Author’s note: I had put “Teabaggers” in the title instead of “Conservative Activists,” as I am sure you have noticed. The Tea Party political movement, an ideological direct match for this group, often self-describe themselves to be “teabaggers,” the humor of which is seemingly lost on them. However, due to reader discomfort, I have changed the title. – Alex
If you can’t win, you might as well cheat, right? So goes the thought process behind a massive, and now massively exposed group of conservative Digg users who were furtively breaking the Digg TOS to tilt the entire site towards their own political ideology.
The group, called Digg Patriots, has amassed endless accounts that they have, and still do, use to bury stories in the ‘Upcoming’ section of Digg. Bury a story enough times and it will have no chance of reaching the Digg front page, thus gaining real exposure. In short, they wanted only stories that they agree with to get noticed.
Is burying based on your views against the Dig rules? Of course not, but this group’s tactics are. Artificially gaming Digg, past the usual one person one vote way, is a big no no. To hide from the generally quick to act Digg overlords, the group communicated off site in a Yahoo group and used a plethora of different accounts each. More buries meant more bad news for stories that the Digg Patriots just didn’t like.
What were they burying? According to AlterNet their political views are as follows:
They hate Obama. They hate progressives. They hate the UN, diplomacy, and peace/disarmament efforts. They hate reforms of health care, Wall St., and immigration. They hate science, in fact many are creationists, and some even blog about it. They hate the secular nature of our nation. They hate environmental protection, requiring polluters to be responsible for their own cleanup, and especially hate climate efforts. They hate unions and any attempt to level the playing field to give all Americans economic opportunities. They hate the government, except the military-industrial complex. They hate abortion rights. They hate public schools and really hate higher education. They hate anyone in the media except far right personalities like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michelle Malkin. They hate anyone who doesn’t think Obama is a secret islamist and/or marxist who was born in Kenya. They just love to hate.
And now, thanks to a marathon piece (which we strongly recommend that you read in its entirety) by the friendly AlterNet, the group has its pants down around its waist in public. A list of Digg accounts associated with the group are now in the public, and will, we assume, be dealt with quickly by Digg.
Will another group spring up in its place? Of course. But the level of sophistication that the Digg Patriots achieved will take time to reconstitute after Digg cuts them down this first time.
C’mon everyone, Digg is an open exchange. Don’t hate the game and be a player.
Sounds like the retarded nephew of 4chan.
Teabaggers? Seriously? What are you ten?
You weren’t the only person to dislike the title, so I changed it. Hope that works better for you.
You are a serious dumbass. If you can’t keep you bias out of your reporting getting your sorry immature ass out of the business you moron!
You are confusing blogging and journalism my friend. Blogging is news with opinion.
Yes, but this is a tech news site. Our views on politics greatly different, however we still witness the tech world through the same eyes.
With that being said, this is a tech-related new story (which by default makes it worthy of being posted on TNW), but the manner that it was presented (particularly from the quote onwards) is a totally political-centric piece.
C’mon Alex, you’re a great tech writer. Throwing in politics won’t help you gain readers, you will only lose some.
Just some friendly advice. Take care and thanks for the excellent reporting thus far.
Will keep it in mind. Just for what it’s worth, I am neither a Democrat or a Republican -> I am an independent Libertarian. I just have very little patience for this sort of tomfoolery. I would have been unkind to anyone who did this.
I actually quit using digg because of this very same reason. When Obama was running for president anything that wasn’t 110% pro-Obama was buried. Forget even trying to show his voting record or anything Pro-Obama bury brigade people didn’t like no matter how true.
Masses of users voting is very different than a small group cheating the system.
The Liberals started doing this years ago and all of a sudden it’s a huge story on TNW when Conservatives are being accused of the same thing? You can’t be serious. FYI, you managed to upset a lot of people with this article.
You really did miss the point. Here, I’ll help: a huge group of people are abusing the hell out of Digg. I would have covered it in the same way regardless of their political affiliations.
LOL. You really sound like an angry child. ‘You made me mad!’
Showing that the Conservatives are using a ‘Throw Spaghetti to the Wall and use everything that sticks” approach to spread their hate and expand their control of the media (they do own more of the ‘Mass Media’ that they forever claim is Liberal than actual Liberals do… like nearly most of the commercial radio networks and stations and more than 50% of the on the air and cable networks) is something we NEED to see.
I’m not upset with Alex, I am upset with the Conservatives (both mainstream and Loonie Fringe) who are posting in complaint here because Alex is posting his opinion of the facts.
If you don’t like the facts then tell your fellow Conservatives to start acting like Statesmen instead of Social Insurrectionists
Ah, I see name calling and aggression in here. This appears to be some of the same tactics that got the “Digg Patriots” into this mess in the first place. Good blog post. Asshattery like the type they have shown from ANY political affiliation is despicable.
Thanks. I would have written the same piece no matter the group involved.
Worst example of American Patriots. I guess teabaggers are only required to talk the talk not walk the walk. Iran and China would proud of their work.
I like to call them Diggtards!
“a huge group of people are abusing the hell out of Digg”
Uh huh.
This “Massive Right Wing Conspiracy to Censor of Digg” brouhaha was debunked the same day you wrote this, Alex.
Just looking at the byline of the original AlterNet article should have been a tip off.
Novenator (ole ole olsen) is just a bitter blogger that cried fowl because people buried his stories. Look at the childish, partisan way he writes his stories? Who wants to see that on the front page of Digg?