Posted on by Fraser Cain

Universe Today is Banned from Digg

I’ve been getting emails from a few users over the last week wondering why I’ve been banned from Digg. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but sure enough, if you try and submit a Universe Today story to Digg, you get the error:

This domain has been consistently flagged as violating the Digg Terms of Service and cannot be submitted at this time. Please refer to our Terms of Service (digg.com/tos) for more information.


I found this unusual, and attempted to contact the admin folks who run Digg, trying to find out what happened and see how I can fix the problem, and I got a canned response.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us at Digg.com regarding your website.

As you know, Digg is a community-driven website – our community has consistently reported the domain to which you refer.

Because unblocking your domain would not be in line with the best interests of the larger Digg community, we will not reverse this decision.

For more information, please see http://digg.com/faq and http://digg.com/tos

Thank you,

—Digg Support


So there you go. Apparently I’m not allowed to be in Digg. It wasn’t from me spamming links to Digg, I usually just let the community find the stories and submit them, so I have no idea what happened. The last story I submitted was back in July.

Anyway, I’ve removed the links to Digg from Universe Today since they don’t really serve a purpose anymore. Also, a couple of powerusers at Digg who tried to submit stories let me know that people are moving over to Mixx.com. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

46 Replies to “Universe Today is Banned from Digg”

  1. Digg is going through a really strange time – it looks like a huge number of great websites have been banned. For a community-driven website, this really sends out the wrong message. I think the days of Digg social bookmarking dominance are numbered.

    Let’s all migrate to Mixx, Stumble, Reddit etc. 🙂

    Cheers, Ian

  2. That is total crap. And apparently Digg is too cool for school…
    Well, I won’t be digging any longer.

  4. From what I’ve seen digg.com is pretty clueless.

    If I were you, I wouldn’t let them post my stuff for
    less than $100 an article.

    Maybe mixx.com will be smarter.

  5. I don’t understand why anyone would report Universe Today articles in violation. Unless some of the anti-science folks out there aren’t happy with all the wonderful genuine science your site provides and have been falsely flagging you. It’s a shame.

    I will be canceling my digg account now and starting a mixx one.

  7. What a load of crap!
    Forget about digg and keep up with your very good work!
    I read you every day and I don’t need digg to do so.
    And I have just deleted my digg account because of this stupid story.

  10. Your competition could have done it to you. I guess you’ll just have to think about who’s hungry enough to spend time complaining to Digg about your camp so that they’re in and you’re out.

  12. Universe Today

    Has become my main news website havnt even looked at Digg.com

    Great Articles, news and members posting

    Keep it up everyone

  13. This is ridiculous. Universe Today has to be one of the best websites out there. I cannot believe it was banned from digg.

    I will be deleted my digg user account today. This is simply unacceptable.

  14. Why would anyone complain about Universe Today? This is one of the best sites for science news and topics. Forget about Digg. I know I will.

  15. I’m at a loss. That’s a completely clueless decision from digg’s side. Time to move on, I guess.

  16. I have had a Digg accont almost since it started, but that account will be deleted after i send a firmly worded e-mail in protest about this.

  17. Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it. It definitely makes me think that I’m be targeted by some vandal, but you would think that the review process would have caught that. Which leads me to believe that there isn’t a real review process.

  19. Some of those Hubble photos are quite racy!! Shame on you Fraser for spreading this astronomical filth!
    ;oD

  20. I’ve never paid much attention to Digg and will pay even less now…

    Keep up the good work on UT.

  22. Don’t worry about Digg! Your site is one of the best in science outreach! Even as a professional astronomer, I follow you in a daily basis to keep me updated in astronomical advances beyond my field.

    Beside that, Digg’s centralized approach has been criticized by some. I prefer a distributed approach and I have you in my “shared items” of google reader and many of my friends also read you.

    Keep working! 😉

  23. I never cared to check out what digg does exactly and now even care less. Looks like a mindless purpose after all. And the canned answer speaks for itself. Mindless.
    I now consider these digg tags to be proven spam.

  24. Sounds like the only thing that Digg is doing is digging their own graves!

    One, the real reason (and current worrying trends of the science media) is probably because the science discussed is contradictory to radial religious views (fundamentalists) and the discussions seemingly supporting or advocating the theory of evolution or even basic stellar evolution. Anyone who declares differently to the 6,000 year old is now blacklisted as via “User Conduct” that “…otherwise violates any law or right of any third party.” I.e. Via ill informed rights to maintain religious doctrines.

    Here groups like the intelligent design lot are now beginning to use subversive tactics. They no are longer arguing their point but instead bluntly silencing their critics and proponents of observationally based astronomy theory or science. There idea is that science will just go away if no one is talking about it, or that their kids will never read about it.

    Another is there is probably not enough astrology or alternative “culture” in Universe Today, which I believe is very strong in Delaware.

    I say forget ’em and just ignore Digg altogether, as your overall readership will change very little, and those that you loose likely have alternative agendas.

  25. Yes! At last, I have my own conspiracy! I wrote an article posted on my site and Dugg the page so we can all have a protest vote:

    http://digg.com/space/Universe_Today_Banned_from_Digg_com

    Cool, it’s still there. BUT, the article has been removed from the “upcoming” list:

    http://digg.com/all/space/upcoming

    This was done deliberately for sure as all articles remain in the “upcoming” section for at least 24 hours so people can browse the submissions and vote. Unfortunately, although there are older Diggs in there, the link to my article is missing, it’s been taken out of the voting process. 😮 😮 😮

    I’ve used Digg for a long time, and this has never happened, it simply goes against the whole point of the site.

    As I’ve asked before: what does a democracy turn into when the choice of vote is removed?

    Oh well, never mind. Time to write more articles and get back into the business of communicating science!

    Thanks all!

    Ian

  26. As a High School science teacher I use Universe Today as a teaching tool. On a personal level I think that your website is a beacon of truth among all the pseudo-science spewed at our children through the web. I say forget Digg! Keep up the good work you are my teaching assistant.

  28. *begin conspiracy thinking* I suspect people from abovetopsecret website had something to do with the ban. They seem to have some Digg connections. *end conspiracy thinking*
    I go on to ATS sometimes for some “lol.”

  30. Hilarious. Apparently DIGG has assumed, as the Web and Wiki did initially, that no one would ever abuse their access maliciously. Aren’t we glad UT and BAUT have moderators? And accessable administrators?

    Fraser, Phil, et al., keep up the good work.

    Regards, John M.

  31. The last time I worried about anything having to do with digging was the last time I played Diggers.

    That was a long, long time ago.

  32. They ban UT but allow Huffington Post to survive?!?!
    Time to move on to a new social bookmarking site.
    Bye Kevin

  36. You would think Digg would have some way of correlating complaints with reporting violator quantities and tendencies to discern the spurious. Obviously they don’t, so their “service” is essentially worthless. UT is one of the best web sites on the Internet. Unlike Digg it provides true value to its visitors.

  38. I submitted to Digg just now and it worked. Perhaps there was a mistake made and now it’s corrected?

  42. This is absurd. I subscribe to UT’s feed, and feel this site one of the best of science oriented blogs and sites, for its general content and approach.

    As for Digg, I’ve read for a couple years now that it’s most irrational. Many long stories.

    UT is just fine; don’t worry about them. None of us are going away, and you don’t need Digg.

  43. I wouldn’t worry about it. Digg has ceased to matter to me about 4-5 months ago. I wasting too much time going through obama/anti-bush/other blogspam that it ceased to be worth visiting daily.

  44. I tossed my Digg account citing UT’s banning as the reason. Veretax is correct, its all just pointless blogspam & election drivel. Ever notice that a submission from a regular Digger never makes the front page, but the exact same submission from a “Digg Star” zooms to the top? Its all cliques and competing personalities. No substance and no value any longer.

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