Comments on: Big Social News Sites Need to Outsmart the Subverters http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/ Tracking the Internet Evolution Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:14:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 By: 10 Awesomely Independent Web 2.0 Services « The Dead Dog Cafe 2.0 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-888000 10 Awesomely Independent Web 2.0 Services « The Dead Dog Cafe 2.0 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:41:02 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-888000 [...] type of online community, and none of the best ones are owned by major corporations.  That doesn’t keep their revolutionary democratization of media from being subverted. In general, Digg is the best of the bunch, at least according to this [...] [...] type of online community, and none of the best ones are owned by major corporations.  That doesn’t keep their revolutionary democratization of media from being subverted. In general, Digg is the best of the bunch, at least according to this [...]

]]> By: links for 2008-01-11 | The Straight Pitch http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843120 links for 2008-01-11 | The Straight Pitch Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:24:55 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843120 <p>[...] Big Social News Sites Need to Outsmart the Subverters - GigaOM Someone is finally pointing to the social news sites and questioning their validity as meaningful. (tags: socialmedia socialnews Digg Reddit StumbleUpon Mixx submitters gaming black hat) [...]</p> [...] Big Social News Sites Need to Outsmart the Subverters - GigaOM Someone is finally pointing to the social news sites and questioning their validity as meaningful. (tags: socialmedia socialnews Digg Reddit StumbleUpon Mixx submitters gaming black hat) [...]

]]> By: Alistair Croll http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843110 Alistair Croll Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:14:32 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843110 <p>Alexis is right -- different social news sites vary significantly in their use of "karma" rankings, and Reddit in particular doesn't use rankings for nearly as much as others do. He was nice enough to confirm the following prior to this correction:</p> <ul> <li>On Slashdot and Digg, karma is used as a filter for what gets seen (comments, etc.)</li> <li>On Digg, influential posters exist because past success leads to recommendation</li> <li>On Reddit, Karma makes you feel good and lets others see you're trustworthy if they choose to look. But it doesn't give you more votes.</li> </ul> <p>But Reddit does use karma for some things -- such as whether a link is spam (links from people with high karma are less likely to be spam.) The social news sites are cagey about specifics and Alexis remarked, "The dev team isn't telling me all of them though, because if I ever got captured, they know how quickly I'd break under torture."</p> <p>One use for Karma is to filter out low-karma posters. Reddit lets users filter out comments and links that score below a certain value, but not posters. Alexis continued, "We've thought about creating a "foes" list, similar to the 'friends' list we have now, only it will auto-hide the submissions of any of your foes."</p> Alexis is right — different social news sites vary significantly in their use of “karma” rankings, and Reddit in particular doesn’t use rankings for nearly as much as others do. He was nice enough to confirm the following prior to this correction:

  • On Slashdot and Digg, karma is used as a filter for what gets seen (comments, etc.)
  • On Digg, influential posters exist because past success leads to recommendation
  • On Reddit, Karma makes you feel good and lets others see you’re trustworthy if they choose to look. But it doesn’t give you more votes.

But Reddit does use karma for some things — such as whether a link is spam (links from people with high karma are less likely to be spam.) The social news sites are cagey about specifics and Alexis remarked, “The dev team isn’t telling me all of them though, because if I ever got captured, they know how quickly I’d break under torture.”

One use for Karma is to filter out low-karma posters. Reddit lets users filter out comments and links that score below a certain value, but not posters. Alexis continued, “We’ve thought about creating a “foes” list, similar to the ‘friends’ list we have now, only it will auto-hide the submissions of any of your foes.”

]]> By: links for 2008-01-11 « Simply… A User http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843064 links for 2008-01-11 « Simply… A User Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:34:32 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-843064 <p>[...] Big Social News Sites Need to Outsmart the Subverters - GigaOM (tags: digg marketing *) [...]</p> [...] Big Social News Sites Need to Outsmart the Subverters - GigaOM (tags: digg marketing *) [...]

]]> By: michaelportent http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842882 michaelportent Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:07:33 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842882 <p>"Digg Blackmail" is a pretty damned scary thought. Makes me almost fee bad for bloggers that make a living on how many Comments and Diggs they get.</p> “Digg Blackmail” is a pretty damned scary thought. Makes me almost fee bad for bloggers that make a living on how many Comments and Diggs they get.

]]> By: Alexis Ohanian http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842425 Alexis Ohanian Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:21:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842425 <p>Oh, and thanks for the interview :-) Best of luck with your new GigaOM gig.</p> Oh, and thanks for the interview :-)
Best of luck with your new GigaOM gig.

]]> By: Alexis Ohanian http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842420 Alexis Ohanian Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:19:51 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842420 <blockquote> <p>People who submit a story that becomes popular get credit for doing so, and their subsequent recommendations count for more (what Reddit calls a “karma system.”)</p> </blockquote> <p>I've gotta correct you on this one, Alistair, bceause karma actually has no impact on a redditor's vote 'strength' -- a user with 50 karma has the exact same vote as a user with 50,000 karma. We're purposefully avoiding the "Animal Farm scenario" where some redditors are more equal than others.</p> <p>And as for those disappearing stories, it's technically because of reports (hitting the [report] button) not down-voting that has occaisionally caused our system to misinterpret a link as spam.</p> <p>We're fortunate that, because of reddit's unique front page (where links actually rise and fall every few seconds), a story actually has to earn its way to the top -- most spam rarely gets seen.</p>

People who submit a story that becomes popular get credit for doing so, and their subsequent recommendations count for more (what Reddit calls a “karma system.”)

I’ve gotta correct you on this one, Alistair, bceause karma actually has no impact on a redditor’s vote ’strength’ — a user with 50 karma has the exact same vote as a user with 50,000 karma. We’re purposefully avoiding the “Animal Farm scenario” where some redditors are more equal than others.

And as for those disappearing stories, it’s technically because of reports (hitting the [report] button) not down-voting that has occaisionally caused our system to misinterpret a link as spam.

We’re fortunate that, because of reddit’s unique front page (where links actually rise and fall every few seconds), a story actually has to earn its way to the top — most spam rarely gets seen.

]]> By: Jay Neely http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842391 Jay Neely Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:03:04 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842391 <p>While I agree that social news sites have problems, I have to say that I think most of your proposed solutions aren't that great. I look forward to telling you about my own in the future, as I plan on seeking funding for a social news startup in about 5 months.</p> While I agree that social news sites have problems, I have to say that I think most of your proposed solutions aren’t that great. I look forward to telling you about my own in the future, as I plan on seeking funding for a social news startup in about 5 months.

]]> By: nhickmarin http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842318 nhickmarin Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:03:15 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842318 <p>Very Interesting.. to dig or not to digg! Nice post OM.</p> <p>Nhick http://www.itrush.com</p> Very Interesting.. to dig or not to digg!
Nice post OM.

Nhick
(link)

]]> By: Andrew http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842238 Andrew Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:17:20 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842238 <p>What frustrates me is when someone "copies" your story and then gets it on Digg. Although Digg asks people to verify that it's not a duplicate, everyone submits anyway.</p> <p>That said, I once had someone write a new story that referred to mine. They got there's on Digg's front page, and I still got about 25,000 visitors thanks to my link in their story.</p> What frustrates me is when someone “copies” your story and then gets it on Digg. Although Digg asks people to verify that it’s not a duplicate, everyone submits anyway.

That said, I once had someone write a new story that referred to mine. They got there’s on Digg’s front page, and I still got about 25,000 visitors thanks to my link in their story.

]]> By: GeraldZ http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842142 GeraldZ Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:04:56 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-842142 <p>I would never try to promote my site like that!</p> <p>www.RSSLiveTV.com</p> I would never try to promote my site like that!

(link)

]]> By: Charlie http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-841837 Charlie Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:58:36 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-841837 <p>"Getting on the home page of popular social news sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon is a marketer’s dream."</p> <p>We were number 1 on Digg for a couple of hours one October morning last year, and it crashed our server. We eventually got through via telnet and changed the httpd.conf file to block Digg referrers for half a day.</p> <p>The traffic continued for a few days and died off. None of those people ever returned.</p> <p>It's not all it's cracked up to be. Digg users didn't even click any ads.</p> <p>The inbound links from sites like BoingBoing, Consumerist, etc., that eventually led up to the Digg link were much more valuable in the long run, and got us links from the NY Times and the LA Times.http://s.wordpress.com/wp-content/themes/vip/gigaom3/images/elements/comment-button.png</p> “Getting on the home page of popular social news sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon is a marketer’s dream.”

We were number 1 on Digg for a couple of hours one October morning last year, and it crashed our server. We eventually got through via telnet and changed the httpd.conf file to block Digg referrers for half a day.

The traffic continued for a few days and died off. None of those people ever returned.

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Digg users didn’t even click any ads.

The inbound links from sites like BoingBoing, Consumerist, etc., that eventually led up to the Digg link were much more valuable in the long run, and got us links from the NY Times and the LA Times.http://s.wordpress.com/wp-content/themes/vip/gigaom3/images/elements/comment-button.png

]]> By: Bill http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-841784 Bill Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:10:00 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2008/01/10/can-topic-ranking-sites-like-reddit-and-digg-get-too-big/#comment-841784 <p>Thats where we are headed, for better or worse.</p> <p>Personally though, I don't believe that linking schemes and subversive ploys to get your story digged are as effective as everyone imagines them. Google is very good at spotting spam submissions; and they do take into account posts you've made, your activity, if you've just logged on once, etc.. Basically, what I'm saying, is that 99% of people who do this probably get flagged as spammers. Best case scenerio, Google ignores posts from spammers. Worst case scenario, Google will drastically penalize your website in the SERP's (linking schemes are forbidden in their webmaster guidelines).</p> <p>Nice story.</p> Thats where we are headed, for better or worse.

Personally though, I don’t believe that linking schemes and subversive ploys to get your story digged are as effective as everyone imagines them. Google is very good at spotting spam submissions; and they do take into account posts you’ve made, your activity, if you’ve just logged on once, etc.. Basically, what I’m saying, is that 99% of people who do this probably get flagged as spammers.
Best case scenerio, Google ignores posts from spammers. Worst case scenario, Google will drastically penalize your website in the SERP’s (linking schemes are forbidden in their webmaster guidelines).

Nice story.

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