Digging For Gold: My Adventures on the Social Bookmarking Site

With my new job came to the duty of building a following on Digg. This included digging some submissions, making friends, and making comments. I have learned that Digg isn’t always the nice place to be for the new kid on the block.

I’ve learned that Digg is predominantly male users, and you can tell this by the posts that are submitted. A few users are more passionate than others. So much so, if you don’t agree with their opinion, they’ll make it hurt; they’ll continue to give you thumbs down.

The other day, I dugg a submission about NASA saving their program. I made a statement that I believed the US shouldn’t be spending THAT MUCH (and yes, I said it like that) money on space, seeing as how we’re not going to be living on the Moon or Mars anytime soon. People went off. No one was happy. I got about -18 diggs on that, and more as I replied, attempting to defend myself and apologize for those I offended. I even went as far as offering to digg recent submissions of those who were upset by my comments. One person was so deeply upset by what I said, they went through all of the comments that I’ve made since Tuesday, and gave a thumb down to them. Yes, even on the ones I had 20+ diggs on. My response: “It’s not that serious.”

I encountered more angry people as I made a remark on another submission. This one was regarding Lebron James winning NBA MVP. I stated that no player had won both, NBA MVP and Finals MVP in the same year. Did I know this for sure? No, and I was partially kidding. The line came from something my boyfriend has told me on several occasions. I figured since he’s obsessed with basketball more than I am that he knew what he was talking about. Wrong. People are wiking (yes, I’m making it into a verb) people who in fact have won both MVP honors. I figured Michael Jordan was one, so I wrote that off as him being a legend as opposed to a regular player or even mere mortal. Others went on to call me an idiot. I apologized again to prevent further backlash and negative digging. I even included in my biography on the website that no one should take my comments personally, seeing as how most of the time I’m joking.

I never knew people were so passionate about random things like space and the Cavaliers. Like I keep saying, it’s not that serious but obviously it is in Digg land. I won’t let this deter me from continuing, especially since this is my job and I’m getting paid for it. I’ll try to choose the stories I comment on more wisely. If I have any against the grain remarks, I suppose I’ll keep them to myself. Regardless of it being a “free country” and my first amendment right, people just fly off the handle for little things on the internet.

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April 30, 2010 | Categories: Field Experience, social media | Tags: Add new tag, digg, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, NASA, NBA Most Valuable Player Award, NBA MVP | Leave a comment