I am extremely upset and baffled by a recent occurrence. Digg has just banned one of my dear friends from their site. This friend is Benny Greenberg and many of you might know him. Benny is a very upbeat man that likes to spread around his Ya-ttitude. If you are not familiar with Ya-ttitude it all about living positively.
Not only was Benny banned, but 60 other people were banned in the last 24 hours! Here is a complete list of Digg users that were banned: The Grim Reaper Has Visited Digg. The majority of people on that list are friends of mine. They all contribute wonderful stories to the site and make it a truly social place. I cannot imagine spending any time on Digg without them.
There was a story submitted to Digg yesterday called Digg's Own Benny Greenberg is Running For President!. Although this story never went "popular" by Digg's standards, it was very popular among the users. Why? Because Benny is a true friend to everyone there. He makes funny and insightful comments that actually enhance the stories submitted there. Does Digg intend to seek out and ban popular members from the site? I find the timing of his ban interesting that it coincides with that story running yesterday.
If Digg is not careful, they are going to cut their nose off to spite their face. We all know there are many (probably too many) social bookmarking sites out there to use. If Digg continues to ban people left and right, the users that still have accounts are going to much less likely to use them. They spent countless hours building a great friend list just to find half or more of their friends gone! What is the point of spending your time there just to one day wake up to find your friends gone or possibly your own account banned.
As I mentioned, there are other sites to use. I wonder if Yahoo Buzz, Reddit, Searchles and the rest will see a boost in their traffic coming from all of the banned Digg members. I would bet that they will be more than happy to have them. Digg seems to think they can keep running without any members. Keep booting them off and one day that is what Digg is going to wake up to: no member participation!
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.
If you think this is a bunch of BS too, comment here and let everyone know. I would like a rally to re-instate Benny Greenberg and all the rest. User driven site, remember?
Feeling a song coming on...... We're not going to take it! (Twisted Sister) Hmmmm, am I putting my head on the chopping block now? Possibly, but what the hell.
More information on the Digg bannings:
http://ya-ttitude.com/blog/2008/09/22/how-digg-resembles-real-life-or-how-i-stumbled-upon-the-answer/
http://www.socialmediamom.com/2008/09/macros-bots-and-scriptsoh-my.html
http://www.infofreaking.com/society/heads-are-rolling-on-diggcom/
http://pulse2.com/2008/09/18/massive-digg-ban-for-using-greasemonkey-scripts-i-urge-you-to-avoid-all-digg-scripts/
http://nowsourcing.com/blog/2008/09/18/diggboss-digg-interview/
http://www.nothingcorporate.com/2008/09/5-reasons-why-stumbleupon-is-the-new-digg/
http://ashmadai.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/digg-uproar-digg-bans-users/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/19/digg-cleans-house-bans-80-script-users/
http://livingstrongandhappy.blogspot.com/2008/09/digg-banned-livingstrong.html
18 comments:
nice writeup. i was banned as well.
im pretty sure I might leave digg behind, not sure.
but I am definitely taking some time off from it to invest in Stumble, reddit, mixx, and twine. All of which are easier to use I think.
Well said Kelly,
I was in shock when I heard that Benny has been banned from digg. He is one of my best friend too when I'm still active there, but never login again to digg as I think that place is stink! Now I know that I have make a good decision not to wasting my time there.
I'm spending more of my time now at SU :-) I hope Benny and you too will get more active there.
Kelly, thanks for stopping by the digg burial ground. It is a shame a real tragedy. We are up to 81 excommunicated diggers and the list keeps growing.
I am with Shearyadi...I have been on Stumble for a while and pretty active there too. I let it go a bit with my digg obsession but it may be time to get back to it. :)
Hey Hey --
Now isn't that an ugly picture of me - I so want to change that - I am like 20lbs lighter now... and that is just from all the digg friends I have lost.
C'mon - not the end of the world...
The banned will rise again - albeit tattered and torn and a bit weathered from the fight -
Wait -- that was part of my acceptance speech...
Relax peeps... I am alive and well and just not digging at the moment...
email me anytime and lets see what we can do about a new home
bennyinny (at) yahoo (dot) com
love y'all
Well said Kelly! I'll join your rally cry... Bring Benny and all my friends back!!!
I was very upset by this decision of Digg. I feel almost violated due to the fact that it was a fellow Digg user that recommended the script for faster digging and his account is not banned. OY
Digg,blogcatalog,twitter all worthless to me.Snobs and wannabees
I love the MIXX,Seachles,they have owners that I have spoken to and guess what they appreciate their members.Believe that.I asked Digg to delete my acct awhile back and have no use for the one I have now.
I really only go on their to digg when a friend asks.Bloggers need to work together to survive.I go by countless abandoned blogs-former hot shots.IF Your going to be around don't be like everyone be like Kelli and Benny.A year from now we'll be here will YOU?
Get it together Bloggers.
Thanks
Kelly your a true friend to people that is just one of the many things I have to come to respect about YOU;)
Thanks for all of the comments. It is good to know that I am not the only one who thinks this is bogus. See ya around on Digg....... or not! Hopefully we will all keep in touch one way or another :)
I have seen this happen to quite a few of my friends on the digg network. I haven't quite figured out what they are trying to do. I almost think it's a power trip, as if to say we don't need you. I have known a few bosses in my day who would fire someone and hire them back the next day just to show them that they were the boss. I can only say POWER TRIP!!!
How upsetting. I have also seen a few really great sites be banned for reasons unbeknownst to anyone involved. Reddit...here we come!
Um... What did y'all do to get banned?
That's curiously absent from your report.
Next we'll be banning you from SU.
I do hope it was some kind of administrative error, and that you are innocent. But tell us straight out. We don't care how nice a guy someone is if he causes others to become irritated.
all of these social sites suck, digg twitter myspace utube to the face book. now if people do 1 social thing they get the boot
Kelly, my dear friend. You made me laugh so hard that I had to run to the bathroom. Your post is not only hilarious but well written and very sweet. Thank you for expressing your support. I feel honored for having you as a friend.
Listen, I am all over the Net, and frankly, Digg is the most corrupt and greedy social network I've ever found. They allow corruption and illegal scripts to continue ONLY with the digg members that are actually bringing thousands of money to they site.
I am going to make a post today in my blog and in 4 hrs I will publish it regarding this Digg mess.
In the meantime, I erased all the Digg coding from my blog. They are not getting any free marketing from me, that's for sure.
Hey friends, Benny, DocNicole, Kelly of course, and the rest of the gang: let's get together and agree on a social network for us to meet so we can re-unify there again. I think there has been nice camaraderie among us and I will love to see you all again in SU, BC, MyBlogLog, YahooBuzz, reddit, I don't know, you suggest a good one. There are tons out there.
One site that I like a lot and we can all make friends fast and they have COOL backgrounds for the personal profiles is Hi5.
Hi, Kelly - I too was one of those banned on Digg - my crime? Using a Firefox add-on.
I wrote to them asking why - they were dismissive and said that I should not create another account - I was on there and Dugg almost 10,000 diggs.
I empathise with anyone who uses Digg now, many many more ban's will be coming - BTW I use Mixx now, this is where I came across your story.
Awesome! So Mixx is good? I see you there!
OMG: I didn't know. Benny is the Best. A true supporter, putting other's before himself. Downn withh Digg for thiss. Long live Benny. For all I know, I'm banned too. Haven't dugg in a few days.
Boo Digg
Jackiesjungle and Zaibatsu where also banned
http://www.jackiesjungle.com/2008/09/20/digg-user-zaibatsu-banned-because-of-me
banning without warning is not done. If Digg feels that scripts used by certain users are slowing down their system they should warn the users and take it from there.
Banning users without warning will make users think before joining and contributing to the service
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