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!

Rejaw is a new micro-blogging platform which launched about two months ago. Now the question is, is Rejaw just another Twitter clone or is it something really unique? Well lets find an answer.

The basics

First of all, I like their design. Its nice and simple. Maybe they could use images instead of using those big ass texts for the headers (ex: shouts, replies, etc). They could make it look a lot better by doing that. But, the colour scheme rocks.

Oh and the name, Rejaw. I’m not too sure if its a good name. I guess its a memorable name.

Profile Customization

Nothing special. Just lets you upload a profile picture, lets you write a bit about yourself and you can enter your location. Doesn’t let you edit the CSS like in Plurk or change the colours and upload a background image like in Twitter. So, that sucks.

Friends & Fans

It’s like Twitter. They have followers and following. Nothing to explain here.

Shouts

The shouts are a bit like Plurk. You get like a page with all the replies. So, that’s good. And it updates real-time. That’s a really good feature. They also have this thing called “whispers” which is like private messages.

The community

The people over there looks pretty active. I made my first shout and I got a few replies within seconds. I was pretty surprised. I guess its because they display all the latest shouts on the front page. Now that’s a good way to keep the level of activity up.

How popular is it?

Its not really popular. I would say its just hyped. So, that means there isn’t a lot of users or at least, active users. People signup for new stuff, they use it a bit and then they leave. I found a lot of users like this on Plurk, so you should be expecting the same from Rejaw too.

Is it just another clone?

No, its not just another Twitter clone. Its more like a clone of Twitter and Plurk. They took the basic idea from Twitter, copied the reply page idea from Plurk and added their own unique feature which is the real-time updates.

Would I use it?

Well I’m not too sure. I mean I’m already using Twitter and Plurk. And now, Rejaw? Plus its not even that cool, to be honest. I might try it out for a bit if I get a few followers there. Right now its 50/50.

Would YOU use it?

Are you going to try it out? Or are you already using it? What do you think of it? Do you think it can compete with the big guys, Twitter and Plurk? Please share your thoughts with us.

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.

So, I’ve recently turned into a social media junkie. I signed up for Twitter, Plurk, FriendFeed, etc. A lot of sites. Takes a lot of precious time to check out each one of them (for updates). Oh crap! But don’t worry Socialthing! is here to make life a bit easier for us.

So, what is Socialthing! going to do for us? Well its like FriendFeed. You open an account, connect to the sites you use and your friends see the updates on Socialthing!. And you can see theirs. Sweet, huh?

Now this could save a hell of lot of time. I’ve been using Socialthing! for a few days now and I like it. Right now, you can only connect to a handful of sites, but they’re working on it. Oh you wanna know which sites you can use with Socailthing!:

• Brightkite
• Delicious
• Digg
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Guitar Hero (WTF? Why this?)
• Last.fm
• Ping.fm
• Plurk
• Pownce
• Seesmic
• Twitter
• Vimeo
• YouTube

Pretty good, right? They also let us vote on which site we want to see next. I voted for SU and Technorati. SU is the more important one though. Oh did I mention that Socialthing! was bought by AOL like yesterday?

Its in private beta right now. But, I got only 2 invites for you guys. The first 2 commenters gets them. Have fun!