Last month on September 20, 2011, StumbleUpon started sending out emails to their users informing them that on October 24th, 2011, Groups, Themes, and both photo and html blogs would be discontinued.

Stating the change was being made in an effort to focus attention on making sure the content that you discover through their system is high quality, fast, and relevant to your interests.

Like with any change, a small group of users were upset, but the reality is that most users never really used these features anyhow.

Here’s a quick recap on how the changes will take place:

• Groups: Groups will be visible until October 24th, then will be removed permanently from the site. You can manually copy anything you’d like to keep, or will be able to export group information. We are working on an export option and will send more specific details in a few weeks.
• Themes: Your current theme will remain up until October 24th. At that time all themes will be changed to a default theme that is a white background with black type. To see how your profile will look with the default theme, change your settings here.
• Blog Posts/HTML Reviews: After October 24th we will no longer offer HTML/Blogging functionality, but you’ll still be able to access blog posts and reviews created before October 24th which will exist in plain text format. We are working on an export option and will send more specific details about this in a few weeks.

This week, on October 10th, 2011, StumbleUpon followed through with its promise by emailing all users instructions on how to export both Groups and their Blogs.

They have focused Blog export efforts to work with WordPress, while the Groups export is an XML file.

For more details on how to perform the exports, check out the Blog Export Guide and the Groups Export Guide.

Make sure to hurry up, as they clearly indicate that you must have them export prior to the October 24th shut down date.

Oh and Congrats to StumbleUpon for breaking 20 Million Users… Amazing how fast and well they have grown and matured.

 

 

• inShare2
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. declined 34 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier as lenders reviewed paperwork related to delinquent loans and home seizures, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 610,337 properties received notices of default, auction or repossession, down from 930,437 a year earlier and up from 608,235 in the second quarter, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a report. One in every 213 U.S. households got a filing.

Banks slowed foreclosure actions a year ago after allegations of “robo-signing,” or pushing through unverified default documents, surfaced nationwide. The claims spurred a probe by state attorneys general and ongoing settlement talks with lenders. The delays have resulted in 12 straight months of year-over-year filing declines, with September down 38 percent.

“We’ve been on a giant play-pause button for a year, but a lot of thoroughness occurred once the problems were identified,” James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview. “We might begin to see things unclog.”

Default notices rose 14 percent from the second quarter to 195,878, a sign lenders may be speeding up the repossession process, Saccacio said. States with the biggest quarterly jumps in default filings included Massachusetts, up 65 percent; New Jersey, up 29 percent; Florida, up 24 percent; and California and Ohio, both up 21 percent, according to RealtyTrac.

Home Repossessions Decline

Lenders seized 196,530 properties in the third quarter, down 4 percent from the previous three months and 32 percent from a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, repossessions rose 62 percent in Massachusetts, 47 percent in Oregon, 42 percent in Georgia and 27 percent in Illinois.

Nevada had the nation’s highest per-household rate of foreclosure filings at one in 44, followed by California at one in 88 and Arizona at one in 93. Georgia, Florida, Utah, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top 10.

California, the most populous state, had the most total filings at 153,051, or one of four in the U.S. Florida was second at 67,886 and Georgia third at 33,637. Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Ohio and Colorado also ranked in the top 10.

RealtyTrac sells default data from more than 2,200 counties representing 90 percent of the U.S. population.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net

• inShare2
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.