What is Digg?158 Comments
- justinjacobs, on 10/12/2007, -8/+83Digg has ads? All I see is whitespace...
- TechnoGuyRob, on 10/12/2007, -7/+71Digg has ads?
*Disables adblock*
Ewwww. - Ireland, on 10/12/2007, -10/+55GOOD FOR THEM!!! Now please fix digg 3.0.
(1) put the topics back on the right-hand side
(2) make text when typing comments slightly bigger
(3) and probably a few other things that have slipped my mind right now. - bennypowers, on 10/12/2007, -10/+35Adblock: http://adblock.mozdev.org/
FiltersetG: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/ - quicksilver, on 10/12/2007, -6/+28Not really a big surprise with all the new ads appearing with Digg v3.
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19I logged onto Digg with IE from work today and the ads were unbearable. Thanks god for Firefox with Adblock.
- gmillerd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Its beyond me how this can generate money, I don't even see, perceive, this type of advertisement on these pages much less clicked / bought anything from them.
- RomieZ, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17I agree, I just disabled Adblock, and they are nasty. Its funny though, didn't even know ads were there because Adblock has been blocking the sources since I inputed them 7 months ago.
- RadiatedAnt, on 10/12/2007, -14/+24not if firefox's adblock+ has anything to say about it!
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14Without Digg, I would get my tech news/bitching elsewhere.
- geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12"*no one* deserves that kind of money"
This is why you are stuck in your current situation, what a crappy attitude. Who are you to say how much someone "deserves"? You lazy scum, while you were busy typing, digg employees were hard at work. - BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15You'll have to take into consideration the amount of people who have Firefox + Adblock. I'd say that would probably be a couple hundred thousand.
- Switch22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10It's a good thing they are using CPM, and not by clicks. Most digg users would be smarter than to click on ads.
- soleblazer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Here is a image of my actual screen...look at this *****:
http://theunixguy.org/wp-images/diggv3.JPG - igraham09, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10i dont know about anyone else... but i visit a ***** more than 4 pages per digg session
- Imusion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Kevin Fanboy here eh?
- shout, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13what?? really? I think that's quite a bit inflated.
- kewldude606, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13Filterset.G took away my comment digging/burying buttons! I had to whitelist digg.com. Right now greasemonkey is removing the ads but they still load for a second until GM removes them. Any suggestions?
BTW I saw a flash ad on digg...a *flash* ad. - quasipalm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Anyone else catch that digg a while back about how nobody reads flash ads? And now here they are on digg... On the other hand I read relevant text ads all the time.
- hungryhermit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Or the recently posted hack on hiding the ads...
- metalrock76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6More ads and less content space? Not what I wan't to see.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8And with a dozen employees, server costs, office space (which ain't cheap), I see something like 200k/month disappearing pretty damn quick.
People always make the mistake of looking at the money a business takes in, and trying to think about it in terms of what one individual would do with that money. Revenue is not the same as profits, and profits are not the same as one person's take home pay (unless you're running Enron or Gizmondo). - chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Just because I use a site, doesn't mean I'm willing to PAY for it, or CLICK ads for it. It's like the whole piracy thing - there is plenty of things you will take for free that you would never pay for.
- baddmojoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm sure he has a paypal account - send him your own cash if you want to feel high and mighty. No need to belittle others - but I'm sure you spend all day clicking through digg ads.
I agree that a site has the rights to put up ads to pay the bills. As for people who use adblock, though... they are people who would not be clicking on any of the ads in the first place. No money lost by the digg crew, just less of an annoyance to somebody who wouldn't be an ad-viewing visitor in the first place. - chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6So we should encourage click fraud? The idea of Adsense is that you click ads because you have an interest in the ad, not because you have an interest in supporting the site with the Adsense ads.
- JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7***** all graphical ads, especially animated ads. I block them all, and flash ads are the worst of the bunch. I tolerate text ads like Google's, because they tend to be somewhat relevant.
i have also lost my digg up/digg down buttons on comments. anyone know how to get the digg buttons back when using adblock? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm jealous. I wish I could think of something like digg.com
- ajcannon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Kevin said they had around 80 or so servers right now. And that was before digg 3.0...I think I heard that they added another 20 or so and I'm sure there's another hundred on the way in the next year or so. Then there is office space in downtown San Fransisco, 15 full-time employees, and various other costs. I think you are grossly misjudging what it costs to run something like this.
- JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Great... so since I turned off adblock and clicked on all the ads (in Firefox) I can expect that the code get slimmed down soon?
digg.com/js/spellChecker.js - Doesn't need to be loaded until I click on "Check Spelling"
digg.com/js/aboutdigg.js - I blocked it with no problems
A Basic XHTML version (for low-end systems/connections) and a Mobile Version would be much appreciated. - TheNik, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Yeah, it really pisses me off how people can use a site without viewing the ads.
Websites aren't free to create, especially a site this large. Would you rather view ads or pay a subscription fee? Exactly.
Quit freeloading, *****. - sensibledriver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Will this help to get rid of the Fark-esque posts and new design?
- soleblazer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Yeah, I have to agree. For me the top 3 DigV3 features are:
1. Non Tech Story section with ugly bar on left
2. Ads everywhere, even comments...looks cheaper now
3. My 21inch widescreen monitor is USELESS - MattH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4And everyone compained about the Advertising on Netscape
- GeneralFailure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5ajcannon: I heard that they have 8 servers. But 5 million page views really isn't that much, I'm doing around 16-20 million dynamic pageviews a month with two servers. Granted, it is from far less unique users, but it's still more pageviews.
Also, Wikipedia has substantially more traffic than digg with less cacheable content using only 40 servers. - domr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Do NOT just click on ads for the hell of it - on any site that you like. This is what gets sites removed from advertising programs, costs advertisers money, and ultimately stops advertisers from paying at all.
Click on ads if you're interested in them. Just treat ads like you would any other link on the site. - felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You have just summed up pretty this article, and half of all the articles about Digg that get posted. Nice one.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5200K / month isn't enough for the 20ish people that run digg. They need to make more $.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What you don't get is we are not Kevin's customers, we are his product. We are sold to the advertisers who choose to advertise on digg.
Same goes with TV. The news used to be a public service. However, with the rise of commercial advertising on tv, the audience stopped being the customers of the broadcast giants and started being its product. The networks are not there for you, they are there for the advertisers and you are the product. The only reason they listen to you at all is because they want you to see the ads. As long as they can say X amount tuned in they don't CARE. Hence, if it bleeds it leads. If that kind of news is what people tune in for, then they will show it. No one wants to hear a boring news report about global warming. They want a hard hitting, hidden-camera, investigative report. Perhaps footage of explosions, or news about the latest murder by some depraved psychopath is what gets views. Whatever.
I digress anyway. People here are right, the type of person that installs adblock and a filter set is the kind of person who wouldn't ever click an ad anyway. Infact they are more the kind of person who, if they couldn't block out the ads, would probably not go to a site with ads that annoyed them (flashing, make noise, flash flyovers, context links in text, etc). Toms Hardware is a prime example off the top of my head. Without adblock I would NEVER go to that awful site. It's just painful. So ad blockers are not "freeloaders" any more than people who get up and make a snack or change the channel during a commercial on TV. It's my computer and my internet connection. I will choose what and whatnot I want my browser to display just as freely as I decide what sites to frequent or what I pay for online. - NikZane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ugh.. that was of course meant for dbarbour.
Man I wish Digg3 would have allowed sub-comment replying. I hate the "@user" style of commenting.
Moving on... - whiterajah, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I say good for them - they created something really popular and deserve to rake in the bucks now :)
I think the article is flawed, though - the cost of advertising on Digg is not equal to the revenue Kevin and the gang will get. Google takes a cut.
Anyone see the story about Digg being in violation of Google's TOS? It appeared on my front page for a moment and then mysteriously disappeared. - skunkman62, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Spankophile, dude, you got issues. get some help.
- veloscaper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6you're calling the people who generate the content on this site (post articles, digg up stories and make useful or funny comments) F*** freeloaders?
nice. real nice. you might not like the idea of blocking ads and have a right to your opinion but such name calling is crossing the line. - postaboy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Yep, digg is rigged just like Dvorak said. Heres some trends we've been all noticing, a history of all top stories:
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7249/untitled12ud.gif - deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I wish. Digg v3.0 is nearly unusable from a responsiveness standpoint.
- lordvader, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4$36 CMP? It's a joke, is it? If you get $2 CMP is a very good rate.
- redbrick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4So this is the digg3 we waited so long for? More ads? It's things like this that are why I'm spending more of my day elsewhere (reddit.com)...
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7As for freeloading: No one signed a contract. There is no implied agreement. For all we know, we may all be better off without the internet, media, advertising, entertainment and the like. Advertising is basically a con-game, with often willing participants. Not always though.
In fact, there's a case to be made that all of this is a form of addiction, which makes everyone involved pushers and/or victims. So the very act of declining to share in some advertiser's "hook line," by using adblock or by just simply ignoring them, is much better than becoming just another sucker.
Google video and AOL video use a different model ... view advertising to view content. Anyone that wants to participate can. Everyone knows what they're getting into up front. That's very different than the shove-it in-your-face and up-your-a... model.
Considering all forms of advertising, I believe it's accurate to say that most of it is both cheap and lazy. We've seen the difference though, it doesn't have to be. Instead of the same old spiel over and over again, an advertiser could provide an ongoing narrative story line complete with action, drama, and passion ... possibly even meaningful social commentary and humor. Of course that takes real effort and expense. A typical bad example is intel's viiv(?) advertising on AOL In2TV. Same old trash line, over and over again, loud.
I'd suggest though that the goal of advertising should be to blend with the medium to the greatest extent possible while presenting the product. That way they don't get filtered out or ignored. Simply become part of our larger media experience.
Please excuse my carrying on about this. Obviously, the matter has been building up for a while. And yes, I do wholeheartedly endorse digg & crew and commend them to manufacturers who are willing to listen to sound advice: Blend in. Provide content. Contribute in theme. And please, do so Respectfully.
Similarly, I'd be happy for the digg crew to tighten the profanity filter a bit or provide a second tighter setting. Or perhaps I should look for or devise a firefox extension that filters out profanity better?
Participatory control of content means that unless advertisers and manufacturers join us in providing worthwhile contributions -- they simply get blocked out.
Dvorak was wrong btw. It's not the Falwell faction or the anti-libertarians that could take over digg, but the advertisers. Of course by then they'd be the only ones left plugging each other. As perfect a picture of hell as you can get, I'd say. - kkeith02, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5While you may not have a use for the ads, same as me, there are plenty of other people who stumble across the site, or see something that catches their eye. Hell, it says my profile was viewed 8 times and I joined last week.
All this money kinda upsets me at how I can never have a big idea like this :P - domr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Absolutely correct. The poster fails to take into account the fact that regular digg users are pretty much 'ad blind'.
Having run a few medium-high traffic level sites a day (100k-500k impressions/day), I know from experience that CPM tends to go down while traffic goes up, and regular users ignore ads anyway. I would say that even $2 is optimistic. - brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Inflated for the rest of the internet where it would be around 1%, but for Digg I'd say that the majority have ads disabled.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 155 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
