you tell us a little about your real-world life, and perhaps a little more about Shakadoo?

You mean talk about myself??? I’d love to! I was born and raised in St. Louis, MO and now live in a suburb of St. Louis called St. Charles. I have been happily married for nearly 15 years and have three children. My oldest is a boy who is 13. I also have a 10 year old daughter and my baby is a girl as well who just turned 3 on Cinco de Mayo. What a fun birthday! Eleven years ago I started in real estate as a stay home mom thinking I would work a few hours a week and make a little extra spending money. Well, I guess the Big Guy upstairs had different plans for me. Just newly licensed, my business began to thrive almost overnight, and I now have the number one RE/MAX team in the Missouri Region. Then about two years ago I was introduced to blogging though my real estate channels. I decided I was going to create a local blog to coincide with my real estate business. I met with a friend to hire her to help get the local businesses involved with my blog. She was a real enthusiastic person and went home to study up on what a blog was. She ran across an article that talked about how blogging was in its infancy and was about to explode. She shared the article with me and my partner and we began to explore the possibilities. I had a vision for what I wanted. “Everything to do with your home” kept coming to mind but I wanted something catchy. I started thinking about slang words used for homes. “Shak” kept haunting me and I settled on that. The “adoo” was just a natural fit. From there, we got together and started thinking of all of the categories for home and family and had a blast coming up with names that played off of “Shak” that same afternoon. We met with my partner and brained stormed more on the concept and before we knew it Shakadoo was born. Now, it’s “For Everything to do with your Shak”!

We settled in on nine topics all pertaining to life in and around the home. Nine separate blogs power Shakadoo: Love Shak Baby is our popular parenting and family blog (mommy blog), Shak In Style is our Design and Décor place, ShakHammer is where you come for DIY projects and construction, ShakTronics specializes in home electronics and gadgets, Shakyard cultivates lawn and garden tips, Work Shak is the place to go for work from home issues and work products, Loan Shak covers financial issues and mortgages, Shak and Jill is our real estate category which includes an advice forum answered by our real estate guru “Jill” (aka, yours truly) and last but not least Animal Shak for the pets we love to love. Shakadoo is still a work in progress as we plan to have more topics in the future and are considering adding an online décor store as well as expanding the real estate features. We just celebrated our first birthday in February of this year. Unfortunately I spend most of my time behind the scenes of Shakadoo running the business, but my goal for this year is to carve out more time so that I can do more blogging and interacting on the site as well as networking more. I love the people aspect of it but I get buried in the day to day stuff that has robbed me of that.

9. What would you say are the best ways to guarantee that a person can have a really wonderful StumbleUpon experience?

Give first and reach out. Make friends and take care of them and take time to review. Giving something a thumb takes no time at all, but reviewing someone’s piece or pick shows that you took the time to really look at it. And, use tags.

10. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

Clear out your friends every once in a while! With Stumble’s limitation on friends, the early Stumblers are closed off to those of us who discovered it later in the game. It’s a shame that so many people that I like and admire; I can’t connect with because they are at their maximum. If we all checked out friendships every so often and cleared out the friends that aren’t active anymore, we could reach across those lines and connect with more people.

There is probably no term tossed about with such reckless abandon on StumbleUpon as “spam.” If one Stumbler does not like another, for whatever reason, the reason for that dislike will almost invariably include the term “spam” or “spammer.” To make it worse, there may not be a term where there is less agreement on the definition, either. So what is spam, really? I suppose if you want an internet definition, you should go to an internet authority, so here is the definition from Wikipedia:

Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.

That would be a reasonable definition for general use, and would certainly include SU. However, the prevailing usage on StumbleUpon would seem to be that spam is whatever stuff the person speaking doesn’t like. Inevitably, this means that what is spam to one user is not spam to someone else. Or, sometimes, is not spam to anybody else. And that just as inevitably leads to disputes of one kind or another.

One of the more common disagreements is over whether or not a Stumbler should be submitting his or her own stuff. Although there is a certain Stumbler contingent that says such submissions are always wrong, the truth is that if no one ever submitted their own material there would not be a lot in StumbleUpon to look at. The don’t-submit-your-own-material Stumblers are making the following statement: “If what you are submitting is something you wrote, it sucks.”

Well, sorry, no, that’s very dim thinking. Quite obviously, the item being submitted is of equal value no matter who submitted it. We should not care who discovers it, period. Random discovery is not better that any other kind of discovery. What we should care about is whether the content is any good. What we should be looking for is original content, something where the writer has added value to some discussion. Obviously, some self-discovered items do indeed absolutely suck, while others are brilliant. Most are somewhere in between. It is the content that matters, not the methodology.

Of course, there is even going to be controversy on that front, because all people don’t like the same things. StumbleUpon solves part of this problem for us by allowing us to define what categories and topics we are interested in. That’s good because we don’t have to look at a lot of stuff we don’t care about at all. But that is not to say we are going to agree with the content of an item in a preferred category.

If you’re a McCain fan, you’re not going to agree with a lot of the pro-Obama posts, even though they all could be in “Politics.” That does not mean they are bad. That just means you don’t agree with them. If you can manage to be open-minded, which is to say non-bigoted, reading opinions from the another viewpoint may actually help you learn something, whether they change your mind or not. Either way, you’re ahead of the game. You are smarter after than before.

So, what is StumbleUpon spam? I have my definition(s). Spam is the fourth time you read the same posting, using the same words and pictures, about the same widget or product. Spam is the third time you see the same lolcat graphic that was not funny the first time. Spam is any bigoted, hurtful, profane, vulgar statement, all venom and no thought. Spam is comments that can be described by the preceding sentence. Spam is anything not original. The list could. and does, go on.

What do you think spam is?

StumbleUpon is full of questions, contradictions, and philosophical differences. That is one of the things that makes it a wonderful and interesting place. Everybody has a different definition of spam, none of which seem to correspond to the (probably semi-) official definition of the term. SU has rules which often don’t make any sense, are counter-intuitive, and often seem self-defeating. People are often at odds about etiquette and procedure. SU is evolving, and that is fun to be involved in.

I am sometimes amazed at the amount of rancor and false information that can be generated around the simplest issues. Then again, I was amazed at the same feelings in 1981, when I joined CompuServe and discovered the CB Simulator, the mother of all chat programs, and in truth the mother of all social media. That’s correct, I have been doing this for 27 years, longer than some of you have been alive. That amazes me, too.  Perhaps I am too easily amazed.

Social networking / bookmarking started way back then and I have been watching it with interest the whole time, as well as being up to my neck in it. StumbleUpon is one of the more interesting variations, which is to say that it has a lot going for it and not a lot to detract from the basic attractions, although it is certainly not perfect.

I started this blog because there was an idea in the back of my mind that there was a lot to say about SU and the people that use it. Almost all of that is good. Although I am most certainly still learning about SU and the entire social bookmarking universe, I think that I have finally learned enough to start really writing about StumbleUpon. I’m sure that a lot of you will help me learn even more as I go, through comments and in other ways.

We will keep on doing interviews. People seem to love them and we love doing them. I am not nearly as happy about the “Tips and Tricks” sort of posts. I don’t enjoy writing them. They don’t really add much to the more interesting conversation that we should be having about SU as a life-enhancing tool. If you have a “How do I…” sort of question, just ask it either in comments or by using the “Contact Us” link at the top of any page and we will get you the answer. If you have a really interesting answer, write it up and we’ll run it on this blog under your name.

I would love for this to be an actual conversation, if you wish to join into it. If you have something to say about StumbleUpon and don’t have a platform to stand on to say it, contact me and we’ll work out a guest post arrangement. It does not really matter to me what side of the discussion you are coming from. There’s room for a lot of opinions. All you need to be able to do is state your case well and not be hostile or vulgar about it, to use StumbleUpon’s words. We’ll be happy to give you some space to say your piece.

Sara is a woman from San Francisco, California, USA.

Likes 3,418 pages, 48 videos, 74 photos • 338 fans • Received 33 reviews

Member since Apr 19, 2007

Hi, I’m Sara. I am the editor of EcoSalon.
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1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

Early last year I was looking for a social network that fit my curious nature and wasn’t frivolous. I like them all for different reasons, but SU is my favorite. If social networks were people, SU would be the Renaissance Man. Irresistible.

2. Your magazine EcoSalon is quite impressive. How did that come about?

In the funny way that one thing leads to another if you hang out and work online. We have a great team of writers and phenomenal support. The whole experience thus far has been so much fun - there is something very rewarding about the challenge of building something new and following where it leads.

3. You seem quite busy! How do you fit everything in?

My friends joke that I am a type A+. With blogging you can always do more, so I try to be aware of that. This year, I am finding ways to make more time for exercise and *real* reading (you know, books). I do have a few loose little systems in place. I make time for meaningful phone calls or dinner with friends most nights of the week. I sort of rotate things online. If I’m really active on social networks one week, I try to tone it down the next. I’ll write a lot one week, focus on marketing the next. But about once a month it will happen that I’ve been doing waaaaay too much and attitude ensues. When that happens I give myself a lazy weekend where brushing my teeth is the big event of the day. It’s just like yoga!

4. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

Anything to do with ideas or philosophy. Oddities, humor, and all things geek-related. The world and science. Marketing and psychology. Stumbleupon suits the way I learn - incrementally, independently and through creative connections between different topics or disciplines. I was home-schooled for much of my education, so there is probably some link there. Either that or I’m just a raging nerd.

5. How often do you Stumble? Do you keep track of about how much time you spend Stumbling every day?

I have no idea, but probably too much if I’m being asked!

6. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

I follow Digg, I’m active on Reddit, and I have the obligatory Facebook page, but I draw the line at the tweet.

7. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

Stumble has all the elements of other social networks I like, mashed together. Reviews; friends; blogging. It’s not as timely as Digg or Reddit, but there is a lot of depth.

8. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

I like cats and dogs equally.

9. What would you say are the best ways to guarantee that users have a really wonderful StumbleUpon experience?

I guess it depends what your purposes are. Something I didn’t do much of when I started out was to review; I would just thumb. I was using Stumble like a bookmarking site, rather than contributing to the community, so I try to do that more now, even if it’s just a passage from the page I think is worth noting. I personally love seeing what people have to say about a page.

BuzzDiggity is a 23 year old guy from Los Angeles, California, USA.

Likes 1,473 pages, 56 videos, 22 photos • 162 fans • Received 25 reviews

Member since Dec 26, 2007

In the words of Andre 300 “Heya!” With each passing day, I am becoming a bigger social media nerd, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m also not ashamed to admit that I stumble naked. Anyway, if you ever are looking for any support in the social media realm, or just want to rap/chat/schmooz, hit me on aim/ gtalk. My screenname there is also BuzzDiggity. Also, check out my blog please. And tell your mothers and babies about it. It is not-not-not bad. www.shitamericaneeds.com

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

One night, some of the top stumblers, such as Brian Reeder, Muhammed Saleem, Liam Victor and God (sorry, no link available), broke into my bedroom and told me to start stumbling. I was kinda weirded out first, but they were pretty insistent, so I signed up for SU in the morning.

2. What gave you the idea for your new site, ShitAmericaNeeds?

I just wanted people to like me, you know? I’m sick of being a nobody. I figured that if I bashed America, a popular hobby amongst the blogosphere and social media elite, then I might make some friends. So far, I’ve been moderately successful. Three friends and counting. Plus a hamster.

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

Basically, I just like to stumble everything with pictures of boobies and/or mentions of boobies. I also like stumbling pictures of old-fashioned automobiles. As a general rule of thumb (pun intended), however, if the article has more than two sentences, I usually skip over it or write a review that looks something like this: “Blah blah blah. Come on! Let’s see some boobies.”

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

I’m not sure if you could consider this a feature, per se, but I think it would be cool if you could stumble by licking the computer, rather than using a mouse.

5. How often do you Stumble? Do you keep track of about how much time you spend Stumbling every day?

To be honest, I am high pretty much every day, so I’d just be guessing. Probably over three hours though. But it could be closer to 10 minutes. I don’t know. Sorry. Next question?

6. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

Yeah. I belong to Darwin Dating, which is a dating site exclusively for really, really attractive people. Membership into the site is granted by other people voting on whether you’re attractive enough to join, so I had to spend about $25.00 on elance, paying freelancers to come to the site and give me a high enough rating. It was a pain in the ass, and unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to convince any of the women on the site to meet me in person. However, when one of them turns me down, I typically submit their profile page to SU and give them a rather scathing review. It’s not much consolation, but it gives me a chuckle.

I also use Digg, Mixx, and Reddit. My profiles on the latter two kinda suck, but I’m trying harder now. I promise.

7. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

I am pretty sure there are more ladies on StumbleUpon. But I might just be saying that because you can stumble pictures of boobies.

8. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

Sure, I just want to state for the record that I’m actually really a good guy.

9. What would you say are the best ways to guarantee that you have a really wonderful StumbleUpon experience?

I don’t know. I guess being high helps. I’d also recommend friending lots of random people, and then when they ask how you know them, you just say, “look behind you.”

10. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

You’re only as cool as the sites you stumble. Don’t mess up.

Leena is a married woman from Turku, Finland.

Likes 3,005 pages, 61 videos, 238 photos • 178 fans • Received 47 reviews

Member since Jul 05, 2007

I am a math’s teacher in a high school for adults and seriously addicted to Japanese puzzles.

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I am addicted to Japanese puzzles and I am a member of Conceptis puzzles, which creates the best of them. I followed closely the forums and someone had found out that Conceptis puzzles had been reviewed in SU. Of course I had to check and give my own review. When I found the stumble button and the web games it lead me to, I was hooked. This happened in the beginning of July 2007.

2. How do you select your SU friends?

It has changed over times. At first I added people who had interesting blogs and followed what they were stumbling. Now I have had to start removing some of them because I reached 200 a couple of months ago. At first I was the one who added people and now my visitors add me. I try to check all the visitors’ blogs and I add people whom I know from other connections or who have really interesting stumbles.

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

My absolute favourite is mathematics. I fell hopelessly in love with maths when I was 14 and it also became my profession. I want to show my students the beauty in mathematics and I try to get them overcome the fear for it. The next ones are puzzles and online puzzle games. I have been addicted to them since I got my first computer at home. After I found the Japanese puzzles I came to the conclusion that no game can beat solving them, but I occasionally try new games, too. I also love arts and photography.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

The only feature I am really missing is the ability to blog posts straight to my main blog. If I want to do that, I have to Digg the article or use Clipmarks.

5. How often do you Stumble? Do you keep track of about how much time you spend Stumbling every day?

I stumble every day. At first I spent really too many hours Stumbling but nowadays that is not a problem. Every morning I have pages waiting from my friends and also when I get home from work. I check them and also my visitors. I don’t really use the stumble button any more. Interesting stuff keeps coming to me anyway

6. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

Yes! I think too many For social bookmarking I use also Digg, Mixx, Del.icio.us and Clipmarks. I also have accounts in Reddit, Subbit and a couple more, but I rarely use them. I also have connections through MyBlogLog , BlogCatalog and Facebook.

7. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

First of all the beauty I can create around my content. I remember things visually much better than verbally and that is why I try to photoblog even the logo or something from every site. From Digg I can’t actually find any old stories I have Dugg. Del.icio.us is fast and good but I have learned that I should have organized my tags better. Too many tags are just confusing.

8. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

I never revealed my age in the profile I am 52 years old, have two grown-up children who don’t live at home anymore, husband and a one-year-old Welsh Corgi Pembroke. My job a maths teacher is somewhat peculiar: I work from 4 pm to 9 pm and teach adults. Part of my students have left high school or have not even started it and want to do it now. Some of them have chosen the short course in mathematics and have noticed that they need the long courses for their future education. There are almost as many reasons as there are students. I love teaching them because they know the value of education. I am very passionate in my teaching and some of the students probably regard me as crazy at first, but when they finally get my point, they actually grow an interest in it. The main thing is that I am able to wipe out fears. I know that sometimes evil mathematics teachers have originally caused some of them to leave school in the first place.

I started my blog www.conceptisaddict.blogspot.com in August to share also the wonderful experience of Japanese puzzles. Almost all people know Sudoku, but the picture logic puzzles are unfamiliar to many people. My blogging led to the socializing and I have enjoyed every moment. In addition to the normal bloggers I have found many contacts with teachers who use all the technologies Web 2.0 can offer. I already started a Finnish blog targeted to my students but I have not had time to update it very actively. I also started a blog for our school in order to develop discussions between students and teachers but all of it is very new to most of the people and I still have lots to do to make it work like it should.

9. What would you say are the best ways to guarantee that you have a really wonderful StumbleUpon experience?

Make friends, be friendly, send messages and keep a positive attitude. I got the advice long ago from a friend in the net: remember that there are so many good people in the world. I did change my attitude; I have always had a great deal of the Finnish pessimism, but remembering that advice and keeping an open mind I have had wonderful experiences and found a great amount of those good people. I also would like to point out that people who concentrate only on promoting their own content will never succeed in being popular.

10. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

Try to find the good side of everything. I have noticed that even though I don’t like the content I stumble into, it may have the best web design I have seen. Giving very many thumbs down will not benefit you, on the contrary. If I don’t like something, I just leave. There are very few occasions when I have met something which makes me really mad but I have learned in real life that it is better to count to suitable powers of ten before exploding.

tamar is a 27 year old married woman from New York, New York, USA.

Likes 14,065 pages, 179 videos, 1,201 photos • 663 fans • Received 99 reviews

Member since Apr 10, 2005

I’m a female blogger and tech enthusiast and I love photography. I enjoy social media very much, and I blog about it at techipedia.com. You may have also seen my blogging on Lifehacker and Mashable.

Feel free to introduce yourself. I’m a big stumbler and love making new friends. Say hello anytime!

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I joined in April 2005. I believe I joined because a friend of mine wanted to thumbs up one of his sites way back then; of course, the online word of mouth contributed to its continued growth.

2. How do you select your SU friends?

Typically, I look for a few things: similar interests, an interesting blog, and whether they’re active stumblers or not. I believe being an active stumbler is most important–they get the fresh content quickly and are usually heavily networked. It makes no sense to be an active stumbler and not be social!

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

My interests vary. I love a mixture of great photography (preferably photography never seen before; there’s a lot of redundancy out there) and bizarre stories. I also love informational pages on topics related to productivity, lifestyle, and software.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

I think they could do things better. For example, the 200 friend limit is a bit of a frustration, especially if you’re really active. Sending pages to friends is also annoying with the drop-down menu, especially if you max out on the number of friends that you choose. However, besides that, I’m pretty much satisfied with how StumbleUpon is evolving.

5. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

Yup. I’m all over. I think I have accounts on every social network that exists (well, close!).

6. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

StumbleUpon really connects you to interesting information that you typically can’t find anywhere else. Additionally, the content there is timeless (for the most part).

7. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

For one thing, I love my avatar, but I’m not a goat. StumbleUpon is the only place I use that avatar, and I like it because it’s unique and funny.

8. What would you say are the best tips for StumbleUpon success?

Stumble often and review pages. Add photos to your blog. Your success comes with dedication — contribute and people will take notice.

9. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

Add me as a friend.

Jonathan is a 42 year old guy from New York, USA.

Likes 899 pages, 18 videos, 4 photos • 154 fans • Received 30 reviews

Member since May 25, 2007

Hey gang! I’m a NYC husband and dad, former mega-firm lawyer turned serial-entrepreneur in the wellness industry (currently own a yoga studio and teach yoga), writer, copywriter, career-coach, blogger, marketer, speaker and author. Would love to connect with anyone with similar interests. For tips and advice, stop by my blog at: Jonathan Fields | Awake At The Wheel.

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I’ve been stumbling for about 6 months. Before really knowing anything about any social-media communities, I first joined as a way to market myself, but SU has quickly turned into a wonderful source of information, insight and friendship.

2. How do you select your SU friends?

I often end up connecting with people who share common interests. It usually begins by one of us stumbling the others’ submissions, then checking out profiles and, if available, blogs. I also look for people who are active on a regular basis, it’s easier to develop friendships when you know the people are available, active and invested in the community.

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

My stumble topics tend to mimic what I write about on my blog at JonathanFields.com. Major areas of interest are blogging, entrepreneurship, marketing and innovation, writing, personal-development (with a real-world bent), health and lifestyles.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

I really like the new additions to the “send to” feature, but would love the ability to send to multiple people at once. The risk, of course, is that this feature would get seriously abused, like shouting on Digg.com. Maybe the ability to respond to e-mail from my own e-mail client, too.

5. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

I belong to a bunch, but SU is where I spend most of my time. I am 42, a family-guy and the SU community seems to fit best with who I am and what I am interested in.

6. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

I like the ability to create friends and I believe it is easier to find great content on SU than on some others.

7. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

I am all about creation and compassion. I am pretty much always actively pursuing either or both. It starts with family and expands to friends and then business. And, I am passionate about writing. I was a lawyer in a past life, so I know how to write in a very rigid, grammatically correct way…and now, as a writer and copywriter, I love that I can break all the rules in the name of being human and telling a story.

I am also just now finishing up a book for Random House’s Broadway Books on the intersection between passion and prosperity that’ll be out in January 2009.

8. What would you say are the best tips for StumbleUpon success?

Contribute to the community. Give more than you get. Discover or create great content, pass it on and help promote great content from others. It’s really just a karma thing, but it also makes for a great experience in the SU community. Also, if you are going to send pages to others, rather than just sending every page to every person on your friend list, take the time to try to make sure the people you are sending to have some shared interest in the content you are asking them to look at.

9. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

StumbleUpon is a great place to spend some time online, just make sure you are playing with people offline, too. If you spend more time playing online than off, you may want to take a step back and reallocate a bit of your energy.

10. If you have any other thoughts about StumbleUpon and Stumbling, please add those here.

In the end, life is about relationships and experiences. So, to the extent you can tap StumbleUpon as a resource to deepen all these, dive in.

Bogdan is a 22 year old guy from Bucharest, Romania.

Likes 7,015 pages, 68 videos, 503 photos • 349 fans • Received 55 reviews

Member since Jun 05, 2007

On Stumble for finding anything interesting or learning new stuff. Show me any note-worthy stuff I might have missed anytime, I’d be glad to help. Feel free to visit my blog, maxyRO for stuff about me, social media, tips and tools. Send me a message, I always like to chat and share some knowledge of the web.

1. What caused you to join StumbleUpon and how long have you been Stumbling?

I have joined StumbleUpon in June 2007, after seeing one of my articles get a huge amount of traffic from the website. Naturally curious, I made an account and started stumbling. I got addicted to it and now I can’t go without stumbling at least 20 pages a day. Like all others, I’m completely hooked. Out of all the communities, StumbleUpon became and still is my favorite one.

2. How do you select your SU friends?

I tend to choose active Stumblers I have something in common with. I’m also friends on SU with people I know from other communities. I go for funny stuff, SEO articles, everything related to blogs and of course food. Over time, I managed to figure out who is an valuable member for the SU community.

3. What are your favorite StumbleUpon topics, and why?

I’m more likely to thumb up posts about topics which I blog about: funny stuff, environmental news, search engine optimization or articles about blogging or arts. I use StumbleUpon for inspiration for my articles, when I have writer’s block or for a little relaxation when work gets crowded.

4. Is there any feature that you think SU is missing?

I thought before StumbleUpon needed a button to send a page to all your friends at once. But know I’m not so sure about it. Good thing they removed Captcha, that was annoying. They should probably make the buzz page more popular and link it all over the site so that people get a clear idea of what is hot at the moment. Also, I’d enjoy if we were able to add more than 200 friends. Wishful thinking…

5. Do you belong to any other social networking sites?

I belong to many communities, but I’m not an active user in all of them.
digg, twitter, reddit, social news central or anywhere else you might see the maxyRO nickname.

6. If so, in what ways does StumbleUpon compare favorably with the others?

I think StumbleUpon is more focused on the user and communicating more easily with other. Users here are friendly, willing to give positive feedback and always trying to help out. It’s my oldest community and the place where I feel most comfortable.

7. Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself than is in your profile?

I work for the web so my participation in the communities is somewhat natural. I started my own blog, maxyRO.com, about the social media trend, search engine optimization and general thoughts about the web trends. In my spare time I blog, of course, go to where my favorite music, trance, is played and go out with my friends. I also enjoy talking on a daily basis with friends around the world and meeting new people.

8. What would you say are the best tips for StumbleUpon success?

For once, try to bring something valuable to the community, finds things you think will be interesting and discover them for others. Engage in conversations, help others and you will be acknowledged as a true Stumbler.

9. If you could say one thing to the rest of the Stumbling universe, what would it be?

Send me a message, add me on IM, I always love to meet new people.