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Digg’s Too Big of A Gig For Me To Dig November 15, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg.
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5 comments

The Digg monster has defeated me; it’s too damned big.

I no longer consider myself a social news and networking n00b.  I’ve experimented with a number of social news sites:  Digg, Reddit, Shoutwire, Plime, Slashdot and Mixx.  Each site has its own quirks, its own audience, and its own rules.  Each has its own audience and favorite subject matter.  Social news sites aren’t all the same!

(more…)

Brain Broadcast – Social Bookmarking September 23, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg, social bookmarking.
Tags: ,
2 comments

I’ve had the weekend to decide.  The new Digg just isn’t going to work for me.

I’ll be an occasional visitor at best.

So it goes.

Brain Broadcast – Social Bookmarking September 21, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg, social bookmarking.
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Digg has changed their user interface and it’s not a very popular change to date.

They’ve added some good features, but they’ve made one huge change to the Digg-ing process which slows it down. A lot. It’ll probably be a good change in the long run, but it’s really annoying right now and it will probably have a huge impact on how people use this site. Which, again, in the long run might be for the best.

I personally find the navigation confusing, especially the Friend/Fan/Network changes.

Just another reason to spend less time there, or so I think at the moment.

Brain Broadcast – Grief the Web 2.0 Way September 11, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg.
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I’m posting this story because it involves Web 2.0 in a roundabout way, plus this incident occurred in my home province. I’m not trying to sensationalize this story and I feel some sympathy for the people who are suffering at this time. However, it does provoke some thoughts about how people deal with grief.

read more | digg story

Brain Broadcast – Dangerous Weather! September 9, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg.
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I “Stumbled Upon” this nasty weather photo – I’ve never seen bad weather like this before – I would not have wanted to be there!

read more | digg story

Brain Broadcast – Web Identity August 23, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in avatar, blog, digg, social bookmarking, websites, writing.
1 comment so far

 I read this article, which talks about the value of an online writer’s avatar.  Think of it as a brand, or logo that help people identify you.

The article by Ben Yoskovitz was inspired by this article, which talked about ways to be more “successful” at Digg, including the use of an avatar.

These two articles inspired me to write the following commentary, which I posted as comments.

The fact of the matter is that many readers will not do a detailed content read. They might not have the desire and they probably don’t have the time to do so. They will develop preferences for content submitted by certain people, learn to recognize the avatar/photo, and then use that avatar as a visual cue to attract their attention to that poster. I guess I’m agreeing with Elmer on this.

It’s unscrupulous (and pathetic, IMHO) to steal someone’s image or else mostly copy it for your own, because you’re clearly trying to “steal” their business, so to speak. So I agree with Fortune Fox.

Content should always be king, but we need to recognize that we’re all fighting for the viewer’s attention and these visual cues help. That’s where branding comes in. Yeah, most of this stuff is a hobby to us, but we’re all looking for an audience, right?

The thing is, unless we go through some legal hoops, we don’t actually own our avatars. I can’t claim to own mine, I can only hope that the image that I use will help people recognize me amongst other talented and prolific people.

Having written all of that, I’m now thinking of changing my on-line avatar to an original image.  I’m kind of riding on the popularity of someone else’s creation, you know?

Brain Broadcast – Web August 20, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in blog, changes, digg, helium, marketing, media, netscape, reddit, shoutwire, social bookmarking, websites, writing.
3 comments

I think I’m getting lost in a sea of blogs, social bookmarking, linking, networking, etc.  While it’s fun and kind of exciting to explore this new frontier, I don’t really feel like I’m getting anywhere, nor do I seem to have much in the way of direction or planning.

I’m doing stuff on Helium.  I posted on Triond.  I’m trying out Newsvine.  I’ve been trying to build up networks on Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and I also posted on Shoutwire.  I’m building up Del.icio.us bookmarks like mad.  I’ve been using StumbleUpon (neat idea, incidentally).  This blog is in both Blog Catalog and Technorati.

So what am I really trying to acheive here?  Fame?  Fortune?  Self-expression?  New opportunities?

 All of the above, to some extent, but man oh man right now I feel like I’m on a bullet train with the windows down.

 I suppose this feeling is natural as I explore all of these things.  Clearly, until you know how much you don’t know about a topic, it’s hard to ask meaningful questions and sometimes you don’t really know what you want until you see some examples.

 Maybe this is how some of my clients feel.

Brain Broadcast – Digging August 13, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in digg, helium.
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I’ve been doing a lot of Digg-ing lately.

In addition to learning some cool things, it’s also been driving more traffic towards my Helium articles.

Shameless.  Absolutely shameless.  But doesn’t everyone need a hobby?

Brain Broadcast – Social Bookmarking August 9, 2007

Posted by markdykeman in blog, digg, marketing, netscape, reddit, shoutwire, social bookmarking.
2 comments

So, in addition to the writing I’m doing, I’m also trying to promote some of that same writing through the Internet.  Social bookmarking is a way for people to share links and tags (or key words within your posts) and thus bring more traffic to their websites or blogs.

To date I’ve tried:

  • Reddit
  • Shoutwire
  • Digg
  • Netscape

 Reddit was never very successful for yours truly, but I think that my content didn’t fit their site.  Shoutwire was better, but in the end I think there was, once again,  a bit of a mismatch between my content and the stuff they are used to seeing.

 I’m currently focusing on Digg and I’m trying to build up some contacts there. It’s starting to work a bit, I think, but like anything it takes time and effort.

I’m also going to work gradually on Netscape’s social bookmarking site as well. It seems a bit more general and it might be the best resource for my writing.

It’s fun to learn about this stuff.

Maybe I’ll even learn about search engine optimization someday.