Reports are bubbling up that Digg has permanently banned over 80 users for running scripts that help them automatically perform certain tasks on the site.
The mostly lengthy account has been published on the Get Smart Blog under the title The Grim Reaper has visited Digg. The post lists 86 usernames that were unceremoniously dropped from the site without forewarning. The tone of the author and his commenters, all apparently Digg users (or ex-Digg users) themselves, is dramatic: “So many brave and valiant Diggers…it is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions to see such wasted talent.”
Among those banned was a user named Diggboss who had developed a GreaseMonkey script for checking up on friends to see whether they’ve dugg the items that you’ve submitted or shouted. The script used Digg’s own APIs and didn’t automatically Digg any stories, yet Digg’s Terms of Use vaguely prohibits “automated means to access the Site” and any “organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Digg’s services.”
In an official blog post from last week, Jen Burton from Digg suggested that scripts were primarily forbidden because they “place additional load on Digg servers (slowing things down for everyone)”. It’s quite clear, however, that Digg is also concerned with preventing users from gaming the system by recruiting their friends. The Duggboss script may not have automatically submitted stories, but it did help users pursue a strategy of scratching backs for homepage hits (a strategy that ensnared Mark Cuban’s own brother).
Many users are defiant that Digg should dismiss long-time contributors on the grounds that they had run scripts. And some think Digg is shooting itself in the foot by giving users reason to jump ship:
Script? All I have to say about that is WHO CARES! Is Digg doing great in traffic and usage? YES! The site could be a little easier to use if you ask me and if script enables people to use it faster….. so be it! It only works in Digg’s favor and you would think they would understand that. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next few months. Digg might just become a ghost town and Yahoo Buzz could be the next guru.
But that’s nothing new.
[Copyrighted image courtesy of Cyril van der Haegen]
they banned me too for no reason, and i don’t even do none of that stuff
no reason at all?
Thank you, Mark
About The CEO, Mr. Drewry
Referring to yourself as Mr.???
Priceless.
Well I can understand why people would use scripts, a lot of things are tedious to do in Digg. But digging friends items automatically gives an unfair edge which is why I could see them not liking it. I think this is more of a pre-emptive strike to stop future gaming based off of this then actually trying to stop people from getting tasks done quicker.
People who use scripts to manipulate the results on digg are a lot like those people who use short selling to manipulate the stock market. Especially since both are done explicitly for financial gain at the expense of those who try to play honestly.
In time, I’m sure that congress or the attorney general will get them. Maybe even McCain or Obama will issue a statement condemning them…
sorry for the scripts
The point of Digg is to promote news in a democratic fashion. The power users (script-using or otherwise) violate the definition of “democratic” because their votes are more significant (if only in influence over followers). While a backlash is inevitable I can understand Digg’s point of view.
Nothing good is without controversy.
There won’t be a backlash. The vast majority of digg users are sick of having all of the top stores come from the same small clique of users who blindly digg all of their friends’ stories.
No there wont be a backlash, that is absolutely correct. The effect these diggers have is to reduce the usability of digg. It skews what you see from your friends, it skews what is promoted to the front page and it skews the recommends you get, even if you’re a random user like me. I’ve had to unfriend people because their 5000 diggs a day were screwing up my incoming shouts, my recommends and the fact that EVERY freakin’ story had a digg from the same folk on it. What is recommended? What is good? EVERY story? So, it’s good to ban those folk.
Also, what’s up with “: “So many brave and valiant Diggers…it is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions to see such wasted talent.”
This is a FREE extremely high traffic site. If those “talented diggers” (and clicking a button on a free web page = talent???) don’t submit a story or digg a story there are about oh, 5 BUHJILLION people behind them that will submit it and in a fashion that will probably be more balanced and fair to the digg system. Also, by booting people off that game the system, the only thing “lost” is the money these diggers make by spending all their time on digg clicking buttons from the companies that hire them to do so.
I agree this is somewhat of a non-story in that abuse of the grey areas in the TOU is something that will happen the more successful your site becomes. People are trying any way they can to market their product and who can blame them? But if you run Digg, it is your top priority to make sure YOUR product is used in the way you intended.
wow,
really??
no reason
while I applaud digg for their traction and dominance in “democratic content promotion”, It really is controlled by a handful of users. Maybe it will change, but probably it will stay the same.
Digg is a socialist grave yard. The more socialist materials that get dug up the more money they lose.
http://www.alex...etails/digg.com
What a shame!
I like that you guys make sure to always include a picture with your posts…. but this one is a little lazy…
But good post! I’d rather have a good post and a bad picture then vise-versa!
I liked the picture because it looks like the Reaper is about to slay that poor bunny
“poor”? You don’t know anything about that bunny. I could have tortured thousands!
http://tegehel....ontest-17873518
Link to the original artist/deviant
There’s going to be a live discussion about it tonight on http://thedrilldown.com/ at 9:30PM Mountain Time. I won’t be near a computer to live blog it tonight, but hopefully somebody can.
It’s ashame you can’t live blog it. I was really hoping for that.
good
I was one of those users who used diggboss’ script thinking it was ok to use and it was very nice to tell who was actually digging my stuff. I never knew it was against the rules. They should of gave us a warning or something saying remove that script or we will ban you.
Oh well, perhaps just another nail in Digg’s coffin.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
I think you may be trying to bury Digg alive… still seems to be doing pretty well for itself.
Zaibatsu just got banned. He was the #3 top Digg user…
Get out of here! Really? These guys are active Digg users.
Uhh, yeah and now we know why he was the #3 user.
I’m glad they did it.
Touche.
I chose the picture for the bunny as well. Digg slaughtering the poor little unsuspecting users just seem to fit. I did not intend to do a post about being banned but once word got out that I was kicked to the curb my IM, email, and even my phone were bombarded with, what can most aptly be described as, condolences.
I thought a parody post was in order, I really did it as a joke. I will say though that people are very upset by Digg’s end of the summer cleaning and they have treated the post as anything but a joke. I don’t want to moderate people, but some comments to the post just could not be shown. The comments on the Digg submission were pretty heated as well…interesting to note that Digg did not let this submission front page.
I like Digg, spent a lot of time there, and I was bummed to be banned but it’s their site, their choice. Like the end of your article points out there are other sites and most of the now 89 (I am still getting IM’s and emails on the newly banned-another “power” digger among them) are also on Stumble, Propeller, Mixx, and Reddit.
So life goes on…
“I’m taking my ball and going home!”
You should whine a bit more, like we care or don’t know about DIgg’s competitors. Most of us follow the startup space quite vigilantly, and know about social news sites as an “industry”, but just the high-level details, thanks
We dont care about sports, politics, apple cv MS, or digg, per se.
Please get over yourself (or just hang out on 4chan long enough…).
Who cares
you can say that again ,
i didn’t like what digg staff did ,, but WHO CARES !
Kevin and Alex are always assholes and always will be
Hmm.. this happens whenever a company grows big, but I do respect Digg and their business. Has anyone tried Digg’s recommendation engine? I heard it was pretty good to discover news articles based on personal interests. They should probably try to do something like what Cruxle (www.cruxle.com) does. Cruxle is a recommendation engine for entertainment while Digg recommends only for news and videos. But overall, I love this type of competitive market
I tried it, and though the only stories I ever digg are political ones, and I never even visit apple ones, sometimes all three stories were apple or iphone stories.
DIGG! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/iMgyfYM98O_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”DIGG! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/wiZcKsNmJI”}}}
Too bad Digg couldn’t have figured out a way to ban you from the entire internet:-)
Wow you really got him there “whacked”….
i would shoot every_mother_fucking one of you if I could
Yer a might biatchy today Lazerrrrous.
hey Whacked Idiot! you my hater. dont you be cheatin on me bich.
sorry but this gentlemen has just broke new ground. one of the most entertaining seesmic videos i have ever seen.
This song is for my wacked bich the idiot. i love you girl. now get home.
http://www.yout...h?v=1r-GrgXx1IY
I have been banned too for using the Greasemonkey script to making digging stories easy and fast. A fellow digger friend recommended I use it and come to find out…..he’s still not banned. I had no idea it was against their tos and unfortunately for me my apology note fell on deaf ears. I think they should have at least send warnings out. I wasn’t even a top digger so why pick on me?????
Are you really that invested in “digging stories” that this makes a real difference in your life?
I hear it pays pretty well. Remember some of those villains that would play innocent as Adam West caught them doing the Joker’s bidding? Here ya go.
If you were so busy digging stories you hadn’t read that you didn’t have a chance to read any of the brian cuban/mrbabyman stories in the last month, then it’s your own fault.
Backlash…because they banned people exploiting a democratic link aggregator? That’s like saying people are going to move to Luxembourg because the US government arrested people guilty of election fraud.
I’m digging the reaper image. Funny.
they must have hard work to find all spammers before they banned or delete
I’ve been banned 5 times, although not for spamming or using scripts. Just saying stuff in comments people dont want to hear. One was to Pelosi and digg didnt like it :/
Believe me any comments made against the Democratic party or socialists and Marxists gets you banned. I’ve had three accounts as well. Republicans are rare on Digg….they keep killing our accounts.
Digg has banned me aw well. Not for using scripts, but for being a conservative! I posted a “Smear Artists” page on my blog (http://jeremybu...f.wordpress.com) where I listed all users that submitted hugely inaccurate political stories, and that Digg allowed to submit story after story and digg thirty stories a minute. Most all users on my Smear List are STILL ON DIGG!
Check out my smear list and report them for their BS. Maybe Digg will listen if we all pitch in to rid Digg of these ignoramuses.
Conservatives always have such a persecution complex. I was banned for being conservative! Its the Liberal Internets out to get me!
I WAS banned for being a conservative. Digg could give me no reason for the banning. They also deleted ALL of my conservative friends. If you think Digg does not have a liberal agenda, then you should get your head out of your ass.
Please see Bungalobill’s blog where he has a screenshot of Jeremy Buff’s advice on how to use scripts to auto-bury liberal minded submissions.
http://bungalob...r-conservative/
I agree with you Jeremy 100%…you were one of my friends.
Come to Bewyay.com – where the digg drop outs go…
Fuck you and your site.
I agree. Please stop for spamming.
Bring on the ban hammer.
If they took Zaibatsu out they should take MrBabyMan out too, WTF DIGG?
Death to the babyspam.
It sounds to me that Digg needs a more sophisticated reputation system. Oh, well…
its about time
Dude, nice scripts. I liek them
Jiff
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
ByeBye – short selling in the stock market is NOT a manipulative tactic but a smart tactic when you see the writing on the wall. There’s nothing dishonest about it and no way for 1 person or a select few to manipulate the stock market.
The media manipulates it by what they publish and tell people not the small percentage who short sell.
As for Digg, a lot of this is probably in response to Google walking away from buying Digg because the place was “dirty”. Social news is about friends so you just have to have your eyes open and know this stuff is going on.
I wasn’t banned but my friends on digg were. Like I’ve said elsewhere I’m not going to take up sides on it, I don’t know all the reasons why but it doesn’t matter. Without my friends it’s less a less interesting site (to me, I know) and I’m probably going to use digg less as my friends migrate elsewhere. I’m trying to reconnect with them on reddit and able2know and this article reminded me of mixx. Thanks!
Right – digg doesn’t want coders to develop applications or script but its license agreement gives full permission to develop non-commercial applications that interoperate with Digg.com?
DIGG, INC. API LICENSE AGREEMENT
http://apidoc.d...icenseAgreement
1. GRANT OF LICENSE – Subject to your (”Licensee’s”) full compliance with all of the terms and conditions of this API Agreement (”Agreement”), Digg, Inc. (”Digg”) grants Licensee a non-exclusive, revocable, nonsublicensable, nontransferable license to download and use the Digg application program interface and other materials provided by Digg (collectively, “APIs”) to develop, reproduce and distribute non-commercial applications that interoperate with Digg.com or any other web property owned by Digg (”Digg Applications”).
But see, companies only enforce ToS’s when it suits them. Scripts have been used for a while, but it wasn’t only until recently that people began to cry about it – so to show some sort of action on Digg’s behalf, they picked some high profile scape goats. The right action here would have been to revoke API access of the application, not ban the user that created it.
To be honest, Digg isn’t necessarily making the right choice. They’re kicking out most of the mid-level guys and now what’s left is the strong top diggers and weak average diggers. Therefore, more domination!
I wrote a few things about why Digg is being communist and retarded. You might wanna check it out: http://www.webr...or-a-communist/
I was banned and I used a greasemonkey script. I only dugg my friends stuff didnt spam. I broke a rule, digg has lots of cryptic rules. Good deeds get rewards.
This is life, diggs just a website. I live they lose page views. Its all good.
Peace
Mich D
About time …
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Get Free Digital Signage from http://www.MediaSignage.com
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That’s why I use HN exclusively. Digg and Reddit suck majorly.
Banned as well. Didn’t know that the scripts were illegal since some of the most prominent Diggers were using them for many months. Oh well.
Thanks for the courtesy of warning us Digg…
Isn’t there a big privacy issue if this list of names has appeared on a random website? How were these names obtained? What other details are digg just throwing out there to anyone?
It’s a lot worse than the 80 they’ve spotted. Most of the Top 1000 Diggers are Blind Diggers — digging their friends stories in return for diggs of their own. Here’s the proof: http://humanorbot.com
any other new digg script. forget it…..