Digg



[|www.Digg.com] is a social news website where members of the Digg community (called **Diggers**) share, vote for (or against), and comment on articles of personal interest. These articles are then categorized and displayed similarly to other news websites such as [|CNN] and [|FoxNews]. But unlike typical news outlets where editors choose a handful of articles to display on their website, Digg allows the readers themselves to choose what stories should be displayed.

=How Does Digg Work?=

Digging
When a person reads a story and wants to recommend it to others, he or she will Digg that story (members can also Digg videos and podcasts). Digging is the term used to describe the voting procedure used to endorse a story. Most of the stories that members in the Digg community read are found on the Digg.com website. Members find these stories and then choose to Digg them by simply clicking. But if someone finds an article that is not already located in the Digg database, that user can submit this new story.

Submitting a New Article
In order to submit a story you think is interesting or important, you need to go to [|www.Digg.com] and click "Submit a New Article" in the top right hand corner. After clicking that, there are a couple quality control recommendations for you to follow to make sure your story is on topic, appropriate, links directly to the original source, and that it hasn't already been **Dugg** (past tense of Digg). After you check over that, you simply enter in the URL to the story. The final steps are to enter a descriptive title for the story you're linking to, and then write your own description of it. Finally, choose the most appropriate topic for the article (see below under categories) and submit.

Some websites have a button that allows you to Digg or submit a story by simply clicking a button, usually located at the bottom. Here is what the buttons typically look like: or

Submissions immediately appear in "Upcoming Stories," where other users can find the story and Digg it as well. If your story gets enough Diggs, it will appear on the front page. Which is the dream of every Digger (and statistics are actually kept in your personal profile).

Burying
Not every story submitted is accepted by the Digg community. Some stories are fraudulent, SPAM, unreliable, etc. so Digg members have the option to remove a story with the **Bury Story** feature. When a story receives enough Buries (negative votes), it is removed from the Front Page and Upcoming Stories sections. Buried stories can still be found on the Digg site, but you really have to search hard for them.

=Features=

Diggers
Diggers are people who consider themselves part of the Digg community. Anyone can become a member of this community and it is absolutely free.

Personal Profile
Some people don't agree with the entire community and don't like the stories that become popular and appear on the front page. Because of this, members can create a **Friends List** and easily see what his/her friends have submitted, Dugg, and commented on. Digg also allows members to create their own front page in their Personal Profile with articles Dugg by friends or other respected Diggers.

Blogging & RSS Feeds
Members can set their personal settings so that when they Digg an article, that article (the title and brief description) will automatically appears on his or her personal blog or RSS feeder. You can also have stories sent to your blog and RSS feeder that are Dugg by individuals you subscribe to.

Comments
Similar to a blog, Digg allows members to comment on stories that have been submitted. Sometimes the comments people make are just as interesting as the stories they are commenting on. Comments are considered just as important as stories to the Diggers and members can subscribe to comments just as they can subscribe to the stories individuals Digg.

Digg Labs
One of the coolest features on Digg is Digg Labs. There are hundreds of stories submitted every day to Digg and many articles fly by so fast, most users never see them. Digg Labs provides alternative interfaces to help users see every story, in real time, that has just been Dugg, submitted, and commented on. Users can choose to see all activity, popular stories, or newly submitted stories. Digg Labs includes: These interfaces can be confusing at first (especially the Arc), but they provide an alternative view that some find enjoyable.
 * [|Stack]: Up to the 100 most popular stories are lined along the bottom of the screen (like the x-axis on a bar graph). Diggs (little blocks) then fall from above and begin to stack up on the stories. The brighter the story, the more Diggs it has.
 * [|Swarm]: A circle is drawn as stories are Dugg. Diggers swarm around stories and make them grow by Digging them. The larger and brighter a story is, the more Diggs it has received.
 * [|Big Spy]: Stories scroll slowly from the top of the screen. The larger the text the more popular a story is.
 * [|Arc]: Stories are highlighted in the middle of a dynamic pie chart with user names around the outside. Thickness indicates the popularity of stories relative to the users.

Categories
When looking for a story, Digg makes it easy by categorizing them in seven topics with several subtopics within them.

Strengths & Limitations
The biggest strengths of Digg.com is the large community that has developed and the flexibility and control members have. The larger the community, the greater the dynamic. Another strength, in my opinion, is the fact that the owner and CEO of Digg has yet to "sell out" to one of the major corporations. The owner even maintains a blog and podcast to keep connected with the users.

Some of the limitations I have noticed is that it takes at least a day or two for a news story to receive enough Diggs to make it to the front page. This means that the stories on the front page are typically a couple days old. Another limitation is that stories can be "Buried" if a small number (nobody knows the algorithm used) of members choose to "Bury it." This has cause much debate as companies and individuals have been accused of sending people to **bury** a story that reflects negatively on them.

Ease of Use
Digg is very easy to learn and use. It took me less than five minutes to Digg my first story, comment on it, email it, post it to my blog, set up an RSS feed, and join a community.

Top 10 Articles on Digg
This is the top 10 list in all topics with the number of diggs, to provide an example of the variety of topics.

Baby Chewbacca (Pic)

 * 1697

What 90% Of Diggers NEED Before They Post: They're/Their/There Quiz!

 * 1365

Collection of all Calvin and Hobbes strips, in chronological order

 * 1314

NEWS FLASH: Ron Paul Wins Alabama Test Poll By Wide Margin

 * 1218

I always feel like some one is watching me (Pic)

 * 1031

While Netflix Lowers Their Rates, Blockbuster Online Raises Theirs...A Lot

 * 806

If Business Meetings Were Like Internet Comments

 * 772

Satan buys ad space to vent his frustration with local church!...with PIC

 * 638

US Transportation Secretary Doesn't Consider Bikes a Form of Transportation

 * 576

'Superbad' Gets Some

 * ===560===

Other Social (or Link Ranking) News Sites
[|BlinkList] [|ClipMarks] [|CoRank] [|Netscape] [|Newsvine] [|OpenServing] [|Reddit] [|Spotback] [|Spotplex] [|StumbleUpon]

Links
[|Digg Labs] [|The Digg Blog]