I was right about Forevergeek and Digg
Earlier this morning I left a comment on a post of Fovergeek’s where he complains that Digg is unfairly banning him:
There’s a possible explanation for some of this which doesn’t require conspiracy. Digg is very, very heavy against spam. It’s possible that some stories which get buried are done automatically. I can, for example, bury any story I want by creating a bunch of new users and digging that story…
It seems, in light of this post by Digg founder Kevin Rose that I’m right. He specifically addresses FG’s concerns:
The banning of forevergeek.com: Aside from the dozens of user reports, several accounts were created to artificially inflate the digg count of their stories. When a single URL hits a threshold of reports, our standard procedure is to block that URL from submission (spam control). Again, mass fraud digging is in violation of our terms of service.
So, really, they have nothing to complain about. I’m sure the digg fraud detection systems will improve over time once they figure out which users are good and which are bad, and which should be listened to, and which not. Right now, the way their system works, I can knock a story off any page anywhere just by creating a bunch of new users and digging it. And, that’s a problem.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 1:14 pm and is tagged with fraud detection systems, digg, fg, conspiracy, threshold, dozens, spam, submission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
on April 20th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Gosh, if this was in English, I think I would find this really interesting. I’ve been banned from a blog because my IP address was repeatedly hitting that site. I am accused of spamming. I have no idea what is happening.
Someday when I have time, I would like to get to the bottom of it but in the meantime, I’ll keep reading and trying to comprehend…
on April 20th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Who made the accounts? To me it looks like Digg and crew are the ones making fake accounts to digg things. To pass blame is rediculous. They are actively filtering stories and banning users to try to cover up their problem and mistake. Its not a conspiracy. It is business. They have VC funding now, and there job is to make things look good as they continue to try to beat other social technology news sites.
As for the “threshold of reports”, you are telling me a story with two diggs can reach a threshold of reports in less than 2-5 minutes? Cause that was what was happening today. It was a sad mess, and Digg should be more clear about their stance on editing the news submitted to their service.
Just my 2 cents on it.
on April 20th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Umm Elliot - Kevin doesn’t really answer anything. He doesn’t explain how he got in the middle of the ‘automated digging’. He doesn’t show any proof that FG was spamming (in fact, the people who posted about getting banned were from other blogs). How can you instantly blame FG when they have chronicled what has happened clearly and Kevin hasn’t answered anything?
on April 20th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
And I think Jacob summarized it nicely here
on April 23rd, 2006 at 6:55 pm
There are some other users inflating number of diggs, but why has digg army vanished?
see:
digg.com/technology/Digg_Disappearances_Official_
on August 25th, 2006 at 1:47 am
[…] Kevin Rose eventually weighed in on the issue himself explaining that ForeverGeek was thought to have been using fake accounts to digg up certain stories; therefore, it was banned. This appeared to be difficult to prove in and of itself, and in time, ForeverGeek was un-banned. Some people believe one explanation is that Digg is very heavy on spammers , ergo, it was easy for the domain (ForeverGeek) to get banned. After the fact, it appeared that many users part of the “Digg Army” disappeared as well. […]
on August 25th, 2006 at 2:00 am
[…] Kevin Rose eventually weighed in on the issue himself explaining that ForeverGeek was thought to have been using fake accounts to digg up certain stories; therefore, it was banned. This appeared to be difficult to prove in and of itself, and in time, ForeverGeek was un-banned. Some people believe one explanation is that Digg is very heavy on spammers , ergo, it was easy for the domain (ForeverGeek) to get banned. After the fact, it appeared that many users part of the “Digg Army” disappeared as well. […]
on August 31st, 2006 at 4:23 pm
[…] Kevin Rose eventually weighed in on the issue himself explaining that ForeverGeek was thought to have been using fake accounts to digg up certain stories; therefore, it was banned. This appeared to be difficult to prove in and of itself, and in time, ForeverGeek was un-banned. Some people believe one explanation is that Digg is very heavy on spammers , ergo, it was easy for the domain (ForeverGeek) to get banned. After the fact, it appeared that many users part of the “Digg Army” disappeared as well. […]