A social networking site with big ambitions called “Subbitt.com” .

Many features are in place, including:

• Digg-style submissions
• Stumbleupon related stories by user tags and taxonomy as users submit stories of interest
• Friend’s list with automatic adding of invited friends who join
• Listing of Mutual Friends most recent entries for fast checking of new submissions… a sort of “Auto-Sharing”
• Forums
• Basic karma system which will soon be enhanced dramatically to add anti-spammer/troll control
• Autoembeds of several video formats, including Youtube, Metacafe, Revver, College Humor, Veoh, with more to come. Simply enter the url when submitting and the video is autoembedded in your submission!
• Tag cloud ala Reddit
• Internal messageing with new message indication.
• Much more to come

I would like to invite you to come and see the site, give your input, feedback, etc. Our philosophy is that customer service is number 1. Users are the premier partners of this type of website, and our desire is to build Subbitt around the features that you’ve all been asking of major sites, that have so far fallen upon deaf ears.

Digg is NOT Jay and Kevin. They are merely the people who came up with the idea. Digg is NOT the service itself, it is merely the vehicle in which we choose to ride.

Digg is the users, you and I, because without us, there would be no Digg.

Now, while it’s all fair and good to change things when they need changing, or tweak what needs tweaking, the majority of people were perfectly happy with Digg the way it was. I gave up trying to understand the thinking that went into the recent algorithm changes. It’s been a while now, and the only trend that the new algorithm has led to is less shouts, less diggs, and less submissions going popular. I notice the times between friends logging in has substantially increased, and my guess is that overall, Digg traffic is down.

What this has unfortunately left the majority with (not the top users or new users, but all of us stuck in the middle), is a near impossibility of having any of our submissions go popular, whether they are worthy of it or not. Why? Well, one reason is that everyone who IS trying has little time to do anything other than try and get enough diggs to go popular. Another reason is because a lot of people have just plain stopped using Digg, period.

However, our voices can be heard, and heard big, by doing one simple thing that is completely legal and violates no TOS agreement. No, I’m not talking a boycott here, especially considering the dismissive attitude that the threat of a boycott by the top diggers recently recieved. What I’m talking about embodies the essence of Digg, which is: Digging stuff.

Digg everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. Make every story popular. If only a thousand people dedicate themselves to digging everything on upcoming, we’ll all actually spend less time shouting, searching, digging people’s shouts, etc. Can you imagine if it were 2000, 3000, 10,000? Do you think maybe the uppity-ups at Digg might finally be spurred to actually LISTEN to its users? I do…

By making everything popular, WE set the rules, and truly make it a democracy, because it will then be up to the the rest of the Digg population to either digg up or bury a story, which is, at least to me, the way it SHOULD be. You might not agree with me on that point, but i think we all agree that things were made a little too tight, and SOMETHING needs to happen to spur a loosening of the algorithm ASAP.

So, if I don’t answer your shouts, it’s because I’m busy digging everything in upcoming. Hope to see you there!

The reasons why I do these types of videos are varied. The first and foremost is because they are quite easy to be made popular, and garner a lot of views. Whether they’re ueful to a great deal of people, or simply something silly that very few people will ever try, they are undeniably an easy sell.

This is important to me on a personal level. Because of a back injury, I am unable to work a “normal” job. I do not mention this for any pity. It is merely a fact. The greatest personal opportunity that doing these videos has given me is a sense of purpose I have lacked for many years. I also greatly value the opportunity to share knowledge and hopefully give people an insight into the thought process that goes into coming up with, for the most part, original ideas.

And it is within this scope that I think the greatest value of How To videos lie, and that is, that it teaches and encourages people to think “outside of the box”. Why is this important? Look at it this way… if you were ever in a situation that called for creative thinking to ensure your survival, what will better serve you at that moment? Humorous or crazy videos of people doing stupid stuff, or videos that demonstrate how you can take two seemingly unrelated things and create something unique? Out of the box thinking is a survival skill.

Not only that, but out of the box thinking also encourages innovation and creativity. Look at all of the trends that have become big over the last 50 years in technology. Who do we have to thank for them? The comedians and Funniest Home Videos, or innovative thinkers? Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate humor and silliness, as we all need as many laughs as we can get, especially in this day and age. Humor and comedy DOES serve a great purpose in its own right.

And please don’t misunderstand me… I’m not purporting that I’m a particularly innovative thinker with ideas that will contribute to the welfare of mankind. I can hope, however, that perhaps my videos might spark the imagination of someone who may, one day, come up with a truly innovative idea that will benefit society, or lead to the next big technological advance in some field.

So, that’s the REAL reason that I make these types of videos, and I hope perhaps this will give everyone an opportunity to examine the role of How To videos in a bit of a better light. I DO aspire to do bigger and better things, such as truly educational videos that enlighten people to aspects of our society that need constant attention so that they are not forgotten, primarily the plight of disabled children and how we can make the world a better place for them. I’m currently working on a documentary which I hope to have finished very soon that I hope will open some eyes and perhaps contribute to changing societies’ perceptions of their capabilities and contributions.

In the meantime, I have two children of my own with disabilities that I need to do all I can to assure that they will be cared for after I am not around for them anymore. Part of this is financial, and making How To videos gives me an opportunity to help them in that regard.

So, please consider that not everyone who makes How To videos is simply in it to make money just to increase their wealth and enjoy the high-life. Some of us are in it by necessity.

My jaw literally dropped as I read the original post, where Jay-Jay stated, “To me, a revolt is when a statistically significant group of people cause a disruption. These guys are significant to me personally, but this wasn’t a revolt. I hope that the next time a small group of users voice their concerns, it’s not represented as a ‘mass movement’ or a ‘revolt.”

Get this guy 10cc’s of Reality, stat… I’m seriously wondering if Jay or Kevin even have a business degree, and if they do, what their grades were in the classes they took. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m NOT bashing them personally, I’m sure they’re great guys, and they’re certainly brilliant in some aspects…but… we’re not talking about a “small group of ORDINARY USERS” here.

If you ran a Fortune 500 company, and your top high-level execs threatened to quit over a sudden, dramatic change in policy, would you call THAT a revolt? If those executives were the ones that undoubtedly kept the quality of your product to high standards that resulted in rapid growth of your company, would that add any weight to it? How about if those executives worked for FREE? Would you call that a wise business decision?

I think it’s only fair to label the top diggers AS executives. They’re just as much responsible for Digg’s success as anyone that’s actually on the payroll. It doesn’t matter if someone else MIGHT have filled the role if they’d been absent in the first place… that doesn’t change the fact that the top diggers are in the position they’re in, and it’s damned ignorant to basically tell them, “You’re unimportant.”

First of all, the so-called  “Digg revolt” that took place last night? It wasn’t really a revolt, he says.

Excuse me? Then why did you bother to show up at their meeting and talk them down from the boycott? While there’s undoubtedly a vocal crowd who could care less whether the top diggers boycott the site, and some who would be happy to have them leave, you can’t deny the fact that people have a tendancy to root for the underdog, especially when it’s  case of the people versus the corporation. I predict the end effect of such a boycott would result in a mass joining of followers who would be more than happy to “join the cause”. 

I suggest that the Digg brass take a look at the top stories in All every once in a while for a reminder of this. Yesterday, 4 of the top 10 stories (the Top 4 Stories, I should mention) were about the war against Scientology, whose spokes-people are big name stars in Hollywood who are brash enough to think they have all the answers, and everyone else doesn’t. Does anyone see the obvious allegory here?

Do they even realize that people would undoubtedly take it beyond a simple boycott, as Anonymous has done in taking an effort of simply EXPOSING Scientology and turned it into a WAR against Scientology? There’s already a Bury Brigade… we basically know that. What’s to stop 3 or 4 people from burying every new submission as it’s posted, and basically put a bottleneck on ANY new stories, period? If that realistically happened, do you think it would only be 3 or 4 people? The saddest aspect of this is that the very CEO that dismisses or puts a spin on bad publicity by downplaying it is the same guy that set up the possibility of something like this happening by his own algorithm.

The bottom line is this: The number and spacing of stories that go popular has sharply declined, as have the number of shouts, which translates into an overall pervasive gloom among the Digg population. Why? Because unfortunately what affects the top diggers affects us all.

Here’s the thing… I understand that Digg is seeking to broaden it’s base if it wants to have any chance of being acquired. I see that it HAS to do this to get the type of ads, and the type of people that will click on them, that it needs to generate high income. Digg is purposefully trying to “dumb down” its base, because the majority of Digg users are generally smart people who don’t even pay attention to the ads, let alone click on them, and advertisers know this. But then Digg will cease to be what it was and basically become just another link trade site.

Jay, please buy a clue and stop it before it’s too late…

Anonymous Ass - Funny home videos are a click away

Digg has pretty much taken a crap in a cup, and asked everyone, including even the top diggers, to partake in the offering. It now takes (barring a miracle, or a massive, collective pre-planned quick-strike diggfest), around 200 diggs to go popular, which leaves many (including me) to wonder… is Digg TRYING to drive away users, and if so, why?

It seems like it should be the opposite, that it should be EASIER to get things popular, so that the majority of Diggers can then either bury it or digg it up if they like it. Your submission is seen by very few people before it goes popular… usually just by the people in your network. Does it really make sense to make things significantly harder? What is the real purpose of a social networking site?

Let’s consider the situation. Anyone who knows and uses Digg has experienced long load times and incomplete profile loads. We came to accept that as the norm instead of realizing that the cause was primarily due to server overload and/or heavy traffic.

We’ve also known that Digg has been up for sale, which suggests that Mr. Digg wants to get out when the getting is good, with a minimum of expenditure or effort. And guess what? No one seems to be very interested in picking up that real estate… at least for the time being.

We’ve ALL had to put up with the Bury Brigade, whether they actually exist or not. We’ve gotten an interesting inside look at the bury process thanks to the Bury Recorder at http://ajaxonomy.com/buryrecorder , and it DOES appear that certain articles either a) aren’t liked by a LOT of people when they go pop, or b) there is a Bury Brigade. It is pretty interesting to see your submission do very well, and then get 20 buries in a row, with reasons for bury including the full spectrum, from duplicate story to spam to inaccurate, which is fascinating when your submission was a video you’ve just made that doesn’t fall into any of those categories, or an original piece of writing that you’ve dutifully researched and fully cited.

Digg’s rating is falling. While Alexa may not be the most accurate way to track your average website’s traffic and rating, it’s fairly reliable for getting a good idea of how well the big sites are doing, and Digg is dropping. Whether this is by design or an unwillingness to sink any more capital into the website is a subject of debate and speculation. Why doesn’t really matter… the fact that it IS falling is more important, or at least, it should be as far as diggers are concerned.

Spammers and Trolls. We’ve ALL seen these rapidly multiply, and Digg HAS, whether they like it or not, become a major tool for driving traffic. Trolls are an interesting anomaly… you know, those people who’ve seldom dugg, seldom submitted, yet have hundreds if not thousands of comments, usually negative. Here’s a CLASSIC example.

However you want to spin it, Digg seems to be in the midst of something very strange. Whether they’re trying to cut down on spammers, resent the fact that people use it as a traffic tool, or for whatever reason, they’ve just taken a collective dump on a huge percentage of their users.

Now, to me, traffic is like publicity. There is no such thing as good or bad traffic. Digg had the amazing ability to be many things to many people, but no more it seems. Why Digg would want to purposefully kill their own traffic is a mystery. That they’ve effectively done it is undeniable.

Can you feel the disturbance in the force, as if thousands of voices have suddenly started screaming? I can, if my own reaction to the massive change is any indication of what’s to come, look for a huge exodus away from Digg, and a further plunge in site rank.

Good luck selling Digg, and goodbye to all my Digg friends. It’s been fun, but I’m burying Digg for good.

Two Diggs, One Cup… sorry, I can’t bring myself to watch the ending.

Going to a Digg page anymore feels a bit like playing Russian Roulette… will I be subjected to just one, or will I get the double dose with the vertical AND horizontal ads running simultaneously? I find myself digging as fast as possible, just so I can get off the damn page…

The end result of thses ads for me is that I vow to NEVER use Network Solutions for anything. Yeah, I really want to go with a company that annoys me endlessly when I’m trying to have a little fun while surfing my favorite sites.

Please, NS, buy a clue and go with a better ad agency, k?

Psycho-delic Milk - The most popular videos are here