Join Digg, help the blog

Some of you may have noticed that I've added an updated Digg link to the top of each post, alongside the "comments" link. For those of you who don't know, Digg is a service that helps you sift through all the content on the Web and find the best stuff. It works quite easily....

You create an account on Digg, for free, then every time you read a post on this blog that you think is especially good, that is something that you really want to share with other people because everyone should read it, you simply click the "digg it" button above the post. (Generally speaking, after you log in to Digg the first time, if you ask it to remember who you are, you won't have to log in again.) Digg will ask you to give the post a headline (e.g., "Bush caught lying about Iran") and to describe the post in a few sentences (i.e., what is the post about). Then you submit the post, and that's it.

Now, why should you do this? Because once you've submitted the post to Digg, other Digg readers from across the Net can take a look at what you submitted, and if they agree that it's something others should read, they can "digg" the post too - upping its total number of diggs (you'll notice that there's a number next to the "digg it" link above this post, that's the number of people who have already "dugg" this post, i.e., found it worthy). And the more votes or diggs a post gets, the higher it rises in Digg's system, and the more traffic it sends to read the post and our blog.

Now, it should go without saying that you don't want to digg every post on this blog, or you'll tick people off and no one will trust your digg recommendations in the future. Rather, if you see a really good post, something that everyone simply must read, then THAT'S the post you should digg (you'll note that other sites like FireDogLake and ThinkProgress have digg buttons, so once your logged in you can digg their stuff too). And, if you already see a number greater than zero next to the "digg this" button on any particular post, it means it's already been dugg, so if you like the post too, you can digg it too and up the number.

Sounds complicated, but it isn't. Digg is a neat service, and you can lose yourself for a long time just reading through things others have dugg. And it's a great way to help us out by sending traffic our way. But again, only recommend the good stuff. Thanks, JOHN