StumbleUpon has had a few problems that over the years have become rather frustrating. The first of these was the limit of 200 friends. We got over that – too many to invite to a party anyway. However, half of them may have left, closed their account even; they still remained on your friends list and counted towards that 200 limit.
Finally things are changing and it seems they are changing for the better. The 200 friend limit will go, but then, so will your friends. Mutuals will become friends, friends will becomes subscribers; however, your can subscribe without being a friend and you can be a friend without subscribing. Confused? Here is the word from StumbleUpon themselves.
Over the next couple weeks we are going to separate the social & content aspects of friendship on SU, so you can subscribe to someone’s favorites without necessarily becoming their friend, and become someone’s friend without necessarily seeing their stumbles. You’ll also be able to “Subscribe” to more than 200 stumblers, since we’ve changed the way they are stored in the database. Mutuals will just be “Friends”, fans will become “Subscribers” and you’ll simply be “Subscribed to” stumblers who rate great content.
I am sure I will get used to – once I decipher it that is. Being able to subscribe to more than 200 stumblers could be handy although I have a limit of around 50. I don’t have time to follow any more than that.
The second part of StumbleUpon’s blog was also welcome news:
You may have noticed that your # of fans has now dropped – this is because we are now removing “ghost” friends from this list… people who have left SU or deleted their accounts. Up until last friday, your Mutuals & Fans list may have contained some of the “ghost” accounts, but now it should only contain people who are still on SU.
So finally all those stumblers who have been missing in action will disappear of the friends and fans list. This is a good move as it will more accurately reflect the number of friends who are active.
