URL banned by Digg.com

searchbliss · 12-19-2006, 08:18 AM

I have an "add to Digg.com" button on my forum among others, "furl", etc. But now it seems that Digg banned my URL because people were adding my content. Has this happened to anyone else? I guess I'll have to just remove all of those image links to Digg and stick with furl and del.icio.us.

sixty6 · 12-19-2006, 11:02 PM

Quote:

I thought that others already knew that your website could be banned from Digg.

I knew that they had a banned list since I tried to submit the TLA Feedvertising page to Digg when it first came out, but I got an error message saying the website is on their ban list!

I noticed that Patrick Gavin placed a Digg button on the FeedVertising page which was for the TechCrunch post of FeedVertising:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/27...ing/trackback/

Which made the front-page in a matter of hours I believe (he took down the button later).

I submitted that as a comment, but I'm having problems with FireFox :p

Diddy1 · 12-20-2006, 03:52 PM

Me too I got my site banned after only 20 something of my posts were submitted to digg.

Thank you

TheBrain · 12-20-2006, 05:39 PM

Intersting. I knew that digg is banning sites, but I still have no idea why. Anyone? Do you know? I understand spamming might be one of the reasons, but what if there is no spamming involved? Do they have some ToS I haven't noticed?

Diddy1 · 12-21-2006, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBrain

Intersting. I knew that digg is banning sites, but I still have no idea why. Anyone? Do you know? I understand spamming might be one of the reasons, but what if there is no spamming involved? Do they have some ToS I haven't noticed?

It's the whole user system that lets them bury a story as spam. So if you have a competitor he can probably ask some of his digg friends to do just that eventually you'll be banned.

Thank you

bdunndchi · 12-21-2006, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diddy1

It's the whole user system that lets them bury a story as spam. So if you have a competitor he can probably ask some of his digg friends to do just that eventually you'll be banned.

Thank you

Good point. It's too bad that people have to try and find a way to mess everything up.

searchbliss · 12-21-2006, 04:02 PM

Webmaster-Talk better be aware as well. I guess forum posts are not really considered "news" to Digg, so be careful. I will be removing the links from SearchBliss when I find the time (I have a 1 year old baby), but until then, who cares...we're banned.

Marketing Guy · 12-22-2006, 12:01 AM

People shouldn't consider "spam" as being "buy cheap ****** now" type posts. Not every piece of content you write needs to be submitted to Digg, which I think is a key mistake a lot of people are making.

On high traffic / high content sites, which forums are a great example of, there is a very high percentage of content that isn't Digg worthy that may get submitted by a user or two just because they think it is. What is valuable to you, me or the other guy, isn't necessarily valuable to the "masses".

On forums, is a Digg button on every post really necessary? Keep in mind that the model of Digg asks for users to submit content on an individual basis - expanding that to EVERY page of your site is taking it far and is likely to get you banned.

Try submitting every blog post you make to Threadwatch, or posting it on your SEO forum of choice and see how long it takes you to get banned.

While it might not seem fair that just because your users are submitting your content you get banned, people need to respect the fact that Digg most likely recieves a LOT of dodgy self promoting submissions and they need to draw the line somewhere. I don't care how good a writer you think you are - every page of your content does NOT deserve to be Dugg!

As with any online marketing fad there has been out there, people are taking the piss and trying to get something for free when in reality they really don't deserve it. Inevitably, this means that the rules tighten making life harder for the rest of us.

Loads of spam submissions (content that shouldn't be submitted) + the rising popularity of Digg buttons on site wide content + site owners submitting ALL of their own content as it's published + fake users + top users being paid to Digg + legitimate users submitting content en masse = rules need to change or Digg would just become PRweb 2.0.

Social marketing is not like SEO - you can't simply apply the same concept or techniques to each page of your site and expect similar results. You need to choose your points of "attack" more carefully or you get burned with crap like this.

MG

searchbliss · 12-22-2006, 08:36 AM

MG,
You make a lot of great points. I just hope del.icio.us doesn't follow suit. I will be removing every digg button today.

Marketing Guy · 12-22-2006, 08:52 AM

I did a post on some of the stuff I brought up here (and on a few other places I've commented as well). Focuses more on the need to check out your strategy for stuff like this: Digg & your social marketing strategy

And if anyone feels like Digging the entry, go for it.

I also removed all social bookmarking buttons recently (mainly because I hadn't implemented them very well and they looked nasty).

MG

WillB · 12-22-2006, 09:10 AM

I had my account banned after I submitted a few of my blog articles
to Digg. It's a shame really, because I was getting some decent
traffic, but it's like anything on the net:

Once a few people realise that a new service or resource can be
gamed to provide better results, it starts getting abused as MG said
above. Let's just hope they don't get the big G attitude and start
dropping people for no reason!

searchbliss · 12-23-2006, 07:51 AM

Well, at any rate, I removed all of the digg buttons from SearchBliss.

Ferre · 12-23-2006, 12:43 PM

Dunno about you guys, but for me digg has always been a pool for spammers and one of the sites I really avoid.
I can't tell how many posts I've seen on here and other forums asking to digg worthless articles that are only meant to promote sites.

Pathetic. Really.

Banning IP's and sites won't change a thing I guess, the consept of digg is just asking for spam.

ninjashoes · 12-23-2006, 05:04 PM

Same thing happened to me. I think after you get buried 10 times in a row you get banned or something like that. You gotta be careful to only submit good and long threads or uptight people with no lives will bitch.

BTW the bans are permanent

simple · 12-24-2006, 08:48 PM

I think the magic number is 5 diggs in a month.

jumpenjuhosaphat · 12-24-2006, 08:58 PM

Well if digg is banning and throwing away a large amount of it's users, it seems to me that there is a lot of market that they are giving away for free. It seems almost a shame that it comes to this, but with the way things are, with all the spam that floats around, I guess that's just part of life. Anyhow, it kinda makes me want to start a site called banneddiggers, or bestandworstofdigg, or something along those lines.

Hostnetric · 12-25-2006, 08:38 AM

One of the big reasons that you might also be seeing bans is the fact that some of the top rated people on Digg have been taking essentially bribes to help articles about sites get dugg. I wrote about an instance just recently at my blog and it seems that many marketing firms are approaching these top digg users and offering them incentives to get them on the front pages. This is most likely nothing more then a witch hunt by Digg to weed out what they perceive as these types of sites and articles. Unfortunately it is only hurting the legitimate sites such as those here who are honestly getting their stories on the digg network. Spam does seem to be a huge issue with their network and that is unfortunate to say the least since the idea they came up with can help a good webmaster with a real site of value get their website actually going.

Utexas · 12-25-2006, 09:13 AM

haha sounds like somebody doesnt like you and just submited your site with a whole bunch of crap

simple · 12-25-2006, 09:14 AM

Just recently the top digg user gt banned for doing fraud, but after he said sorry, they put him back.

Hostnetric · 12-25-2006, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simple

Just recently the top digg user gt banned for doing fraud, but after he said sorry, they put him back.

That is the one I was referring to. He says that he did it this one time, but how are we to really know this was the case. It puts those of us without the financial backing and real morals at a huge disadvantage. At least Digg is finally working to level the playing field now.