Updated 3/14/08: Nope…the problem’s back. Further research shows that this screen is a common 403 error screen on Drupal, an open source developer famous for creating Digg clones. Hmmm….

Updated 3/13/08: Looks like the problem’s been corrected.

Previously on FHK and on the 1389blog, we have discussed at length that companies that allow public internet access use filterware, which has, at times, exercised odd behavior in choosing which sites to block. At that time, we knew Panera Bread was using SonicWALL.

Today, I’m on the road, however, and stopped at Panera to catch up on my blogging I tried to Digg a story for a friend and got a screen I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t look like the old familiar SonicWALL censhorship page, and a check of SonicWALL shows that it has Digg.com rated as “News and Media [and] Information Technology/Computers“. Instead. Instead, the screen looked like this:

Has anyone else had that experience? Is it possible that Digg.com has actually become too politically-correct for public viewing?

Previously on FHK and on the 1389blog, we have discussed at length that companies that allow public internet access use filterware, which has, at times, exercised odd behavior in choosing which sites to block. At that time, we knew Panera Bread was using SonicWALL.

Today, I’m on the road, however, and stopped at Panera to catch up on my blogging I tried to Digg a story for a friend and got a screen I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t look like the old familiar SonicWALL censhorship page, and a check of SonicWALL shows that it has Digg.com rated as “News and Media [and] Information Technology/Computers“. Instead. Instead, the screen looked like this:

Has anyone else had that experience? Is it possible that Digg.com has actually become too politically-correct for public viewing?

	(For rolling updates, please scroll down)
	Visit These Web 2.0 Links!

These articles show you how to make Web 2.0 work for you!

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• • Buttons, Bows, and Badges for Your Blog
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    Be prepared to deal with haters!
• About StumbleUpon:
  • Newest on the Net: 65 Must Read StumbleUpon Articles
• About Twitter:
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  • Added 1/1/2008:
    Karthik: 12 WordPress Editors you can use

(Posted on 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech and Fort Hard Knox)

Technorati : Blogger.com, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Web 2.0, WordPress, blog censorship, blogging, censorware, comment policy, comment spam, hate, links to articles, search, search engine, social bookmarking, social media, social network, social news, spam, troll, video, writing
Del.icio.us : Blogger.com, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Web 2.0, WordPress, blog censorship, blogging, censorware, comment policy, comment spam, hate, links to articles, search, search engine, social bookmarking, social media, social network, social news, spam, troll, video, writing
Ice Rocket : Blogger.com, Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Web 2.0, WordPress, blog censorship, blogging, censorware, comment policy, comment spam, hate, links to articles, search, search engine, social bookmarking, social media, social network, social news, spam, troll, video, writing

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Things keep changing at Digg…

…and generally not for the better. Digg always seems to be adding new features, tweaking existing features, and removing old features that people liked. For instance, Digg took away both the user rankings and the data field that, for a time, allowed people to figure out who had buried some of the stories… (We know…that was NOT a feature – that was a BUG!) As far as we are concerned, those examples show how Digg merely tries to cover up problems instead of addressing its users’ biggest complaints – sluggish performance, unresponsive tech support, accusations of bias and lack of transparency, and, of course, the infamous Bury Brigade.

This past fall, Digg put in some major changes to its user interface that were obviously intended to help it compete with StumbleUpon and other social news sites. Prominent Digg user Tamar Weinberg liked Digg’s new features, but as we pointed out, the changes failed to provide the hoped-for boom in viewership. There were some irritating glitches; for instance, the new “Shout All” feature bedeviled current and former users with email spam, until Digg belatedly decided to set some limits.

What is the first thing to do when one is stuck at the bottom of a hole?

Hmmm, if your company name is Digg, that’s a tough one! Digg’s owners recently hired an investment banking firm to find a buyer for Digg. We thought that, after Digg had already alienated much of its user base, it was a bit late to be putting it up for sale. But it gets worse. According to Tamar Weinberg, as soon as Digg went up for sale, its customer support all but disappeared. They keep shooting themselves in the foot, saying “Ouch!” – and pulling the trigger again…

Rumors are flying!

On Christmas Day 2007, Mashable reported a rumor that Digg may be buying Spanish-language site Meneame, and “build-your-own-Digg” service CoRank. But later the same day, Mashable denied that Digg is the buyer for CoRank and Meneame – and they are wondering who is. This should be interesting!

More about Digg:

• Performancing.com: The New Economy of Digg Blackmail
• More articles about Digg on 1389 Blog
• Here’s what Foehammer has to say about Digg.
• The Fort Hard Knox team weighs in on censorship.
• Tex and Jenn’s research shows why Digg’s management is not on our side.

Posted to 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech and Fort Hard Knox.

Technorati : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech industry, tech support
Del.icio.us : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech industry, tech support
Ice Rocket : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech industry, tech support

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According to VentureBeat, Digg has hired an investment firm to help broker it’s sale (>$300M). Mashable reports Google, Yahoo, NewsCorp and Microsoft have indicated they are not interested in Digg, and that likely buyers are old media newspaper companies, although the New York Times, and the LA Times have recently invested in Digg competitors.

Digg has created quite a problem for itself in cultivating it’s popular “bury brigade.” Death by 1000 Papercuts has a good consolidation of Digg’s recent woes on Falling Traffic, Censorship Claims, Diggs for Dollars, Can Digg UnBury Itself?

Anyone want to give $300M for a Facebook wannabe?

Also see: FHK’s Digg Archive and resist! censorship campaign

(hat-tip, 1389, also on FHK)

Added 11/27/2007:
Click here for more articles about LGF

Click the above image for current Alexa stats for Little Green Footballs.

1389 was banned from Little Green Footballs as of November 24, 2007

No explanation was given, nor is any explanation needed

I could read the handwriting on the wall. Since the onset of the huge feud that Charles Johnson deliberately started with Gates of Vienna and the rest of the antijihadist blogosphere, which involved Charles hurling very thinly substantiated accusations of fascist links to European antijihadist organizations, I could see that LGF had changed, and not for the better.

Six or more degrees of politically incorrect = BANNED

Ever since then, no one has been free to speak his or her mind as a commenter on LGF without fear of being viciously ridiculed and then banned. Nor could anyone feel free to post links to other sites without having to worry about being banned for linking to something that is “six degrees of politically incorrect.”

Anybody who reads the comment threads can observe what the remaining members of LGF feel that they must do to prove their loyalty. They search constantly for any evidence of LGF members or ex-members expressing any support for, linking to, or communicating with anyone on Dear Leader’s ever-growing disapproved list.

The old sense of camaraderie at LGF has long since vanished, along with most of the people with whom I would have wanted to exchange messages. There is nothing left but paranoia and a competition for who can launch the most mean-spirited ridicule against Charles Johnson’s latest batch of officially-designated enemies.

Everyone who wants to remain an active member of LGF must fall in line, because if they don’t, sooner or later they’ll be banned too!

No Stalinist purges for 1389 Blog

I do a great deal of blogging and commenting that has nothing to do with LGF. Just for starters, I am primary admin for 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech and for 1389 Message Blog. I post occasionally on Fort Hard Knox* and Screw the UN. I am a content creator on IMVU and am fairly active on Twitter. I have a gallery at deviantART. I comment regularly on many other sites.

To remain a member of LGF, I would have had to drop all of the officially designated “nonpersons,” especially banned former LGF members, from the blogrolls and link lists on my own blogs. I would have had to be careful not to link to news stories from any proscribed persons or organizations in my own blog posts. I would not have been able to review those stories or mention them on Twitter or other sites I frequent.

In other words, I would have had to surrender my own freedom of expression and association. This I was unwilling to do. True, I miss what LGF once was, or perhaps could have been, but I am realistic enough to see it for what it is. And it’s none of Charles Johnson’s business who else I cite or associate with.

Why send LGF any more traffic?

The conflict still continues at LGF. The last few remaining dissenters on LGF are speaking up, though not for long. After this blog post has been up for a little while, no doubt someone will post snarky comments on LGF about the infamous banned user 1389, same as they do with everyone else. But I have no intention of lurking on LGF to ego-surf for remarks about me. I have also removed the LGF news feed reader widget from the sidebar. If you still want it, you can get it directly from them. But why send LGF that extra little bit of traffic?

LGF has joined the dark side

LGF is no longer an antijihadist site, if it ever was. Whether Charles Johnson is consciously aware of it or not, LGF has gone over to the other side, or perhaps it has always been there. It is covertly helping our enemies by sowing dissention and by muzzling genuine antijihadist voices everywhere.

LGF takes no part in activism against jihadism. Nor does it make any effort to help any other antijihadist sites or organizations. I have become convinced that LGF never had any intention of doing anything effective to begin with, and that this was the real reason for its boycott of Counterjihad Brussels 2007. LGF merely wishes to appear to be an antijihadist site, and to that end, it posts a sprinkling of terrorist news stories to draw readership. In other words, LGF is nothing more than a disguised version of Daily Kos or the ACLU. I don’t know who has bought out LGF, and I don’t even care at this point. Their declining traffic figures are already rendering them irrelevant.

Tragic irony: the censored has become the censor

The saddest thing of all is that, some months ago, I helped LGF by launching a campaign to get them, and other sites, unbanned from various “censorware” blacklists. Before that, I had worked hard to promote LGF stories on Digg, against the efforts of the infamous “Bury Brigade.” Now LGF has retaliated, if that’s the proper word, by banning me.

It is time to punt littlegreenfootballs, once and for all.

Addenda

Looking for former LGF members? Check out 2.0 The Blogmocracy.

We get hate mail! See Little Green Footballs – Hitting New Lows, One After Another.

*Update 11/26/07, by Jenn Sierra who is an author here and admin of the Ft. Hard Knox project, with the permission of 1389:

The opinions of our authors, expressed in their posts on FHK or elsewhere on the web, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FHK. We do, however, thank our authors for their contributions and their widely-varying perspectives on an impressive variety of topics.

(For rolling updates,
please scroll down)

Has this been happening to you?

Blog admin 1389 has been getting lots of Shout notices from Digg lately…

What happens every time 1389 clicks on the link in the email?

Click the link and try it yourself!

http://digg.com/users/1389#send-shout

Why?

This can happen to anyone whose user ID was banned from Digg.

User ID 1389 was banned from Digg a long time ago…

The reason why 1389 was banned is not especially relevant here, but if you’re curious…read 1389′s comments accompanying this article: Has Digg really unbanned those banned sites? In retrospect, we also found some evidence that an unscrupulous cyberstalker/troll may have been involved in getting 1389 banned, along with some other Digg users. Suffice it to say that 1389 considers it no dishonor to be banned from Digg.

Incidentally, there has been no action to ban this blog (thus far)!

Note that, even though Digg user ID 1389 was banned, neither 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech, nor the blog’s domain or IP address, has been banned from Digg (yet). Articles from 1389 Blog can still be submitted to, and found on, Digg. Whether the stories have any chance to to reach the front page is another matter entirely.

What actually happens when a Digg user ID is banned?

In a nutshell, the user’s profile is blocked from access, but not deleted. Other users can no longer view the blocked user’s profile page. The banned user cannot log on to submit stories, make comments, or update the profile to change the email address or anything else. On the other hand, all existing stories and comments submitted by the blocked user remain available, unless the story or comment was specifically deleted by a Digg administrator. If another Digg user had befriended this user before he or she was blocked, the blocked Digg user will continue to appear in the other user’s list of friends, like this:

So here’s why 1389 keeps getting useless messages:

• Digg requires a valid email address from all new users, so, when signing up, 1389 provided an active email address that was, and still is, being used for correspondence.
• 1389 was very active on Digg for a time, submitted many stories, entered comments, got several stories to the front page, and was befriended by a considerable number of Digg users. Thus, 1389′s avatar still appears in many places – on each story that 1389 submitted or commented on, and on the profile pages of each user who befriended 1389 during that time.
• Digg made extensive changes at the beginning of October, 2007 to add new features, including the ability to send “Shouts” to other Digg users.
• Even though 1389′s account has been blocked, other users can still send a “Shout” to 1389. For instance, whenever a Digg user sends a group “Shout” to all of his or her friends, and 1389 happens to be on that user’s list of friends, a message will be generated for 1389 along with all of the others.
• Whenever anyone does this – and it happens every day – 1389′s email inbox receives another message containing a link to retrieve the “Shout” contents from Digg.
• Unfortunately, the shout retrieval link is associated with 1389′s blocked profile, so it will not work! What’s more, 1389 cannot even update the blocked profile to shut off this useless email!

More about Digg:

• These articles discuss censorship and other problems on Digg, as well as alternatives to Digg.
• Here’s what Foehammer has to say about Digg.
• The Fort Hard Knox team weighs in on Digg.
• Tex and Jenn’s research shows why Digg’s management is not on our side.

Posted to 1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech and Fort Hard Knox.

Updated 12/25/2007

Brent Csutoras: Diggers Not Shouting So Loud?

Digg has finally taken action to curtail the “shout spam” that was being spewed indiscriminately via Digg’s “Shout All” feature. Digg now limits the number of “Shout” messages to twenty at a time; more than that, and the user is told to slow down. This gives senders an incentive to pay attention to whom they are sending their messages, so as not to waste their “Shouts” on inactive Digg users.

Brent Csutoras: To Shout or Not To Shout: The Digg Dilemma

How the Shout feature can backfire – and how to use it properly.

Technorati : 1389, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech tips
Del.icio.us : 1389, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech tips
Ice Rocket : 1389, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news, spam, tech tips

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The redoubtable Fort Hard Knox Blog has been receiving a lot of traffic lately from Propeller, f.k.a. “Netscape.” According to its “about” page,

Propeller.com is a service of Weblogs, Inc. and part of the AOL Network owned and operated by AOL, LLC, a Time-Warner company.

Propeller is a social bookmarking/networking site, similar to Digg.com, with some differences that we like. There are a lot more categories, and users can tag their stories, so that readers can more easily find topics of interest. If you’re wondering where some of your Digg.com friends have gone – it’s possible that they’re now on Propeller. Propeller is user-friendly, and quite interesting. Check it out! Cross-posted at:

• FHK SitRep 10.07.07: Propeller
• Thought Mechanics: Is Propeller (f/k/a Netscape) draining traffic from Digg?
• 1389 Blog: Is Propeller (f/k/a Netscape) draining traffic from Digg?

See Fort Hard Knox Daily SitRep Archive for more useful tips! (Get this Button for Your Blog)

Technorati : Digg, Netscape, Propeller, Web 2.0, social bookmarking, social news
Del.icio.us : Digg, Netscape, Propeller, Web 2.0, social bookmarking, social news
Ice Rocket : Digg, Netscape, Propeller, Web 2.0, social bookmarking, social news

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Digg.com’s recent changes to their website have not earned the numbers they had hoped.

In fact, according to Alexis.com Digg is down since introducing the changes and, overall, has dropped considerably since it’s high point one year ago. The graphs below show both the 1 month and 3 year charts for Digg.com

What’s wrong with Digg?

Digg is moving the decks around on the Titanic at this point. They should be commended for introducing new ideas but they have a large fundamental flaw in their system that is sending them into an iceberg of certain death — the bury button.

The bury button is the nuclear bomb on Digg that enables a small group of people to control content and censor those they deem unacceptable. Digg refuses to face this fact. Yet, users of their web site know this is inherently true. Until they get rid of the unfairness in their system, they will eventually end up in the trash heap of come and gone internet sites.

(Cross-posted from Fort Hard Knox Blog: Digg’s Changes Are A Bust)

More about the censorship problem on Digg:

• These articles on 1389 Blog discuss censorship and other problems on Digg, as well as alternatives to Digg.
• Here’s what Foehammer has to say about Digg.
• The Fort Hard Knox team weighs in on Digg.
• Our research shows why Digg’s management is not on our side.

Technorati : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news
Del.icio.us : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news
Ice Rocket : Bury Brigade, Digg, Web 2.0, censorship, social news

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“What are social media, anyway?”

For your surfing pleasure:

Vaspers the Grate, a/k/a Steven Edward Streight, offers a quick guided tour of Web 2.0:

How to Succeed in Social Networks

Technorati : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Web 2.0, YouTube, blogging, networking, social media, tech tips
Del.icio.us : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Twitter, blogging, networking, social media, tech tips
Ice Rocket : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Twitter, blogging, networking, social media, tech tips

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…also on FHK

An Open Letter to Kevin Rose, by Tamar Weinberg, dated 09/07/07:

I am writing to follow up with you regarding correspondence with a member of your team several weeks ago. I inquired about a domain that seems to be on your auto-bury list. Granted, you have never admitted to an auto-bury list, but the statistics speak for themselves. In the first link, it is obvious that the last story that was not buried was also popular and hit the front page 184 days ago. As of this writing, it has 903 Diggs. Not too shabby. However, in the second link, it appears that every single story submitted since then has been buried. That includes a total of 25 stories. One of them is from less than 24 hours ago and was buried with 2 Diggs. As an avid user of your service, I don’t think it would be off the mark to say that you are burying stories internally given that it is very rare for stories with less than 5-10 Diggs to be buried from my observations (and you know how often I wander the halls of Digg). I’m going to go a step further and make a claim that you are not only burying stories internally; you have a method of burying domains after an arbitrary amount of time has elapsed since the story was submitted. Here was a story from the domain that I submitted that got buried with 45 Diggs. Somehow, it accrued another 60 after it was buried. I have a hard time believing that the democratic voice of Diggers was responsible for this story’s burial. Similarly, these two stories are good Digg content, and I think that a good number of people would agree with my claim…(more)

We’re all familiar with Digg.com’s so-called “bury brigade,” which is a group of Diggers that seem to enjoy burying stories they disagree with, especially from sites, bloggers, or other Digg users that they don’t like. FHK has an archive of stories on this very topic, which is also part of the resist! censorship campaign.

Well, here are a couple of articles from earlier this year, written by bloggers who did some research on the theory that the Digg administrators may be burying stories, internally:

• Digg is Censoring Content by Burying Stories Internally
• Digg Automatically Buries Stories from Recently Unbanned Domains

Now, why on earth would they do that?! Follow the money trail. Digg’s loyalty lies with its investors.

Several weeks ago, FHK’s Orlando provided a list of articles to read about the Digg Bury Brigade, and the buzz on the net about a possible problem with Digg, internally. One of the articles above was on the list plus these:

Suggested readings or sites to educate you about Digg burying:
Dugg Trends | Getting Buried in Digg | Digg Gets Buried on Noumenon | Is Digg Using Secret Moderators to Censor Its Users? | Digg Algorithms | Digg — More Than Meets the Eye | Is Digg Closer to Extinction Than we Realise? | Digg.com’s Autobury Secret Blacklist | Digg’s Dark Future and the Battle for Online Censorship | Digg’s Broken | ZDNet Not Immune to the Bury Brigade | Was I Just Censored on Digg? | Digg Has Moderators — They Just Suck

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This article by Julia Gorin is a must read for everyone:

Ending the Balkan Quagmire at American Thinker

Julia Gorin‘s article is all about how US and EU counterterrorism foreign policy went so horribly wrong. It explains how jihadist terrorism has succeeded in overrunning Europe and in attacking the US. It’s particularly important for Americans to read this article, because it cites news stories from reputable sources that have had some exposure in Europe, but haven’t made it into the US media.

So why am I asking for a blog swarm?

Exactly because this information isn’t getting around in the US, and I want this story to get some exposure!

Why is this story being kept off the radar screen in the US?

Simple: It’s a catalogue of errors and misdeeds that makes the US media conglomerates look bad, and the US government (i.e., nearly everyone on both sides of the aisle) look even worse. It reveals an ongoing foreign policy fiasco that makes the Bay of Pigs Invasion look like a victory by comparison. And it isn’t just a fiasco for the government, it’s a fiasco for the American and European public, because it has greatly increased everyone’s vulnerability to jihadist terrorism.

What to do?

• Link to the original story on your blog.
• Ask everyone else you know to do the same.
• Publicize the story in any other legitimate way that you can think of.
• If you wish, post a comment here indicating where else this article is being publicized.

Have I seen this somewhere else?

This blog swarm request is ongoing. It was originally posted at COUNTERTERRORIST BLOG SWARM WANTED! at the former site for this blog, 1389 Mobile Blog. At its very beginning stages, the blog post at that location was submitted to Digg as How US and EU counterterrorism foreign policy went so horribly wrong. Despite the fact that Digg’s censors and bury brigade always target on these stories (also see Digg vs. Anvil), the Digg submission was helpful to some extent in gaining participation and awareness.

Stumble It!

Subscribe to 1389 Blog!

Blogs and Websites that have Posted or Linked to:
Ending the Balkan Quagmire at American Thinker:

1. Gray Falcon
2. Foehammer.net
3. Byzantine Sacred Art Blog
4. Ft. Hard Knox
5. Erik with a “K”
6. Intergalactic Source of Truth™
7. Orthodoxy Today
8. Eastern European Forum
9. Jillosophy
10. SerbBlog
11. Allah’s Willing Executioners
12. Israpundit
13. JBlog Central
14. New Serbian Optimism
15. Right Wing News
16. Fiery Spirited Zionist
17. Liberty Post
18. Free Republic
19. Sulekha
20. US Political Opinions (UK)
21. Icerocket Blogs
22. The Black Kettle
23. American Council for Kosovo
24. The Lighthouse
25. Phanari
26. 2nd Anagennesis – A Blog of Townhall.com
27. Our Children are the Guarantors
28. Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog
29. Brucified
30. EagleSpeak
31. The Conservative Razor
32. Atlas Shrugs
33. Noisy Room
34. Dumb Ox
35. Geek Orthodox.org
36. Ironic Surrealism
37. Panhandle Poetry and Other Thoughts
38. View from Minas Morgul
39. Open thread on The Pirate’s Cove
40. Political Mavens
41. Giltner Review
42. Sokotica (full text of article)
43. pjungwir at del.icio.us
44. The Outraged Spleen of Zion
45. Strategic Board
46. Noblesse Oblige
47. Field of Blackbirds
48. Open thread at Little Green Footballs

Technorati : 1389, Bush, Clinton, Digg, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, blog swarm, blogging, bury brigade, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberwars, fraud, jihadism, politics
Del.icio.us : 1389, Bush, Clinton, Digg, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, blog swarm, blogging, bury brigade, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberwars, fraud, jihadism, politics
Ice Rocket : 1389, Bush, Clinton, Digg, Kosovo, MSM corruption, Serbia, blog swarm, blogging, bury brigade, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberwars, fraud, jihadism, politics

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Looking for the next big thing? We Web 2.0 aficionados hear about the latest and greatest social web applications every day, but each one seems to be described in terms of its competition. Each fledgling “killer app” entering the field is touted as the next “Digg killer” or “Twitter killer” or “Facebook killer.” But here’s an application, still in beta test, whose purpose differs enough from what’s already out there to warrant being considered on its own merits.

What makes Gleamd so different? Let’s start with what Gleamd isn’t. Unlike other fixtures of the social web, gleamd isn’t primarily about its own user base. In other words, if you’re a Gleamd user, it isn’t about wowing everybody with your own multimedia talents, your eye for cool websites, or your nose for news scoops. It isn’t primarily about making business or personal connections with other users, even though you certainly may meet like-minded fellow users on the system.

Then what is Gleamd all about? It’s about promoting other people whom you find interesting and worthy of notice. This can include anyone other than yourself who has at least some presence on the Web, and merits more attention than he or she has received thus far. The media superstars and A-list bloggers already have their ways of reaching the public – this is about promoting lesser-known people who may be more deserving.

Who’s behind gleamd? Let’s hear from developer Matt McInerney, a/k/a mattmc on Twitter, who also runs graphic design website and blog Pixelspread, Twitter sci-fi novella ZombieAttack, among other things:

Right now I’m the only person working on Gleamd. It was my idea that I decided to put together and get out in the world. I created it basically because it was a resource I wanted to use myself. We’ve been featured in a lot of blogs so far, and I hear a lot about “popularity contests”, but to be honest, I really think the site is proving to be more than that. First of all, it’s definitely not HotOrNot 2.0. I wanted to create a meritocracy, so submitted people are going to be judged on their accomplishments. Of course there are the web celebs like Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose that are bound to be submitted, but I’ve been pleased to see that the A listers don’t dominate the popular list all the time. The way we calculate the recently popular, which is based on votes just from that day, new and interesting submissions have been given a chance to rise to the top.

I’ve seen comparisons of Gleamd to people search engines like Spock, but I think we differ by giving our users something to look at. Spock is great if you know what you’re looking for, but you aren’t just going to Spock and find interesting people you haven’t heard of without doing a lot of digging around. Gleamd solves that problem pretty quickly by letting users put in their two cents.

Comparing to other social media or social networks, I don’t think we’re competing with places like MySpace, Facebook, or VIRB. We’re not trying to replace your favorite social networks at all. We’re trying to give you the opportunity to find interesting people and maybe even make connections you would have never made otherwise. Maybe you’ll find someone cool on Gleamd, find them on VIRB, and go add them. Who knows. So while we have profiles and friends on Gleamd, they are kind of minimal, and definetly not the focus of the site.

So how can I get involved? If you want to join the private beta, stop by Gleamd and leave a message for Matt. Gleamd still in the private-beta stage only because it’s very new, not because Matt wants to exclude anybody. He’s eager for more users who want to participate actively and give the system a good workout, so don’t be shy!

Now what? As soon as you get a user ID, you can start inviting buddies (like-minded fellow users on Gleamd), and you can begin submitting biographical information about what Matt calls “interesting people doing interesting things on the Web.” Go ahead and submit some people who aren’t already well known, such as interesting people you know from other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, YouTube…you name it.

You don’t need to be an experienced writer or blogger yourself to participate; it’s perfectly fine to put in a few words of your own about why the person is cool, and link to other sites such as Wikipedia or your subject’s own blog to round out the details. If you enter a website or email address, the Gleamd editor will automatically post it as a link. Then check one or more category boxes that apply to your subject (e.g., Artist, Athlete, Entrepreneur, Vlogger) and submit the bio. If you realize that you’ve made a typo or have forgotten to check a box, not to worry; you can edit your own submissions later.

What keeps Gleamd from being infested with spammers, self-promoters, and other Web 2.0 bad actors? Matt has explained that Gleamd already provides some safeguards:

• Gleamd has a team of moderators. They don’t intervene to promote or block bios according to their own tastes, but they do weed out the clowns who are spamming fake Viagra or pimping the latest penny-stock scam. Unlike Digg, the moderators at Gleamd are actual, identifiable human beings! You can notify Matt himself or the moderators if you notice somebody abusing the system.
• Gleamd automatically checks for duplicate submissions.
• Gleamd users are allowed to make only one submission every thirty minutes. This hampers the unwanted activities of spambots and pay-per-submission promoters.
• Gleamd discourages users from submitting themselves. In my opinion, this is a good idea, though I have no personal knowledge about how strictly this is enforced.

What would I like to see in the new Gleamd user interface? I’d like to see more robust searching and filtering, perhaps on geographical keys, as well as the ability to see what your buddies have submitted and voted on. That way, when Gleamd scales up to handle a larger user base, each user will have the tools to navigate to the biographical pages that match that user’s interests.

What’s coming next? Gleamd has attracted some investors, so a new user interface is in the offing. There’s also a brand-new Gleamd wiki, where beta test participants can leave comments and suggestions. So if you join the beta test and you think something is missing or needs to be tweaked, go for it!

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Technorati : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, Twitter, Web 2.0, search, social media, wikis
Del.icio.us : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, Twitter, Web 2.0, search, social media, wikis
Ice Rocket : Digg, Facebook, Gleamd, Twitter, Web 2.0, search, social media, wikis

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First, please read these two articles:

• The Wrath of Blogger
• Gates of Vienna Blocked by Blogger

What is the current status? As of 4:30 Eastern Time (US) 7/18/07, Gates of Vienna was back up.

So why be concerned about it now? Because other bloggers need to know about this situation, and because it’s time for Blogger to do something to prevent its blogs from being shut down either maliciously or by mistake. Gates of Vienna is a respected counterterrorist/antijihadist blog that in no way deserves to be treated as a “spam blog.” This situation also shows how easy it would be to misuse Blogger.com to censor another blog.

How did this happen? It is possible that someone unintentionally clicked the “flag” button in the Blogger.com toolbar while attempting to navigate. But then, if a single error like that can cause a blog to be blocked, something is very wrong with Blogger.com! More likely, Gates of Vienna was maliciously flagged as a “spam blog” multiple times by one or more individuals who object to antijihadistist messages being made available to the public. Either way, Blogger.com is allowing de facto censorship, and this is wrong. It allows wrongdoers of every stripe to muzzle anybody who may be trying to warn the public about the crimes they have committed or are preparing to commit. It also will intimidate some bloggers into keeping silent – though not this one!

Does this remind you of anything? It should! The Digg “bury brigade” has aroused intense controversy for exactly the same reason: because it became too easy for a few anonymous users to muzzle opposing points of view or to cover up uncomfortable facts simply by clicking on a little button.

What are we asking Blogger to do? Blogger should add safeguards to prevent the same thing from happening again to this or other blogs in the Blogspot domain. If Blogger.com fails to take action, then other blog owners will have reason to worry about losing access to their blogs. They’ll migrate to other blogging systems and and hosting providers that will help them to safeguard their ownership.

You may recall that I’ve blogged before about the issues that Blogger.com has with spam blogs (see Does Blogger.com think your blog is spam?) but this is a different situation. There is a very big difference between the minor inconvenience of requiring the blog owner to enter Captcha characters before posting to the blog, and the major intimidation Blogger.com causes by blocking the blog entirely.

Now please do this:

• Link to the stories at Gates of Vienna and Foehammer.net from your own blog.
• Ask everyone else you know who has a blog to do the same.
• Publicize the story in every other legitimate way that you can think of: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Twitter, Pownce, word of mouth, chat rooms, you name it.
• If you wish, post a comment here indicating where else this article is being publicized.

Contacting humans at Blogger.com: Google makes it especially difficult to contact anyone at Blogger.com directly. But at least for now, you can contact them at support@blogger.com. And here’s a website with rolling updates on how to contact Blogger.com: How to Contact Blogger Support. So if you are not happy about the way Blogger.com is misidentifying Gates of Vienna and other blogs as spam, you can still let them know what you think.

Also see:

• Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog
• Jawa Report
• Blackshards
• Atlas Shrugs
• Blogjunkies
• DH Chaos

Keep the pressure on Blogger.com to do something to safeguard their blogging system against being hijacked by the same “bury brigade” that has rendered Digg.com all but useless! And for what to do about THAT, see How to Bury Digg.com.

Update: Google mistakes one of its own blogs for spam!

Technorati : 1389, Blogger.com, Bury Brigade, Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, Gates of Vienna, MSM corruption, blacklisting of antijihadists, blogging, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberjihadism, e-jihadis, jihadism, politics
Del.icio.us : 1389, Blogger.com, Bury Brigade, Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, Gates of Vienna, MSM corruption, blacklisting of antijihadists, blogging, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberjihadism, e-jihadis, jihadism, politics
Ice Rocket : 1389, Blogger.com, Bury Brigade, Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, Gates of Vienna, MSM corruption, blacklisting of antijihadists, blogging, censorship, counterterrorism, current events, cyberjihadism, e-jihadis, jihadism, politics

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please scroll down)

Blog traffic statistics tell quite a tale!

After all of the endless hype surrounding Digg, I was surprised to read this article by Darren Rowse at Problogger: Why StumbleUpon Sends More Traffic than Digg.

Hmmm, I thought, time to try it out! So, after finding out that StumbleUpon doesn’t accept an all-numeric user ID, I signed up as 1389AD. I set up the little toolbar and started using it.

Then, I ran across an article that came out a few months ago, but is still very much worth reading, so I used the toolbar to submit a review of the article on StumbleUpon: My Thoughts on Our Children’s Children’s War.

I was surprised at what happened next, and you probably will be too.

Read all about it here: How to Bury Digg.com.

Updated 12/1/2007:
Were you looking for information about Digg’s owners and investors?

We have that too! Click on…

Why Conservatives Need to Geek-Up (Part 3)

Updated 12/20/2007:
Learn how to make StumbleUpon work for you!

• UnOfficial Stumbleupon Guide
• Social Networks: Why StumbleUpon Rules Them All
• StumbleUpon vs Digg Experiment
• Pwned: StumbleUpon Digg initial results

Stumble This Article!

Technorati : Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, StumbleUpon, Web 2.0, blogging, censorship, politics, social media
Del.icio.us : Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, StumbleUpon, Web 2.0, blogging, censorship, politics, social media
Ice Rocket : Digg, Foehammer s Anvil, StumbleUpon, Web 2.0, blogging, censorship, politics, social media

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