Sunday, October 12, 2008

Digg, Dugg, Done

Photobucket

While I've been blogging for quite a while, I only discovered Social Networking sites for bloggers much more recently. I know some of the ins and outs of social sites. For example, I've been posting to chatboards like Ebay's Soapbox and various chats there since the late 1990's. I've been a member of http://www.nedthetoothpick.com/ site since the beginning (close to 3 years) and had a MySpace page for 2. I'm friggin social.

The first blogger social site I ever joined was BlogCatalog. I met lots of wonderful bloggers there, and have made some very good friends. Then, I joined Digg, which is another site, and one that is very well known.

I spent a lot of time Digging original articles, funny pictures, videos and who knows what else. Yes, it took a lot of effort, but it was worth it for a few reasons. First, it helped me as I developed a network of "friends" and "fans," most of whom helped me get exposure for my blog while I helped them. And secondly, it introduced me to many new blogs and ideas. Talk about win-win.

But a few weeks or so ago, Digg threw out a bunch of my friends. They claim (and I'm not going to get into specifics because I don't fully understand, nor care to learn) that my friends cheated.

And I mean this from the bottom of my fat encrusted heart

WTF

Were my friends too social? Were they too active and being too helpful? Did they do too much to help others succeed?

From the little I can understand, they used a tool so that they were more efficient. They then were dumped without warning. Ok, I suppose I can almost understand that. Digg has TOS, don't follow them, and you're gone. Little tough considering it's not as if they were stealing or doing anything illegal by real world standards. But then, in a move bordering on crazy, Digg suspended members who just knew the Diggers who were previously suspended. Photobucket

I have since nearly stopped participating. I've done nothing wrong, I'm neither suspended, nor even warned.

I just don't want to play any more.

I've done 2 shouts in the last 2 weeks, and have only submitted one thing. I suppose I could just go and unfriend everyone, but I'm a lazy guy. I still Digg a couple shouts a day sent to me, and those are only from some bloggers I consider friends, not "Digg Friends."

For now, I've pretty much Done Dugg my last at Digg.

Note: Look below for the humor post from today.

http://www.humorbloggers.com/

9 comments:

Chat Blanc said...

it's ridiculous that they created the Digg monster and now they're trying to kill off the users. brilliant.

Unknown said...

I hadn't heard anything about the big Digg scandal, but I have been seriously debating leaving for a quite a while anyway. I hate to admit that you may have inspired me, my dear Crotchety. I mean, I really, really hate it, and I may stay with Digg for another week or two in order to put the kibosh on any nasty rumors before they get started!!!

Unknown said...

Hi

I am working on a site which try to solve many of the problems with digg.com.
You can find it on http://crowdnews.eu.

The main problem with digg is the voting system.
When only top voted stories get on the front page it has
to be a subject that many can relate to,
which result in stories with a low information content.

Crowdnews solves this by using sharing instead of voting.
Every have a personal news page on which they can subscribe to other users and when those users share stories they will appear on the personal news page.


Join me on CrowdNews

Unknown said...

This is the issue with so many of these traffic driven sites. They want items from a wide variety of web sites-- only, people habitually only Digg or Stumble the folks they read, and that circle is not infinitesimal.

It ends up preventing you from sharing much you otherwise would.

And frankly, I think everyone loses out when that happens.

Matt said...

too bad...you were one of the most "dugg'd" blogs I've ever visited. You were kind of like my Digg idol.

Da Old Man said...

@ Chat: Seems like the dumbest business plan imagineable, doesn't it?

@ Fishhawk: I'm only there now for some friends. I got probably a dozen shouts this morning, and I jus deleted them.

@ Knud: Good luck with that. I've heard of others doing things, and I'll let everyone know if and when anything good happens.

@ Jenn: Kind of like how those awards circulate.

@ Matt: Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Can't say I blame you. One major problem with Digg I've run across is that I get just slammed with shouts and wind up with between 20 and 30 Diggs every time I send out one.

Hmmm...

Da Old Man said...

@ The Hawg: Starts to make one wonder why bother.

Anonymous said...

what?! does this mean you will have more time for your family? what a concept!