Whoops,
I recently bowed to peer pressure and signed up for Stumble Upon. It is, apparently, an awesome blog-whoring tool*, and we all know I'm up for that. I'm up for any kind of blog pimping, really. Twitter, FaceBook, forums, carnivals, I'm there. It was only a matter of time before I got sucked in to Stumble. Twitter is a gate way drug, you see. It leads to bigger, harder things.
Apart from being a dirty tool of the blog whore, Stumble is also one of the biggest time wasters on the InterWebs, what with it's random collection of bizarreness and the illusion of power it brings.
I'm not exactly sure how Stumble works. Click the Stumble button, up comes a seemingly random webpage, which can probably be filtered into one of the following categories- "Cool!"; "What the hell is that?"; or "Dirty spam."
If you like it, you click the Thumbs Up. No like, Thumbs Down. Hence the illusion of power. Everyone likes the idea of killing a page with a click.
I'm making a sweeping assumption that once a new site is 'discovered', it's Stumbled to other Stumblers with similar interests to the 'Discoverer'. If they give it the Thumbs Up, more people get fed it. If enough people give it a Thumbs Down, the page is sent to the Stumble equivalent of InterWebby heaven, with the likes of AOL and Napster. Never to be seen again.
On Stumble, I suck. As you can clearly see- or not so clearly see, click the image to make it make bigger, nanna- my stuff dies a lonely Stumbly death very, very quickly.
It's not you, Stumble, it's me. I think. I give the Thumbs Up to all kinds of random bits and pieces of popular culture that takes three seconds to absorb. I am a product of the electric generation. You have half a nanosecond to engage me, or I'm outta there. I Stumble stuff that is either stupidly funny, brimming with an assumed knowledge of pop-culture or a wee bit bizarre. So Stumble gives me more o'that, baby. And there is plenty of that available. Believe me.
And all that is fine. Except for one little thing. My own blog posts keep getting killed within a few Stumbler's clicks. Because the things I Stumble are nothing like my own posts. Which actually tells me that if I were not me, I wouldn't read my own blog. Or something
So, with that in mind, I have to stop Stumbling random crap and only Stumble super cool bloggy mum stuff that other people who are not like me but would like to read me would like.
All of which makes perfect freaking sense from here.
Sadly, one of the first thing I Stumbled was a StumbleCard. The *ahem* "latest phenomenon to hit the InterNet"- right after MySpace and this fan-dangled groovy new gadget called YouTube, I'm guessing. Apparently, these things were once collectibles, before they were bastardized and degraded by various online advertising companies and the evilness of Google AdWords.
There you are, innocently Stumbling along and bumping into other people's whacked out imaginations and- bam!- you get hit by a StumbleCard out of nowhere.
I'm not sure if they really are a viral marketing campaign or simply the nerdy brainchild of someone very disturbed, but the general feeling among the Stumble community seems to be that StumbleCards should be not-so-gently killed, maimed, and then cremated in a sacrificial ceremony to the Google God. I have to say, I'm rather inclined to agree.
So, there you go. I'm on Stumble. Check me out. Come join me, if you're so inclined. Just remember- Stumble Cards are evil. And don't Stumble your own blog, if you wouldn't actually read your own blog, if you were someone other than yourself.
Or something.
*I know, I know, that totally goes against the sanctity of Stumble and it's no wonder my stuff always gets killed. Whatever. At least I'm honest. I'm a dirty, dirty blog tart and I'm OK with that.