Friday, March 2, 2007

Game Digg for Cash

Disclaimer: I'm not advocating this, just making you aware of it.

I've heard about Digg "gaming" before, but I didn't really understand the situation fully until I saw news of this Wired article. Apparently there's a service called User/Submitter which allows a "submitter" to submit a link and pay money for diggs. "Users" then digg that link, earning money for doing so. Talk about a scheme!

To be clear, this blatantly violates Digg's terms of use:

[Y]ou agree not to use the Services: ... with the intention of artificially inflating or altering the 'digg count', blog count, comments, or any other Digg service, including by way of creating separate user accounts for the purpose of artificially altering Digg's services; giving or receiving money or other remuneration in exchange for votes; or participating in any other organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Digg's services.
They go on to say that you can be completely banned from Digg if they discover you're a participant in gaming the system.

But is this much different from rounding up your posse of friends to digg a story for you? We all know that money can virtually buy friends. User/Submitter just takes out the middle man and goes straight from cash to diggs.

I'm not sure how much you can make from this type of "work," but if you're desperate for cash, you don't have much to lose. I personally don't see a huge value to Digg in the first place, so being banned wouldn't be something to cry about. Although it might be kind-of depressing if you only made $1 in the process.

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