A disturbing trend is creeping, slowly, across the blogosphere. It's not everywhere yet - indeed, you may well be immune - but more and more bloggers are doing it. Adding an extra line at the bottom of every blogpost. A line that says "Digg This", either in words or in symbols, at the bottom of every single bloody blogpost. I mean, get a grip.
Digg is a website which thrives on user-generated content. Digg's disciples spot stuff they like on the web and, if submitted by enough people, this stuff makes it to Digg's front page and a potential audience of millions. Sounds like a perfect way to get noticed, doesn't it? Write something great and it might just be validated in front of an appreciative global jury. The Digg effect is legendary, and extreme, and all powerful.
But what on earth makes bloggers think that the couple of paragraphs they've just posted to their blog are worthy of Digg's front page? Have you seen what Digg's front page usually contains? Some nerdy sci-fi stuff. A hilarious photograph of a dog in a wig. Some incisive American political commentary. A celebrity interview lifted from the NBC website. News of a really exciting shiny new gadget. A YouTube video of a toddler waving a lightsabre. You know, lowest common denominator geek stuff. Your miserable post about what you did at the weekend has no chance.
But never mind, people still insist on sticking these little icons at the bottom of every post they write. There's no thought as to whether each post is actually Digg-worthy or not, the icons just appear as part of the template. That means 99 wasted appearances for every one post that might just possibly be worth sharing worldwide. And what are the chances of that one brilliant post actually being Dugg? Who actually clicks on these buttons, eh?
I can just about see the point of del.icio.us as an accumulated repository of interesting links. But does anyone really bookmark favourite blogposts to re-read six months later? Does anybody really appreciate a post so much that they recommend it to all of thesesocialbookmarkingsites? Are there really people who Digg everything they read, just so long as it makes them LOL or w00t? And does anyone ever choose to send favourite posts to their friends by email? I think not.
I got Dugg the other week, thanks to an ironic sentence in my "flag of irony" post. A few misguided kindly souls gave this post the thumbs up and it managed to accumulate a grand total of 6 Diggs. And the net result? 3 extra incoming visitors. Pah! I'm sorry but, except in exceptional cases, sticking Digg buttons on blogs is a total and utter waste of time. If you really think you've got something worth flaunting to the rest of the world, by all means stick a big "Digg This" box at the bottom of your post. But the rest of the time, please get a sense of proportion and stop clogging up our screens with unnecessary boastful clutter.
Digg this!
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