My Final Beef With Digg

18 Apr

Posted by Brian Carr as Miscellaneous

Okay, I know I’m being pretty obsessive compulsive about Digg, so I promise, this will be the last post about it for a while. The way I look at it, I like Digg a lot - and by looking at the poll in the sidebar, I’m not the only one - and because I like it so much, I just want to make it better.

Anyway, my latest and final problem with Digg is that they don’t show you who has buried your submission. While it’s easy to find out who has Dugg your articles - it’s impossible to see who didn’t like your story and gave the heave-ho.

This feature may actually be the one area where Netscape has a leg up on Digg, as Netscape shows not only the people who voted for your story, but the people that sunk the story as well.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I’m being sabotaged. Now, before you go and call me paranoid, I’d like you to listen to my very valid argument, which centers on my first “Digg needs to be fixed” post.

In that article, which quickly made the homepage and ended up with nearly 3,500 Diggs, I wrote about how Digg was quickly becoming like a high school clique, with the same 25 or 30 users dominating the homepage. While I certainly enjoyed a very nice traffic boost, I’m afraid that I may have pissed off a bunch of these top Diggers.

The reason I think this is because now, whenever an article from The New Business Blog gets submitted to Digg, it’ll quickly get 15 or 20 Diggs and then magically it will get buried. Keep in mind, this happens when other people submit articles from this site, not just when I do it.

Obviously, at this point I’m just speculating, but I’m pretty sure that if I were to see who has been burying articles from The New Business Blog, I would probably see some familiar names from Digg’s homepage.

So, on that note, if you feel the same way that I do and believe that there should be additional voting transparency - so you can see not just who Dugg your articles, but who buried them as well - please contact Digg and let them know that you agree.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to The New Business Blog

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7 Responses

Mr. BabyMan

April 18th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
1

One look at who is digging your articles will tell you that it’s most likely not top submitters who are burying them.
Brian Carr

April 18th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
2

Mr. BabyMan - thanks for the comment and that’s a good point. Considering that you’re one of the people that I’m referring to when I talk about the “25 users always on the homepage” you’d probably know a heck of a lot better than I would!

Thanks for reading and submitting!
Scott Warheit

April 19th, 2007 at 8:18 am
3

Very interesting post. Ironically, I saw it after I just posed a similar story about my recent posts being “buried” over at my blog: http://swarheit.blogspot.com/2007/04/lessons-learned-from-diggcom.html

While I don’t think I’m being “sabotaged” I do think I’m being punished for some rookie Digg mistakes (like posting too many of my own stories from my blog and writing on too many stories already in Digg, ect.) Which is fine, I can easily see where people were just thinking I was spamming Digg with posts from my blog, but yeah, it would be nice to see if it were the same people doing it. And I’m a “nobody” who has never gotten close to the Digg homepage. So if it’s happening to me, it may be more widespread then you think it is.

-Scott
Scott Warheit

April 19th, 2007 at 9:42 am
4

And that story already get buried. Less than 90 minutes by my count. Guess I haven’t learned anything after all.

-Scott
Brian Carr

April 19th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
5

Yep. I assumed that this post was going to get buried, and buried quickly.

Someone left me a comment on the Digg submission asking me what I expected to gain by seeing who has buried my stories. After thinking about it, I think the thing to be gained is the fact that many of the Digg moderators are quick to disable your account if you post too many of your own articles, Digg too many stories in a short amount of time, etc., yet it doesn’t seem there are any repercussions if you are a habitual burier.

It just seems like if you were to see the same person burying stories over and over that you might have some justification for reporting them to the Digg Gestapo… I mean the Digg moderators.
MortiMouse

April 19th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
6

I agree with all that has been said here.

Another part of the problem, I believe, is that posting happens so quickly, it’s almost like you’re buried before you ever exit the starting gate. It seems that whatever the amount of diggs you’ve managed to accumulate before leaving the first (possibly second) page of “Upcoming Stories,” that is likely the most you’ll achieve. Once it gets past the third page, who will ever see it; and that happens in a matter of seconds, within less than three minutes, depending on the level of traffic at the moment, your story could by on the second or even third page.

The other think I’ve noticed is that it does seem rather cliquey. I’ve posted something that received only a few (3-5) diggs and someone else come along and post either the exact same or VERY similar article with no better title and they not only get the the front page but have hundreds of diggs. How is that? That is one to the taboos or Digg, posting something that has been previously posted. It’s who you know, now what you know!

And, as you’ve already mentioned, some pretty ridiculous stories, pictures, etc. get dugg to the enth degree. Some that have been utterly meaningless or senseless. Not only do they get to the front page with a gazillion diggs but they seem to attract the most discussion as well. I see some pretty useless stories with over 250 comments. (i.e. the Tostitos foreign object story of today, it currently has 2,234 diggs and 254 comments, for what looks to me like a big clump of the Tostito that didn’t get rolled and cut properly then got stuck in the frying basket. Big deal, in food preparation things don’t always go through the machine properly causing it to come out a little deformed.)

I’ve tried catchy titles, I’ve tried putting [PICTURE] in the title, I’ve tried submitting a basic picture, in short, I’ve tried all the antics the seem to get to the front page but with no avail.

Now that I’ve ranted a book’s worth, alas, I suppose it’s that I’m not a member of that exclusive clique.
Adam

April 30th, 2007 at 6:32 am
7

Usually you can work out why your post has been buried by viewing the comments. It also gives you a good idea as to who is burying your story.

Personally I think the identity of those burying your stories should be held anonymous. I hate burying articles posted by ‘friends’, but unfortunately it happens occasionally when a duplicate is posted or submitted to the wrong section. My action may be different if my buried request was visible to everyone, it’s a good way to lose friends.

In the course of 1 week I went from having no articles on the front page to having 7 or 8 on the front page. The more time you spend on the site, the more friends you will build. The more friends you build, the more exposure your story has on the site.

And one more point: DONT SUBMIT YOUR OWN BLOG. That’s a huge no-no. The only person I have seen get away with this is Destructoid, but that’s an exception to the rule.