What is Digg?755 Comments
- jizzatch, on 11/06/2007, -54/+548This is a decent analysis, but it is sad to see so much made of the posting by Dr. Paul supporters. You can take ANY issue, whether it is Ron Paul, ipod, Stephen Colbert, Wii, etc, and you will find lots of digg users that post only stories about that subject. Just look at all of the articles people posted when the Wii and PS3 were coming out. So, we are all a bunch of Ron Paul fanboys. Is that so wrong? We have found something to be excited about. Most of it is not spam, but legitimate news stories about Dr. Paul. Spammers suck, but if you look at the posts contributed by those 30 people in the article, they are mostly legitimate articles.
Happy Independence Day! - cfountain72, on 11/06/2007, -41/+270Full disclosure: I am a Ron Paul supporter.
I applaud the author on his detective work, but I have two concerns:
"Clearly, his tactics, although unethical, are working." Please don't refer to them as 'his' tactics. Rep. Paul has admitted that he was pretty ignorant of YouTube Digg or Meetup before this election, so I would ask that in the spirit of accuracy that no one claim these are 'his' tactics. Good, bad, effective, annoying; if stories are at the top of Digg, Rep. Paul did not orchestrate it himself. We are proud to help him carry the cross of this election in support of his cause, but few, if any of us, have ever spoken to or heard from his HQ. I, personally, have only spoken with the members of our local meetup group.
Second, what else are we to do? The MSM rarely mentions him. He does not have the support of traditional big money backers. Only now are some local radio shows inviting him to speak. No one Diggs the other candidate's stories because we've all heard it all before. The same soundbites from the same empty suits.
Still, let me offer my apologies if I have in anyway impeded the free-flow of ideas from Digg's pages to it's user's eyes. Peace be with you. - crxvfr, on 11/06/2007, -53/+162Yea, thats reaching. Add my name to the list. My profile is empty and I've dugg many Ron Paul articles. Digg is a user driven site. Were all those that posted the HD-DVD number in kahootz too? Get over it. Go to YouTube if you want to do this kind of stuff cuz that place is polluted with REAL collusion.
- inactive, on 11/06/2007, -26/+103RP stories are not as annoying as Iphone stories.
- Hortnon, on 11/04/2007, -28/+93I think you're all missing his point. There's a difference between Digging Paul because you support him, and doing what he's talking about. Notice, near the beginning, he describes the fact that he researched why his own blog got so many Diggs.
The fact is, it had the name Ron Paul in the title, and that's all it needed for some of you. He took that data, and then compared it, creating a network of friends. And now you have a list of spammers. - tehtopher, on 11/04/2007, -26/+85I am a Ron Paul supporter.
I only digg articles that *I* find valuable and I feel confident recommending to the Digg community. The number of diggs ideally is representative of how valuable the article is and I believe the author of this article has the right to claim that the number of diggs isn't representative of the quality of the article. Yet the problem that the author claims to exist is very likely systemic within Digg and I find his targeting Ron Paul a little curious.
In addition, it may very well be that Ron Paul supporters are willing to read all that they can about a man they trust to run the country for four years and therefore digg a higher percentage of the number of stories relative to people who support other politicians. If it's only a matter of Ron Paul-supporters trying to be educated about who they support, I say that is something that should be encouraged regardless of the politician involved. - VirtualCtor, on 10/11/2007, -12/+63Who is Ron Paulfs?
- matador3, on 10/11/2007, -22/+68I've seen front page Ron Paul stories get over 2000 Diggs despite best efforts of the massive bury brigade. I think your list is missing a few names.
- thinman1189, on 10/11/2007, -22/+67So he has fanboys? Wow, what a surprise. So does just about everything in this world. Give it up, there's no grand conspiracy from either side. If you don't like Ron Paul then beat him and his supporters in politics, not in paranoid delusions.
- brokekneck, on 10/11/2007, -23/+67I digg Ron Paul story's cause I think he's worth my digg. Its not a conspiracy. People just like him.
- canewediggit, on 11/12/2007, -20/+61"I admit that I log onto Digg solely for the purpose of finding Ron Paul articles and boosting them to the front page if I can.
So what?"
i'm just going to let that sit there and refrain from making a long winded comment explaining how much that type of behavior ruins digg. - TopherT, on 10/11/2007, -15/+55I regularly digg Ron Paul stories I find interesting. I've met only one other person who has shown any interest in Dr. Paul, I've never spoken to him about digg. I don't care if there is a large amount of stories. It seems to me that the cause of freedom is completely in sync with the tone and political leanings of digg.
- brickbat, on 10/11/2007, -24/+63I don't get it. If someone else is posting legitimate stories and this group of 30 people are digging Ron Paul stories exclusively, how is that spam? Where does it say you must digg a variety of categories?
I see absolutely nothing wrong with what these people have done. - badfish0116, on 11/14/2007, -45/+80Awesome im number 6! Well i guess since som whiney pissant "caught" me "spamming" I should admit it. I have been envolved in maniupulation of digg! The user driven site where the users choose which stories go to the top. Yes i digg every Ron Paul article!! You see i have around 1000 accounts so when a Dr. Paul story gets a larger digg amount it is me!
muwuhahahahahahahhahahaha - redrock34, on 10/11/2007, -36/+70The largest Ron Paul story here has over 7,000 Diggs. So I'm gonna have to call ***** on your story. Buried as inaccurate.
- Schmidtopolis, on 10/11/2007, -2/+33That was the most pacifistic political rant I've ever read. Good on you. I love it when people can say their piece (peace) and not step on too many toes.
- Schmidtopolis, on 10/11/2007, -6/+36I love to "meat" in real life.
- resta6, on 01/12/2009, -26/+55you shouldn't worry about Ron Paul's internet support, you should be worried about your candidates' lack of internet support. Only a complete fool would disregard the internet. And the reason RP is popular is because he has a message of freedom that we haven't heard in 20 years.
- Godwhacker, on 10/11/2007, -35/+63I didn't make the list. Damn!
- elk1, on 10/27/2007, -16/+42and for every (maybe every other) "Ron Paul Spammer" there is someone out there burying Ron Paul stories indiscriminately.
I personally like the attack on journalistic integrity and then the inclusion of this unsupported 'fact': "his supporters use bots to vote multiple times" - gypsynuke, on 10/11/2007, -24/+49I've never been in collusion with anyone. There isn't a single website or forum where I even have an online relationship with anyone outside of my friends of many years on myspace. I'm well within my rights per the user agreement to vote for any stories I want.
If you don't like that Ron Paul stories are on the front page then you must hate what Digg represents. There's the claim of a conspiracy because 17 people voted up one article. The last Ron Paul/Iowa article has over 2000 digs.
Also could anyone tell me what Kill BIll, HIV or Bill O'reilly lying have to do with Ron Paul? I voted for those too. I don't Digg every article I read, just the ones I Digg. - 0ceanic, on 10/27/2007, -8/+31ill digg paul's speech videos. ive never submited a paul story. his views have impressed myself, a digg user. so i digg him. thats kinda how democracy works. one person sways the opinion of several which sways the opinions of several more. as long as no one is lying. everything is legit. those people swayed me. and i am copasetic with that.
- kurttrail, on 10/11/2007, -29/+52Because digging down the stupidity of "911 was an inside job" doesn't need any collusion.
- obliviousfool, on 10/11/2007, -17/+39The moral of this story is that it's okay to digg every single Ron Paul article as long as you digg other stuff too?
- UsernameTaken, on 10/11/2007, -12/+32Nope. the moral of the story is that there are some people around here who believe they've been appointed as the digg police, so they go about trying to convince others that they're the champions of the TOS. Pure *****. They talk about *alleged* spamming like it's rape or murder. Endless rants about "ethics" and ."what you're supposed to do here", like they have a clue.
I've been around long enough to know that soon after a new popular trend appears on digg along comes a bunch of entertaining whiners singing classics like "you see, this is what's ruining digg!". I've seen them both come and go, and I keep digging like it's 2005. - theblueprint, on 10/11/2007, -20/+40Nice try, but there's no justifying the kind of behavior that you're admitting to.
Digg is not your personal political propaganda machine. - crxvfr, on 10/11/2007, -22/+42add: I should have said "Try" YouTube instead of "Goto" YouTube. (not a diss) And like cfountain72, I applaud the detective work and the time it must have taken, but I disagree that theres some kind of Ron Paul Conspiracy going on. I just think people like his platform because its genuine, respectful, and gets to the root of what this country 'used to' stand for.
- generalloy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+22Second this...Lord knows I digg enough Linux articles because of my friends' comment list.
- EruLabs, on 10/27/2007, -10/+28I read almost every story about Dr. Paul that comes onto the front page... I only digg stories I -really- like tho, so politics almost never makes my digg.
that being said, I am a pretty avid Dr. Paul supporter... I am a member of the forums and on the mailing list... Im turning 18 this month and am damn sure going to vote for him if given the chance...
Maybe what the man said is true... Maybe freedom is popular and people like what he is saying. And by the way, heres your evidence:
A) 30 users, most of whom have Dugg dozens, if not hundreds of stories (even if they are just about Ron Paul)
B) A story submitted by you, with the words "ron paul" in the title (following the pattern you used to build your list of 30)
You submit that these 30 people maintain "bot(s)" that 'spam digg' these stories. A botnet can of course be any size, but to be conservative, lets say each of those 30 'spammers' maintains 1(PC)+5(bot) machines. That would be 150 digg votes. Lets say, in order not to be banned from digg, these bots only refresh every, say, 5 seconds (to use a measure of 5 seconds as an interval obviously drops us _well_ below using the term 'spamming'), that would mean that the average "Ron Paul" submission should get around 50-80 diggs.
Correct me if im wrong, but even with my grossly liberal math, your evidence falls flat on its face. - BESTenemy, on 10/11/2007, -6/+24I was doing research for economics class years ago, and was learning about the history of the Federal Reserve. I watched an hour long piece on C-SPAN about our monetary policy. The speech by Texas congressmen I never heard of. He struck me as an intelligent speaker. For the first time it didn't feel like C-SPAN was boring.
However, having gathered the information I quickly forgot about the congressman and moved on. Only when he announced his intention to run for president I realized, all of the sudden, that he was that same politician from C-SPAN. I did broader research then on his political campaign and quickly became a strong supporter. I could've voted for him based on his monetary policy alone. Turned out I supported most of his views, except for specifics, such as using "gold standard" for currency, as oppose to other precious metals that are more abundant in America than in Europe (such as silver). Also I'm worried about potential elimination of welfare programs that might come as a result of IRS and FED elimination. Yet, I'm confident of all the people that can deal with difficulties, he's the most capable. I want him to become our president. People say, voting for him is not worth it. Personally, I feel like voting for anyone else is a lost cause.
Gravel stands out from Democrats, but he's too confident in his plan working while not having much of a plan. He's been out of office for too long, so he doesn't have a recent voting record I could judge him upon. - KMye, on 10/11/2007, -9/+27You're a normal digger who supports Ron Paul. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the people who came to digg specifically to promote Ron Paul and nothing else. There's also stuff like this:: http://www.ronpaulforum.com/showthread.php?p=2761
The hilarious thing is, reading this forum, that most of them think digg, the company, is concerned enough about Ron Paul becoming president that they have mods sitting around burying the stuff they submit, and have put in place filters that screen out Ron Paul stories. They don't pick up on the fact that there's been so much spam, many people just reflexively bury any RP story they come across. - sicapitan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17try logging in
- drjekelmrhyde, on 10/11/2007, -52/+69Fact : Ron Paul will not be elected
- TheTaoOfBill, on 10/27/2007, -28/+45I support the Ron Paul conspiracy! Anything to get the word out about Ron Paul is okay with me. If you don't like it then bury Ron Paul articles. This is a user driven site and as such that is your power. But a lot of people including me want to hear about Ron Paul. So I don't see a problem with him making it to the front page often.
- EnglishVoodoo, on 10/11/2007, -43/+60I guess we all Digg Liberty... shame on US
- jambarama, on 10/11/2007, -6/+22I've been on Digg for sometime, and I'm pleased to see all of the Ron Paul stories. If he, with a much smaller fan base than many other politicians, can game digg, then this is a systemic problem with Digg, not with Ron Paul supporters. The fact that the Ron Paul diggbots are being found out and filtered out suggests to me that Digg works just fine.
But if Ron Paul supporters can do it with their limited resources, what other organizations are gaming digg? Websites like crooksandliars, gizmodo, or others? How about firms, Microsoft, Canonical or others? What if Barack mobilized his rabid fan base to game digg, could it be stopped?
My guess is that it is easier for Ron Paul supporters to "game" digg because other diggers (such as myself) generally like Ron Paul. For this reason many other corporations/politicians would likely not have as much success, even with greater resources, because diggers in general are hostile. If the MPAA hired 1000 digg goons does anyone really think they would be successful? Given Ron Paul supporters have been successful with a lot of Ron Paul stories, with (I would guess) a smaller group of diggbots (the human or script kind) suggests to me that we actually (on the average) like Ron Paul. - JoJoMoMo, on 10/11/2007, -5/+21@ Badfish0116 - I submitted a Ron Paul story before he even declared his candidacy and have been digging his stories ever since. So, I thought I was a big fan. But I looked at the profiles of those on the list and damn... you folks digg and submit Ron Paul stories like maniacs. I'm in awe.
- KMye, on 10/11/2007, -10/+26Dude, your username was created yesterday and you've already dugg 100+ upcoming stories at a 90% RP rate! A normal new digger hangs out on the frontpage for a while before jumping into the upcoming stuff and starting to really contribute. You didn't hear of digg in passing because of RP; you heard of it because you learned from site somewhere how to come and spam the site. Or, you're just a new username for an old, possibly banned spammer.
- mvent2, on 10/11/2007, -22/+37Whoa whoa wait. How come this reached the front page with less than 100 diggs, yet I see many Ron Paul articles with hundreds of diggs that never reach front page? Even the iPhone one didn't!
Mr Rose, you have some explaining to do. - EruLabs, on 10/11/2007, -6/+21cfountain: brilliant post. wish I was one of these 'spammers' with the 'digg bots' to mass digg that comment :D
- manoftheisland, on 10/11/2007, -9/+24all the apple guys are in a conspiracy as well. just so ya know Steve Jobs put us up to it.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -17/+31*adds all those guys to friends*
lol - generalloy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+19No offence..but I've gotten Linux articles the same way. People who only comment on Linux articles digg it up. I don't see a problem if they're not being paid.
- gypsynuke, on 10/11/2007, -13/+2717 people Dugg his story. There must have been a handful (5?) who actually enjoyed it. That leaves at least 12 people who may or may not be spamming. He wrote a list of 30 people and declared them all to be spammers. He placed my name on the list because that is what I genuinely Digg, no conspiracy. That's *****, and invalidates his story. It's reaching and insulting.
- indyattic, on 10/11/2007, -36/+50I didn't make the list, but I had not heard of Digg until Ron Paul ran for President. It would make sense that he's the only thing that I digg.
- Corrosionx, on 10/27/2007, -2/+16Since when do we judge a candidate by looking at their dumbest supporters anyways?
- jobenly, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16You can watch Colbert interview Ron Paul on your iPhone?!?! DIGGASM!
- StephnDolenc, on 10/11/2007, -4/+17i don't care how he got on Digg.com -- I'm glad he did! He's an American hero and deserves to be our president.
- GauteHauk, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15The problem is it comes off as being anti-Paul. It should have taken a neutral stance about the political aspect and shown what was wrong with digg.
Basically he's using the chance to expose supposed problems with digg as a chance to, at the same time, attack Ron Paul supporters and make it look like they've got some sort of sinister ulterior motives. Just because you say you support Paul and you don't really have a problem with him, then you descend into conspiracy theories about how he's cheating the system and his supporters are using unfair tactics, is setting a false precedent. Trying to pull people who might be on the fence about Ron Paul into trying to disassociate themselves with Ron Paul supporters because of a smear campaign is not being fair. It's no different than lying. - ujjwal, on 10/11/2007, -6/+19To me, the main problem here is that people digg stories without reading them, not because of its insightful content, but because they support the "cause". This is quite similiar to a problem in the actual democracy of my country, where some people vote for candidates just because he comes from the same background, and not because they think he is very competent or honest. Let's see how digg solves the problem.
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