uSocial.net openly advertises that it "sells" votes to promote stories onto Digg's front page, a practice known as "gaming"
A 24-year-old entrepreneur has declared war on Digg.com, the biggest social news website in the world, by setting up a company that cheats the system for profit.
Leon Hill has set up uSocial.net which openly advertises that it "sells" votes to promote stories onto Digg's front page.
Digg is a social news website where links to online stories are voted up or down by its 35 million users. If a link gathers enough votes to get on the front page of Digg, which ranks the most popular stories, the website in question can gain 200,000 hits from users within a few hours. More traffic can mean more influence and more money from advertisers.
Mr Hill, from Brisbane, Australia, says he puts companies' stories on the front page of Digg and other social media sites if they pay for the votes. This dubious practice, called "gaming" has been around since social news media was invented, but Mr Hill is the most brazen proponent yet.
uSocial uses a dozen people around the world to place votes using software written by Mr Hill. He claims that Digg, which regularly identifies suspect voting patterns and bans users it suspects of gaming, has been unable to pick out any its employees in the three months of operation so far and all its accounts remain unblocked.
Mr Hill offers 200 Digg votes for up to $200. The site is currently running a special offer of 400 Digg votes for $314.50.
Users who are paid to vote for stories are breaking Digg's terms of use and can be permanently banned. Gaming is also hated by most Digg users who view it as against the spirit of such sites, which rely on their online communities to provide honest verdicts. If users were to believe that stories without merit were monopolising the front page, the site would lose credibility and users.
Digg was founded in December 2004 as a site for people to discover and share content by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on already submitted stories. It aimed to offer the wisdom of the crowd to provide a range of news stories that were more interesting and relevant than traditional news sites operated by editors. The site rapidly gained popularity. There are now a range of similar sites including Yahoo! Buzz, StumbleUpon and AOL's Propeller - all of which are being targeted by uSocial.
More than 20,000 stories are submitted to Digg every day and only a tiny percentage of the most Dugg stories get onto the front page.
There are also lists for the most popular stores in several categories including technology, science, entertainment and sports. Digg prides itself on the validity of its front page and recently introduced changes to the systems so that a greater variety of diggers got their stories onto the front page platform.
Digg founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson have become internet pin-ups and the company recently secured $39 million in venture capital funding to give it more time to make money from its huge and devoted following.
Mr Hill told The Times in a telephone interview that he knew he was undermining Digg. "I know that a lot of people are angry with me. But people ranting have been good publicity for me and I know that I am providing a valuable service for small business owners and a lot of companies out there - for them it is a godsend," he added.
Leon Hill has set up uSocial.net which openly advertises that it "sells" votes to promote stories onto Digg's front page.
Digg is a social news website where links to online stories are voted up or down by its 35 million users. If a link gathers enough votes to get on the front page of Digg, which ranks the most popular stories, the website in question can gain 200,000 hits from users within a few hours. More traffic can mean more influence and more money from advertisers.
Mr Hill, from Brisbane, Australia, says he puts companies' stories on the front page of Digg and other social media sites if they pay for the votes. This dubious practice, called "gaming" has been around since social news media was invented, but Mr Hill is the most brazen proponent yet.
uSocial uses a dozen people around the world to place votes using software written by Mr Hill. He claims that Digg, which regularly identifies suspect voting patterns and bans users it suspects of gaming, has been unable to pick out any its employees in the three months of operation so far and all its accounts remain unblocked.
Mr Hill offers 200 Digg votes for up to $200. The site is currently running a special offer of 400 Digg votes for $314.50.
Users who are paid to vote for stories are breaking Digg's terms of use and can be permanently banned. Gaming is also hated by most Digg users who view it as against the spirit of such sites, which rely on their online communities to provide honest verdicts. If users were to believe that stories without merit were monopolising the front page, the site would lose credibility and users.
Digg was founded in December 2004 as a site for people to discover and share content by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on already submitted stories. It aimed to offer the wisdom of the crowd to provide a range of news stories that were more interesting and relevant than traditional news sites operated by editors. The site rapidly gained popularity. There are now a range of similar sites including Yahoo! Buzz, StumbleUpon and AOL's Propeller - all of which are being targeted by uSocial.
More than 20,000 stories are submitted to Digg every day and only a tiny percentage of the most Dugg stories get onto the front page.
There are also lists for the most popular stores in several categories including technology, science, entertainment and sports. Digg prides itself on the validity of its front page and recently introduced changes to the systems so that a greater variety of diggers got their stories onto the front page platform.
Digg founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson have become internet pin-ups and the company recently secured $39 million in venture capital funding to give it more time to make money from its huge and devoted following.
Mr Hill told The Times in a telephone interview that he knew he was undermining Digg. "I know that a lot of people are angry with me. But people ranting have been good publicity for me and I know that I am providing a valuable service for small business owners and a lot of companies out there - for them it is a godsend," he added.