Digging a Grave

Is digg dying a death ?

It seems that more and more are being banned and more and more of the submissions to this once great site are ‘repeats’ and things that were buried by the now banned members.

To be banned from digg all it takes is to open more than one link at a time, read them all and then digg them, you do not have to use a bot or a script, you do not have to do anything wrong as stated in their term except not follow like a sheep and click one story at a time and then wait an hour before you read the next, I have yet to work out how you can take 5 minutes looking at a picture, you open it, look at it, like or dislike it and move on, 1 minute tops !

I personally know of a family, 3 seperate members who were banned as they were told they were using a script or a bot as the activity on their account was ‘erratic’ They all work so they used to come onto dig at various times during the day, this it seems was classed as ‘erratic’. They also say that you have the right to appeal against a decision, again this is FALSE...... they will not enter into any discussion with a banned member, they have a stock email they send out and will not reconsider even when asked to speak to a supervisor or manager, here is a copy of the mail I received from them ...

Greetings from Digg.com,

We have found activity from your account showing the use of a bot/script/macro to Digg stories, which is explicitly against the Terms of Service (digg.com/tos) you agreed to. The account has been banned permanently, and will not be reinstated.

Because we must be vigilant in protecting against activities that compromise the Digg community, this decision is final and irreversible.

Thank you,

-Digg Support


How is this a discussion ? How is this proper and fair treatment ? As far as I can see its not, they are not prepared to listen to anyone and as such they are starting to dig a grave for themselves, how long before they bury themselves in the hole they are creating ?

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One, Two, Three,Four

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

Wait awhile then digg some more

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

Take a breathe, you need to wait

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

STOP !!!!

OMG you dugg a lot

You have to stop, cease and desist

Or your name goes on the list

You digg and shout as thats the way

Of the social sites today

But unless your part of the inner crew

Then digg’s big brother watches you

He times your diggs, your shouts and submissions

How dare you join the fun with no permission

You too close to the 'famed' front page

Your sending diggers into a rage

But not to worry your submissions canned

And as from now you are banned

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What is going on with Digg ?

What in the world is going on with Digg ? Has anyone else noticed the low numbers now needed to get to the front page ? Where once you needed two of three hundred minimum diggs to get to the holiest of Front Pages now it seems that 100 will do. Something is seriously wrong on this site at the moment.

I was one of the 100 that were banned, now some may have been banned for a reason and some may have deserved to b banned but I did not, I never used a script, a ‘bot’ or any other means to dig a submission, I used my fingers and my eyes and I read them, commented if I had anything to say and then dugg them, yet still I was banned and no reply was forth coming from digg, I have tried on numerous occasions to email them I have asked for the supervisor and I have written and told them my usual dig habits and even my work schedule so they could see that I dug at certain time of the day or evening because of life commitments and still they will not answer me.

I spent a lot of time gathering friends on the site, I painstakingly read their submissions and shouts and dugg them and shouted out to other friends, this is what I was mistakenly under the impression people did for each other on a social site, they socialised and if an article was sent to me that I enjoyed, then I wanted to share it with others, be it a joke, a picture or a blog item, all have their ways of improving someones day.

I will admit that I have opened another account on digg and have at the moment got 97 friends, not too many and not too few but it seems that although they are happy to send shouts out asking for a digg on a certain post or for me to shout something for them, they are unwilling to do the same for others, again this is showing on the front page numbers, so I ask the question why do they want to be friends ? This never happened before, everyone was more than happy to shout and dig for another but looking at the quality of articles now being submitted and the amount of re posts it seems the ones who were banned might actually have been amongst those who were keeping dig in the social media spot light.

A lot has been said about the famous inner circle and yes I agree that if they are ‘cheating’ the system and being given special treatment then they need to go BUT for the ones banned that were not doing anything wrong then this is grossly unfair and something needs to change in the way they determine who is doing what and how. Take a look at the front page, you will see what I am talking about, there are fewer and fewer things being dug and fewer and fewer good stories being submitted, unfortunately as it stand at the moment then reddit has the lead on digg, a big lead that is going to take months to recover from unless something is done and done soon.

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StumbleUpon Stepping Up

Is Stumble trying to take advantage of the recent events at Digg? It seems they are although I would surmise the timing is purely coincidental. Stumble made some changes to the site which should enhance the attractiveness to it's users. Basically, they are expanding the capabilities of the system.

To start, they removed the 200 friend limit. For those who are really "social", this is welcomed news. I would say the people from Digg will like this move.

Also, the system will remove friends who are no longer active from your list. This is really handy since there is nothing more frustrating than realizing that your list is half empty. Digg keeps the names of the people who had accounts closed. Many who were friends with the banned were surprised to find that most of their friends were gone. Digg will leave them there eternally.

Another nice feature is that new people appear at the top of your friends list. This is a nice way to ensure that the newer people get some focus.

Finally, you can have a friend without getting their Stumbles or vice versa. From a time management standpoint, this makes life easier since it removes some clutter. Even though people are our friends, we do not always have the same interests. Now, you can choose what you like to see.

This could be another small step in the demise of Digg. When you are the big boy, there is no place to go but down. The recent activities over there might open the door. StumbleUpon seems intent on making a play for that place.

Here is the link to Stumble's official posting.

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Digg's Inner Circle

We all know who they are. Mr. Babyman. Badwithcomputer. Zaibatsu. These people live on the front page of Digg. Check out their profiles and you find they get 25%-40% of their submissions to go popular. That is a terrific percentage. It pays $10 million+ a year in baseball. I imagine it also pays rather well on Digg. Most of us heard the rumors about corporations paying for front page results. Hell, we all know that it is worth a few grand to the right company.

I wrote how Digg is run by a bunch of communists. Kevin Putin is reigning with an iron fist. He is protecting those who made him. Sadly for him (happily for everyone else), he is banking on the wrong people. An organization needs to grow and expand. While he might have three million registered users, there are a lot less who actually visit on a regular basis. I only need to look at my fan list to see all those who signed up and never returned to the site. My guess is that is over 25% of my fan base.

This week the "reds" at Digg cleaned house banning eveyone who used a script. As mentioned in this article, people had their accounts closed based upon suspicion. Digg did not take the time to determine if these people indeed did cheat the system. Obviously, some of that group deserved what they got. However, I personally know of at least two people who did not use a script of any kind. It matters little to Kevin Putin and his gang.

This makes me wonder: why were these people banned? It seems there is something more to this equation than a few scripts making lives easier. I believe the protection of the inner circle was at the core of this. There was not a single member of this elite group banned even though there was documented cases of script using based upon digg times. One post even copied the digg times of MrBabyman to show that he dugg 80+ in less that three minutes. To me, this is more evidence of cheating than provided by those who were actually banned by Digg. Yet, MrBabyman is in the inner circle. The ones banned were not.

Everyone whose account was closed had many diggs. They were the "up and comers" on Digg, having amassed 15,000 or more diggs. These were the people who were starting to get a few stories on the front page. This is a threat to Kevin's cherished inner group. Thus, he needed to protect them. How Hitleresque of him? He pulled out the cyberspace version of the gas chamber. Eliminate those you do not like.

Personally, I hope his piece of crap enterprise collapses. Many will say that is impossible since Digg is so established. Lehman Brothers was established also and look at what happened to them. Google backed away from the deal to acquire Digg. They also discount the traffic that is sent to a site since they know there is a chance it is a farce. Digg is manipulated from the top down. On there, life is not a democracy. Welcome to Russia Comrade!

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