Digg Etiquette

Like many diggers, I am frustrated with Digg, but not by what you may think. Today I’m not going to vent about how it’s nearly impossible to get anything to go popular on Digg or rant about how Digg seems to be censored and hiding behind the façade that it’s a ‘democratic’ site. No, today I’m going to blog about Digg etiquette… or lack thereof.

I’ve been using Digg on and off for more than a year now - long enough to remember the days when all it took to go popular was a quantity of votes. If you submitted a story and a bunch of people voted, you were guaranteed to hit the Hot in Upcoming. After that, it was all gravy. You just sat back and (if the content was good) Diggers voted it up and you’re Mr. Popularity. Sadly, things have changed.

With the addition of features like shouts, Digg altered their algorithm. Now votes from certain users, like your friends, aren’t weighted as much. If all the votes your story is receiving are from your friends, it’s likely to take double, or even triple the votes before you see your story in Hot - if it goes at all. You may think the trick is to not have any friends but don’t start deleting any yet. Diggs from Diggers who continually Digg every single thing you submit also seem to be weighted less. I know most Diggers think they’re helping by checking out your submissions everyday and voting them up, but in fact, they’re making it harder for the story to go popular. If the first several digs your story receives are all from friends, or people who vote for your stories every single time, Digg isn’t going to count them for much. It comes down to patterns. A normal user generally wouldn't vote for every story a user submits because the chance of absolutely everything interesting them is slim. Digg knows this and you should too.

This brings to me to the two biggest beefs I’m having right now. My Digg ‘friends’ don’t seem to understand that if I vote for every single submission, it’s going to mean nothing. Shout me the ones you really like or want to go and I’d be happy to vote for it (as long as it’s not a piece of crap). But shouting me every single submission completely defeats the purpose of shouting me in the first place - my vote will mean nothing. One particular user who did this would even re-shout the stories I didn’t vote. Despite the fact we were mutual friends, he didn’t accept any shouts (hypocrite perhaps?), so ultimately I had to remove him as a friend because I couldn’t even message him to explain how I feel.

But perhaps even more frustrating than the person who doesn’t try to understand how Digg works, is the infamous ‘multiple shouter’. This is what actually inspired my post today. I received three to four shouts yesterday all for the same story from the same user. He was a newer friend of mine so I decided to send him a little shout thanking him for the story and letting him know I have Dugg it. I then asked him to try not to multiple shout me the same story since I always get to my shouts. I ended with a smiley face to show no hard feelings. I figured all was done until I checked my Digg account this morning. Two more shouts from the same user for the same story! After debating the next message I would send this person, I bit my tongue and removed them as a friend.

Honestly, I don’t mind shouts. I enjoy getting them from most of my friends and I’m happy to look at them and Digg them. But if you haven’t got the time, the sense, or the consideration to use them properly, you shouldn’t be on Digg at all. I’m willing to give anyone a chance but if you can’t even be bothered to read my shout, why should I read yours? I take the time to not shout people the same thing twice and I make sure to use my shouts sparingly. And for the record, I don’t have magical Digg powers that allow me to give a story more than one vote, so shouting me repeatedly only accomplishes one thing - you and I will no longer be friends.