In response to the upcoming, and sure to be awesome, launch of uSocial.net it seemed like a good idea to throw together a quick list of some things you might want to avoid when you decide to start spamming the crap out of Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and StumbleUpon.
For those of you who haven’t heard, there is a fantastic article on Eric Lander’s Blog talking about the December 1st launch of uSocial.net. The gist of the post is that uSocial.net will be providing their clients with paid votes, “enabling them to quickly and easily reach the front page of these sites and in turn, receive a flood of traffic.”
They even go on to brazenly mention that “we have already served tens of thousands of votes and as yet, not one of our users has reported to us their account has been closed.” In openly giving the finger to the Digg terms of service, uSocial has painted a target on not only their backs, but those of their clients as well.
In honor of uSocial.net, and Digg spammers everywhere, here’s a list of eight signs you haven’t really thought your strategy through.
1. You Submit Three Articles a Day From the Same Site
Sure you love your own content. Who doesn’t? But did you ever stop to think that maybe not every single post you write is worth submitting to Digg. Also, if you’ve already posted ninety articles from your Jonas Brothers Fan Site (laden with Adsense of course) what could possibly make you think that number ninety-one is headed straight to the front page?
2. Your Account Has the Same Number of Diggs as it Does Submissions:
This one speaks for itself, but I’m still stunned by the number of people who have over 100 submissions and have never actually dugg anything at all. You would think that an accidental errant click would have left them with at least one extra digg, but that would mean they were actually participating in the community rather than just trying to use it for shameless self-promotion.
3. The First Comment in Your Submission is Always Your Own
Commenting on your own story is sort of like complimenting yourself. It’s alright to make a self-deprecating comment if you notice a typo after the fact, but trying to boost your submission by being the first to say “wow, what a fascinating article” is kind of a douchey thing to do. Given that you submitted the article, I already assumed you liked it. You know what? Now I like it a little bit less. Nice job.
4. Your Shouts Begin With “I dugg yours…”
There are a few problems with this. One, your submission usually sucks, and two, I can quickly check to see if you’re even telling the truth. I’d say about 90% of the time you haven’t even dugg my submission, so don’t feed me this nonsense.
5. You Openly Brag About “Manipulating” Digg
As mentioned previously, if you’re smart enough to figure out a competitive advantage there are plenty of reasons why you might want to keep that to yourself and just STFU already. Nobody likes a braggart, especially the people you’re bragging about gaming.
6. Your Stories Are Buried Upon Hitting the Front Page
Wow, you were finally able to find enough friends to push your story to the front page. Now you actually need to have something that is decent enough to hold the attention of people who aren’t on your payroll. Spamming for votes can only carry you so far, but if your story sucks it probably isn’t going to last too long once it actually gets in front of a neutral audience.
7. You Have More Accounts Than Popular Stories
This one seems pretty baffling since you’re basically assuming that Digg will be unable to figure out that your multiple accounts (which always digg the same stories and sometimes come from the same IP) might be a little suspicious. Also, at least take the extra ninety seconds to add an avatar to your account. It might not make it legit, but at least it seems like you’re trying.
8. Treating the Community Like it’s Stupid
Probably the biggest offense of all is thinking that the Digg community as a whole will put up with you trying to force feed them bad content. If uSocial had any respect for the communities they were trying to game then they would have been afraid to come out and say they were buying votes. By being outed before they even start, uSocial.net has provided every reason for diggers to keep an eye out for anything unusual, and for the community to police itself and maintain some quality control on what type of stories are being promoted.
Here’s to hoping that uSocial.net has a fantastic launch on December 1st and is finished before the new year!
