Earlier I had written a post about Spike the Vote which promised to be a bullet proof way to game digg, but now there’s a small twist in the story, one of my friends forwarded me a copy of a e-mail sent to him by Spike the Vote which claimed that it can also game Delicious and Netscape too..
Spike the Vote is ready to launch! Please login and provide your Digg username so we can get started. If you are interested in gaming del.icio.us and Netscape, please provide those usernames as well so I can estimate the overall level of interest
I’ll call this as social spamming and it’s something which should make us all worry. I agree that Digg isn’t democratic anymore, but by gaming Digg, Netscape or Delicious, we are cheating ourselves.
As you may know, there has been an algorithm change at Digg. Now it takes about 60-100 Diggs to hit the front page depending on your category. Please note that you will only be able to spike a maximum of 50 votes for each story you submit. The spiking is meant to give your story a kick start; it’s not meant to spam Digg. If your story has any legs at all, it should have no problem making the front page after 50 spikes.
If providing 50 fake diggs isn’t spamming, then what’s spamming? I’m against this whole idea of gaming digg. What’s your stance ?
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wrote, on November 6th, 2006
I am not very sure about this ‘Spike the Vote’. Yes this is spamming, and like in real life, I like to be on the right side of the line.
I would not participate in such balant spamming activity.
wrote, on November 6th, 2006
Vyoma: Yeah, Anyone who participates is such a system is eligible to be called as a spammer
wrote, on November 6th, 2006
Agreed about it spamming Digg, however, I believe such sites are started with two purposes in mind.
1. Getting back at the Top Digg Users
2. Getting high level of traffic to their websites.
I’ve been fortunate to have my one post hit the front pages of Digg and Reddit, which is why I had to move servers!
The craze for getting the hits is amazing. But, one thing I realize is that very little of these are returning visitors. Kinda sucks not to have returning visits
wrote, on November 7th, 2006
Ajay: I would agree with you, most of them are just one time visitors. They hardly even subscribe to our feeds, but we do get high backlinks.
wrote, on November 7th, 2006
I’ve heard rumors that Spike the Vote is actually run by Digg so that they can weed out the gamers.
Who knows. No matter, I’m staying away from it.
wrote, on November 7th, 2006
@Chad: Maybe, but they why would they spam Del.icio.us and Netscape ?
wrote, on November 13th, 2006
It isn’t about gaming or spamming.
It’s about money.
Spike the vote is just another scam trying to sell 50 diggs for $50.00.