Digg!

Hey this is Matt from Spies Library in Menominee. Let me start out by saying I have never in my life used Digg before this day. I've always been pretty tech oriented but I've never taken the time to look at this site in particular. I've got a rough idea about what the website is for, but it might be a good idea to let Digg explain its self:

"Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online."

If you're wondering what that means, it means Digg is a site (primarily for news) where the users both find news, videos, or pictures, and decide what pictures and news stories are the most entertaining or interesting. Unlike conventional news sites, the viewers are the ones picking what is worth reading or watching, not editors. The site uses a point system. When a user "diggs" a story, it gains a point, and when a user "buries" a story, it loses one. It's a simple system, but it works. You can filter media on Digg by categories (Technology, World and Business, Science, Gaming, Lifestyle, Entertainment, and Offbeat) or time frame (Most recent, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 365 days). If you're not viewing by most recent, stories show up in order of how many diggs they have. All the fuss about digging and burying is to figure out which articles are on the front page and which articles no one will read. You can digg or bury stories you like or dislike, leave comments, find related stories, email the story, post the story to Facebook, and tweet the story all from a convenient toolbar that comes up when you click on something on Digg. That's most of what there is to know about Digg as a reader.
Here's a picture of a search I did on Digg for technology stories no more than a week old: http://i45.tinypic.com/2w4bb5j.jpg

Now We'll move on to submitting media. You need to make an account to submit stories, and accounts are easy to make and free. I'm going to submit this article from the Detroit Free Press about Lil Wayne delaying going to jail over dental work. Here's the link:http://www.freep.com/article/20100209/ENT04/100209062/1039/ENT04/Lil-Wayne-sentencing-delayed-for-dental-surgery

To submit an article, click the "submit new" button at the top of the page. After you do that you're brought to a page with a pretty straightforward interface. Paste the link into the bar and pick whether it is a news article, an image, or a video. In my case it's a news article. After that, type in a description and alter the headline if you want, and your story is submitted! Here's a link to the story I picked with the Digg toolbar: http://digg.com/d31IRcW

It's about as simple as that. People will either start digging or burying the story I submitted, only time will tell. If you have any questions or comments, let me know!