tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72037213131969100612024-03-07T02:02:52.557-08:00Inside Social NewsStephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-21895263343781629032007-01-05T11:29:00.000-08:002007-01-05T11:33:23.290-08:00Open your Wallets, Dugg.mobi is for Sale<p><em>This post has been moved here from </em><a href="http://sociallygiven.com/blog"><em>Socially Given</em></a><em>, Enjoy!</em></p><p>There have been many estimates of the value of the social news website Digg.com recently, but has anyone thought to put a price on unofficial versions of mobile digg? Probably not. I recently wrote about <a href="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/?p=58">seven mobile versions</a> of digg and one of my favorites, <a href="http://dugg.mobi/">Dugg.mobi</a> is actually up for sale. The owner has listed the site for sale <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/3347">several</a> <a href="http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=177421">places</a>.</p><br /><p>Between the two auction sites, we can piece together that the owner is looking for a price greater than $350 because he is hoping to purchase a new computer. My guess is somewhere near $1000.</p><br /><p>The most interesting part of this sale is that the domain name is a <a href="http://digg.com/tos">Digg.com TOS</a> violation. The site owner however, states that he "<em>Notified digg, they don't care.</em>" and "<em>One more thing, up to date, there have been no trademark issues with Digg in any way, we've offered the domain to Digg free of charge, and they turned it down.</em>"</p><br /><p>It is also worth noting that the site includes adsense within the story listings. Does Digg really not care if people are making money from their feed? While it is currently only making around $1.00 per day, that could very well be more with increased traffic. The advertisements themselves are labeled as such, but are placed next an image in a fashion unallowed by Google. (shown below)</p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img id="image67" alt="duggmobiads.PNG" src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/duggmobiads.PNG" /></div><br /><p><a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/12/ad-and-image-placement-policy.html"></a></p><br /><blockquote><br /><p><a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/12/ad-and-image-placement-policy.html"></a><a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/12/ad-and-image-placement-policy.html">According to Google</a>, "You can definitely place Google ads on pages containing images -- just make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors."</p><br /></blockquote><br /><p>With violations of the Digg TOS and Google Adsense policy, purchase of the site in its current state may be unwise. Even though there has been some activity, no bid worthy of sale has occurred. It would be safe to assume that the site is still up for sale depending on the offer, but no contact information was available in order to clarify.</p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-34113881469574852272007-01-05T11:23:00.000-08:002007-01-05T11:29:20.959-08:007 Version of 'Digg Mobile' Compared<p><em>This post has been moved here from <a href="http://sociallygiven.com/blog">Socially Given</a>, Enjoy!</em></p><p><strong>Update - It's 7 now. </strong></p><br /><p>Many Diggers can't seem to get enough of Digg, myself included. The biggest question for any Digg addict is where can they get their daily fix when they don't have access to their computers. There are actually several different options available depending on your particular needs.</p><br /><p>Here they are, in no particular order (besides the official one being displayed first):</p><br /><p><strong>Official Digg River</strong> - <a href="http://diggriver.com/" target="_blank">http://diggriver.com/</a></p><br /><p><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/diggriver.PNG" /></p><br /><p>The official Digg for mobiles works and looks great. Besides the graphics at the top, it is text only keeping the load times low.</p><br /><p><strong>Digg Mobile by Mobits</strong> - <a href="http://mobits.com/digg/" target="_blank">http://mobits.com/digg/</a></p><br /><p><a href="http://mobits.com/digg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/mobits.PNG" /></a></p><br /><p>The mobits mobile version of Digg looks a bit different that the official version, but still keeps a graphically light interface to keep load times low. Also has multiple pages instead of loading one long page of news like diggriver does.</p><br /><p><strong>Dugg.mobi</strong> - <a href="http://dugg.mobi/" target="_blank">http://dugg.mobi/</a></p><br /><p><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/duggmobi.PNG" /></p><br /><p>Dugg.mobi looks great, it utilizes the Digg look well into its interface. Don't be deceived by the Digg it buttons though, clicking them redirects you to the Digg story page. Dugg.mobi did not resize to fit my browser, so that could have implications for your browsing experience. Dugg.mobi shines in that you can sift through certain categories and view just those homepage articles.</p><br /><p><strong>Pocket Digg</strong> - <a href="http://pocketdigg.com/default.htm" target="_blank">http://pocketdigg.com/default.htm</a></p><br /><p><a href="http://pocketdigg.com/default.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="pocketdigg.PNG" src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/pocketdigg.PNG" /></a></p><br /><p>Pocketdigg is very light, much like diggriver, but offers several other technology news sources besides digg. These are available at the top of the screen, above what my screenshot included.</p><br /><p><strong>Original Signal - Transmitting Digg (for mobiles)</strong> - <a href="http://digg.originalsignal.com/mobile" target="_blank">http://digg.originalsignal.com/mobile</a></p><br /><p><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/originalsignal.PNG" /></p><br /><p>Original Signal always seems to make great looking products, and this is no different. It also includes the category that the story came from if you like that sort of thing.</p><br /><p><strong>Digg Mobile (beta)</strong> - <a href="http://www.digg-mobile.blogspot.com/">http://www.digg-mobile.blogspot.com/</a></p><br /><p><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/diggmobileblogger.PNG" /></p><br /><p>Not the best thing ever, but it works.</p><br /><p><strong>TinyDigg</strong> - <a href="http://tinydigg.com/" target="_blank">http://tinydigg.com/<br /><br /></a></p><br /><p><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/tinydigg.PNG" /></p><br /><p>TinyDigg is another minimal view of digg which I really like. It allows for viewing of separate topics instead of only the main Digg feed.</p><br /><p>So there you go. 6 different ways to access Digg on a mobile device, for when you don't have access to a computer but absolutely must get your fix of Digg. (Thanks Mr. Funkmonkey for the tip)</p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-63931024471003703172007-01-05T11:20:00.000-08:002007-01-05T11:23:15.453-08:00Solving the Duplicate Submission Problem<p><em>This post has been moved here from <a href="http://sociallygiven.com/blog">Socially Given</a>, Enjoy!</em></p><p>This post is in response to Jay Adelson's (Digg CEO) <a href="http://digg.com/business_finance/Digg_raises_8_5M_more_rejects_evidence_it_has_been_gamed#c4455963">comment</a> where he states that Digg is open to suggestions for improving current features.</p><br /><p>One of the problems with social news that was identified early on was that of duplicate submissions. Duplicate submissions are similar stories from different sources, that get submitted to socially driven news and content sites such as Digg, Netscape, and Reddit.</p><br /><p>I often find that there when news breaks, there is a relatively narrow scope of information that is shared through all of the major news sources. In an effort to get a story to the front page, hopeful diggers are able to submit the same basic content from these varied sources because the urls are different. This ultimately leads to a crowding of the queue with more submissions but the same content over and over again.</p><br /><p>Instead of sitting around and complaining, I have decided to offer a potential solution:</p><br /><p><strong>The Proposal</strong></p><br /><p>My original idea allowed users to submit alternative sources to a specific topic. At the time of the post, the hot news story was the plane crash in NY that killed Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle. I created a mockup of what this could look like, after some feedback it was decided that the ability to vote on the sources would be needed:</p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img id="image57" alt="alternatesubs2.png" src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/alternatesubs2.png" /></div><br /><p>Recently, Digg implemented something very similar to this in the form of their Podcasting section. While it looks nothing like my mock up, it does include the key component; Digging of separate items withing a central topic. This is an important feature that would really be a positive move forward for Digg if it were implemented to news stories.</p><br /><blockquote><br /><p>First, it organizes like-information together making it easier for Digg's users to read about a topic they care about. For instance, if I care about a particular topic, lets say Saddam Hussein's death penalty verdict, I will be able to watch this item progress as new information is released while getting the news from several sources. (Side note: I feel it is important to read news from several sources to be sure I am getting a more full picture of the entire story)</p><br /><p>Second, it allows the multiple sources to be easily grouped much the way Google's News service works. The only difference being that humans decide which sources are worthwhile by digging them.</p><br /></blockquote><br /><p>Much like the new podcasting section, you would be able to comment on the topic as well as the source. This would be a good way to evaluate each source individually as part of a collection of information, rather than just the singular source in itself.</p><br /><p>This would also deflate the so-called unfairness that Digg's top users wield. Instead of an effort to get frontpaged, the effort is now to add quality sources and information that inform the Digg community.</p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-90144288255718705562007-01-04T23:45:00.000-08:002007-01-04T23:56:18.688-08:004 Quick and Easy steps to Add digg to your Blogger blog<p><em>This post has been moved here from Socially Given, Enjoy!</em></p><p>Digg is great. Digg is especially great if you have good content. One of the ways to encourage people to digg the quality content from your website is to add a <a href="http://digg.com/tools/count">digg button</a> to it. Basically, the digg button allows registered digg users to digg your content without having to visit digg. Blogger doesn't like javascript much so you need a workaround that basically includes an html page and an iframe. Here is how to do it in 4 easy steps:</p><br /><p>I also apologize in advance for not having the code copy/paste-able, I couldn't figure out how to get code to show up in a wordpress post. Maybe someone can enlighten me?</p><br /><p><strong>Tools Needed:</strong> Text editor, File host, Blogger blog.</p><br /><p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Using a text editor like notepad add the following to a blank document:</p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/notepad.gif" /></div><br /><p align="left">Remember to add the digg url of your story where indicated. This is the code provided by digg, <a href="http://digg.com/tools/count">here</a>.</p><br /><p align="left"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Step 2:</span> Save the file as whatever_you_want.htm But be sure you save it as UTF-8 and that you select all files as the file type instead of! You can really name it anything, I generally try to keep it relevant to the particular post for future reference.</p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/saving.gif" /></div><br /><p align="left"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Step 3:</span> Upload it to your file server. If you don't have a file server, upload it to a free google pages account, I use it and it works great.</p><br /><p align="left"></p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/googlepages.gif" /></div><br /><p align="left"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Step 4:</span> Add this code to you blogger blog post at the top of the text box in the 'edit html' tab:</p><br /><p align="left"></p><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img src="http://sociallygiven.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/bloggercode.gif" /></div><br /><p align="left">Remember that you need to enter the url of the htm file you uploaded in step 3. Also, I have the positioning set to the top and right, but you can change that to where you want it where it says 'FLOAT: right'. Please let me know if there are any other methods available, I am interested in learning them. Enjoy and happy digging!</p><br /><p align="left"><a href="http://insidesocialnews.blogspot.com/2006/11/most-dugg-comments-in-digg-history.html"><strong>You can see it in action here </strong></a></p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com252tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-10249128150424146452006-12-14T20:03:00.000-08:002006-12-14T20:33:59.606-08:00Bury as 'Rumor'Is anybody else sick of unsubstantiated rumor being dugg to the frontpage? It is really starting to get out of hand. Here are a couple recent examples:<br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/gizmodo-knows-iphone-will-be-announced-on-monday-221991.php" target="_blank">iPhone on monday (december, 18)!!! [gizmodo knows it]</a><br /><br /><a href="http://dpad.gotfrag.com/wii/story/35840/" target="_blank">Wii For $200? More Colors?</a><a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/12/new-york-times-joins-list-of-digg-spammers.html" target="_blank"><span class="highlight"></span></a></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE!!! I just heard from an inside source close to digg that there will be a 'bury as rumor' option, and possibly a 'bury as rumour' option for our UK friends. </span><br /><br />Here is an interesting article that examines the inner working of a good rumor. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/934357.stm"> Check it out</a>. In other news, I challenge someone to submit this with the title "Digg to add 'bury as rumor' option???" for a good dose of irony.<br /><br />Also, I made up this idea so it is completely untrue, but seriously people, hold blogs accountable to the same scrutiny you would a major newspaper or news channel. I think I will do some research to see how many rumors on digg are actually true. Be back later.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-2771747648927432902006-12-06T11:45:00.000-08:002008-11-13T00:49:48.394-08:00Digg hits 1 Million Submissions!Just a few days after Digg turned 2 years old, Digg has reached another huge Milestone. One Million stories have now been submitted to digg. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A big thank you goes out to Digg, but a BIGGER thanks goes out to all of the submitters submitting awesome stories day after day.</span> For those wondering what the 1,000,000th story might be, click below to check it out!:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://digg.com/business_finance/WSJ_Gets_Face_Lift_Smaller_Tighter_More_Colorful"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4QJoZVaZI0zDMZdidTpY4QzbXXiNqaivqJLOxItjcclqhzqUbb5eSBDI4RMhKt_DTsPpxQNvGQlYIMTQ1zP-dovrRuag_Y4U8DcZ4R0g_B83fCtfO5oi9tyqnokbfLmyIf1NRRmLZ9G8/s400/onemillion.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5005612882261900914" border="0" /></a><br />Reasons I am sure this is factual:<br /><br />1. Here is the <a href="http://services.digg.com/story/1">http://services.digg.com/story/1</a> for the first story, the second line lists the story id as '1'. Naturally, the One Millionth story would be at: <a href="http://services.digg.com/story/1000000">http://services.digg.com/story/1000000</a><br /><br />2. When you hover over the digg it button of a story, the story is is listed at the bottom of the browser, like so:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHgxR5RGAkUfukow_gnOVnQT30D4L7GGB8FtYPz7-7w2fVC-6HhTO1hHHav6bmZnObb5CnQEsX4lCAnpMluSKsYZK-CSmeYMH2nUMZk9SdyTqwPwjhAeBcy9n2wPu4tqWcaoAvGOTOVP8/s1600-h/storyid.PNG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHgxR5RGAkUfukow_gnOVnQT30D4L7GGB8FtYPz7-7w2fVC-6HhTO1hHHav6bmZnObb5CnQEsX4lCAnpMluSKsYZK-CSmeYMH2nUMZk9SdyTqwPwjhAeBcy9n2wPu4tqWcaoAvGOTOVP8/s400/storyid.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5005506117964856930" border="0" /></a>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-67045903020117994002006-12-04T13:29:00.000-08:002006-12-04T13:31:31.493-08:00Community?It’s occurred to be today that there may be something missing in the rush to conquer the hot new social side of the internet. When I think of community, I think of a group of people all working together, unified in a common goal or purpose. One of the major features of a successful community is that people tend to contribute in a variety of ways. For instance, there would be a blacksmith, baker, teacher, trash collector, general store owner, etc… Not everyone is a blacksmith, not everyone is a teacher. <br /><br />Similarly, in the case of the social content sites I generally cover here, Digg and Netscape, there is little of this going on. Here is the breakdown of each site:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Digg</span><br />At Digg, the fragmenting of the community into different jobs probably exists, though on a small scale. Basically, you can choose whatever job you want and try your best at it. In my estimations, not everyone does what is best for the community. Some people submit spam stories, some people bury things inappropriately, some people trash up the comments area, and the majority of people just pass on through Digg just to look.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Netscape</span><br />For Netscape, the story is a bit different. As with Digg, you can choose whatever job you want, though there are a smaller number of duties carried out by the general population. Any user can submit, but there are specific users designated to keep the place tidy. The Navigators and Anchors keep the place clean from spam, duplicate stories, and trashy comments.<br /><br />Given the ~2 year history of the social news arena, it seems as if Netscape has moved toward the traditional community model. This is not to say that Netscape is superior to Digg or anything, because I enjoy both sites, and they obviously appeal to different types of people. What I am saying is that social news seems to be progressing toward a more traditional idea of community.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">However, the majority of the population seems to be rather apathetic to helping the common good. When this happens it is necessary to give the individual increased control and more powerful tools for personal use.</span> Hopefully the next generation of sites will give this to us.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-4128725711029768222006-11-30T17:09:00.000-08:002006-11-30T17:40:24.614-08:00Socio-Topical News is the FutureThere are times when I am perfectly content with social news, albeit not very often. Really the only time I can think of that I am is when I use it as a tool to find things that are neat, weird, or funny. Usually this consists of funny videos on youtube or a flash game that I might play a couple times. However, social news seems to be falling short of a site like Google News, where news topics are grouped together.<br /><br />Currently, on sites like digg or netscape, there is really only room for one source. Granted, Netscape's Navigators can add additional links they deem necessary. While this is a step in the right direction, it still fails to cover news topics properly. When a news story hits the front page people read it and thats that. If a story is submitted again dealing with the same topic, it is generally buried as a duplicate, regardless of its content value. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Often times different sources can offer multiple views with new or supplementary information.</span><br /><br />I have been paying attention to <a href="http://techmeme.com/">Techmeme</a> ever since I was linked there several days back and I like what I see. Sure the site is not exactly social news like digg or netscape, but what is keeping those sites from adopting similar schemes? A while back I wrote an article <a href="http://insidesocialnews.blogspot.com/2006/10/duplicate-stories-idea.html">proposing the grouping of similar and alternative sources into one topic</a>. It seems that this is the next shift in social news. Sure there is still a place for social bookmarking and social 'cool stuff finding' but when it comes to news, who wouldn't want an easy list of topical links on a particular subject? <br /><br />Perhaps it is just me, but I find that when it comes to general news topics the average 'social newser' only sees one side of the coin of news. Don't people want to read both sides of a story and decide for themselves? <br /><br />Organizing news topics into groups of user-submitted links would not only accomplish this, but also spread some of the massive click-through love around. Are there any sites I am missing out on that do this? If so let me know, I want in.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-28511892614912456422006-11-29T13:20:00.000-08:002006-11-29T13:44:56.113-08:00Not Everything on the Internet is AwesomeI've been getting some pretty good hits from people submitting the material from this site to digg. Personally, I find it pleasing to see people other than myself submitting things from here. There is one thing that bothers me however; people burying the material. <br /><br />I don't mind criticism or anything, but over the last several weeks I have been noticing an increasing amount of material from this site and others being buried. I don't think Digg is burying it or anything shady like that, I just think that as a whole, the digg audience doesn't really care about general 'social news' news all that much. When people submit every post from one specific site, diggers tend to remember them and bury accordingly. This is basically because as stated above, not everyone is interested in everything that is talked about here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I would believe that this is not just the problem with Inside Social News, which is why I propose a method be devised for blocking individual entries from being submitted to social news sites.</span> <br /><br />This way, when I feel that there is something worthy of being submitted that the general digg audience would accept, I can allow it. <span style="font-weight:bold;">I think we can all agree that not everything is awesome.</span> By limiting the material from specific sites to only top-notch content, the perception of said site would be much higher.<br /><br />I am pretty sure that people will probably hate this idea because everyone seems to only care about hits and pageviews these days. Until this is possible Submit away :)Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-12596961303070486332006-11-28T14:54:00.000-08:002006-11-28T21:57:39.020-08:00On Diggs and Votes, but no Reads....<iframe style="FLOAT: right" src="http://insidesocialnews.googlepages.com/diggnoread.htm" frameborder="0" width="100" height="115"></iframe>One thing I hear a lot about is the fact that people do not read the articles they Digg or vote for. While this is the case and there is no denying it, there are some very plausible reasons for this occurance.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. The Title and Description Give Everything Away.</span><br />A lot of times I find that there is no need to click through to the actual story because it is already summarized for me. However, the summary is usually a poor one that doesn't explain everything. This causes people to digg, vote, and comment on stories without knowing exactly what the story is talking about.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Diggs and Votes are used as bookmarks.</span><br />I believe that Diggs and Votes are to signify that you like something, or feel that other people should see it. All too often, users 'bookmark' a story because they are at work or cannot read it at that moment. This inflates the digg count and is not helpful at all. <a href="http://insidesocialnews.blogspot.com/2006/10/to-save-or-to-digg-that-is-question.html">I am hoping for some sort of bookmarking feature</a> to come in the future.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Users Post the Content of the Story in the Comments.</span><br />I don't know that I have ever seen this on Netscape, but it happens fairly often on Digg. Some users feel the need to include the content of the article in the comments. This happens most often with lists and makes it unnecessary to view the article.<br /><br />I'll give users the benefit of the doubt here. Sometimes there is simply no need to read the article.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-25920108727439898602006-11-28T12:18:00.000-08:002006-11-28T21:58:27.970-08:00Digg's Upcoming Features?<iframe style="FLOAT: right" src="http://insidesocialnews.googlepages.com/upcomingdiggfeatures.htm" frameborder="0" width="100" height="115"></iframe>Kevin Rose <a href="http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/11/kevin_rose_digg.html">recently mentioned</a> that there were some upcoming features; 20 over the next month to be precise. That was of course written down November 9th, giving little time left to release such a large slew of features and updates. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Given the holiday weekend, I think we can all cut the Digg Crew some slack and should send them a big 'Thank You' for working so hard to keep digg valueable and enjoyable. Many thanks indeed!</span><br /><br />With the new features coming soon, I thought I would speculate on what those might be. Here are a few ideas.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >1. The Buried Stories Bin</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What it is:</span> Basically it is a bin where the stories that have been buried go to be re-evaluated. They can either stay buried or be voted back to the homepage or general queue.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why this is important:</span> Often times stories are buried due for no other reason than bias. "I don't like this user, or website" This gives people that enjoy reading those sites the ability to re-present them to the digg audience.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What makes me think this is coming?</span> Digg & Co have repeated over and over about its development, from the <a href="http://diggtheblog.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_diggtheblog_archive.html">digg blog</a> to <a href="http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Digg.com_is_silently_moderating_legitimate_submissions.#c661484">many</a> <a href="http://www.digg.com/security/Digg:_SPAM_and_anti-Fraud_Tools_Coming#c757718">many</a> comments. (there are more, but you get the point) It would just make good sense to release it now.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Social Networking Features</span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What it is:</span> Something along the line of profiles so users can interact better and easier.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why this is important:</span> Right now Digg is a quasi-community, but only through friends and comments. There is no real way to interact with fellow diggers.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What makes me think this is coming?</span> <a href="http://www.valleywag.com/tech/digg/liveblogging-kevin-roses-talk-at-the-web-20-summit-new-digg-features-for-dugg-sites-213743.php?mail2=true">Valleywag liveblogged</a> Kevin's web 2.0 presentation and they mentioned that 'Digg is starting to create profiles. First, it shows users who are good or bad diggers. Second, it'll help Diggers socialize.'<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Enhanced Publisher Tools</span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What it is:</span> Some sort of flash based tools to help publishers know information about who is digging their articles and what is going on with them.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why this is important:</span> Publishers have caught on that good material = lots of hits. Knowledge about who make up these hits and how they are coming will enable dugg writers to know their audience better.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What makes me think this is coming?</span> <a href="http://www.valleywag.com/tech/digg/liveblogging-kevin-roses-talk-at-the-web-20-summit-new-digg-features-for-dugg-sites-213743.php?mail2=true">Valleywag's coverage</a> of the web 2.0 conference again. They noted that 'Digg is also working on giving these tools to web publishers, giving dugg writers info about who's digging their story, what's going on. Digg's building a flash toolkit for this.'<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. The Digg API</span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What it is:</span> A method to "...pretty much giving anyone who wants to create an application to manipulate the digg data the ability to do so."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why this is important:</span> I don't actually know why, but apparently API's help people do awesome things with data.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What makes me think this is coming?</span> They said it is. One place was a <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=109">ZDnet interview here</a>.<br /><br />Well thats all of the ones Digg has made clear are coming. Hopefully we will see some of them. What are some features that you, the digg users would like to see?Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-79665345489630495552006-11-27T19:27:00.000-08:002006-11-27T19:30:36.975-08:00On Spike The Vote (now it's for sale?) - Updated<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/1600/597869/spike.gif"><img style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/298071/spike.gif" border="0" /></a><strong>Update - 11/27/06:</strong> It looks like someone got busted by digg for using the spike the vote system. <a href="http://www.marketingshift.com/2006/11/spike-vote-will-get-banned.cfm">His account and ip were both banned</a>. Long story short, Don't use the service.<br /><br />Also, the bidding is up to $1026 for the site.<br /><br /><strong>News - 11/18/06:</strong> I was working on this post when I noticed that Spike The Vote is now for sale. <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Spike-the-Vote-System-to-Game-Digg-spikethevote-com_W0QQitemZ200048890462QQihZ010QQ">Here is a link to the auction</a>.<br /><br />Several weeks ago, a new service called Spike the Vote was announced promising huge page views for people untalented enough to create what I like to call 'good content'. Some of my content would probably fall into that category, but instead of joining a losers support group, I try to make better content. (It still probably sucks anyway) Without further adieu, the launch of this service went something like that of a man announcing his impotence.<br /><br />First of all, it is fairly easy to see what stories are submitted by the people attempting to spike the vote. For example, of the 3 missions assigned to me, I was able to easily sniff out 2 of the offending sites, the third offender was a toss up between a couple sites. Adsense is a often a dead giveaway though having adsense means nothing in itself.<br /><br />Second, it is obvious to see which users use spike the vote. When a user is assigned 5 stories, other spikethevote users are also assigned the same 5 stories. A simple cross reference of the 'who dugg this' page reveals similarities, a digging history check of those users reveals the same 5 stories dugg in the exact same order. Coincidence? I think not.<br /><br />Third, as for huge page views, there aren't any. While I noticed that each mission included a story submitted by a top user to try and fool people. These stories were quality and reached the homepage anyway. As for the others, the most diggs I saw was around 25 or so.<br /><br /><strong>***Disclaimer***</strong> I signed up for the luxury of writing a post about it and engaged in no shady behavior. I didn't digg anything assigned. Had I needed to submit or digg a story to be gamed in order to get a mission, I wouldn't have.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-49500112870602496652006-11-27T19:15:00.000-08:002006-11-28T00:22:11.969-08:00The List: Digg Trademark Infringers<iframe style="FLOAT: right" src="http://insidesocialnews.googlepages.com/infringerslist.htm" frameborder="0" width="100" height="115"></iframe>If there is one thing I know, it is that people like lists. People also enjoy reading things about the social news site digg.com. Why not combine the two? Here is my list of sites which infringe on the digg trademark:<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-size:130%;" >Already Contacted:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">DiggGames.com</span> (now <a href="http://www.games1.org/">games1.org</a>) - collected the flash games which made it to the homepage<br /><a href="http://digg2phone.com/"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Digg2phone.com</span></a> - (closing) - follow specified digg stories with text messages<br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Diggcard.com</span> - (closed) - allowed users to create a miniature profile cards for their website<br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Diggdot.us</span> - (now <a href="http://doggdot.us/">doggdot.us</a>) - an aggregator of digg, del.icio.us, and slashdot articles<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-size:130%;" >Still Infringing:</span><br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggsig.com/">DiggSig.com</a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"> </span>- create your very own automatic updating Digg Signature for your website, myspace or online forums<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggaddict.com/blog/">DiggAddict.com</a> - News and/or controversy news about digg.com<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggirc.com/">Diggirc.com</a> - connect with other diggers via irc<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggscape.net/">Diggscape.net</a> - aggregates rss feeds from digg, netscape, and now reddit<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://pocketdigg.com/default.htm">pocketdigg.com</a> - digg's and many other sites' headlines formatted for mobile devices<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://duggtrends.com/diggmirror.aspx">duggtrends.com</a> - a site which compliments digg by mirroring dead links, also includes several other neat features<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://digglicious.com/">DiggLicious.com</a> - hybrid digg + del.icio.us in a digg spy scroller<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggsoundboard.com/">diggsoundboard.com</a> - parody 'comment cloud' of digg comments<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggvsdot.com/">diggvsdot.com</a> - highlights crossposted articles from digg and slashdot and scores them<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://slashdigg.com/">slashdigg.com</a> - half digg, half slashdot<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggfiltr.com/">diggfiltr.com</a> - create a custom digg feed in seconds<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://diggfans.com/">diggfans.com</a> - forum-ish thing that doesn't really do anything<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://www.diggdown.net/forum/index.php?fromindex=1">diggdown.net</a> - site that offers mirrors of diggnation saturday night - tuesday night<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://www.diggarmy.com/">diggarmy.com</a> - website that spells 'digg army' in the little digg guys, pretty creative<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://dugg.mobi/">dugg.mobi</a> - mobile friendly digg.com, soon to offer mobile friendly site conversion<br /><a style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" href="http://dugged.com/tang.html">dugged.com</a> - help fix this person cat, saw this posted to digg<br /><br />I am pretty sure I was able to find most of them myself, but if there are any other please let me know. Have any more sites been contacted to be shut down?<br /><br />On a side note, several of the services listed above are mobile version of digg. Digg already offers a service that does that. It can be found at <a href="http://diggriver.com/">diggriver.com</a>.<br /><br />I should also mention that I DO feel that digg has the right to go after sites that use the digg trademark, especially if they are using digg graphics making the site appear like it might be associated with digg.com.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-53577319707623099962006-11-27T11:27:00.000-08:002006-11-27T11:49:52.379-08:00No Digg for You! Diggdot.us Rebrands...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/1600/394637/doggdotus.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/283237/doggdotus.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>Well, it was bound to happen. Diggdot.us was finally <a href="http://doggdotus.blogspot.com/2006/11/diggdotus-is-now-called-doggdotus.html">hit with a cease & desist</a> notice from digg. The site has rebranded though as <a href="http://doggdot.us/">doggdot.us</a> though, so as long as people update their bookmarks it shouldn't be too much of a problem. On the bright side of life, they win my award for best logo of the year. Digg this topic <a href="http://digg.com/offbeat_news/diggdot_us_is_now_called_doggdot_us">here</a>.<br /><br />This C&D is reasonable in my opinion. The site takes stories that have been posted to digg, puts them on its own website, and has ads on the page. Hardly complementary in my estimations. Although, that type of activity is actually encouraged by digg through their blog tools. The digg name was the item in question here, so I can't imagine any more trouble with the rebrand.<br /><br />All this trademark stuff is giving me a headache. Digggames, digg2phone, diggcard, and now diggdot.us. I am pondering posting my list of sites that infringe on the trademark. I think its somewhere near 20.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-49759221632466421862006-11-24T09:53:00.000-08:002006-11-24T10:20:41.187-08:00The Wrong HeadstoneIn the last couple days there have been a few posts with regard to digg's moderators. <a href="http://insidesocialnews.blogspot.com/2006/11/diggs-ninja-moderators.html">Mine</a>, <a href="http://themulife.com/?p=333">Muhammad's</a>, <a href="http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/11/24/digg-has-moderators-they-just-suck/">Deep Jive Interests</a>.....<br /><br />One of the things that bother me about digg is when submitted stories are buried innappropriately. A prime example of this is an explanatory post <a href="http://themulife.com/?p=333">about digg's moderators</a> by Muhammad @ themulife. At digg, the submission was <a href="http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Kevin_Rose_Admitting_Digg_Has_Moderators">marked as inaccurate</a> and <a href="http://www.digg.com/search?area=all&age=7&sort=new&search-buried=1&s=themulife&submit=Search">buried</a>. Usually I would celebrate this self-moderation by the masses, except that in this case, it was completely wrong.<br /><br /><p><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/300530/wrongheadstone.png" border="0" /></p><p><br>This story was not inaccurate. It pointed out that digg <em>HAS</em> moderators. A common misconception among the digg population is that there are <em>NO</em> moderators. If anything this would give people a better understanding of how digg works. Kevin Rose, the creator of digg, even confirmed the existence of moderators in the comments, further showing that this story was not inaccurate.</p><br />In a side note, frustration with digg's burial process is probably at an all-time high right now. I would think that this would be a good time for the digg crew to unveil the 'buried stories bin' which has been worked on since <a href="http://diggtheblog.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_diggtheblog_archive.html">at least April</a>. More on the bin to come.Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-12937888033092906192006-11-23T01:13:00.000-08:002006-11-23T02:00:43.218-08:00Finding Spammers is Fun! (Part 1)<strong>Spam Ring:</strong><br />These "users" were nice enough to all digg the exact same stories. Some were even nice enough to post the exact same stories to their blogs.<br /><br />chenfu910 - <a href="http://digg.com/users/chenfu910/dugg">Dugg</a> - <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/chenfu910">Blog</a><br />johnbowdy - <a href="http://digg.com/users/johnbowdy/dugg">Dugg</a><br />hothope - <a href="http://digg.com/users/hothope/dugg">Dugg</a> - <a href="http://hothope.blogspot.com/">Blog</a><br />tsaifufu - <a href="http://digg.com/users/tsaifufu/dugg">Dugg</a> - <a href="http://tsaifufu.blogspot.com/">Blog</a><br />warrantsai001 - <a href="http://digg.com/users/warrantsai001/dugg">Dugg</a><br />amyleeamy - <a href="http://digg.com/users/amyleeamy/dugg">Dugg</a> - <a href="http://amyleeamy.blogspot.com/">Blog</a><br />leejuihsing - <a href="http://digg.com/users/amyleeamy/dugg">Dugg</a><br />leemeng - <a href="http://digg.com/users/leemeng/dugg">Dugg</a><br /><br /><strong>Sites Spammed:</strong><br />All of these sites have tsaifufu@gmail.com listed as their contact in the WHOIS registry. Tsaifufu is one of the digg usernames listed above. Anyways, here are the sites:<br /><br />77blog.com<br />game4flash..com<br />blogskincare.com<br />budget7.com<br />calcium-reactor.com<br />treatmentinfertility.com<br />accident123.com<br />ibs7.com<br />blind-window.com<br />backpain2u.com<br />aquraium.com<br />ainvestigator.com<br />cufflink1.com<br />2barbecue.com<br />123scholarship.com<br />airtimeshare.net<br />6diamond.com<br />scuba9.com<br />vision0.com<br />check0.com<br />safari123.com<br />gifts0.com<br />hairs123.com<br />palsycerebral.comStephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-41588506400064843682006-11-22T20:11:00.000-08:002006-11-22T21:00:08.778-08:00New Site: Hive Spy<a href="http://hivespy.com/"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/741124/hivespy.png" border="0" /><strong>Hive Spy</strong></a> "...collects the latest new submissions to Social Bookmarking Portals such as Digg.com, Netscape.com, del.icio.us...", and I noticed a few reddit links flying through, though it doesn't list it. <div><br /><div></div><div>Basically it works in the same manner as the digg spy with 'new submissions' as the only option checked. I am unsure how reliable hivespy is at aggregating each sites newly submitted stories, but one thing is for sure: there are tons of del.icio.us links.</div><div> </div><div>As far as features are concerned, you can pause or forage.</div><ul><li>Pausing does just that, it pauses the fast-moving hive so you can click and read the links much easier. </li><li>Forage gives a bit more information about the link itself; such as what time it was submitted and what time it entered the hive. For sites with tags, it is nice enough to list those as well as similar stories.</li></ul><div>The only thing I wish is that it listed the link to the site where it came from. Other than that, I thought it was a pretty interesting find. So check it out.</div><div> </div></div>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-53141202000917899892006-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:002006-11-22T19:09:34.171-08:00Digg's Ninja Moderators<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/1600/584082/ninja.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/357152/ninja.gif" border="0" /></a>It is pretty common knowledge that ninjas lurk in the shadows waiting to kill things. I have never seen one personally, but that does not mean that they do not exist. Some people believe there are secret moderators lurking in the shadows of digg.com fighting crime and sinister activities, while other believe they are the sinister ones themselves. Here are some things to think about.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Digg Has Moderators</span><br />It would be <em>very</em> false to say that Digg doesn't have moderators. The only question is what exactly they do? Here are a few references I found with regard to digg admin or mods from the digg team themselves:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://digg.com/digg_news/Add_digg_stories_to_your_site#c18613"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/597130/submittedbymod.png" border="0" /></a>or</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://digg.com/tech_news/Is_Digg_Scared_of_Information_#c14544"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/488589/moderationkevin.png" border="0" /></a></div>In <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=109">part 2 of a ZDNet interview</a>, Kevin had this to say:<br /><blockquote><p>"But for the most part I’d say it’s probably 95% user-driven, so the users handle most of that for us - which is really nice from the admin side, in that we don’t really have to have a large staff that’s policing the site. It’s actually only one person <a id="more-109"></a>who watches the site in general - it’s not really that big a task because the community handles most of it."</p></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >There Are Missing Stories</span><br />As far as I understand it, when a story is buried it is removed from the homepage. However, It still exists on digg. This is easily shown by running a search and including buried stories. <a href="http://www.digg.com/search?area=all&age=7&sort=new&search-buried=1&s=themulife&submit=Search">Here is an example search I ran using 'themulife'</a>. This is how digg works...except when it doesn't.<br /><br />Sometimes stories are completely removed from digg. I have no idea why, but it happens. Here is an example of a story that was buried, but is no longer anywhere on digg. <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/gaming_news/Just_out_from_Reuters_650_000_PS3s_to_be_recalled">http://digg.com/gaming_news/Just_out_from_Reuters_650_000_PS3s_to_be_recalled</a>. Oops, page not found. I know this story existed because there I watched it get buried numerous times on the digg spy: </p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/4278/sonystoryburiesab6.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/4278/sonystoryburiesab6.png" border="0" /></a>This has happened to other stories as well. Perhaps it is an internal error? In completeing the research for this story I ran across this <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=108">ZDNet interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose</a> where he explains the burial system. Here is the important snippet:</p><blockquote>"So, for example, users can "bury" a story and when enough users do that it’s removed from the queue, but not deleted from the site."</blockquote><br /><p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >What do the moderators moderate?</span><br />I'm sure you can come to your own conclusion here. I would think it would be a bad conclusion that Digg is up to no good, because they really have a lot to lose going that route. What do you think?<br /><br /></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Transparency</span><br /></span>While there are certain aspects (such as the number of buries per story) of the burying process that should not be revealed for good reason. Others should. One good example of this is the reason for burial. Currently, in order to find out why a submission was buried, you need to email digg support. Big waste of time for something as cut and dry as this. Why not just list the reason next to the red thumbs down?</p><p>Another crazy idea would be to differentiate between 'user moderation' and 'administrative moderation'. I believe this would allow digg's users to see how/why things are done, and who they are done by. This would give them the opportunity to know what they did wrong so that they know what to correct in the future.</p><p>In the end, mysterious things sometimes happen for no reason. Without proper explanation people tend to conjure up conspiracy theories or whatever. I hope this post did not come across as a conspiracy theory as I only presented what we know and nothing more. Digg on.</p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-56293301188098758512006-11-22T10:24:00.000-08:002006-11-22T10:46:54.805-08:00Do Not Digg This PostOver the last several days I have been doing some serious thinking. One of my focuses has been on how to make this site a legitimate news source for things dealing with social news. So here are some ways I will try to do that:<br /><br />1. Not submit any posts to social news sites unless it is actually 'news'. After doing some research, I found that digg does not like random thoughts being paraded around on digg. Here are a couple comments by danhuard (digg moderator):<br /><br /><blockquote>"STOP submitting stories like this. Digg IS NOT a message board, stop treating it as such. You submit technology and science news content only. Don't use the submission feature as your personal megaphone. As much as you hate exclamation points you're equally cluttering up th digg queue. Please think about your actions before acting on them. You're identifying a very petty problem by creating a much larger one. Think..."</blockquote><br />and<br /><br /><blockquote><p>"submissions like these are exactly why it's so difficult to follow stories completely through the /diggall queue to the homepage.stop treating digg like a message board...it's science and technology news not "whatever comes to my thought process gets submitted."contact digg at feedback@digg.com"</p></blockquote>2. Research, research, research. One things that news sites do is research to be sure what they are saying is accurate. Sure some people may disagree, but there is generally some sort of editorial wall before something can be published. Many Blogs do not have this because they generally 'repurpose' news and throw a link to the people that actually did research. Again I will use a comment by Dan Huard to prove digg does not like this:<br /><br /><blockquote>"If you're going to call digg out, you've gotta come in with more credibility<br />than this."</blockquote>3. Change my domain from insidesocialnews.blogspot.com to <a href="http://www.insidesocialnews.com">www.insidesocialnews.com</a>. Many people see the blogspot tag and immediately consider it blogspam regardless of its content value.<br><br />4. Keep it ad/adsense free until I have something worth getting paid for to say. Many people put ads up in hope of making a quick buck or paying for hosting or something. As of right now blogger pays for my hosting so there is no need to try and recooperate costs.<br /><br />Lastly, here is a comment by dan that kind of sums up their feeling on blogs. I think it is relevant to the topic. An please don't submit this to digg.<br /><blockquote><p>"After reading this I still don't see how blogs add any value to digg. The people who actually get off their asses and do actual news gathering and reporting should be credited. Generally, blog sites even try to hide the original source and only link internally thereafter. The obvious ones are the Weblogs, Inc. guys (engadget, joystiq, blogging baby, etc.)<br /><br />Maybe I should retract what I said, "After reading this I still don't see how blogs add any value to digg." There IS a value for blogging (different perspectives, sometimes addtional expert advice, etc.) but bloggers have abused their power too much. It's too easy to submit anything you want. And EVERYBODY wants a few extra bucks from Google Ads so there is the problem, imo.<br /><br />On another note, digg users still don't understand the administrative toolset digg provides. People complain about how bad the stories are but they don't 'report' the story. The community needs to realize that if you want digg a certain way, YOU have the power to change it. YOU are the admins. It's like voting for our president. You can't complain how bad of a job he's doing if you didn't vote!"</p></blockquote>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-66890147365529514542006-11-20T08:20:00.000-08:002006-11-20T08:29:06.914-08:00The Yigg Effect<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/1600/87152/yigglogonew.png"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/706012/yigglogonew.png" border="0" /></a> <div>I guess there is a first time for everything. Last night I got homepaged over there for my article regarding <a href="http://digg.com/tech_news/More_Digg_Trademarks">More Digg Trademarks</a>. Properly titled, <a title="http://insidesocialnews.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-digg-trademarks.html" href="http://yigg.de/14890_diggcom_legt_nach_Neue_Warenzeichen_und_Markenanmeldungen" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">digg.com legt nach. Neue Warenzeichen und Markenanmeldungen</a> has received a total of 23 yiggs and 5 Kommentare. </div><div> </div><div></div><div>Think what you will about it, but my day it officially made :)</div>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-90566628003671057402006-11-19T13:01:00.000-08:002006-11-19T21:16:50.928-08:00More Digg Trademarks<iframe style="FLOAT: right" src="http://insidesocialnews.googlepages.com/morediggtrademarks.htm" frameborder="0" width="75" height="115"></iframe>I just noticed some new trademark wording at the bottom of the digg homepage today. Not sure when it was added, but it might possibly have some ramifications to some digg fansites. The new wording states that:<br /><blockquote><p>"DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers,<br />button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc."</p></blockquote>Normally I wouldn't think too deeply about something like this but lets all take a time machine back to August when <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/25/digg-sends-cd-to-digggames/">digg sent a cease and desist</a> order to DiggGames. Kevin Rose <a href="http://blog.digg.com/?p=38">wrote about it</a> on the Digg blog, but that was specific to the term 'digg'. With new teminology such as 'dugg' added, could <a href="http://duggtrends.com/diggmirror.aspx">duggtrends/duggmirror</a> be in jeopardy? Hopefully not as they provide an awesome service that is widely used throughout the digg community.<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Update - Sites that have been contacted:</strong></span><br /><strong><a href="http://digg2phone.com/">Digg2Phone</a></strong> - " With Digg2Phone, you can choose which stories you want us to follow for you, and we'll text message you when something happens."<br /><a href="http://diggcard.com/"><strong>Digg Card</strong></a> - "Digg card is a way of inserting your <a href="http://digg.com/">Digg.com</a> Profile on to you website."<br /><strong>DiggGames</strong> - now <a href="http://www.games1.org/">games1.org</a> - a listing of all the flash games that have been featured on the frontpage of digg.comStephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-66579027065745400392006-11-17T23:46:00.000-08:002006-11-18T10:42:25.383-08:00Netscape Userbase Woes (Insert Debbie Downer Noise)I've been gathering user signup data on Netscape ever since it began. This is a very easy thing to do with the use of their handy <a href="http://www.netscape.com/tracker/users/">Tracker</a>. My goal was to show a trend, either positive or negative. I do believe that this is what would be considered a negative one:<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/820980/netscapeusers.png" border="0" /><br /><br /><p>Obviously, I do not think the main goal of Netscape is to get more users, but rather to have more participation. However, I would consider this information an indicator of waning interest. It is fairly difficult to compare this to Digg at the moment since there has not been any public statement of their userbase in a while. My guess is that it is fast approaching the magical 1 Million mark. Anyways, take this information for what its worth. </p><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Edit:</strong> Muhammad gives some good positive analysis on the topic </span><a href="http://themulife.com/?p=305">here</a>.</p><p>Any other stats people are interested in seeing?</p>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-91725210605275993972006-11-15T11:36:00.000-08:002006-11-15T11:56:45.964-08:00The Digg SoundboardEverybody enjoys reading comments, so why not have a real-time* view of the comments posted to digg.com? <a href="http://www.diggsoundboard.com/">The Unofficial Digg Soundboard</a> promises just such a service. Basically it combines the look of a tag cloud with comments instead of tags. This is actually a fairly old service, but I don't know how I missed out on it until now.<br /><br />Sense of humor required.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/1600/diggsoundboard.png"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/diggsoundboard.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:78%;" >*</span><span style="font-size:78%;">not actually real-time</span>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-60580092820816635542006-11-12T16:00:00.000-08:002006-11-12T16:35:49.561-08:00I'm Tired of Inaccuracy!I don't understand why people don't want information that is not full of crap. Granted, this problem outlined below lies in the story submission stage where users conveniently forget to convey what an article actually says to get maximum diggs. Truthfully, I'm really fed up with it and you should be too.<br /><br />Here are a couple good examples of what I mean:<br /><br />1. "<a href="http://digg.com/politics/Religious_right_leaders_knew_1_evangelical_Ted_Haggard_was_gay">Religious right leaders knew #1 evangelical, Ted Haggard, was gay</a>"<br /><br />Problem: No one reads past the headline. Many people are so quick to comment about how terrible Christian's are, they fail to read the story at all. I did read the story and the links it quoted, but somehow I only see that Haggard's being gay was speculated. Far from proof if you ask me.<br /><br />2. "<a href="http://digg.com/politics/Republican_Fires_Employee_For_Confirming_that_He_Violated_Ethics_Rules">**Republican Fires Employee For Confirming that He Violated Ethics Rules</a>"<br /><br />Problem: Again, the sheep, I mean readers don't read the article. The comments section was filled up with comments saying that Republicans are *all* corrupt. Anyways, I decided to read the article and found that at no point did the article state that anyone was fired.<br /><br />Please don't take either of these example and say that I condone the actions at the heart of the news stories. I don't. Hypocrisy and unethical behavior are not good. I simply want people to be a little less stupid. Is that too much to ask?Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7203721313196910061.post-20173220555833011632006-11-06T00:40:00.000-08:002006-11-06T00:57:30.094-08:00+1000 and Reverse PsychologyThis weekend was a pretty busy one here at Inside Social News. People seemed to be fairly interested in what their fellow diggers had been commenting about. Saturday ended with somewhere around 60,000 page views, which may not be very many, but when your previous high was 1500, it is. Good thing I don't use adsense.<br /><br />People also seem to enjoy doing the opposite of what you ask for in a comment. Requests for positive diggs are buried, requests for buries are dugg. Case in point:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Top_8ish_Most_Buried_Comments_in_Digg_History#c3695640"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1517/879360511864857/400/plus1000.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I believe <a href="http://www.digg.com/users/choicetoes">choicetoes</a> now has the most dugg <a href="http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Top_8ish_Most_Buried_Comments_in_Digg_History#c3695640">comment</a> in digg history. I didn't update my posts because I am too lazy and about ready for bed. <br /></div></div>Stephen Searerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03357577204304409920noreply@blogger.com0