Deep Jive Interests

Ever wonder how easy it is to game digg?  Even if its unintentional?  Read on. 

A girl from a school (high school?  college?) in Colorado Springs (or is it Houston?), named Alison (perhaps Alison Wood), got an assignment in class, wherein she was asked to participate on Digg and submit a certain number of articles, but also comment on a number of them.

Interesting.

I wish I could have earned credits for doing what I do in my spare time … but, perhaps that’s just sour grapes. ;)

Anyway, the grapes continue:

She sends a message to a Digger asking for some help on her assignment. 

Again pretty benign.

Here’s where things begin to take off:

He posts the whole course of events so far on Digg.

Then, people start noticing, *IT* gets dugg, and it seems now like people are digging her stories because of who she is and not, perhaps, because of what she’s digging.

Ironically, some diggers might be promoting her to show that Digg isn’t perfect.  Here’s what one poster said:

We are digging them because she was GIVEN this assignment, she didn’t choose it. Hopefully, by digging her stories, we can simultaneously give her the “A” she deserves and send a message to her professor (and hopefully faculty everywhere) that this sort of assignment won’t work in the future.

And of course, the fact that she isn’t unattractive has some role on a site where I would bet the vast majority of diggers are male.

and because she looks like a perfect 10
can we get a myspace/facebook page or something

How is AliWood doing right now?  Well, out of 5 posts she’s gotten 3/5 are hitting the front page, and the last one is well on its way.

I’d say that’s pretty “good” for someone who just joined Digg for less than a week.

They’ve all been posted within one day or so, and a lively debate goes on about how Digg is being manipulated for the sake of a grade.

Although Digg is fairly “democratic” in its approach to sorting out news, I think we can all agree that unfettered “democracy” can clearly be manipulated.

Most cynics would also agree this plays out on a larger scale in the United States and other countries, but what’s fascinating is how — in real time — we can see Digg as a microcosm for such protocols.