I was a digger, now I am banned. Why you may wonder… that is what I wonder as well. The support staff at Digg.com has provided no specific incident or infraction against the http://digg.com/tou they have quoted as a vague and generic reason for the ban. I have been a digg user openly as myself, not an assumed identity, not a false identity, just me, Mich De L’Orme, with the username MichDe. I was a member of the digg community for just over three months. I emailed the digg support staff through their contact form and after several hours sent a second email directly.
Sent via http://digg.com/contact :
Hello, I woke up today I can’t log in, it says my account is inactive. Can you please explain what has happened and what I need to do to fix it. Thank you very much. Mich D.
Send direct to support@digg.com :
Hello,
I can’t log in and my account is showing inactive. Can you please tell me what has happened? I went to sleep diggin’ and woke up diggless. I tried to use the contact form but have not heard back yet. Please let me know what’s going on and why this has happened.
Thanks for you time,
peace,
Mich D
On the next day I was sent this as a response:
Thank you for contacting us at Digg.com.
Your account was removed for violating the Digg Terms of Use (http://digg.com/tou) that you agreed to when registering for Digg.com.
From Digg Terms Of Use (http://digg.com/tou): 5. USER CONDUCT
As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Use, or any other purpose not reasonably intended by Digg.
By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use the Services:
9. with the intention of artificially inflating or altering the ‘digg count’, comments, or any other Digg service, including by way of creating separate user accounts for the purpose of artificially altering Digg’s services; giving or receiving money or other remuneration in exchange for votes; or participating in any other organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Digg’s services;
Due to the nature and severity of abuse, your account will not be re-instated. This decision is final and irreversible.
Thank you,
-The Digg Support Team.
Being this tells me absolutely no information as to what I have been accused of, I responded with this:
Hello Digg Support Team,
Thank you for you response to my prior contact and account issues. I now know I am ‘banned’ but I am baffled by the reasoning as it is unclear as to what you mean.
Can you please explain this to me? I do not have multiple accounts and I am not paid to digg stories or submit them. The vast majority of my submissions were from top notch websites and the remainder interesting things from blogs and humor sites. I do not even submit my own content or websites. I have never compensated anyone for digging or submitting stories for me either. To the best of my knowledge I have never broken the law as part of the digg community. I do not have a system for artificially inflating or altering digg votes or comments.
Your reply has me at a total loss as to what I could have possibly done. All I ask is to be informed on what I am being specifically accused of, as I take great pride in my ability to find worthy submissions for your site and have no knowledge of any actions the types you have implied.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to your reply.
Peace,
Mich De L’Orme
After more than twenty four hours I have yet to receive any reply from the digg staff, digg support or digg community administrators. During the past forty eight hours there have been many users from the active digg community attempting to contact the @digg_community and @digg twitter accounts, they have also tried to use both the digg contact form support email and digg comments from stories related to the overall incident leading to what is assumed to have been the reason behind it… I wrote a blog post.
- Digg Twitter Accounts and Examples of the Digg community asking for help.
- Digg.com’s Community Manager Jen: Jen Burton (justjen) on Twitter
- Official Digg.com Community Twitter account: Digg Community (digg_community) on Twitter
- Digg comment on: 3 Ways Digg Can Stop the Bury Brigade Dead in it’s Tracks
- Digg comment on: 3 Ways Digg Can Stop the Bury Brigade Dead in it’s Tracks
- Digg comment on: 3 Ways Digg Can Stop the Bury Brigade Dead in it’s Tracks
- Twitter / QuentinsOnTheWay
- Twitter / Amy Vernon
- Twitter / Joyce Carpenter
- Twitter / Donna Chaffins
- Twitter / Andrew Burnett
- Twitter / Gerri L Elder
- Twitter / Angel Wardriver
- Twitter / Lyle Hawkins
- Twitter / Matt
- Twitter / Social Gun
- Twitter / Lauren Elder
- Twitter / The Zoner
- Twitter / EMFK
- Twitter / gorgeous sand
- Twitter / pingpants
- Twitter / BaddBrainz
- Twitter / Erin Ryan
- Twitter / JD Rucker
- Twitter / Shawn
- This is a small sample of no less than 30 ignored community questions and pleas to the digg community and digg community manager by active upstanding self motivated diggers in the last 24hrs.
As you can see by looking at either the digg_community or community managers twitter profiles, they have both been active and responded to other persons. Why for two days straight the actual digg users who make up the digg community have not been answered is for digg to define. Perhaps it is not worth their time or an individual user does not deserve and answer. Who am I to ask for fair treatment from a ‘democratic’ social site. I only ask to know what I am being accused of doing. Not a undecipherable undefined list of possible reasons from an automated system. A simple example of what exactly I have done wrong. At this point no proof has been presented, no situations or accounts mentioned. Nor have I been told any point of misconduct I may have actually done.
For now I will leave off and hope I hear something from them soon. There has to be some mistake or evidence after all. Because digg is a democratic fair social community that respects its users and cares about the community.
- New Media Tagged: banned bury community digg bury-brigade
All I want is to know why. I love Digging and being a Digger. Please help if you can, Peace.