In Digg, there is the Bury feature. This is basically giving a “thumbs-down” to something you don’t like. If you wanted to bury a story you would hit this button: 
. If people “bury” a story enough times it will either not make the homepage or be taken down from the homepage.
The same concept also applies to comments for a story. If you don’t like someone’s comment – you simply give them the “Thumbs-Down” and bury their comment 
. You can then set your comment threshold so that you don’t view anything with a certain amount of “buries” (for example -6).
In principle this is a great system because it should keep the flow of the conversation moving smoothly. No longer any need to read some rambling idiot’s diatribe or a forum spammer touting his wares. Digg also employs threaded commenting which allows you to respond directly to someone else’s comment. Again – this is also designed to keep a conversation going over hundreds of comments. The people “speak” and much like Cesar give a thumbs up or thumbs down and decide a comment’s fate.
So what was the most egregious and offending comment ever posted on Digg? What got more buries then any comment ever? Was it something about killing babies? Or perhaps a statement about the Haulocaust never happening?
Granted Chandler didn’t really add anything to the conversation other than some nice words (a huge NO-NO when commenting on Digg by the way). Chandler also made the other huge mistake of dropping his URL underneath his name (probably out of habit). So at first glance it seems like Chandler was just trying to get his URL out and get people over to his site to hopefully get them to click on his ads – the only problem is that Chandler is a 19 year old college kid with no ads on his site.
As a result of that comment and the resulting backlash Chandler’s phone number was posted, his life was called into question, his design skills were ripped, he received lots of IMs and calls from angry diggers and more. Luckily Chandler has a sense of humor so he decided to write up a post about his experience. The result? His story hit the Digg homepage and is still going strong with almost 3,000 Diggs at the time of writing. This is a fun story that kind that people like to link to (much like I am doing now). Well done.
The moral of the story? When Digg gives you lemons – make linkanade.
Very cool story Chris – thanks for sharing (oops I don’t want to get this comment buried)
I wonder though if this guy actually had an ulterior motive? After browsing his post he seems just a bit too excited with all this attention.
John – I might be being naive but I don’t think there was any outside motive here – he just seems like a kid astounded by the level of attention something so silly received.
Also show’s he’s not the typical zit popping, lacking girlfriend, hates microsoft, hates SEO’s reader/participator of Digg!
also love “Linkanade” …. i think you just coined a new term!
Ha – thanks Li!
This post was very interesting. I liked it!
Chris Hooley
http://www.chris-hooley.com
Well done Chris
You bring up inspiring stories. I bookmarked it to remind myself stand on harsh net comments. I have faced something similar in a forum and I really couldn’t withstand.
Chris keep up your good work!
Thanks very much Gaya – glad you enjoy
I read that yesterday when it popped on my RSS reader and I’m glad you posted something on it.
Do you think it occurs to all those ‘Diggers’ that slamming a comment doesn’t add value either? And what exactly, does ‘piling on’ accomplish? Mr. Kent’s behavior was exemplary given the circumstances.
Sometimes, sheeple mystify me. ; )
Get ready for some reverse Digging. There will be those out there trying to get buried for notoriety now.
Totally agree Chris. As a digger myself, I strongly feel that we should have the power to bury irrelevant comments It is also a good way to check spamming in social networking.
These are not surprising my anymore, but thanks..
Also show's he's not the typical zit popping, lacking girlfriend, hates microsoft, hates SEO's reader/participator of Digg!