There has been an investigation of the somewhat recent discovery of mass burying of submissions to posts on the popular social site, Digg.com.
In addition to the Diggs/Buries, all right wing comments were dugg up on command, the left wing comments were dugg down, also on command.
On Digg.com if you use the digg feature, it helps the submtted post gain popularity. StumbleUpon has a thumbs up feature and Reddit upvotes their submitted links. However, if the bury feature on Digg is used too many times on a submitted post in the first couple of hours, the post is taken off of digg’s list, which keeps it from being read unless someone knows in advance that it’s there, as in from reading the post by following a particular website.
This is censorship. You can tag this as gaming a social site, but it’s more than that. An election is around the corner and the supposed grassroots of the Tea Party and fringe element of the Republican party are playing dirty. The political influence of these social sites and websites is not to be dismissed.
This began as political retaliation from those that were scoffing down sour grapes after the last election. What started as a few buried posts exponentially increased into mass bury calls of other articles submitted, even nonpolitical ones. They advocate the oil spill and BP. They’ve made distasteful comments on digg in attempt to incite flame wars to get others banned.
This group is called, “Digg Patriots.” This story broke this morning on Alternet, by Ole Ole Olson:
One bury brigade in particular is a conservative group that has become so organized and influential that they are able to bury over 90% of the articles by certain users and websites submitted within 1-3 hours, regardless of subject material. Literally thousands of stories have already been artificially removed from Digg due to this group. When a story is buried, it is removed from the upcoming section (where it is usually at for ~24 hours) and cannot reach the front page, so by doing this, this one group is removing the ability of the community as a whole to judge the merits or interest of these stories on their own (in essence: censoring content). This group is known as the Digg “Patriots”.
Digg Patriots is no longer active as of this morning. They deactivated their website within seconds of this story breaking. Patriotism, or arrogance?
Bettverboten, the ringleader:
“I will always bury them. Do we let them manipulate into gaining their positions back on digg with lots of FP soft/fluff stories then they sub a super liberal piece of crap and that goes FP too. We have to think this through….. what power we want them to have?”
Bettverboten is still submitting posts to digg at this moment. Quirkopatra, another Patriot’s submission just hit the Front Page of Digg.
Undoubtedly, many in the Digg community are curious to know if they were/are a target.
There are countless names to add, however sifting through the bury calls is an endless task. This list will be updated as the buries number in the thousands. In the digg comment threads, I noted some of you wanted this information. Here is as much as I have as of this moment. There are more screenshots and bury calls to go through. They just kept pouring in.
Digg Patriot’s Hit List:
Adeelarshad82
aisha01
Alapoet
alecb
Aliqayyum
AlucardtheGreat
Albinic
AlphaAnt1
Anomaly100
Arbilnc
Awop
BadWithComputer
bepeace
bixby1
Blinker1315
BlueDjinn
bfrumin
bjornski
Cajijumi
Capj71
CosmicSurfer
cranelake
Crewislife
Danholt7
Daxxer
DonnyMartin
BlackQueen40
blindbirds
BROTHER1
Bukowsky
d2002
dagnabit
EasyPeasy08
EnviroChem
frankster
FreedomJoe
GeorgeClymer
GonzoMuckraker
Greenfyre
HeDiggMe
HeadofMetal
Homercules
irfanmp
Ironhide
Jaime2000
JamesLowell
Janine Wallace
Jaybol
JerryJamesStone –
JoeParanoid
jrod4040
1KrazyKorean
KendrickMeek
Kmf247
kplo
Kristika87
LafeyetteAve
Lederhosed
LiamFox
Lomstradamus
Michael9636
mklopez
tdfm
Thomas Mifflin
Marji80
Matt43
Merelywatching
Metrodigg
MercyPolitics
MiddleAmericaMS
migtex1234
Mizzy
mjrosenberg
MSaleem
mschase
mustajab121
Mysticdave
Mommadona
NAVDOC3rdMAR
nahsrocketeer75
MrBabyMan
NeocomBlues
neognostic
NoGoldSurge
Noupsell
Novenator
Mwtapp
N4rky
Oboy
penolan
pghtfan
PhiRi17
PhilPerspective
rearlgrant
Redcolumbine
redmannine
Rmuse
rmtammi
RotatingBlade
Roadwar91
Sarah Jones
SarahLee
Smurfz
SoldierUncertain
Solinvictus
Soughtout
Sparkyz88
SpinningHead
StarvingForMore
StoneCircle
tcbishop12
tdfm
ThomasMifflin
Uncajoe
USArugula
VegetableLamb
Vermifax
VTbarera
whiteblackninja
Winkleman
Woodsjransom
workfaster
Yoael
Xandule1776
ZetaDog
Zonlyone
As previously mentioned, this will be updated. There are countless more calls to go through. While writing this some time ago, hundreds more were called in to bury.
They did not stop at digg users to ban, stifle, bury and intimidate. They also tried to keep these websites from reaching the front page of digg:
Bob Cesca’s REALLY AWESOME Blog
JeremiahLaments: “Bury all of ‘em..”
Bettverboten: ” “I agree, no matter what the content..”
JeremiahLaments: ““If anomaly, Novenator or any of the usual suspects subbed a story claiming “sky blue/water wet,” I’d BURY IT without question. “
Bettverboten: “What power we want them to have?”
(my emphasis)
More targeted websites:
The Digg Patriots:
alanocu
allisonrose870
asami21
atomheartmother
BalancingAct
Bettverboten (formerly banned as Lizbett, sleeper accounts loquaciouslola, MsBoop)
bossm4n (BP site admin)
CaptCarrot (goes by therjcarter on other websites)
cajungal
ChronicColonic (Wrote ‘Tools to Be Excellent at Burying’ guide)
clickfire
ClydePRM2
conservativepie
DCconservative
dgpj
emersonbiggins (formerly EdHurl, rjwusa, MightRighty, BurtToast, GangusGreen, esornivek)
EMFK (Social Blade Digger of the Year 2010, 65% popular ratio, DP site admin)
frofisrael (jenalp on Twitter)
Gandalff
gbudavid
heythere1857
howdoyouknow
jackalgunner (DP site admin, not active on Digg)
Janinco (DP site admin)
JasonQPublic (formerly scarlett0hara)
JeremiahLaments (formerly RightWingAttila, a DP site admin)
jjvors
johnny2k – Has a Christian website
KCLorelei39
Kraviwannabe
LandThatILove
le0pardess (1badk1tty)
libertyalways (formerly KurtHofmann, 45superman)
lilamae (Fillifan)
LoneStarLizard
LouisCipher777
maggiesnotebook
MattRoss1968
mikeinto
minarchian (duplicate accounts as Phreedom, CongressCritter, formerly Brewskie)
novaculus
PatriotRoom (billdupray)
pharoah247(formerly vrayz, DP site founder and owner)
pookydirt
pray4sneaux (formerly energizersnobabe, a profile active elsewhere)
punx
quirkopatra
raggsat98 (MassRon, DP site admin)
Ramfire98
Raycheetah (formerly Browncoat)
robertsdig
SadLisa (formerly mollydog12, GrantPeace, FoolsGoldParty, UrdhvaMukha)
schwartzloenard (formerly NewsGuy2005, NewsGuy2009, ClydePRM)
SethStuck (ConservativeBrawler elsewhere, runs DiggsAndBuries site)
spiegelscott
spindig
starcmc
Striker101
sultanknish
tasine
Temlakos
texasknight
ThePartyStar (formerly LibertyCheeks, MyCarteBlanche)
thoughtsonthis
Welshman007
whatbubbaknows
There was some obvious distress in the comment threads of digg earlier regarding some of the Digg Patriot members. Alanocu is was a friend no matter what his political persuasions are. With the hundreds of screenshots in my possession, I personally have not seen evidence of Alan ordering a bury call for anyone’s posts. If the evidence is out there, I have yet to see it.
**Update: At this point, 8 months later, I have no idea whether Alan participated or not, I can however state that he did share personal information with this group which he shouldn’t have.**
He is not a site administrator of Digg Patriots, such as: EMFK, raggsat98, Janico and Bossm4n. These people are the site administrators. They run the bury website. They obviously support the bury calls.
EMFK is a popular digger, no doubt one of the most popular Conservatives on Digg, but she is the site administrator. I can not and will not condone her actions in operating Digg Patriots until this is looked into further.
No matter our political differences in the social sites, we must understand each other without suffocating and infringing upon our right to be heard without intimidation.
The Conservatives in the previous mentioned list are part of the fringe element. They have had their boot on the throat of the Digg community for over a year now. Call it gaming Digg, but this is…
– the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society — has been a hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved through the examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and other forms of communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be objectionable or offensive. The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors targeting material deemed to be indecent or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or treasonous. Thus, ideas have been suppressed under the guise of protecting three basic social institutions: the family, the church, and the state.
