The 3 Simple Features that Make Reddit Better
Downvoting Reveals a New Story: This feature, singlehandedly, makes Reddit a more successful community. It seems very minor, but in actuality it is the cornerstone of a good promotion algorithm. The biggest shortcoming of any promotional site (digg, reddit, propeller) is that only a select few people, most ofen those interested in cheating the system, ever visit and use the “new” or “upcoming” sections. Subsequently, only already-promoted stories get the editorial oversight of the average user. At reddit, when a user downvotes a story and refreshes the page, the next-best result replaces it. Reddit keeps a numbering system so I know that I have downvoted other stories, but I still do not have to dig through the results, no pun intended, to...
You Won't See It First on Digg
After all of the discussion regarding the new Digg algorithm, I finally had an opportunity to get a closer look at the impact on promotion. While there has been much speculation about the algo requiring many more Diggs than before, and that having been explained by a strengthened “Diversity of Diggers” measurement, I thought it would be useful to see exactly how much this algo slowed down the promotion of stories compared to other popular Web 2.0 sites.The results, in my opinion, were staggering. Today the Associated Press became aware that John Edwards was making his exit from the Presidential Campaign. Within minutes, submissions were made to Digg, Reddit and Netscape regarding this event. Which of the three sites took the longest to promote the...
Why the Top Diggers are Right
I understand that there is a lot of animosity towards the so-called Digging elite. Clearly some of them are marketers bent on pushing their own materials. However, certain top-Diggers have no financial interest but, rather, are the uber-fans and social-cornerstones of the popular site. An argument could be made that the participation of even the marketers, whose own materials make up only a tiny fraction of what they Submit and Digg, is responsible in part for Digg’s success – however, we will save that argument for later. We first understand the new changes to the Digg algorithm to understand why the concerns are valid. While there is a certain black box aspect to the whole Digg promotional algorithm, Kevin Rose and others have indicated time and...
Social Media Slant: Comparing Polls to Web 2.0 Coverage
Editors Note: Before looking at the numbers, it is important to understand that the uniqueness of Obama’s and Kucinich’s last names, and commonality of Clinton’s and Edwards’s, could skew the results even more. In all likelihood, both Clinton’s and Edward’s coverage differentials are even lower, but appear more reasonable because other individuals with the name Edwards or Clinton make the social media sites. Digg Reddit Delicious Propeller Polling Verdict Obama +4.6% -3.2% +10.9% +6.1% 30.3% +4.6% Clinton -12.8% -3.6% +0.2% +14.9 36.6% -.3% Edwards -9.4% -6.9% -1.6% -8.3% 17.9% -6.5% Kucinich +30.9% +26.6% +7% — 2.6% +15.9% Analysis & Implications The clear loser is John Edwards. Despite the fact that he has polled...
Digg Breaks Cardinal Advertising Rule
Of the many rules of online advertising, perhaps the most obvious is not to auto-play sound. Years ago these forms of advertising were tossed aside with popups and popunders on legitimate, reputable sites. Apparently digg forgot and let me know this morning, 3 times, that I had won 2 Ipod Nanos! Come on Digg, this is ridiculous.
The Anatomy of a Digg Silent Bury
There has always been a shrowd of mystery surrounding the bury feature at Digg. What percentage of buries are necessary to put a story to rest? Are the different types of buries (lame, duplicate, spam) considered differently? Is there an internal bury system for Digg employees? The latest in this series of questions that needs to be brought to light is what I call the “Silent Bury”. This is a unique set of circumstances where Digg removes the story from the listings (neither in upcoming or popular), but leaves the story on the site, and accessible via direct URL or search. This method effectively destroys the chance of a story succeeding, but does not seem to rely on the traditional bury methods that would also make a story difficult to access via...
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