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Digg.com Decreases Work Productivity by 43%

verysimple.com — Being a lover of technology and apparently having no self-discipline I found myself spending way too much time on digg and other social websites lately. I decided to do something about it. Attached is a simple script to redirect access to certain, ehem, non-productive sites on a schedule of your choosing.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 28, 2006

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139 Comments

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  • Th3_anOmoLy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+103I'd have to say that for me, on average, %43 is skirting along the lines of extreme optimism. And given that I'm posting this from a clients network closet I'd say this script might be something for me to check out O_o
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+91(click) MUST.....(click)STOP...CLICKING....REFRESH....(click)MUST....STOP....(click)
  • yogurtslinger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+66damnit, that reminds me, i need to get those TPS reports in
  • jtjdt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+60Yup, this was dugg while at work. '-)
  • malonie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+51OMG and I thought im the only one affected by DIGG. Im reviewing for my Physical Therapy board exam which is scheduled in 3 weeks but instead found myself reading more DIGG articles than my reviewer, OUCH! I need some help.
  • Hickeroar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+48Yeah... Almost all my digging is done from work.
  • airencracken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39Did you know 75% of all statistics are made up?
  • eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34you have just become 7% less productive by posting that
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4043%? by digg? nah, if digg didn't exist I'd waste that 43% on some other website. And if I had no internet access I'd get more sleep.
  • BlueLaser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32If you work in I/T, reading Engadget, CNET Tech News, Digg, eWeek, Slashdot and TWiT are just part of staying current in your field. Right?... =)
  • phunlee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31I think most of us can agree that 43% is low.
  • broh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28@ yogurtslinger

    dont forget the new covers
  • Shamonue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25I find myself checking digg all day long, instead of doing my work.
  • danieltko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24It's not so much that digg.com takes up all of my time, but more like the things that I find on digg.com... like Line Rider... need I say more?
  • bennyboy371, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I find myself reading digg during C++ class. Hell, its my browser homepage.
  • hfranco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Thanks for the post!!!! I just got fired!!!
  • betacmag4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Digg is a learning tool. Time spent reading it is like (sorta) studying!
  • r00tus3r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16***** that! Work interrupts my digging enough as is!
  • chesterjosiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Line rider has become a part of my life. I play every night before bed now. If the guy slapped some goals into the game and asked for money, I'd pay for it. If it came out as a Wii game, I'd buy it. It's just SO FUN!

    Back to work. :-)
  • merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I just edit the windows HOSTS file to redirect digg to 127.0.0.1 when I need to get ***** done.

    Old trick.
  • paraboloid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I looked at his scripts and all this guy is doing is changing the HOSTS file to point to his web site instead of localhost (127.0.01)

    Is he just trying to generate traffic?
    Boo!
  • misterjangles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14And here I am back on digg. Obviously even this script is not enough to keep me away!

    You'll notice in the file that I write quite clearly to please change the IP to something else. I originally had 127.0.0.1 but then I would get a timeout instead so I just pointed it to my site. I was gonna create a domain that just said "get back to work!" or something but I kinda just half-assed it. If you wanna keep my site, cool, but I don't really gain anything from it. I have no ads on my site.

    Also, I don't think this is in any way a new, exciting killer app. Its just a simple batch script idea that you can use if you want or not.

  • yogurtslinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13i didn't get the memo
  • infowar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10So very glad my company hasn't firewalled Digg yet from the servers...myspace and youtube are blocked....
  • neurobox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I've got digg on my google homepage. I don't know how many times I've gone to search for something, got distracted by digg, checked a headline, read some comments, closed the window, remembered what I was doing, and had to go back to google to search for it again...
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It definitely affects my productivity.. I'm writing this from school.. where I seem to spend more time browsing Digg than doing class work. Of course, I tend to learn much more from this website than from my teachers.

    "So very glad my company hasn't firewalled Digg yet from the servers...myspace and youtube are blocked...."

    Same here (my school), the only problem is that many of the highest dugg submissions are blocked.
  • CarbonEclectic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I just started using digg a week ago and it's already started taking over my web-browsing life.
  • xenuxenuts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9what would be bad is if you used a proxy to get around that.
  • neurobox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Way to take one for the team!
  • tthomas1529, on 10/12/2007, -0/+943%? no way. 75-80% maybe. i see a lawsuit in this.
  • daurkin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9And thanks to Digg, you're increasing my time working because all the GOOD information from those sites are linked here in one easy place. Now I spend less time surfing multiple sites for stuff to read.
  • andersonmanly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Your IP is 127.0.0.1?!! HA! Prepare to get hacked, SUCKA!!!


    *poof*

    andersonmanly has quit (unexpected error)
  • mecole21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8work who does that anymore? i thought all anyone did all day was surf the tubes.
  • FBMGriever, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Haha Digg totally sucks up all of my productivity :D

    Ah well, Im in front of a computer anyway. I DO actually manage to get my work but done but man.. barely.
  • K.Restoule, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'm at work right now, so i guess the story is right,
  • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I refresh Digg way too much during the day.
  • appleswitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Has anyone considerd what you've learned from digg? So far I've had to teach myself the most of what I know and alot of the web design tricks, lessons, information, and resources and so on came from digg. It also helps to be 100% up to date when talking tech to someone who might have a place for a job.

    html is a tag too, Vector Art with Photoshop, 10 Things That Will Make Or Break Your Website, 12 Lessons for Those Afraid of CSS and Standards... I could go on all day.
  • phatvolvo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6hmm, what's Line Rider? I'd better googlAHH YOU BASTARDS THERE GOES MY WEEK
  • sk8asd123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I read Digg all the time b/c it's on my homepage and if there is a good title; I click on it. But it does help my job b/c an article last week helped me solved a problem this morning. I am proud of my Digg-addiction. It's not just knowledge that is powerful, it's what you do with the knowledge.
  • cheifchuck0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"i'm proud of my addiction"... nice.
  • jlboan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Reading IT news on digg is staying current in your field. Reading digg comments is a bit of a stretch though.
  • u8myfoood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5i think digg.com reduces work productivity by 43% percent is close enough, but an addition 56.9999% is caused by the computer itself.
    Oh well... [*time to refresh digg homepage*]
  • adb22791, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I check Digg every once in awhile for a few minutes, and those minutes definitely add up.
  • Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Couple of things:

    This rewrites your HOSTS file, which means you need to be a local admin, and the HOSTS file must not be set to read-only.
    This rewrites your HOSTS file, so if your company has custom HOSTS file entries (I know, that's not the right way to do it, but if they do), those will be removed.
    This rewrites your HOSTS file, so if you have added custom entries yourself to prevent spyware (from apps like Spybot, etc.), those entries will be removed.
    This rewrites your HOSTS file in the path C:WINDOWSSYSTEM32driversetc , so if your Windows install is in another path, it won't work (like Win2K is WINNT). Should have used the %systemroot% variable instead.
    This rewrites your HOSTS file, so it only works in Windows.

    This can be scheduled, by scheduling the block/unblock scripts with Task Manager, but again, that would require being a local admin.

    A cute idea, but not very well implemented.
  • indulgence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+486.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot!
  • misteral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I was thinking about doing the same as a Firefox extension or Grease Monkey script, good work
  • Xarou, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I'm currently on Digg when I should be working. And I have been a lot of the day. I do a lot of refreshing.
  • dickybrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I didn't read the article earlier about "How to criticize a programmer w/o getting punched" but I think you may have just done it.....
  • gappodi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As a matter of fact, digg has increased my productivity by keeping me up to date with technology with quality (digg'ed) links. I would have spent more time without digg searching the web for the right links and not to mention the right comments/opinions.
  • Harvey_Mushman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Lies < Damn Lies < Statistics
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