Ron Paul Suppressed on Digg?
I've done some blog posts mentioning Ron Paul (including a few in the last few days). One thing that seems to help bring readers to my blog is submitting the posts to Digg (digg.com). When I do a post on Ron Paul and post it on Digg, it generates a surge in traffic, though this is only relative to the small amount of traffic this blog gets.
One thing I've noticed is that my "Diggs" seem to vanish quickly. I looked into this and was wondering if perhaps something was operating to suppress Ron Paul stories (despite my ego I figure it's not just me). Well, I found something.
As background, I searched and found someone else's blog post where he suggests that there is a Ron Paul bury brigade on Digg. Before I found that post, I did my own research.
First I should explain a bit about Digg and what it means to be buried. Digg is a website where people submit stories they think are worthwhile, to recommend them to others. People who read stories can "Digg" them (by clicking on the Digg icon on the bottom of this post, for example). If a story get a lot of Diggs, it will appear on prominent pages on Digg's site, and this generates a lot of traffic to the website where the story is hosted.
Digg users can post comments on the Digg site about the various stories, and also can click "Bury" to bury a story they don't like. If a story gets buried by enough people, Digg demotes the story and it is hard to find, generating little or no traffic. By the way, people who write stories or host story websites generally like getting a lot of traffic because it means their stories get read by more people or they make more money on advertising for their site.
With Digg, you can search stories. The default on a search is to exclude buried stories, but there is a checkbox to include buried stories. So this led to my brief research project. The question essentially is this -- do Ron Paul stories get buried more often than stories about other candidates. The answer, with details below, is an overwhelming yes.
I did a series of searches on candidate names, with the buried stories box checked and unchecked to compare. The left column is the search I did. The middle column is the number of pages of stories (roughly 12 stories a page) on Digg shown when the buried stories box is unchecked (showing the number of stories that have not been buried) and the right column is the number of stories when the buried box is checked (buried plus unburied).
I also did this with terms that are widely considered to be spam-heavy, as that accusation has been leveled at Ron Paul supporters on Digg and elsewhere.
Pages of stories
Search Unburied Total
"Ron Paul" 141 558
"Rudy Giuliani" 90 130
"Mitt Romney" 76 88
"Hillary Clinton" 272 321
"Barack Obama" 163 189
"John McCain" 1053 1189
...
iPod 1654 1986
"Britney Spears" 325 388
"Paris Hilton" 599 693
porn 334 407
In other words, a total of 558 pages of stories were submitted (maybe 6000 stories) about Ron Paul. 141 pages of stories (maybe 1500) have not been buried. My rough estimate is that 3/4 (75%) of the Ron Paul stories have been buried.
For the other candidates there is a total of 1654 pages of stories unburied, out of a total of 1917 pages. Only 13% of stories about other candidates have been buried. The spam-heavy control topics had 16% of stories buried.
This is strong evidence of a Ron Paul bury brigade. And the best part is that you don't have to take my word for it. Go on Digg yourself (digg.com) and try it out.
Quick update: After I posted the story I found that this is not only a conspiracy, but an open one. Check out http://buryronpaul.blogspot.com/ and especially this strategic post:
http://buryronpaul.blogspot.com/2007/07/keep-burying-ron-paul-but-be-fair.html
It's also interesting to note that with all the accusations of Ron Paul supporters spamming Digg, the total number of stories (buried and unburied) is not that high. 558 for Ron Paul vs. 130 for Rudy or 321 for Hillary, and 1189 for John McCain. That simply reflects what all of us know, that heavy internet users are more supportive of Ron Paul, and choose to show that interest on the web on places like Digg.
The bury brigade's accusation that 30 pro-Ron Paul Diggers are causing all these problems rings hollow. 30 diggs is not enough to do anything and you can't digg something twice.
And one further update (later the same day) ... If there have been roughly 6000 Ron Paul stories submitted, but over 10,000 John McCain stories submitted, then how is Ron Paul spamming Digg. Seems like Ron Paul is still just a drop in the bucket. Let's face it, there have been more Paris Hilton stories than Ron Paul stories. Perhaps the Ron Paul bury brigade could start burying Paris Hilton and Britney Spears stories and that might make all of our lives better.
One thing I've noticed is that my "Diggs" seem to vanish quickly. I looked into this and was wondering if perhaps something was operating to suppress Ron Paul stories (despite my ego I figure it's not just me). Well, I found something.
As background, I searched and found someone else's blog post where he suggests that there is a Ron Paul bury brigade on Digg. Before I found that post, I did my own research.
First I should explain a bit about Digg and what it means to be buried. Digg is a website where people submit stories they think are worthwhile, to recommend them to others. People who read stories can "Digg" them (by clicking on the Digg icon on the bottom of this post, for example). If a story get a lot of Diggs, it will appear on prominent pages on Digg's site, and this generates a lot of traffic to the website where the story is hosted.
Digg users can post comments on the Digg site about the various stories, and also can click "Bury" to bury a story they don't like. If a story gets buried by enough people, Digg demotes the story and it is hard to find, generating little or no traffic. By the way, people who write stories or host story websites generally like getting a lot of traffic because it means their stories get read by more people or they make more money on advertising for their site.
With Digg, you can search stories. The default on a search is to exclude buried stories, but there is a checkbox to include buried stories. So this led to my brief research project. The question essentially is this -- do Ron Paul stories get buried more often than stories about other candidates. The answer, with details below, is an overwhelming yes.
I did a series of searches on candidate names, with the buried stories box checked and unchecked to compare. The left column is the search I did. The middle column is the number of pages of stories (roughly 12 stories a page) on Digg shown when the buried stories box is unchecked (showing the number of stories that have not been buried) and the right column is the number of stories when the buried box is checked (buried plus unburied).
I also did this with terms that are widely considered to be spam-heavy, as that accusation has been leveled at Ron Paul supporters on Digg and elsewhere.
Pages of stories
Search Unburied Total
"Ron Paul" 141 558
"Rudy Giuliani" 90 130
"Mitt Romney" 76 88
"Hillary Clinton" 272 321
"Barack Obama" 163 189
"John McCain" 1053 1189
...
iPod 1654 1986
"Britney Spears" 325 388
"Paris Hilton" 599 693
porn 334 407
In other words, a total of 558 pages of stories were submitted (maybe 6000 stories) about Ron Paul. 141 pages of stories (maybe 1500) have not been buried. My rough estimate is that 3/4 (75%) of the Ron Paul stories have been buried.
For the other candidates there is a total of 1654 pages of stories unburied, out of a total of 1917 pages. Only 13% of stories about other candidates have been buried. The spam-heavy control topics had 16% of stories buried.
This is strong evidence of a Ron Paul bury brigade. And the best part is that you don't have to take my word for it. Go on Digg yourself (digg.com) and try it out.
Quick update: After I posted the story I found that this is not only a conspiracy, but an open one. Check out http://buryronpaul.blogspot.com/ and especially this strategic post:
http://buryronpaul.blogspot.com/2007/07/keep-burying-ron-paul-but-be-fair.html
It's also interesting to note that with all the accusations of Ron Paul supporters spamming Digg, the total number of stories (buried and unburied) is not that high. 558 for Ron Paul vs. 130 for Rudy or 321 for Hillary, and 1189 for John McCain. That simply reflects what all of us know, that heavy internet users are more supportive of Ron Paul, and choose to show that interest on the web on places like Digg.
The bury brigade's accusation that 30 pro-Ron Paul Diggers are causing all these problems rings hollow. 30 diggs is not enough to do anything and you can't digg something twice.
And one further update (later the same day) ... If there have been roughly 6000 Ron Paul stories submitted, but over 10,000 John McCain stories submitted, then how is Ron Paul spamming Digg. Seems like Ron Paul is still just a drop in the bucket. Let's face it, there have been more Paris Hilton stories than Ron Paul stories. Perhaps the Ron Paul bury brigade could start burying Paris Hilton and Britney Spears stories and that might make all of our lives better.
posted by Albany Lawyer at 10:58 AM
4 comments
