StumbleUpon FAQ

How do I delete my stumble history?
You currently cannot delete your stumble history, you can only delete your ratings. Stumble history is necessary to make sure you don't see the same sites over and over again. If you are trying to delete your stumble history because someone else is using your computer, the best solution is simply to sign out of your account when you are not using your computer. Before you sign out, make sure you write down your username and password. Note that no one else can see your stumbles except for you.

Where did My Favorites or Stumble History go?
My Favorites and Stumble History have been merged into the Pages tab on your profile. To see them, select Pages I Like or Stumbles from the drop down menu. Delete buttons for this page will be available soon, for now if you want to delete a site from your favorites, click on it then click the rating button again to undo the rating.

I changed my interests and clicked Stumble! but nothing changed.
Remember to click Save Changes after altering your interests, otherwise you will retain your old interests.

How do I see stumbles in my language or relevant to my particular region?
Currently, StumbleUpon has limited support for languages and region-specific pages. Correctly entering the languages you would like to see stumbles in, your country, and signing up for any regional topics will increase the chance of seeing localized stumbles. In the future, StumbleUpon will improve this support and allow stumbling exclusively in non-english pages.

Why am I getting pop-up ads?
Please note that it is not StumbleUpon generating these ads; it is the site you are stumbling upon. However, they can be removed by using Ad blocking software. To install this software on Internet Explorer, select 'Help->Download Ad Blocking' from the Toolbars drop down menu. Running this installer (or other adblocking software if you prefer) will stop popups. In Mozilla or Firefox, popups are blocked automatically by the browser.

Are there keyboard shortcuts for the StumbleUpon toolbar?
Only the Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox toolbar has keyboard shortcuts at the moment. The IE Toolbar will have hotkeys in the future. The keys are as follows:

Function	Windows	Mac/Linux
Stumble!	Alt-F1	Alt-ESCAPE
Rate the page "I like it!"	Alt-F2	Alt-F1
Rate the page "Not-for-me"	Alt-F3	Alt-F2
View Site Review Page	Alt-F5	Alt-F3
Toggle toolbar visibility	Alt-F11	Alt-F11

I accidently rated the wrong page, what do I do?
If you did not mean to rate the page at all, you can click the same rating button again to undo the rating. If you do not know the exact url of the site you rated, click on your home button, then select Pages I Like from the dropdown to find the site in question. If you are the only person to rate this site, undo-ing the rating will also remove it from the database completely. Please do not ask us to remove a site from our database that other people have rated unless you have an *extremely* good reason. (eg. page includes illegal content)

What makes StumbleUpon Search different from other search engines?
There are 4 main differences:

You can search entirely with the keyboard. Use the arrow keys to scroll up and down and to go to the next result page, and use the number keys to open results in a new window or tab. You'll especially appreciate this if you use a laptop.
Results you have thumbed "I like it" are bumped to the top.
You get StumbleUpon information on results, including the site's topic, the quality of the site denoted by stars, and the number of reviews.
Results are personalized to your interests, so different people will see different results for the same search terms.

How do I apply tags?
There are 3 ways to apply a tag to a website:

1. Using the toolbar... enter some keywords seperated by commas and click the tag icon.

2. From the reviews page... click "Add Tags or Review" to select from a list of your most popular tags.

3. Using the "Edit" link on your "Entire Blog". Clicking this link will let you add additional tags to sites which you have already commented on.

What are tags?
Tags are descriptive keywords used to organize sites you like. You can apply tags to sites you come across so you can find them easily later, and this also lets other stumblers discover useful sites you've found. You may apply up to 3 tags per website, with each tag having up to 3 words seperated by spaces (maximum 32 characters).

What is the colored bar beside stumblers' names?
That bar is the "fan meter". It is a general measure of how many people have added you to their list of friends. The more bars, the the more fans you have relative to other stumblers.

How do I add HTML markup to my blog?
Here are some basic HTML markups for your page, but for a more indepth list, please go to Mr Helpful's Blog.

I want to center my text:

<center>makes my text centered</center>

I want to make my text look different:

bold text

italic text

underlined text

I want my text to be big and red:

big red text

Text in different sizes

makes size 4 text

makes size 2 text

makes size 1 text

I hate Times New Roman. How do I change the font?

the text in Arial font

makes the text in Courier New

How do I make a space in the text?

Typing in   will make a space

How do I put a break between lines?

Or, if you are typing in basic text, just hit the enter key once for one line, and twice or more for more lines.

I want to add an image to my page:

<img src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/images/smalllogo2.jpg">

Looks like:

If you're stumbling, just right click the image and choose "StumbleUpon Photoblog It!"

* You can also save the image and upload it to one of those free image hosts, like photobucket, flickr, imageshack, etc, then link to it from there.

How do I make a plain text link?

<a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com">Click here to visit this website</a>
Gives you: Click here to visit this website

How do I make an email address that people can click on to send me mail?

<a href="mailto:yourname@yourwebsite.com">E-mail me</a>
Gives you: E-mail me

I want to make an image sit to the Left of my text

<img src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/images/smalllogo2.jpg" align="left">This is my image, sitting to the left of my text

StumbleUpon is an intelligent browsing tool for sharing and discovering great websites. As you click Stumble!, you'll get high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended (rated I like it) by friends and other SU members with similar interests. Rating these sites shares them with your friends and peers \u2013 you will automatically 'stumble upon' each others favorites sites.

I want to make an image sit to the Right of my text

<img src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/images/smalllogo2.jpg" align="right">This is my image, sitting to the right of my text

How do I use the RSS feed on my blog page?
There is a description of how to use a StumbleUpon RSS feed here.

Why don't you show average ratings for websites or top 100 lists?
Because these statistics foster a competitive atmosphere that would promote spamming among owners of the sites in question. StumbleUpon is based on showing people sites personalized to their particular interests, not on absolutes like average rating and top 100 lists.

How do I report broken links?
StumbleUpon toolbar detects broken links automatically. If the site is not reporting 404, but the content of the site is gone, you can report the site as misclassified and set it to "NOCAT". In Mozilla/Firefox you can also use Report->Report 404.

Won't StumbleUpon get spammed by people promoting their websites?
No. StumbleUpon recommends pages based on correlation and user clustering, rather than average ratings, so people rating their own sites as 'I like it!' cannot spam the database. Anyone attempting to circumvent or abuse this system is in violation of our terms of service, and is subject to prosecution.

How do I see the statistics for a webpage?
Click on the button on the StumbleUpon Toolbar while you are on the page in question.

How do I suggest a site to be included in your database?
To suggest a site, simply visit the site and click I like it! (). This allows the website to be instantly shared with other community members who share you interests. Please submit sites which are good starting points for exploration rather than deeply nested pages which are very specific. These sites are more useful to other stumblers, and improve your future stumbles in the process. If the page you submit is easy to identify and navigate, a larger number of other stumblers will explore and rate related sites. This makes it easy for other members to improve upon your suggestions, and help us find better sites for you! Submitting interesting, high-quality sites also improves your rank as a top stumbler, since a larger number of people will likely agree with your suggestions.

How does StumbleUpon figure out what topic a website is in?
StumbleUpon automatically categorizes pages into over 500 different topics based on the words present on the pages. This system is approximately 90% effective, when it is not we rely on stumblers to correct the mistakes made by the categorizer. In particular, highly graphical pages are difficult to automatically categorize.

How do I change a page's topic?
Click the page review button ( ), then click the "update" link and enter the correct topic.

I put HTML into my 'about me' field and now I can't edit my profile
You can reset your about me field by going to this page.

What is audience?
Audience is the number of people who "stumble upon" your favorite sites. It contains only people who have been recently active. You can increase your audience by rating websites that other people will like, signing up for all topics you are interested in, and getting more people to make you their friend.

I keep getting Bad Authentication or Wrong Password errors. How do I fix this?
The first thing to try is to sign out and sign in again. If you cannot sign in, then most likely you are using an invalid username/password combination. You can recover your password here or you can also create a new account.

If you continue to get this error, then you may have a program, extension, or proxy installed that is conflicting with StumbleUpon. In particular, the "Privoxy" or "Junkbuster" proxies are known to break some websites, including StumbleUpon. Disabling these programs will fix the problem.

How do I change my personal information?
You can change the information associated with your account by clicking the house icon on your toolbar, then clicking the "Prefs" link on the far right-hand side of your profile.

How do I change my password?
Select change password from the stumble menu, on the far right hand side of the stumble toolbar.

How do I delete my account?
Accounts will be deleted automatically if they are not used for a long period of time. If you would like to remove your personal information from your account, simply click the "edit my info" button and remove your personal information from your profile. If you need your account deleted immediately, please use the account deletion page.

Where did the email address I entered go?
If your email address is no longer on your Prefs tab, it has been removed automatically because StumbleUpon could not deliver mail to that address. This could be for a number of reasons, including an overly aggressive spam filter (in particular sites like earthlink.net that require an email address to be whitelisted) or a misconfigured mail server. You may also have made a typo in your email address. If you have an email address which a service such as earthlink.net, you will need to whitelist stumbleupon addresses before entering you email back into the system.

I forgot my username/password, how do I get it back?
If you can't remember your username or password, you can recover them here provided we have a correct email address on file. If you did not associate an valid email address with your account, your password cannot be emailed to you and you will have to create a new account. If you are attached to your old account and you think you can prove you own it, please use the feedback system.

How do I change my nickname?
Once you have used StumbleUpon for a week and have chosen a nickname, you can no longer change it. If it has not been a week, you can change it by clicking the house icon on your toolbar, then clicking the "Prefs" link on the far right-hand side of your profile.

How do I change my picture?
If you are uploading a new picture, and you find your picture isn't changing, try clicking "reload" on your browser while holding down the shift key. Your browser is most likely caching the old version of your picture.

Why am I unable to post to groups and/or message other stumblers?
StumbleUpon places various restrictions on new stumblers. This allows new stumblers to get used to how StumbleUpon works before using some of the additional social features. In particular, accounts may be restricted from messaging and posting to groups if they are:

1. less than 3 days old
2. have not stumbled a significant number of times
3. do not have a nickname
4. do not have a photo

Why can't I change the picture on my profile?
If you are uploading a new picture but the picture on your profile does not change, most likely your browser is caching your old photo. You can remedy this by click shift-reload on a page with your old picture. If this is not a problem, then it could be an issue with the photo you are using, try using another one. Also make sure your image ends in either .jpg, .gif, or .png.

Can I create 2 different accounts on the same computer?
If you are creating 2 accounts for your own use, you must have permission from StumbleUpon as outlined in our Terms of Service. If you have permission or you are creating the account for someone else, you can create a new account here.

How do I use the same account on 2 different computers?
Install StumbleUpon on the second computer, select "Sign-in", and type in your username and password. If you do not know your password, you can type in a blank password and StumbleUpon will email it to you (just make sure your first account has an email address associated with it)

I changed my password on 1 computer, and now I am getting a wrong password error on my other computer?
To get rid of the error, select Sign-in and type in your stumbler ID and your new password.

How do I stop another stumbler from messaging me?
Go to their profile and click the ignore button at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, there is a link in your inbox, beside each message. If you click the ignore link, it will stop that stumbler from sending you messages. It will also effectively stop you from seeing them in reviews, forum/group posts, and on your network page.

How do I become a Top Stumbler?
Top Stumblers are our most active and helpful community members. These members frequently suggest new sites to be included in our database, and frequently rate new sites they stumble upon. When you submit a site, it is shown to other stumblers() for evaluation. If those people like your suggestion (by rating it I-like-it! often) your community 'Karma' will increase. Your Top Stumbler rank will also increase by frequent rating. You do not need to rate every site you see, but if it stands out as particularily excellent (a website you really like) or bad (you don't like it, or it is spam), make sure you rate it. This regular participation will increase your Top Stumbler rank.

How do I start a new group?
Only sponsors can create new groups. If you are a sponsor, you can find the "Request New Group" link on the "About" section of your profile.

Is this spyware?
No. Stumbleupon does not automatically collect any personal or system information from your computer. Stumbleupon records information you explicity provide such as your ratings of websites. This is necessary to share the sites with other community members and improve your future stumbles. Associating personal information with your userid, such as a name, nickname, or webpage is entirely voluntary and not required to use the StumbleUpon toolbar. For more information, see our privacy policy.

What are Sponsors?
Sponsors are stumblers who have upgraded their account to receive extra features. These features include the ability to turn off advertising, create new groups and view sites which you have in common with stumblers. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, click here.

How can I promote StumbleUpon on my site?
If you want to let other people know about StumbleUpon, mention us on your website. The more people who share your interests using StumbleUpon, the better the system will work for everyone. Adding this logo to your site will increase the number of people signing up who share your interests, in turn greatly improving the quality of your future stumbles! Simply download a button. You can find more StumbleUpon buttons on our buttons page.

StumbleUpon keeps misdetecting my browser
There are links directly to each version of StumbleUpon on this page.

Why can't I install StumbleUpon?
If your toolbar installs but is not appearing, there are a few things you can try:

1. Select View→Toolbars→StumbleUpon
2. Restart your browser
3. Restart your computer
4. If you are using IE, try enabling the option Tools→Internet Options→ Advanced→Enable third party browser extensions, and then restart your computer.

If you get an error that says "Not a valid install package", try restarting your browser then attempt an install again.

If you get an error that says "Browser could not install this item because 'install-7bd.rdf' (provided by the item) is malformed", then you are most likely using a bad nightly build of Firefox. Try installing the latest stable version of Firefox.

If after trying the above remedies, you are still unable to install the toolbar, please contact us.

How do I uninstall the StumbleUpon Toolbar?
Internet Explorer: click the menu on the far right hand side of the stumble toolbar, then select Help->Uninstall. If for some reason that doesn't work, you can type "regsvr32 /u c:\winnt\stumble.dll" at the windows prompt.

Firefox: go to Tools->Extensions and then click on StumbleUpon then Uninstall.

Mozilla/Netscape: go here and install the Extension Uninstaller, and then use it to uninstall StumbleUpon.

Why don't you support Safari or Opera?
We are unable to offer support for these browsers because they lack browser features on which the StumbleUpon Toolbar depends. If you are using one of the these browsers but want to become a member, the easiest way is to install Firefox. Firefox is fast and stable and has many other features which these browsers do not have. We have had very positive feedback from people who have switched to Firefox from these other browsers. Note also that we do not support Avant Browser. Please send requests for StumbleUpon support in this browser to the Avant forums.

How do I upgrade the StumbleUpon Toolbar?
To upgrade the toolbar, simply install it again from the StumbleUpon homepage and then restart your browser. To see if you have the latest version of the StumbleUpon Toolbar, select "Help->Toolbar Version" from the Stumble menu.

Are there beta versions of the StumbleUpon toolbar available?
Yes, you can download beta versions of the Firefox toolbar here:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/beta/
Please be aware that beta versions may contain bugs or incomplete functionality. If you are having difficulty with a beta version, go back to stumbleupon.com and install a stable version.

I found a bug, how do I report it?
You can search for bugs and report new bugs on the StumbleUpon Bugs Page. You can also try asking on Bugs Forum. When you are reporting a bug, please provide as much information as possible. If you are running StumbleUpon in Firefox, please have a look at Tools→Javascript Console and see if there are any errors that mention StumbleUpon generated when you experience the bug.

How do I temporarily hide the toolbar?
In your browser, select View -> Toolbars -> StumbleUpon. In Firefox, you can also press Ctrl-F11. Do the same to unhide the toolbar.

How do I move the Mozilla/Firefox toolbar to another line?
From the stumble menu, select "Toolbar Options" then change the "Placement" selector to move the toolbar.

Can I write my own client or script to access the StumbleUpon database?
No. Only clients or webpages released by StumbleUpon may be used to access the StumbleUpon database. This is explained in more detail in our Terms of Service.

If your question isn't answered here, try the Unofficial FAQ