Linux/Unix Censorship on Digg.com?
Linux November 15th, 2007
Every Thursday, for the last 10 weeks straight I’ve been providing a quick synposis on the top 10 or 15 stories on the most popular topics on Digg.com in the Linux/Unix section. Not anymore… not Digg anyways.
This isn’t gonna be a rant, just the facts. Of the last ten articles I’ve written, all of them have been buried.
Two of them were buried even after hitting the front page. The best example I can give is the interview of David Liu, founder of gOS – which was mentioned by relatively high profile websites like Techmeme, Techcrunch, Webbalert, Lifehacker, etc… even a +5 insightful comment on Slashdot about gOS sent me thousands of hits.
(For next time I’m on Webbalert, fsckin can be pronounced many different ways, according to Wikipedia… take your pick!)
It’s the only semi-quotable material from David Liu that I’ve found, other than press junket tours, so I went ahead and added a link to the article on Wikipedia, after making sure that it met the guidelines – I certainly do not have the credibility of a scientific journal, but I do have some authority on Technorati…
I’m welcoming ideas and comments on what to do about fixing this problem… still awaiting a reply from Digg Support.
-Wayne
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Tags: Censorship, Digg, Linux Nation
[...] Original post by Wayne [...]
I’m having the same problem. Is there a Windows fanboy mafia on Digg? It seems like just as my articles are getting lots of diggs and ready to pop to the front page, they disappear forever. Someone must pay!
There is a lot of negative air and cynicism on Digg. When Digg first broke on the scene it offered a new hope to people who were sick of being flamed on Slashdot. It now seems like the flame war has continued across social networks/news sites simply because it can.
For example your article on TF2 has a lot of positive feed back, but when you take a look at the comments section you see a lot of unthoughtful and uncaring comments. Some of the comments are outright absurd and are no where near educated on the topic of Linux, open source software, or Wine.
Social network/news sites allow your voice to be heard among the tumultuous “white noise” of. At the same time they also give people the power to silence.
My only advice to you Wayne is to keep doing what you are doing. You have done and amazing job thus far and should not get down. Continually give people the means to share your message clearly (as you have done with the “Click to share” link) and in as many formats as possible….
Fuck Digg – people read Techmeme, Techcrunch, Webbalert, and Lifehacker directly (I have them in my RSS feed), they will see your articles.
i used to rather enjoy linux nation…you should do smething similar even if you don’t use digg…
i wasn’t aware of this censorship till now.
It’s not a Windows fanboy population on Digg, it’s a Mac Fanboy population.
-A
The first time I noticed the masses of burying was with Ron Paul articles.
I’m sorry to see that the same thing is happening to Linux stories.
Oh well, digg got real old even faster than Slashdot did.
Can’t say I really have any suggestions concerning politics or dealing with people as I really don’t like either topic. I first came here from digg and stuck around after the first router OS review.
I usually use digg to find random interesting things across the web. Slashdot doesn’t post enough, thought most of the articles are new and interesting. Digg about 6 months back and earlier was quite interesting but it’s been getting worse as of late.
As senseless and seemingly useless as it sounds, there aren’t a lot of things you can do. You can go vigliante (http://malcor.blogspot.com/), you can keep doing what you’re doing or you can give up. I hope you keep doing what you’re doing and that it goes well for you Wayne. I’ll be reading (I’m trying to get into FOSS as I’m currently finishing my MCSA next week) and I’m pulling for you.
Microsoft has a business deal with Digg. I dont remember about what (ads if i remember), but they have it. It was reported time ago.
I’ll definitely keep posting new content, this is an enjoyable use of my free time, I guess there is some good news:
After an email exchange with Digg Support: http://gobnf.org/i/fnp/banned4.gif
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Digg:_foxnewsporn.com_Unbanned_
I still haven’t heard anything back from Digg yet… I’ll give it a few days and try again.
I’ve got bored by Digg long time ago (well yes, more like long Internet time ago). It’s mostly lame stuff and microsoft hype with the occasional entertaining story here and there and comments on Digg are even worst than on most similar sites, wonder who got paid to write those in his freetime. The attitude towards Foss wasn’t great, even in the beginning, but keeps getting more and more “hostile” fast. Their videocast goes in the same direction but is at least entertaining as hell, in a good way… I still watch it from time to time…
After all, Digg and especially Diggnation is one of the most successful image campaigns for microsoft in a long time and by far the site with the most Linux/Open Source bashing I know (and regarded something similar to “cool” by a wide audience at the same time). I don’t think (or care if) that was planed, but it turns out as one of the few things that manage to sell a cool microsoft image to the kids and by now microsoft will probably do a lot to keep it that way.
OK, enough with the hysterical conspiracy stuff. I personally really don’t care about boring Internet wannabe hipsters without technological (or otherwise interesting) background, so Digg and it’s crowd is nothing I care for as target audience, but Digg is a big thingy and being generally buried or flamed there is probably a annoying thing for lot’s of people in the Floss community.
Well annoying and somewhat aggravating this is for sure but I don’t think it’s that big of a problem, there are a lot of similar sites out there on the net (probably some of them even better fitting to Linux and such things).
So as maybe not a fix but a workaround I would recommend you use some more of them. I’m really don’t know much about such stuff but http://www.newsvine.com/ and http://www.mister-wong.com/ come to mind and of course RedIt but you already have this.
Well anyway, please keep doing what your doing, i really enjoy and appreciate it. And keep us posted on the whole Digg situation.
Digg is brutal. It’s a big popularity contest, and the average user age is way too young for serious tech talk. It’s all about the big comment that gets 500 digg clicks; it’s not about discussion.
Digg.com didn’t used to be a pro-Microsoft site, but somehow the Xbox 360 managed to turn it into one. I guess that makes sense with the age of the users. They all bought 360’s because it was cheaper then the PS3, and like teenagers, they’ll defend a purchase to death. If you defend a company like Microsoft for long enough, you might start believing the bullshit you put forth.
That’s my guess, anyways.
I wrote a blues song about this once. It’s called ” Digg is like a Manic-Depressive Girlfriend”. Don’t go chasing after her, she’ll just break your heart. Even she doesn’t know what she likes.
hey
its very point of view.
Good post.
realy gj
thank you
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!