The Truth About Digg Patriots

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The Truth About Digg Patriots

Written By : Kerrie Heretic

It should come as no surprise to anyone that since Digg added the Political News and Political Opinion categories to the site, the membership is decidedly liberal. The addition of these categories prior to the 2008 election completely changed the tone of Digg forever. No longer was Digg known as a tech site. The front page would soon be populated with story after story bashing Republican and Conservative politicians and submissions glorifying left-leaning politicians. Conservatives had no chance of being heard, much less getting Conservative submissions to the front page of Digg. Those submissions were systematically buried in the same fashion in which the Digg Patriots group is being accused. Comments made under submissions from right-leaning members were buried into oblivion. In very popular stories regarding Democrats, comments made by Conservatives were buried into double and even triple negative numbers.

Not only is the general membership of Digg overwhelming left-leaning, but the site administrators often make decisions that seem to favor liberal over conservatives. Again, that should come as no surprise as Digg founder Kevin Rose did little to hide his support for President Obama. Most users are certainly going to come down on one side of the aisle at some point. Our group did not exist to stifle all left-leaning content on Digg and accusing the group of censorship is hardly justified. A quick look at all the top political news and opinion stories over the last year and half proves how inaccurate that claim is. Looking through the first 10 pages of submissions that became popular under the Political News category over that last year, there is only 1 submission out of the 150 that has a conservative bias, which is the news story about Scott Brown winning his Senate race.

On any given day on Digg, left-based submissions made popular outnumber right-based submissions easily by a factor of 20:1. And look at the content of those popular left-leaning submissions. How many are attacks on Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc?

In addition, most conservative comments are met with replies that are nothing more than childish personal attacks. Though not all, most liberals commenting on Digg are more likely to label a conservative with one of their many catchy tags such as “freeper”, “birther”, “racist” or simply make vulgar or obscene insults. There is no debating or arguing with such behavior. How many of you reading this right now are guilty of making such comments or voting up those comments. How many times have we seen the Glenn Beck rape meme posted?

Did we vote down left-leaning stories or vote up conservative submissions? Yes. However, that vote up or down was still a personal choice of each individual user and done with only a single vote up or down. No one ever used any form of scripts or any other aid to promote or bury a story on Digg.

In fact, what we have been doing is hardly different than anyone else using any other form of communication to promote a submission or even attempt to bury it. Groups of liberal Digg users exist on Twitter or Twitter-clones, Facebook and many other social media sites that do the exact same thing. Anyone on Digg who ever asked anyone else to digg or bury a story at any time in the past is just as guilty or innocent as anyone in Digg patriots.

If you look at submissions of left-leaning Digg users it is a daily occurrence for the same story to be submitted ad nauseum. With hot stories, it’s not unusual to see the exact same story or slight variations submitted dozens of times in the same day. Even the story about Digg Patriots has been submitted no less than a dozen times in the last 24 hours, 3 alone are exact duplicates from DailyKos. Without a doubt, this is one of our biggest issues with liberal Digg submissions. No one was trying to censor actual news or even opinions, but we certainly targeted submissions that were known or obvious duplicates or pieces that we deemed were inaccurate or were from sources that had questionable credibility. We also have pointed out to Digg admins numerous sites that are regularly submitted seeking donations or who copy content from other sites.

I personally find it ironic that so many Democrat and liberal Digg users are so quick to judge and condemn this group, as these are typically the same people who are the first to go into fits of rage regarding due process. In addition, I also find it ironic that these same Digg users calling for our heads have yet to condemn the invasion of privacy, possibly criminal in nature used to access our personal and private emails, which is how 95% of this information was exchanged between Digg Patriot users. These are the same liberal-leaning Digg users who were frothing at the mouth in response to The passing of The Patriot Act under the Bush administration and who have had little criticism of the Obama for not only voting for the Patriot Act as a Senator, but continuing the policies under his presidency.

Most if not all Digg users have certainly been aware of the constant attacks made on various conservative/libertarian Digg users lately, namely Capt Carrot and ThePartyStar, both who were on the Digg Patriots member list. The attacks on ThePartyStar are the most vile and hateful of any I have witnessed on the internet. For nearly two months we have seen new accounts created where the user friends many of the same Digg users, most on the Digg Patriots list and then launches a series of personal, profane and sexual-assault based attacks on Digg user ThePartyStar. This has happened several dozen times in the last few weeks and only seems to have subsided now that Digg has closed new membership. Since it was mentioned in the article about our group that we were allegedly targeting these people who were creating these accounts and attacking ThePartyStar, a group we labeled as the NoBros, it seems odd that the author of this piece is essentially siding with those attackers. It leads me to suspect someone associated with the author is perhaps behind those attacks.

In regards to the continuing attacks on Digg user Capt Carrot (RJ Carter), this seems to be related to an ongoing issue he has dealt with personally for years in which he is attempting to uncover and confront child predators and pedophiles on the internet. This is apparently something that Mr. Carter was involved with long before his affiliation with our group and none of us had any dealing with the matter. Based only on what RJ has told us, the people he is confronting will stoop to the lowest levels and stop at nothing in their attempt to discredit him and paint him as the wrongdoer. It would not surprise me to find out that those attacking Mr. Carter also had a hand in illegally obtaining access to our personal information.

So who was behind the attack on the Digg Patriot group? The author of the piece on Alternet and also a duplicate submission on pubrecord.org is none other than Digg user Novenator who goes by the pen name OleOle Olson. Mr. Olson is a writer/contributor/owner of the site NewsJunkiePost.com. Mr. Olson chose to attack us and single us out as our members often confronted and debated with him. I doubt that anyone is shocked by this revelation as there is possibly no one on Digg who is more of a progressive advocate or radical. His submissions are almost always divisive, political opinion pieces. Apparently Mr. Olson took exception to us continually pointing out his hypocrisy on Digg as he often commented about reporting conservatives for “hijacking” submissions by editorializing the title or description, as he was either guilty of exactly the same thing or had a history of digging liberal or progressive articles in which the submitter had also done the same thing. In addition, as he had attacked various users who had submitted articles or sites that requested donations, we found that his site, newsjunkiepost was also guilty of the same thing that he claimed was a violation of Digg ToS policies.

We also believe Digg user Anamoly100 to have a hand in these attacks as the site she runs and regularly submits from, freakoutnation.com, is also guilty of these alleged Digg ToS violations, not to mention consistently submitting, digging and promoting known duplicates her site published in order to generate web traffic. It doesn’t take much to deduce that these people are not only writing and submitting pieces from their own site in order to promote their personal and political agendas, they are doing it for profit, another violation of Digg’s policies that we have continued to point out.

So as you see, the Digg Patriot group, in an effort to help Digg police their own policies, we are now being singled out and attacked because Mr. Olson may be financially taking a hit due to lost ad revenue on his site. This has less to do with censorship, than it does with his personal vendetta against Digg Patriots for constantly admonishing his less than ethical behavior. Novenator is guilty of exactly the same things he has accused the Digg Patriots of, which is organized digging and burying and we have the screenshot to prove it. I’m certain that the Digg administrators and many Digg users are also aware of his behavior which is why he is not being taken seriously. In last nights show in Social Blade, Digg user MrBabyMan mentioned that Novenator had approached him in the past to submit this hit piece, but he refused to do so due to the lack of credibility and believability of the submission. This obviously took courage and understanding on the part of MrBabyMan as the article published an alleged list in which he was mentioned as a Digg power user whose politics at times seemed to favor the Democrats based solely on his submissions made prior to the 2008 election. I would like to offer an apology to Andy (aka Mr abyMan) that he was involved in this in any way. I hope Andy understands that many of us on the Digg Patriots list are either mutual friends with him on Digg and/or regularly Digg and promote his submissions. Did I personally bury submissions from MrBabyMan that I didn’t agree with politically? Absolutely. That’s why Digg has a bury feature. I would expect him and any of those who disagreed with my politics to do the same with any of my submissions or comments, which I am certain happened frequently.

Is it considered to be “gaming Digg” to email a small group of friends and ask them to vote up or down a submission? As it has been pointed out many times since yesterday, is this not exaclty what Digg asked for when they did away with the shout feature? Is this not the very same thing that other uses do every single day on Twitter, Facebook and via other means? It seems more than anything, that Novenator and the others behind this attack are trampling our civil rights and attempting to deny us the right to assemble and the right to free speech because our views do not agree with his. If the group were assembled in a single room and discussed digging, burying and various user activities, would it still be a violation of Digg ToS. If it were done via phone, would that also be a Digg violation? If it’s done at a location that has nothing to do with Digg, why would Digg care or intervene? According to those on the Social Blade show last night, it is apparently common knowledge that other “bury brigades” exist and have existed. If Digg has the ability to investigate the Digg Patriot group for these alleged violations, there is little doubt that they can investigate others on Digg for the same, but as I and apparently many others agree, no one in the Digg Patriot group did anything wrong, except piss off a few very liberal, sensitive Digg users who are exacting their revenge. It’s really quite sad and pathetic that someone would go to such extreme lengths to attack this group due to political differences.

~Anonymous Digger

But from Kerrie: Novenator would NEVER call for anyone to bury ANYTHING, as this is a violation of digg’s TOU.

northerncanuck

“most conservative comments are met with replies that are nothing more than childish personal attacks. “

I would sincerely like to find a site where that isn't the case, a good debate of opposing ideas would be interesting, informative and educational. But leftists are too full of hate and too barren of original thought to engage in debate.
whats_up

Sure and conservatives are the epitome of decorum, save the bullshit NC, conservatives are just as bad as liberals when it comes replies that are nothing more than childish personal attacks. You need look no farther than the posts on this very site.
mightysamurai

conservatives are just as bad as liberals

And yet, somehow, we resist the urge to invade other websites, conquer them, and prevent liberals from voicing an opinion on them.
The Loud Talker

Maybe a single post without swears would be a good start. The fact of the matter is that liberals use childish tactics to get their ways, and they are blatant hypocrites. Liberals are bullies… all talk and flair, but when you actually hit back they cry to their mommy and scream “not fair!”

I'll compare conservative versus liberal comments on any blog on any day. Liberals — by a very wide margin — are far more negative, far more likely to swear and attack, and far more likely to switch the topic to avoid facing the facts that they willfully ignore just to maintain their heartfelt emotional opinions.
http://twitter.com/Con_Brawler Seth Stuck

Fantastic article!

I posted my own: http://digg.com/d31Z4my
http://twitter.com/mommadona mommadona

Bullshit.
http://www.graphictruth.com GraphicTruth

This article is *whining.* You got caught. Now you are saying “but Billy does it too.” This does not impress me with your capacity for mature thought, your ethos or your honour. You, as a group, made a concious choice to commit an inherently, obviously dishonourable act.

And now, well, you have dishonoured all you strove to support.

Well, if “Billy” actually does what you have done, he would be wrong too, but in point of fact… Billy has not been screencapped colluding as to who's stories to bury based on username ALONE.

But as a noted conservative jurist famously noted IRT the naked assertions waved in his face during the Prop8 appeal – opinion and fact are not the same thing. And some opinions are more credible than others. Pointing this out may have a partisan advantage to a liberal – but the counter is obvious.

Craft a better argument. And stop sneaking around in the virtual woods like a pack of klansmen, as if that were a rational response. It's not. It's definitively irrational; it is virtual violence and the very sort of mob action the first and second amendments were designed to defend the citizenry against.

Moreover, the mere fact that you felt the need to do is persuasive that you could not see any other way to contest the liberal viewpoint.

By the by – it's really very very stupid to admit in public that you engaged in a conspiracy to deprive an identifiable class of persons of their civil rights. I'm not sure that a Federal District Attorney could or even should win such a case, but it's not a question that should ever arise, among citizens of good character.
hahahahahaha!

Projection. My experience has been the opposite. Right wing commenters usually just come on with talking points FAUX has given them for the day. Never deal with issues (much like their pol parties), and seem to be afraid of a lot of stuff. When confronted with facts, most of them end up wanting to repeal some part of the constitution or tax cut the country into the third world.
News is by its nature liberal. New information may change the status quo. Unfortunately, in your quest to drive the right, you misinform, causing more friction, until all you present is fiction.

Face it you're busted! Again. The ends justifies the means behavior you display is the fault of your ideological view of the world.
mightysamurai

Hush, child. Adults are talking.
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

Ahh so speaks the troll whats_up, who can't even resist swearing and 'the right does it too' childishness. Thanks for proving our point.
Tasis

Why not just stop using DIGG. Remove their buttons from your sites. Don't visit there site.

The owner wants a liberal/progressive/socialist site let them just don't send them any business.
http://twitter.com/diggrbiii R

Civil rights? Since when is having your Digg submission front page a civil right?

Digg has been gamed since it started. This wasn't censorship, it was gaming. Something Novenator, the guy who wrote the AlterNet piece, engaged in himself. The screencap proves he, like nearly every other power user on Digg, games Digg in some fashion. In the cap, Novenator is coaching some on how to summon buries without using the word. He knows he's doing it and that why he asks the other user to delete his message.

You Leftists really need to get a grip.

Also, Digg is a website. One of millions out there. And even with all this “censorship” the vast, as in high 90s percentage, of political articles that get promoted to the front page on Digg are left-leaning garbage. Most of which are actually attacks on conservatives or Republicans instead of informative pieces on the leftist agenda. (Maybe that's the leftist agenda?)

So please spare me the outrage. No ones rights were violated.
The Loud Talker

For starters you lose all credibility by referring to Fox as Faux. But nonetheless I will attempt to engage in debate.

Show me any facts that lead to conservative desire to repeal parts of the constitution. Besides, since when did the Left actually care about the constitution? Did Fox create false documents about George W Bush? Nope. That was CBS. Did Fox Photoshop out weapons from a picture of the so-called peace floatilla to Gaza? Nope. That was Reuters. Did Fox crop the image of a legal gun-carrying man at an Obama rally to hide the fact that the man was actually BLACK, then use it to claim that the right is racist? Nope. That was NBC. Does Fox have tons of members in Journolist, a group that has colluded to distort and hide news? Nope. Did Fox bury the ACORN scandal like every other network? Nope. Get my point? Nope… you probably can't admit to real facts.

You say “News by its nature is liberal.” WHAT? News is the factual reporting of events. Editorials can be political (liberal or conservative). Facts are facts, opinions can portray political leanings.

So who is really on the quest to misinform? Actually, I take that back. You have to have a grasp of the facts in order to alter and misinform and obviously you have not a single clue about the reality we live in today.

Now that I've handed your ass to you on a platter, would you care for some fries with that?

Also, your comment about tax cutting us into a third world status shows your ignorance about basic economics. It has been proven again and again that tax cuts lead to a better economy. But don't let that fact bother you, go ahead and believe that taxing the job creators and trillions of debt is the right direction for America.
D-Vega

I have done very well here for years.

And Digg is among the best in social bookmarking.
D-Vega

What sites have liberals “conquered”, as you say?
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

I raise you the Journolist, GT. You're all in, I still have Dan Rather, Reuter, the AP, NBC, et al. I guess that means you are just blathering.
D-Vega

You guys really have no case in the comparisons, wolf. This site is called rightwingnews. And even though it's lot less about news these days and more about soap opera/pro-wrestling, people know what to expect.

Digg, as with any social community, is a reflection of those who participate. More conservatives should participate in the conversation, instead of isolating themselves in echo chambers.
Kral

Caught red-handed. Hope the lot of you are banned.
thepartystar

Thank you for writing the truth. -thepartystar
northerncanuck

Mr. Vega; left wing people are not only tolerated here but the ones who have serious debate are welcomed sincerely. I remember a year or two back when you engaged in good spirited debate. Any left wing site quickly bans conservative posters. That's simply the truth.
Diggproof

A cheater is a cheater. Votes are one thing but cheating crosses the line. Hey I've got an idea. Go start your own Digg if you hate its political leanings that much? Oh that's right, it probably wouldn't get a tenth of the traffic Digg does. I think Novenater said it best when he described the content of most (and I have read them) of these republican/conservative articles when he said that they're “fact-challenged”. That was right on the money.
mightysamurai

…Are you kidding?

Did you seriously not even bother to read the post you are currently commenting on?
mightysamurai

Don't confuse poor D-Vega with facts. He's sensitive.
mightyjoeyoung

The Digg “Patriots” are nothing more than a bunch of anti-first-amendment cowards.
http://twitter.com/TokeOfTheTown Toke of the Town

You got caught. Cheating.

Cowboy up and deal with it; don't point and whine that “he did it too.”
strand

There is actually quite an ongoing movement to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment (aka part of the Constitution).
http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2010/08…
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100808…

Oh, and the Seventeenth Amendment.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/colum…
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/37…

Oh, look! The Sixteenth Amendment!
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=…
http://zakklemmer.vox.com/library/post/the-libe…

Gosh. This sure does look to me like there's some kind of “conservative desire” to repeal parts of the Constitution. You know, those pesky things called Amendments that happen every once in a while. Weird how that happens.
D-Vega

Digg has not been conquered by liberals, first of all.

Secondly, like I said, Digg is representative of its community.
D-Vega

no, it's not. Digg has conservative commentators. Political Animal has conservative commentators.

Secondly, left wingers are only tolerated here because you all have no choice. Anyone leftwing is met immediately with hostility.

Lastly, I still engage in spirited debate. It's the community here that would rather argue and whine.
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

Non? So you and the liberals have been banned here because of opposing views? Deissnt from the conservative line has bene squashed, or are you just being a buffoon?
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

“Lastly, I still engage in spirited debate. It's the community here that would rather argue and whine. ”

Riiiight, that went out the door in 2008 and Obama running for office, you lost way too much objectivity. But please keep telling yourself you haven't changed.
http://www.patriotpost.com bthewolf

Echo chambers, you're projecting DV. sad but typical.
D-Vega

You see? Already starting an argument.
D-Vega

And insults.
D-Vega

This site is a special case. But some conservative sites are just as likely to ban someone as some liberal sites.

Sites like KOS, DU, etc. are not set-up or designed to be objective forums.

This is just, once again, an opportunity for conservatives to play victim over some imagined liberal conspiracy.
Circlelimit4

“Did we vote down left-leaning stories or vote up conservative submissions? Yes. However, that vote up or down was still a personal choice of each individual user and done with only a single vote up or down.”

The funniest part about the Digg Patriots is that they not only buried items they didn't read, they also buried items in which they agreed. This article is just one giant backpedal.

Does this brand of childish, misinformation arms race occur on the left as well as the right? Absolutely. Do lefty social networkers also take part in such malevolently strategic and coordinated censorship crusades? Possibly, if so they haven't been busted quite like DP.

But what's most disgusting is the complete lack of personal integrity these Digg Patriots have. Not only did they throw their integrity in the trash, but they did so in the name of increased divisiveness. It's this brand of cookie cutting, label-driven, us-vs-them attitude that is REALLY what's wrong with politics today.

Everyone who's ever resorted to saying “you libs” or “you cons” is simply playing into the hands of their respective political parties. These labels are merely prefabricated definitions and applied with prejudice without regard to truth. It's easier to attack a position once it's defined. “You Palin-loving cons” “You Pelosi-loving libs” Did it ever occur to these so-called patriots that someone could hold conservative views on one issue and a liberal view on another? Maybe someone who diggs and article on protecting the 2nd amendment also diggs an article on marijuana legalization.

This whole digg scandal proves that malignant antagonists don't come from the left or the right, but rather it comes from sheep-like individuals who fail to think for themselves and are all too content with painting in black and with with a very broad brush.
hahahahahaha

If the group was innocent and their actions justified, why was the last post on their Yahoo group before the admin took it down “WE'VE BEEN EXPOSED!” You folks are full of it and will say anything to rationalize your lunacy.
http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

Aw. Lets face it you just cant have it all you own way. Gaming the system for equality that you may or may not deserve is still gaming the system.

The first falsehood is calling yourself Patriots. You shouldn't do that. Thats a mistake cons and tea bag people are making of recent. There isn't a patriot among you. Only cheaters.

BTW, Patriots are among the last people to call themselves Patriots.

Move on, so to speak. Make your own site if you have to cry about who has the most articles. Learn Codeigniter. If there are not enough of you on the net to contend with “dose libs” then find out why.
TMN

“leftists are too full of hate and too barren of original thought to engage in debate.”

Yeah, why can't they rise to your level and avoid childish personal attacks?
Flyingbison Chip

That is the stupidest thing I have read today.
How is a privately owned and operated website, and any controversy over its use/abuse a constitutional issue? Please explain how this pertains to “Congress shall make no law….”.
Doughpro160

Actually, I rarely use digg anymore. I got bored with the liberal bias and juvenile tactics used by the left. Instead of it being a social information site, it became an anti-right-wing site. Very discouraging.
Doughpro160

You are part of the problem. It's easy to show arrogance and an insulting manner while anonymous, right? Thing is, those on the right no longer wish to remain anonymous, but they also do not want to contend with ignorant moonbats either.

People are realizing what Digg is, and are creating their own network sites. Problem is, the lunatics aren't happy with being left alone, can't they?
Shawths

SAll I get from this is “I should be able to be evil because others do it”. Thats a six year old response cry baby.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z2FQHXQWTCRRTCGLUNV66AOEI4 MoJ

Nice spin but what makes it hilarious is that a group of my friends with varying political ideologies were targeted by them to get banned because we had one thing in common.. we disliked libertarians. Here is their emails admitting to planting false information in an effort to frame us with sexual harassment which we had nothing to do with:

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/10/15/digg-patriots-censorship-part-2-the-evidence/phoenixtx-dilberto-sex-harassment-plan/

I might mention, if you were to analyze the overall political tendency of our ‘group’ of friends it would be conservative and supporting Israel being the thing in common we had as well as anti-libertarian stances.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z2FQHXQWTCRRTCGLUNV66AOEI4 MoJ

Nice spin but what makes it hilarious is that a group of my friends with varying political ideologies were targeted by them to get banned because we had one thing in common.. we disliked libertarians. Here is their emails admitting to planting false information in an effort to frame us with sexual harassment which we had nothing to do with:

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/10/15/digg-patriots-censorship-part-2-the-evidence/phoenixtx-dilberto-sex-harassment-plan/

I might mention, if you were to analyze the overall political tendency of our ‘group’ of friends it would be conservative and supporting Israel being the thing in common we had as well as anti-libertarian stances.