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Light On Light Through

You'll hear a little of this and lot of that on Light On Light Through - my reviews of great television series and movies, my interviews with authors and creative media people and their interviews of me, my media theory and political commentary, thoughts about my favorite cars and food and space travel, discussions of my music, and a few of my readings from my science fiction stories. In the first years, starting in 2006, I put up a new episode at least once a month.  More recently, it became more or less often than once a month, usually less often.  But in the Summer of 2020, I began getting more in the mood to podcast, and I began publishing a new episode much more often  -- Paul Levinson 

24 October 2021: Interview about Light On Light Through podcast

26 December 2023: Chuck Todd interviews Paul Levinson about Alternate Realities on The Chuck Toddcast  

28 November 2024: The two latest written interviews of me are here and here.

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  2. More Darkside of Digg: Is There A Digg Blacklist?

More Darkside of Digg: Is There A Digg Blacklist?

Aug 29, 2007


My colleague iPhonematters columnist Tanner Godarzi has posted a disturbing piece over on Tech Blot, inquiring if Digg has a "Secret, Highly Aggressive and Fatal Content Filter Machine".

Maybe not coincidentally: I noticed the post on Digg this morning.  I read it, found it plausible, even likely.  And now, back after an afternoon as Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies, I see that ... the post has been buried on Digg already.  Buried, even though it has over 70 Diggs!

Which makes me think Godarzi's hypothesis is even more likely true.

I've already written about the Digg bury brigades, who seem to get their kicks by making sure as many stories as they can get to don't make it to Popularity on Digg.  I've certainly seen many stories about Ron Paul - including a few (but not all) of my own - suffer this fate.  They get 20, 30, 40, 50 Diggs in a short period of time, only to be Buried.

Until now, I thought this was result of hyperactive buriers - anti-Ron Paul and other people who don't like open, democratic flows of information.

But Godarzi is suggesting something much more sinister and destructive.  He believes Digg  may have a blacklist of urls which are given very short leashes - just a few hours (unlike the 24 hours or more for other stories), after which they are automatically Buried, unless they have achieved Popularity.

Godarzi correctly points out that, until a few months ago, certain urls - such as those from MySpace - were banned outright, but now they can be entered on Digg.   He wonders:  did Digg replace this clumsy form of banning with a more insidious kind?   His post (now buried) provides the technical details of how Digg might do this ...

I'm wondering, now, too...

I hope Digg will shed some light on this blacklist.

Digg!