How we are responding to users getting banned
Most-excellent S&P users,
After analyzing which users have been banned, we have concluded that Digg set up a “honey pot” of multiple fake users to see which stories were being paid for. They were thus able to determine a few stories that were being promoted and banned the users who Dugg them.
In response to this, we are going to fall back onto our trusted users. Since we have been in successful operation for a while now, we have a large base of users who have been with us prior to the creation of the honey pot. We know the exact time of this based on the stories users were getting banned for Digging. As long as we only allow trusted users to Digg for us, we should be virtually impenetrable moving forward.
We have added functionality to change your Digg username; this can be found on your Digg user page. We have quarantined all users who were Digging the same stories as the banned users, and will un-quarantine them after they change their Digg account with us.
How to Change Your Digg Account:
Digg can track you not just by your username, but through cookies and by your IP address as well. In order to change your Digg username and avoid getting banned in the future, you must first delete the cookies from your browser and then sign up for a new Digg account using the IP anonymizing service known as Tor. Tor is very easy to use, and there is a handy Firefox add-on for it here. Once you have done this, enter your new account on your Digg user page.
How S&P Will Grow Going Forward:
S&P will no longer be accepting new users who were not referred by one of our trusted users, at least for a while. If you have been Digging for us for a long time, please refer some of your friends right now through email.
And of course, we are planning to expand to our next site in a few weeks. Stay tuned.
Other Actions We Have Taken:
In the event that our honey pot conclusion was wrong, we have also changed our algorithms significantly, and have changed our de-referrer service, just in case Digg bought them out.
Subvert and Profit will never die!
hey, i requested a paypal transfer from my account and i have not received it yet.
keep up the good work with s&p - you guys are brilliant
Sounds great!
It is a short time I have joined S&P, but I hope I can start Digging soon…do you think I will have this chance?
How will we know if we’ve been Quarantined?
I’ve not registered yet, and looks like I won’t be able to (and don’t know anybody with an account).
Other problem is this - you probably didn’t catch anyone out of the honey pot - Digg themselves probably created a couple accounts which “laid low”. These accoutns which haven’t been banned, will be able to invite all their friends/colleague’s at Digg HQ! This means a high proportion of your fake diggers will be Digg employees, meaning more honey pots. The only way to combat this is by attracting the masses - you might let in 50 fake accounts from Digg, but potentially 1000’s elsewhere, meaning that you can spread the fake diggs around to the extent even 50 users collaborating cannot determine which diggs are paid.
What have you done…
http://referhide.com/?g=http://www.seopedia.org/seo-news/digg-and-memes/digg-is-banning-users-because-they-digg-too-often/
LOL
AnonUK,
We have definitely considered this. Anyone who has laid low will not be able to anymore.
Josh,
If you are not quarantined, you will be given stories to Digg.
AnonUK,
Also think of your plan of spreading a few fake diggs throughout 1000’s of users. Look at it from S&P’s shoes, they would be paying lots of money to the users while only a few fake diggs are being paid for. It wouldn’t work for them.
Perhaps it would also be good idea to password protect this blog and only allow registered users to read it.
Ragnar Danneskjold - but surely there may still be a number of Digg employees with accounts, and they can just quietly Digg, as you are telling them to, but collaborating their information to try and figure out patterns. For all you know, 10% of your fake Diggers may be Digg staff!
Any updates on when I’ll be able to sign up?
vtforlife - But the way S&P works is that not only paid stories are dugg - users are told to digg non-paid stories as a way of not making it obvious which are fake and which are real.