Digg.com: Welcome to the Republic

Recently my digg account, bluephoenix has been disabled by the digg admin. Being that I'm not a spammer or a digg gamer and the fact that I've been a user since August of 2005... I was wondering what could possibly have caused this to happen.

Now, the safe explanation that I imagine I'll receive from the digg staff (which I've yet to receive) will be something along the lines of "You've violated the website's terms of use". My opinion is that digg banned me for submitting a link to a direct competitor....a first offense for my account and far from a malicious action on my part. This all started when I noticed a post on Techcrunch about Wikio.com.

Arrington claims "Europes Digg Killer Raises 4 million" in this article and naturally I was interested in anything claiming to be a digg killer. I use digg and other rss enabled tech sites to keep me on top of the tech world for my job, being that I'm in the website/database/multimedia field and the site has always provided me with relevant links and articles to good content that I can use daily. So upon reading techcrunch's iclaim, I decided to give wikio.com a look.

First impressions of the site were so-so, the UI wasn't laid out as nice as the digg interface...although I did immediately notice the load times for the content and for the interactive features was much better then the javascript bogged down digg homepage. Regardless, what caught my attention was the technology section of wikio. The tech homepage upon first glance immediately had 4 or 5 stories that I hadn't seen that day...which is amazing considering the amount of RSS feeds I currently monitor in my reader. Typically when I visit the digg homepage, it is full of stories that I've already read about via slashdot, metafilter, boing boing, etc....but wikio.com was different. The content was recent, relevant and free from biased flame wars supporting one company over another. (it is well known that digg leans toward apple, from Kevin Roses's secret contacts there to the fact that there is no "windows" category under technology, only linux and apple)

The subject matter was the next thing that caught my eye. Gone were the numerous stories praising Steve Jobs and arguing why Windows users absolutely must switch to Ubuntu....instead I saw relevant tech stories with almost no commentary from 15 year old world of warcraft junkies.....it was refreshing to say the least. Granted, wikio is in beta and clearly does not have the user base that digg has, but here's hoping that they learn from the mistakes of those that came before them.

So I bookmarked wikio's homepage and submitted the story to digg with the title "Attention all digg users who are tired of what digg has become"
The story went nowhere with only about 2 or 3 diggs and a few comments....most written by myself explaining that while I am promoting another site ...I still will use digg for what it is. This is typical fare these days on the site, most stories won't go to the homepage anymore unless you have amassed a hoard of friends on the site that will blindly digg your content. Whether this is unavoidable due to the immense number of stories submitted each day or not, I simply wanted to show other frustrated digg users that there is another valid tech option.
In the past I had tried netscape.com, reddit.com and a few others....but the tech sections left much to be desired. I could've gone back to slashdot for the community, but the interface for comments is just too messy....that's why wikio appealed to me.....simple layout, great content....no drama.

1 hour after submitting the story linking to wikio.com...digg had banned my account...no explanation, no warning.....I tell this story because I think it speaks volumes about what is happening to the digg community and the site itself. It is my belief that the site it getting too big for it's own good.....while it is understandable to protect your credibility by blocking users that use the site to further their own needs, it is unacceptable to alienate your core user base that has been there since the beginning.

Digg claims to be a "democratic" website, where the user controls the content. In my opinion, digg is more of a republican society now, as opposed to the democratic system they claim to be....and we all know how well that policy works with the general public.

Here's my e-mail to them:
I was wondering why you disabled my account.(http://www.digg.com/users/bluephoenix/)...I can only attribute this to my recent posts regarding wikio.com. It is my understanding that in your terms of use you state it is wrong to:
"submit stories or comments linking to affiliate programs, multi-level marketing schemes, sites/blogs repurposing existing stories (source hops), or off-topic content;"
I'm at a loss as to why my recent submissions and comments would cause someone to disable the account....what harm do my actions cause to your website?
I would like you to fully explain your reasoning for disabling the account, as while my statements in the aforementioned stories clearly imply that I'm tired of the existing digg website, it does not imply that I wish to stop using it entirely. I've been a member of the site since august of 05 I believe and I've never broken any of your "democratic" terms of use. Whether or not you reinstate the account is irrelevent, I simply would like to know the reasons behind it.....thanks in advance.

UPDATE:
The digg staff has responded:
Your account was banned for using a re-direct to a banned website, cybernetnews.com. We will unban your account if you agree to not circumvent our banned URLs. We understand you may not have realized that it was banned, which is why we are willing to unban it. Just let us know the circumstances and we'll work with you.

To which I responded:

The redirect was a right click "save target as" from a link on wikio.com. I don't think anyone knows which site have been banned....have you released a list of "black listed" websites? I saw nothing in your terms of use. Your decision to unban my account is strictly up to you, I'm pretty disenchanted these days anyways with the site (not that you personally care) but I'd like to continue to interact with the community as opposed to just using the rss feed. I just wanted to know why my account had been banned after being a member for so long. You can look at my digging history yourself if you question my intentions on the site. Cheers.

It looks as if my digging days are done...

Digg democracy still not perfect?

While perusing the upcoming stories page I couldn't help but notice that the top 10 stories were submitted by the same digg user.


While gaming digg is now old news, with the recent updates to the site I thought they they would have corrected this problem. The first 4 stories listed in the most popular upcoming queue were all submitted by Mr. Baby Man , who seems innocent enough, without any clear ties to marketing firms or suspicious activity on digg in general....however when you examine the aforementioned 4 stories and view the people who dugg this story initially, it becomes apparent that something is clearly still flawed with digg.







Look at the image on the right (click for larger) Highlighted names are members who dugg these 4 stories (I included a 5th story from the same timeframe) around the same time (seeing as these stories were all submitted around the same time) . While the exact order is not the same, there is a clear link between most of these members and the member who submitted the stories. To be fair, most of these submitted stories are pointing to established websites, and not to a personal blog, however, it still shows that the digg site is capable of being gamed, for better or worse.


At the time of this writing, only one of these stories in the upcoming queue (under "most popular") have gone to the front page, but if all of them do indeed make it, I think it's time for the digg crew to look at their promotion algorithm once again.
Understandably, as the site grows in popularity, I suppose this type of behavior becomes more and more difficult to control without the use of moderators, but if digg is still going to stick to its guns as a total democracy then these issues must be addressed.....if only to satisfy the core user base that has been there since the beginning.

UPDATE:
Further down the queue I found this as well. Four more stories in a row by Mr Baby Man, I didn't have time to check the people who dugg but I'd be willing to bet it was most of the same members form above.

The Future of RSS in Windows

I recently downloaded and tested the 2007 beta version of Microsoft Office , and I have to say I do like the new look and features that it offers. However, there is one feature in particular that really stands out for me, and that's the RSS functionality of Outlook.
While other mail apps such as Thunderbird have had RSS features built in for quite some time now, the new Outlook 2007 will revolutionize the industry and make RSS as mainstream as e-mail is today. Here's the reason why: (This text is directly from the main interface of Outlook)
How does RSS work in Outlook 2007?
RSS readers, such as the one built into Microsoft Outlook 2007, allow you to find feeds and subscribe to them. Whenever you see (rss icon), or a similar icon, click that icon. Outlook 2007 will automatically subscribe you to that feed. Others require you to copy and paste the address of the feed in order to subscribe. Using Outlook 2007 to subscribe to an RSS feed takes only a couple of clicks and does not involve a registration process or fee. After you subscribe to an RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. When you see a headline that interests you, just click it to view a portion of the article and a link to the complete article. For more information, read the complete instructions
The implications here are enormous. Finally the average pc user will be able to click on rss icons from their browser and windows will detect it, and automatically subscribe them to the feed within Outlook. The main issue with RSS adoption today is that for the most part, only tech savvy people are using it. While it doesn't require much effort to copy and paste the XML link into your favorite Reader software, the average internet user doesn't have the attention span nor the software / web based account to take advantage of RSS at this point. This will all change if it's already built into their operating system and default e-mail application. Due to the huge market share that Windows has on the average consumer, I think it's safe to say that RSS will finally become a common practice, and the implications on business and communication in general will be huge. The only concern I have is that Windows Vista may have a slow adoption rate due to it's high system requirements, but that will eventually be overcome in time. I've included some screen shots below of the general interface and functionality. Click for larger images.

The default RSS page








An example of browsing a feed











An example of adding a feed

Interesting Conversation with Rob Malda

Ok this is not a post about any web tips or advice, it's about an interesting conversation I had with Rob Malda at the Linuxworld Conference in Boston. In case you don't know, Malda is the founder of the tech news site slashdot.org . The conference itself was rather boring, despite the early excitement when a server caught on fire at the unisys display, (That's a good way to show your server's capabilities) so after walking in circles for an hour I decided to check out the slashdot lounge. It consisted of zonk, Malda and some other slashdot writers sitting on couches and playing risk or updating the slashdot site while people from the conference watched. It was almost interesting for awhile except not too much was going on, and there were no booth babes to speak of (go figure) so I decided to move on, but not before approaching Malda and asking him if he used digg.com. At first he kind of looked at me like"You've gotta be kidding me" but he went on to say that he occassionally checks it out but he prefers sites that are more controlled (edited) then digg. He also went on to say that both digg and slashdot aren't really original sites as they just report on news from other sources. He said "Everyone seems to think that we have some kind of rivalry with digg, when the truth is ..we don't give a shit. I prefer our site because of the content control, which prevents stories like "Here's a picture of my armpit!" from reaching the main page. I also don't have time to read 30 or 40 stories a day, so I think they have too much content right now. It's too wide open." Frankly I couldn't agree with Malda more, digg used to be such a great resource for all that is tech and it's main page seemed to be consistently full of interesting and useful stories. These days it does seem to be clogged with random "armpit" stories that somehow make it to the main page. It only appears it will get worse too as they plan on opening up more categories for story submission, most of which have no relevance to technology, but are more akin to stories that you'd see on shoutcast or newsvine. I hope that doesn't happen too soon.

Web Accessibility

With the up and coming release of Internet Explorer 7 (currently in beta 2) , it may be time to review your website and to consider moving all your code to strict (or at least transitional)XHTML and CSS layouts. Besides being immensely easier to edit and display, CSS and XHTML also allow your site to conform to web accessibility standards, such as the W3C WAI-AAA and Seciton 508 validations.
Recently, Target Stores had a lawsuit filed against them because their website wasn't accessible enough for blind and visually impaired viewers. So while I'm sure most of us out there don't have the same traffic or e-commerce demands that the target website does, it's still a good idea to start moving your site over now anyways, as you'll open up to a whole new demographic. While I can't get too in depth here on this topic, I can give you a head start on what to consider for your website to move forward into a more accessible design and layout. Here are some key features to consider

XHTML 1.0

The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML™) is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML, reformulated in XML. XHTML Family document types are all XML-based, and ultimately are designed to work in conjunction with XML-based user agents. XHTML is the successor of HTML, and a series of specifications has been developed for XHTML.

CSS

Style sheets describe how documents are presented on screens, in print, or perhaps how they are pronounced. By attaching style sheets to structured documents on the Web (e.g. HTML), authors and readers can influence the presentation of documents without sacrificing device-independence or adding new HTML tags. CSS can be validated through the W3C's free online service.

Access keys

Most browsers support jumping to specific links by typing keys defined on the web site. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key. Access keys can be scripted within the XHTML.

Relative font sizes

Relative font sizes (em as opposed to pixels) allow the web user to adjust the font size of the page through their browser, which is handy for low vision users.

Embedded Skip navigation link

By adding a link which allows the user to skip over the navigation bar on each page, it allows them to quickly get to your content, without having to listen to their screen reader list each link over and over again. This can be implemented using CSS to hide the link and XHTML anchors for placement.

Page language declaration

Screen reader software (JAWS) needs to know what language your pages are written in, so it can pronounce your words properly when it reads them aloud. If you don't identify your language, JAWS will try to guess what language you're using, and it can guess incorrectly, especially if you quote source code or include other non−language content in your pages.

Meaningful page titles

JAWS has a special keyboard shortcut (INSERT + F10) which displays (and reads) a list of the currently open windows, by window title. In the case of web pages, this would be your page title. It also reads the window title while ALT−TABbing through open windows. Other screen readers, like Home Page Reader, read the page title out load as soon as you visit the page.

Lynx displays the page title in the first line of output, so it's always the first thing that the user reads in Braille. Google displays the page title in its search results, and it ranks keywords higher when they appear in the page title.

Semantic Mark-up

All pages should use structured semantic markup. H2 tags are used for main titles, H3 tags for subtitles. For example JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+3.

Titled links

JAWS has an option to read the title of a link along with the link text. When the cursor moves over the link in a browser, it displays the title of the link as a tooltip. When you press "l", Lynx displays a list of links on the current page. The list includes the title of each link, if present.

Descriptive ALT tags for images

JAWS reads the alt text. Without valid alt text, the user hears the filename instead, which is confusing.

Lynx, as a text−only browser, doesn't display any images, only alt text. Without alt text, Lynx displays the filename, which looks as bad as JAWS sounds. When browsing with images turned off, the ALT text displays instead of the image. Internet Explorer displays the alt text as a tooltip Google also benefits. The Googlebot indexes alt text, which is used not only in matching keywords in normal searches, but also in image searches.

Complex images include LONGDESC attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non−visual readers.

Standards compliance

All pages should be Bobby AAA approved, complying with all the Bobby guidelines.

1. All pages should also be WCAG AAA approved, complying with all priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Again, this is a judgement call; many guidelines are intentionally vague and can not be tested automatically.You should review all the guidelines to make sure these pages are in compliance.

2. All pages should be Section 508 approved, complying with all of the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines. Again, a judgement call. Don't claim the little 508 web badge unless you have validated your site yourself using the guidelines.

3. All pages should validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. This can be tested using the W3C free online validator.

Accessibility references

W3 accessibility guidelines, which explains the reasons behind each guideline. W3 accessibility techniques, which explains how to implement each guideline. W3 accessibility checklist, a busy developer's guide to accessibility

U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Most of this information was adapted from "Dive into Accessibility", a free manual which covers this topic in great detail. I believe that section 508 also offers free online training through section 508.gov I have done extensive research on this topic, feel free to e-mail me with questions not covered in this blog email-me

Adding RSS functionality to PHPBB

Here's a little MOD for users of PHPBB. Make sure you have an RSS webbadge named rss_icon.gif and make sure you install RSS Content Syndicator Mod V2.02 by nschindler In case you have no idea what I'm talking baout so far, phpBB is an open source bulletin board system developed with PHP and MySQL. http://www.phpbb.com I haven't actually submitted this MOD to their site yet due to time restraints. Enjoy

1. Install the RSS Content Syndicator Mod V2.02 (http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?mode=download&id=816665)

2. Open /templates/index_body.tpl

3. Find “

4. Insert the following AFTER:

5. Save and close

6. Open /templates/viewforum_body.tpl

7. Find {FORUM_NAME}

8. Insert the following AFTER:

9. Save and close

10. Open viewforum.php

11. Find 'U_VIEW_FORUM' => append_sid("viewforum.$phpEx?" . POST_FORUM_URL ."=$forum_id"),

12. Insert the following AFTER:

'U_VIEW_RSS' => append_sid("rss.$phpEx?" . POST_FORUM_URL ."=$forum_id"),

13. Save and close

14. Open rss.php

15. Find $l_topic_replies = $lang['Topic'] . ' ' . $lang['Replies'];

16. Insert the following after:

if ($forum_id > 0) {

$specialforum_query = 'select forum_name from phpbb_forums where forum_id = ' . $forum_id .';';

$forums_query = mysql_query($specialforum_query) or die("Error: ".mysql_error()) ;

while ($result = mysql_fetch_array($forums_query)) {

$this_forum_name = $result["forum_name"];

}

}

NOTE FOR ABOVE: change phpbb_forums to the name of your forums table

17. Find the following 'BOARD_TITLE' => $site_name

18. Change it to 'BOARD_TITLE' => $site_name . ':' . $this_forum_name,

19. Save and close

20. Each forum will now display an RSS button linking to a feed as well as a main page feed displaying all new entries

Where to draw the line with online forms

Honestly, never ever let user preferences interfere with online form functionality. If you are using sessions on a web app, do not let the client have any personal preferences that would compromise the integrity of the system. I just recently ran into this, and it is causing more headaches then you can imagine. Our problem is that we built in a ridiculously complicated error checking system that allows the client to check individual field values against preprogrammed ranges. When the system detects an out of range value, it allows the user to 1) either fix the problem, or 2) override the value and log this override in a seperate table. Things were going fine until they started multiple overrides on a given form, sometimes overriding data and then continuing data entry while in the "error" state (in other words data was still hanging around in $_POST limbo)....needless to say things got complicated and the error handling function and table ballooned out to ridiculous levels. The lesson learned? Never let the client get picky with onine session based forms, if possible ..be as restrictive as possible and enforce 1 time data entry, don't allow them to half fill out a form and then return, because it's just bad practice. Incorporate a FAQ that states all of the things they shouldn't be doing, like navigating with browser buttons (which drives me ballistic) or submitting a field with a blank space (ie hitting the spacebar). As long as you state these things from the get go, you're not accountable for their user entry mistakes.