Sometimes submissions will hit the front page of Digg that just don’t belong there. Some are pushed to the front page because of misleading titles. Others are bad but got there because they were pics (which seem to have an easier time hitting and subsequently moving to the top). A few were simply spam and were artificially promoted by armies of paid diggers.
This is not meant to insult the submitters. Many if them hit the front page often because they submit great content. These ones, however, weren’t as good as what they usually post.
Either way, this, the first list of many that will be posted weekly, should be the worst list we post. Why? Because we need YOUR help.
To the right, you will see portion of the sidebar called “Got a Story.” This is a way to contact the administrators and “submit” stories that are either great and didn’t hit the front page or terrible ones that should never have hit.
Without further ado, the list…
http://digg.com/people/Sell_a_Sex_Toy_Go_to_Jail_in_Alabama - 247 diggs
Mildly interesting, but not digg material. This one was buried from the front page and removed.
http://digg.com/football/Pacman_could_be_fully_reinstated_by_Sept_1_if_behavior_hold - 324 diggs
Pacman Jones is an interesting character, one who gets in trouble a lot, has a world of potential in football, and usually doesn’t seem to care. Of course, football pre-season hasn’t even started and it looks like he’ll be a nickle back or 2nd stringer when it does start, so we really don’t care. But hey, it’s sports. Easy category to hit on without a ton of diggs.
http://digg.com/music/What_Do_Japanese_People_Really_Think_of_Eric_Clapton_PIC -1458 Diggs
Stong submitter. Not a strong submission. You can’t win them all!
http://digg.com/space/Image_of_the_Purported_Alien — 2242 Diggs
This added a little value to the site. Not much. It’s obviously fake and it didn’t really say anything.
http://digg.com/pets_animals/This_was_how_the_big_panda_survived_in_the_earthquake_GIF — 3632 diggs
And?
http://digg.com/movies/Indiana_Jones_Crash_Course_in_Wooing_Women - 532 diggs
I love Indy, but what a boring story. Played on the popularity of the buzz with a great title. Story didn’t match in quality.
http://digg.com/music/MAN_RIPS_OFF_BEARD_looks_like_newborn_babe_afterwards - 1257 diggs
sigh
http://digg.com/pets_animals/Evil_Bunny_PIC — 3289 Diggs
“Evil” + “Bunny” + “Pic” = FRONT PAGE!
http://digg.com/pets_animals/ahhh_Me_iz_Sleepy_Whatz_about_you — 1617 diggs
I thought we were done with lolcats? I know for a fact that Digg was supposedly done with crappy lolcats, and this one wasn’t that good.
http://digg.com/travel_places/Southern_California_Skateparks - 601 Diggs
People complain about top users getting paid for diggs. Then, stories like this pop up that someone clearly promoted. It is spammy, uninformative, had a terrible, local title that 99% of the Digg population wouldn’t care about, and the opening batch of comments were so obviously planted there as paid comments it’s a wonder that they even tried to act interested in skateboarding. FAIL!
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A team could spend all day isolating stories that were submitted to Digg that should have hit the front page that day but didn’t. Then, there are those that hit that absolutely had no business being written, let alone hitting the front page. Here are some of the ones that missed this week that were highlighted at popFAIL:
With the good comes the bad. Here are some stories that hit the front page this week. If you take a close look at them, you’ll probably agree that they shouldn’t have made it. For fairness sake, we won’t include stories that hit the front page and then were buried or removed from it.
- The First Ever ‘Work Safe’ Push-Up Bra Ad - Just click on the image. It’s not that funny. Sadly, it will probably get a good number of Diggs because it’s an image and it has the word “bra” in it. Image below.
- Wisconsin Governor Signs Great Lakes Compact - Important local news. Not Digg-worthy.
- Interactive Web sites draw minds, shape public perception - In this press-release-styled report, we learn information about a recent Penn State study on interactivity for websites. Interesting to some, but not exactly front page material. It received 220 Diggs. “The interactive look and feel of a corporate website could help shape positive perceptions about the organization if the site includes a likeable design and features that engage the target audience, especially job seekers, according to media researchers.”
- Top 10 French Wines - OK, wines are a good topic. Top 10 list - always a favorite on Digg. Combine the two, and it isn’t anything that’s really very useful. Granted, the story and research is excellent and makes for a somewhat interesting read if you ARE into French Wine, but sadly, most of Digg wouldn’t find this as a “must read”. Isn’t that what the front page is really about?
- Ninja Gaiden 2 Frame Rate Issues in the Final Build - While Four20 normally posts excellent stories and is the true gaming-niche expert on Digg, this is one story that should not have hit. It’s not a story. It’s a forum. Four20 has much better submissions that didn’t hit the front page.
- Can you Imagine your House 2.500 Years Ago? - as mtnlion2 mentioned in a comment, “wait, what the hell point is this video trying to make?” There’s someone walking around with a video camera looking at semi-interesting ancient ruins. The shots weren’t great, the message in it wasn’t great. To make the front page, a video should be great or at least entertaining. This was mediocre and boring — even the Metacafe community rated the video a 2.92 out of 5. Two things - great headline, and the word “Digg” was used in the video.
These are all just the opinions of a few. We hope that more contributors will volunteer their time to give a more diverse view. In the meantime, here’s the image mentioned above. Laugh if you feel the need:
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Find more popFAIL Digg submissions on this blog. Contributors wanted.
