Digg Trends Beta: So Far, Not Bad

by JD Rucker on Sunday, November 8, 2009

Digg normally rolls out new features poorly. The debacle that was the “new and improved” dupe detector has yet to show signs of improvement. The Diggbar changes are still a sore spot for many, especially in the way that it was rolled out, changed, and re-rolled out.

Digg Trends is, for now (crossing fingers), a new feature that seems to be doing what it’s supposed to do.

I was terrified when I saw the story below listed as a Trending Topic and held this blog post until it had finished it’s 10-minute trial. Thankfully, Digg Trends (and the Digg community) kept this story off of the front page. “Failed!  Just like nu metal, this trend failed. It won’t be promoted.”

Digg Trends

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Digg removes avatars, raises Digging limits

by JD Rucker on Thursday, October 8, 2009

No more looking for spades, street signs, or red faces. Digg has gone to text links rather than thumbnails of the avatars on submissions.  A few days ago, they raised the limit from 200 to approximately300, then apparently back up to “unlimited” (even though there is one report of a user banned because of Digging too much).

Digg_No_Avatars

Server performance aside, is this an effort to reduce the rate of “blind digging” while not hurting their page views? Blind digging has always been an issue and will continue to be even if this change sticks, but it does make it less convenient to run through the front page or recommended upcoming pages looking for friends’ icons. [click to continue…]

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Digg Ads: Less than 2 Weeks Old and Breaking their Own TOU

by JD Rucker on Monday, August 17, 2009

That didn’t take long.

The_Goods_Digg

Looks suspicious, but sex sells, right? Maybe there was nothing against TOU. Maybe it was all just language and innuendo which are perfectly fine for Digg.

Nope. [click to continue…]

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Are You Really “Ghost Banned” on StumbleUpon?

by Tammy Rucker on Sunday, August 16, 2009

I have had a lot of good comments about the article “How to not get Banned on Stumblupon“, and I appreciate all of them. One issue that has received a lot of attention is the “ghost banning”.

stumbleupon_collageI want to clear something up for those of you who are now afraid to thumb up your friends stuff, or who think they can no longer thumb or review their favorite sites. I am going to explain how the process works from my knowledge in hopes of putting your mind at ease.

First of all, when you go to check one of your recent discoveries and find that it says “discovered by someone” rather than yourself, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are ghost banned. You may be experiencing:

  • A glitch. They happen all the time on most sites and SU is no exception.
  • You are sandboxed, which I will explain below.

I got a lot of my information for the term “sandboxed” from a post Jeff Quipp made a couple of years ago.  Where ever you are buddy, thank you! I wasn’t sure how to explain it until I found his post. [click to continue…]

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RT if you’re #notabot – Pass it on

August 12, 2009

Bots on twitter are getting more clever. Accounts can be automated to seem as real as you or me.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a place for bots on Twitter.  For many, they can be effective for certain things such as RSS feeds for blogs, tag retweeting, etc.  The problem is with the automated accounts [...]

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How to Not get Banned on StumbleUpon

July 29, 2009

For me, StumbleUpon is a great place to make connections, see great pictures, and find articles or sites that I would otherwise not be exposed to. The whole idea of SU is to share great finds with your friends and for great content to get exposure.
This concept has evolved, to say the least. Now you [...]

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