It is well known that some sites do better than others on Digg. Whether it is because of their current base of readers helping to propel their stories to the front page or simply because the submitters who hit the sites are generally strong, some sites will hit the front page often. Some of them hit almost every time.
Here are some of these sites that get plenty of “Digg love” but that are also hated by many.
Cracked
They are considered as one of the funniest, raunchiest humor sites on the web. With a winning format of 1 story and 1 video refreshing daily, submissions by strong Diggers are as close as it comes to a “sure thing” for hitting the front page.
Why We Love Cracked
Frankly, they stories and videos are pretty darn funny. They are also a relatively easy submit – anyone who knows the basic times that the stories refresh has a great opportunity to land a “front page winner” because the stories and videos are posted at low-traffic times.
Why We Hate Cracked
It hits the front page. A lot. Many of the stories and headlines are definitely geared towards adults, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they often tend to be politically incorrect at times. While most Diggers are okay with this, some take great offense to the constant use of words like “retarded”.
The format is predictable and sometimes, the stories, while always fresh, seem to have similar themes to previous ones. Thus is the way of comedy. Fresh material is hard to find, but Cracked seems to do it as well as anyone.
APOD
NASA seems to have an inside track when it comes to stunning images of space and astronomical phenomena. This could be because, well, they’re NASA. Every night, they post a new image that is their Astronomy Photograph of the Day.
Why We Love APOD
The images that are posted here are unique and often absolutely amazing. They stir our imagination and offer us a glimpse into things that you just don’t see every day. Because of the source, we can trust that they are not Photoshopped or enhanced in any unnatural ways. They are images of space, the best available.
Why We Hate APOD
Since they post at the same time, 9:00 pm PST, there is a rush of submitters camping on the site, constantly refreshing the page, waiting, hoping that they are the lucky ones to get the first submission. Some even wait to be the last submission, as the Digg button on the page refers to the last submission instead of the first.
The result: 2, 3, 4 or more duplicate submissions.
Another thing is that sometimes, the images just aren’t that fantastic. While most are exceptional in quality, you get the feeling every now and then that the image that is put up some days is just an afterthought – “Oh crap, we have APOD in a few minutes. Quick, find a picture and throw it up!”
xkcd
Comics have their place on Digg, and xkcd has the market cornered. With 3 posts per week, you would think that submissions from the site are few and far between. It’s just not the case…
Why We Love xkcd
The comic is a form of art that was hurt by the rise of the Internet (fewer newspaper readers) and video games (fewer child and teens interested). The site brings back a simpler form of entertainment – one whose goal is to say a lot with lines and wit. There is no shortage of comic websites out there, but xkcd is the one that has grabbed the most attention for the social media demographic.
Why We Hate xkcd
If APOD brings duplicate submission raining in, xkcd is a hurricane every time they post. It isn’t uncommon for the site to get 5 or more submissions for each post. Occasionally, a single post can hit the front page of Digg more than once (examples: 1, 2). The comics are often rather dry, which leads us to believe that sometimes it gets Diggs from people simply because of the source. It’s like a joke that you don’t get – you laugh if everyone else is laughing because you don’t want anyone to know that you didn’t get it. Apply that thought to Digg and xkcd and we could imagine a comic that was rather complex but didn’t have a real meaning still hitting the front page.
Huffington Post
Dubbed by many as the most influential blog in the world, this left-wing publication draws traffic from across the globe and spearheads the rallying calls for Democrats to defeat Republicans regardless of the issues. At HuffPo, liberal is always good, conservative is always evil.
Why We Love Huffington Post
With the users of Digg and other social media sites primarily liberal and/or Democrats, it’s a gem of a website for Web 2.0. The feature writing is often crisp and their stories are often “first blog on the scene” that can compete with traditional news sources.
Why We Hate Huffington Post
The site is notorious for “linkjacking” where they find a story from another source, write a paragraph describing the story, quote it, then get the traffic from Digg or other social media sites instead of the original source. They are able to parlay their status in the blogosphere and their tremendous natural traffic through prominent social media buttons. It gives submissions from this site an advantage over more authoritative sites when competing on the social media battleground.
Other Sites We Love and Hate for Digg
Arstechnica – With some of the best tech-oriented writing on the web, Ars is a classic source and has been for a while. The problem is that they are often accused of repurposing existing stories without giving attribution, plus they are able to get some stories on the front page that just don’t really belong there.
TorrentFreak – Nothing wrong with the site itself. The stories are top-notch for their niche, interesting, and well written. The problem some Diggers have with it is that it seems to be a closed marketplace. Only a handful of submitters are able to “happen upon” the stories and get them submitted. The result – almost every original post on Torrent Freak hits the front page of Digg.
DailyMail – The plus side – breaking stories that you often can’t find anywhere else with well thought-out headlines and a controversial style of storytelling. The bad – some consider the source spammy and unreliable. Either way, it hits the front page. A lot.
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Read more about Digg on this social media blog.
This post was written by...
JD Rucker – who has written 512 posts on Soshable | Social Media Blog. JD Rucker is a social media enthusiast who resides in Orange County, California. He works simultaneously for 2 companies - TK Carsites (an Automotive Internet Marketing Firm) and Hasai (a Social Media Strategy Firm). He writes for several publications including BusinessInsider, Fast Company, Techi, Top Cultured, and ICanHasInternets. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
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I still have not found a good fit for Digg within my online business matrix for some reason. I need to revisit Digg soon. Maybe because I do not see myself as a journalist or writer.
This is a lot better than what I’ve been seeing elsewhere lately. If we had more like it around, I think we’d be better off.
This is a lot better than what I’ve been seeing elsewhere lately. If we had more like it around, I think we’d be better off.
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