Well said! Let’s hope that Usocial.net dies a quick death or that their servers are overloaded constantly and the system fails. Much like Cuil, but only cooler!
So You’ve Decided to Spam Digg: Eight Signs You Haven’t Really Thought Things Through
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!
Related posts:
- Now That’s Some Dedication to Spam Alright, this was going to be a different post entirely,...
- Digg, We Need to Talk… Alright Digg, the honeymoon’s over, so I want to cut...
Tags: Digg, Social Media, Spam
15 Responses to “So You’ve Decided to Spam Digg: Eight Signs You Haven’t Really Thought Things Through”
Matt Keegan — November 28, 2008 @ 10:23 am
Clint Maher — December 1, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
About time someone said it. Self promotion is the worst thing that I see on Digg. Bury it!
Anonymou 
Please also note, this is NOT an advertisement for usocial.net! It definitely is not!
What the hell is wrong with diggers? This is not an article promoting that shitty service. At least read the whole article before burying it.
trialex 
It would have been funny if you’d posted the first comment on this story yourself…
pero 
What is the point anyway? I don’t click every link on Digg or any other Link sharing site. If the short description with thumbnail doesn’t grab me – it doesn’t get clicked.
If you want more traffic to your own site, you simple make (REAL and witty or relevant) comments on other things posted – and link your site. If your comment is witty and people notice the trend of your constant spewing of intelligent verbage – then it is possible that some of them would eventually visit your linked site.
You’re right, the purity of the Digg community must be unsullied by ugly mercenary spirit. Only by remaining authentic and user-driven will Digg be able to continue providing me with stories about Trent Reznor and repeat postings of that picture of the mountain goat what climbed real high.
jicima 
I dugg yours…
Sadly there are a good deal of stories that get on to the frontpage for no other reason but they were paid to be there, or that some digger started the site and is gaming it. But this is mostly about those bad spammers who flood sections like the news or extreme sports category with endless story submissions.
I don’t really care what is on the front page personally, althought I will almost always bury something on the front page. I use digg to get the news my friends, colleagues, and comrades think are great. Sure it would be great if my submissions made it to the front page, but it’s mostly for people I am already connected to. Don’t be afraid of the bury button. I’d love to see the most buried stories!
Chuckypita — December 3, 2008 @ 2:24 am
So THAT’S why I got banned from Digg! As Homer Simpson once said, “DOH!”
Frank 
As stupid an idea as that may have been, anything that fucks with Digg is a good thing. So for me, I hope uSocial makes a killing, that Digg tries repeatedly to stop it but fails miserably.
I agree with Frank actually. I think it is hard enough to launch a website and offer genuine services when you have the kiddie networks with funky link texts in digg get higher rankings with absolutely no relevance in Google than you.
Key wording isn’t everything but because Digg is so popular, the avid digger with loads of friends, can actually influence the web outside digg.com 
Personally I have given up on digg etc. as well. I used to push some of my articles but, believe me they were useful as I got a book deal with some of the texts, nowadays digg and all social bookmarking sites are all about that mountain goat (that was funny) and the endless stream of absolutely no value stories from 14 year old kids that have nothing else to do.
Sorry for the rant but I think it’s about time the social web gets a revamp …
