Around seven months ago, Digg was any tech-blogger’s “dream”. It was much faster than Slashdot, and most of the top articles in that day were influential enough to write about. I could pretty much go to Digg, press “Top 24 Articles” and just pick 4 articles out of the list and have half of my work cut-out for me.
But it pains me to see that not only do we have to have the support of friends, to join the front page, but also the approval of the “Bury Brigade”, which is the name that Digg users, and bloggers alike, have given to the tight circle of Diggers who seem to enjoy burying the topics that don’t suit their tastes, rather than promoting new types of articles, which don’t appear very often, but instantly gain their disapproval because they don’t feature half-naked women using Apple products.
I don’t frequent Digg as I used to, but back when I used it frequently, rather than just “leeching” off information from the website, I also participated and looked for upcoming articles. This became more frequent as the quality of the front page articles deteriorated, and right now it’s simply reached a state where all of the front page articles are predictable and repetitive.
It’s very simple to get your article on the front page, just get a few dozen friends to Digg your article in a short period of time and you’re there (yes, I am aware that they changed their algorithm not too long ago so it would take more Diggs to reach the front page).
Back when I used Digg, reaching the front page was the hard part, and from there onwards, people would only Digg it more, and you’d gain your few minutes/hours of “fame” (or more appropriately, traffic). Today, your article has to gain the support of your friends or Digg-buddies, and the approval of the Bury Brigade, who instead of promoting quality content “bury” any content that doesn’t fit the “trend” of articles that we see today.
After going to Digg’s front page right now and having a quick look at what their Top Technology Articles are, here are some of the things you must have in your article to gain the Bury Brigade’s approval:
- The words “Apple”, “Mac” or “iPod/iPhone” – that’s all there is to it, write an article about whether you love or hate any Apple-related thing and that’s halfway-done to Digg stardom
- A gorgeous woman using/licking/covered with a random sexy gadget (preferably an Apple product) – do I need to explain this one?
- [Insert Random Number Here] ways to do [Insert Random Tech Related Thing here] – if I named this article “10 things I hate about Digg’s Bury Brigade”, you would have come across this article from Digg’s front page
- Photoshop/Design Tutorial/How To/”No No” or “Yes Yes” lists – a lot of people who use Digg think that web usability or good design can be learned by following a checklist or an iPhone Button Photoshop tutorial
- Linux is Good / Microsoft is bad – even though most Digg users probably use Windows, anything that can convince them of how good Ubuntu is, or how you can change your wallpaper on it, AND how much better you can change your wallpaper on Ubuntu than on Windows, is definitely an instant front-page article. (ok, maybe I emphasized the sarcasm a little too much there, but you get the picture)
- Funny chain-letter-esque images – I’m all for humor. In fact, I consider myself a humorous person. But when funny 404 pages are incredibly more relevant as tech news that an article that questions Mint.com’s security, you should realize that front page on Digg doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s more relevant or a more accurate response to what are the latest tech news or articles.
Right now, the Digg front page only lists those articles that are more popular between a small group of people and approved by the large majority of them which bury any article that doesn’t suit their tastes.
But if you follow the list above you can guarantee that your articles will suit the Digg-groupies tastes. Just don’t expect on it suiting the tastes of the “rest of us” who abandoned Digg for the “selection” of articles above.
Personal Note: Although I listed it as one of the negative items, I have to admit that I happen to visit Macenstein once a month to see their Mac girl of the month. I know that most of them are just models pretending to be Mac fans, but the illusion that somewhere in the world a girl like that exists pleases my inner-geek.