Yo subscribe to WebRampage via RSS feeds or email. That way you'll get all the updates and everything.

What makes a site “social”?

I would say a place where people can share what they like, discover interesting stuff and communicate with friends. And also, democracy! But, does Digg have what it takes to really be a social bookmarking/news site? Hell no!

Domination!

Well maybe I’m wrong if you consider a place which is being dominated (and possibly gamed) by a handful of users to be social. I’m not going to mention names, but you know who they are. Like seriously how is it fair if 90% of the time, the front page has the submissions of those few diggers (more like “diggtators”).

Not a fair fight

Okay lets look at Digg as a… sport. We should agree that some people might be better than others. We should be all cool with that. But, what if those people are using things like steroids! Now that’s what’s happening over at Digg. Top diggers are using scripts.

Maybe you don’t believe me about the script part. I’ll show you an example. MrBabyMan, the born-to-be-digg’s-slave was proved using scripts here, here, and here. Plus its not just MrBabyMan, most (actually all) top diggers use scripts too. Just go to their profile and check how many things were dugg within the last few minutes.

Same old sites hit the front over and over again

More domination! Not only users are dominating, but sites are too. That’s just freakin’ unfair! Plus its also bad for Digg. How so? Digg is supposed to be a social news site, right? Its not good if you get the news from only a handful of sources. Its a bit like having Fox News as the only news channel in the world. Uh oh!

Well you might say that those sites are popular and they have a lot of followers and so, they get a lot of diggs. And you’re right. But, its not that. There’s something weird. There’s like something stopping smaller sites from hitting the front page.

One top digger (who wanted to stay anonymous) said, “Sites which have never gotten front page before have a hard time. Like REALLY hard” and also agreed by saying “that’s the theory” when I asked if the rumours about mods burying things were true.

Digg has double standards

Yeah that’s right, folks. Digg has double standards! Remember how Digg has been banning people for using scripts. Well the people they’re hunting down are the average diggers. But, what about top diggers like MrBabyMan? He has been proved to use scripts (and got like bitch slapped about it in public).

This other top digger dugg 15 submissions in a minute. Its obvious that he’s using a script. I don’t wanna mention his name because… I’m nice. Well I mentioned MrBabyMan because by now everyone knows what he’s been upto.

So, what is Digg?

I don’t know. I guess a place where people worship (aka digg) the top diggers and so does the staff. But, still a place with a bit of good content.

I would really love to see Digg be a better place. I know that Digg’s trying their best, but seriously, they should treat everyone equally!

Yeah well I was just going through Gmail’s TOS and I found something fishy. Something not so friendly. Something that freaked me out.

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

I’m not a lawyer, but what I understood after reading this a few times is that you basically give Google the permission to mess with your emails. They can do whatever they want. No privacy! I don’t know what else to say. I feel like Google’s little bitch.

I knew that Google had a lot of privacy issues, but woah… this is like taking it to the next level. I’m a bit shocked to be honest. I never thought they would have this in their TOS. Smart corporate bastards! Now we can’t take any legal actions. They’ll just say that we agreed to it.

This reminds me of the rumours about Google thinking of displaying people’s emails in their search results because they thought it could help other people (for some weird reason). I hope Google doesn’t do that. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it.

The thing that I pointed out in Gmail’s TOS was the same issue with Google Chrome’s TOS. There was a lot of complaining and warnings about it. People were fucking pissed. They wouldn’t even download Chrome because of that. Google came out and told us that it was a mistake. I’ll just quote what Gizmodo said, “Google knew it was in there and hoped it would slide.”

And you know what? The TOS for Gmail is actually the TOS for Google. They use the same thing for all their shit. So, doesn’t that mean we’re completely fucked? They just know way too much stuff about us and now they can do whatever they want with those info. Kinda creepy since Google isn’t as innocent as it pretends to be.

Well I don’t know what you guys are thinking, but I’ll stop using Gmail. Well actually I don’t really use Gmail anymore. I just use it to chat with a few people who doesn’t use Live Messenger (aka MSN). But, I would really appreciate if you shared how you feel about this and what you’ll be doing.

Uh yeah… we have a problem, IE team. Its not really that big of a problem. But, its gonna be huge one pretty soon. Actually you know what? Its already a big fucking issue!

The problem is related to Internet Explorer, of course. Wait a minute, I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t find a big ass exploit in IE7 that will allow me to reach my goal of world domination (somehow). Well its about IE6.

I’ll give you a little history lesson. IE6 is a browser from Microsoft which came out before IE7. (Pretty obvious.) IE6 came out in 2001. Its 2008 right now, so its been 7 years since IE6 was first released. Pretty ancient, huh? Well the thing that bothers me is that why the fuck is 25% of the market share using IE6?

Like WTF? IE 7 came out in 2006. Two years! Two fucking years and you still have 25% of the people using the old ass IE 6? Fuck me! 25%! Something is seriously wrong. I can’t even believe that people didn’t get their browsers updated in 7 years.

When we make a site we need to mess around to get it to work with IE6. IE8 is about come out and I wonder if that means a pretty big fraction of IE7 users won’t update to IE8? And then we’ll have to make sure our sites work in all three versions of IE? Oh crap!

That’s not the only problem. Its could also be a potential security issue and why let those people live in the past? Imagine someone leading his/her life without knowing there’s such a thing called a microwave oven. Plus why work on newer version if a significant number of your users are still using the antique version? IE team doesn’t seem to give a shit about this.

The IE team has a lot to learn from the Windows people. They should have done the things they did. Like how they put up a message that pops up every day and says “bitch activate your copy of Vista!”. That would have totally worked. Or just automatically upgrade it for them. You need to make it really easy and simple. You need to push people to do it!

Just because IE is the most popular browser doesn’t mean you give little or no effort at spreading the word about the latest version. I wonder if IE6 users even heard of IE7. Like seriously, when Microsoft offers a new service or product all they do is talk about it on their stupid newsletter which no one actually reads. Spend some money! But, don’t spend 10 years’ marketing budget on Jerry Seinfeld!

Microsoft you have an advantage. Windows! 91% market share! The best place to advertise. Just put up a nice little message that will pop up on people’s desktop whenever there’s a new update, news or other stuff. The simplest solutions are the best solutions.

Well IE team do whatever you need to do, but get those damn people updated. Please no more IE6 after 2008! This problem is going to be a huge pain in the ass within a few years. And you guys (the readers) have a role to play too. You need to tweet, plurk or spread the word about this problem. Like just in case the people from Microsoft doesn’t read WebRampage for some weird reason.

Oh and let me know if you think they can manage to get most of the people upgraded and if not, what problems would we face?

From time to time, my brain stops working and I can’t think of what to blog about. Its not exactly writer’s block. I try to think of something unique to write about. Well I was thinking (for a change) and I realized something important. Its about social bookmarking sites and how obsessed I was with it.

I tried so hard to get on Digg’s front page, but I failed. I don’t know what’s wrong. I tried my best. I guess Digg hates me or something. I got around 250 diggs on a few submissions too. Its not like I got the basics wrong or something. I’m just not lucky enough.

I submitted my second last post to Digg and someone else made a submission about the same topic. It was about all the CAPTCHAs on Digg. Well the other guy was a power digger and his submission made it to the front. Mine didn’t, of course. I was really pissed off.

Now just a few minutes ago I was thinking of trying to game Digg. No more being a nice guy. Thinking of gaming Digg, SU, etc and grabing some traffic that way. But, then I asked myself what the fuck am I doing? Why am I so fucking hooked on traffic from social bookmarking sites? It was completely messed up.

I forgot that I can get traffic from search engines, backlinks, etc. There are other ways to promote my blog. I can comment on other blogs, talk about it in forums, promote it on micro-blogging sites like Plurk, etc, etc. I was obsessed. Obsessed with the traffic from social bookmarking sites. It was like everything to me. It was as if my blog’s success depended on that traffic. But, the good thing is that I snapped out of it.

I’m hoping that I could help a few people snap out of this obsession. Open your eyes and think about it. Don’t go crazy for the traffic from social bookmarking sites. If you don’t go popular there then its not the end of the world. Build a great site, have quality content, and be optimistic.

Before you get me wrong, let me tell you that I’m not saying that you should stop using social bookmarking sites or anything. Think of the traffic from social bookmarking sites as a gift. Don’t fight for the gift. You’ll get it if you’ve done a good job.

YouNoodle is a new site that can predict what your startup’s value will be in future. I’ve gotta admit that it is truly a…piece of shit! Or maybe I’m wrong. I guess they’ve made a site that can time-travel and tells you how your startup will do in three years.

Okay this site is being worshipped by TechCrunch. I read about YouNoodle on TechCrunch and it looked interesting. Well it was in private beta and it had a signup form. I wanted to take the prediction thing for a test drive. So, I entered my email address feeling confident that I won’t be spammed since it was referred by the holiness, TechCrunch.

Well guess what? The title of the post says it all. I’m being fucking spammed by YouNoodles. They sent me 21 emails within 5 minutes about their stupid launch. Like WTF? But, wait that’s not all. I’m going to get my ass spammed more because they sent everyone an email by CCing.

Just take a look at this screenshot. See what I mean? Now someone can just copy/paste all the email addresses and start spamming us. Plus it shows how professional YouNoodle is. Couldn’t they do something less “noobish”? Like c`mon, this is how little kids send emails to all their friends.

Now the point is that you can see how much bullshit TechCrunch posts about. They’ve got it all wrong. It should be quality over quantity. I’m surprised how they managed to get 862K readers. Lucky bastards!

TechCrunch please check things before actually posting about it. And YouNoodles can you please stop spamming me now (and you gotta nice name for a noodle company).

Update: Okay I contacted YouNoodles a few minutes back and they apologized for this. Well I don’t know if their predictor actually works because its not a perfect world. Its like trying to predict when you’re gonna die. But, I love their attitude and that’s something you need in order to be successful:

Hi,

Huge apologies, our mail transfer agent malfunctioned and batched
messages together.

You were among a small number of people affected and thanks to your
message, among others, we were able to catch this quickly.

Today we rolled out Startup Predictor to a massive audience with very
minimal technical problems of which this was one.

Thanks for your interest in what we’ve built, look forward to your
feedback. Again, apologies for this.

- Kirill

YouNoodle, cofounder
http://younoodle.com