The Digger Diggs, and Having Dugg Moves On

When Ryan Tomayko's blog was linked recently on Digg, he was so freaked out by the experience he wrote some code to reject all Digg traffic:

The funny thing about Digg is that it changes the way people read. The average Digger seems to assume that people write stuff solely for the purpose of making it to the Digg front page. ...

No one knows you there so you have to write in a way that is completely void of who you are and what you're about. That sucks. I'd rather just opt out of the popularity contest (and I did -- see below).

I've been ground into chuck a few times by high-traffic sites, most recently over my legal fight to save Wargames.Com from being grabbed by MGM.

When an online community's focused on you, it feels like a big deal, but the average Internet user can afford to spend no more than 10 minutes caring about any subject. After that, a new "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" remix, Apple gadget, or high-resolution picture of a celebrity's babymaker has hit the web and everybody moves on. Digg users form six strongly held opinions an hour.

When I offered BenedictXVI.Com to the Vatican, this weblog received 500,000 hits in two days and I got several thousand comments along with six flattering sexual assessments (five straight, one gay). I was just starting to enjoy my newfound celebrity after 36 hours when some Canadian woman fell on the ice singing the National Anthem at a hockey game in Quebec, inhaling all my fame oxygen. I was so upset I couldn't start my day with the Today Show for weeks.

By the time Tomayko finished his Digg blocker, the members of the site had forgotten him entirely.

Udrp · Television · Movies · Domains · 2007/01/10 · 9 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

While his Digg blocker won't do him any good for the 15 seconds of viral fame that have already past, it will prevent any future outbreaks.

#1 · Adam · 2007/01/10

The trick is whether that deluge contains one or two good connections - a potential job offer, _pro bono_ legal assistance, a conference invitation, etc. In theory, if one could find those gems without the uncaring crowd, that would be great. In practice, one can end up with essentially no readership at all.

#2 · Seth Finkelstein · 2007/01/10

You're excluding the possibility that he anticipated this, and that the Digg blocker is a desperate grab for further attention.

#3 · Sven · 2007/01/10

Dugg.

#4 · Anonymous · 2007/01/10

"Dugg." I digg you up good sir.

#5 · Wesley Weissenberger · 2007/01/10

I agree, not all content is created for Digg - most of the bloggers are, but there are sites that out there that are just meant for experiment or for fun. But most diggers are paranoid when they encounter these legitimate sites.

#6 · Somber Mood · 2007/01/11

don't dispare, you handsome man.

#7 · _mind · 2007/01/11

don't digg your own website

#8 · Digg · 2007/01/11

I think we should just live and adapt to the 10 minutes attention span, chances are that among those thousands there might be people that will fit right into your site, and this is just a higher probability way that they should stumble onto it. Fame may come and go, but more people equals more chances of nice things happening.

#9 · Pidjin · 2007/01/11