Besides hacking myspace deals with hackers using tools that were originally set up for bands and bars / nightclubs to build their friends / fans list. We actually use this one http://www.myfriendbuilder.com/ its really good, but they have to keep up with all the changes myspace does.

An ungentlemanly way of putting things at Digg is that by allowing algorithms to control things — at large (they do have moderators, but clearly they are inneffective) — they don’t have to hire enough people to watch things carefully enough … or think about how to arbitrate things.

Here’s another great example of something that flew underneath the radar. John Chow was recently banned from Digg — his blog has been up there a bajillion times. The problem is that getting banned is a largely automatic process — get enough submissions buried under a specific URL, some people say there’s a 10/10 rule (10 buries per post == a buried Digg; 10 buried Diggs == banned URL) for example, and you can get someone’s URL banned.

THe bury button exists so that Digg users can “police” themselves, but you can see that it can also be used for maliciously banning sites that might actually have merit. In order to be re-instated you’d have to email them — but according to a form email that John got, they just don’t reinstate banned URLs, because they would just get buried, then banned again.

Does it need to be as post-hoc as Slashdot — no. But, does every single fp entry need to be watched? It does. Its not that extreme — they just need to have someone watching the door. The frequency new stuff hits the FP isn’t that fast either … probably a new one every 5-10 minutes or so during peak times and much less at off peak times.

Staffing people to make sure that responsible things happen on a website? Its shocking, but maybe itshould be thought of a little more clearly. We’re all in love with Alogorithms, thanks to Google — but maybe Digg should hire someone to put a public face on things, like the equivalent of Matt Cutts, to show that they’re hiring enough people — and doing enough — to make sure shennanigans like that don’t happen.

t @ dji
(again, sorry for the long reply)