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Digg fights spam - my previous post gets caught in the middle

My post about the attempts of someone calling himself KoolAidGuy to game/spam Digg has caused some angst. It appears my post is now being used by koolaidguy as part of his attacks.
Written by Richard MacManus, Contributor

My post about the attempts of someone calling himself KoolAidGuy to game/spam Digg has caused some angst. It appears my post is now being used by koolaidguy as part of his attacks. I've had emails from the company Digg about the matter. They say koolaidguy is a spammer and that my article is egging him on and giving him more attention than he deserves. I offered to write a follow-up article, giving Digg's side of the story - but the offer was politely declined.

There have been two comments posted to my original article recently, which shed some light on this strange saga. The first is from a Digg user who goes by the name 'doddilus':

"Gee thanks a lot, now this script kiddy is spamming this site in the comments of digg stories. or to be more specific this url http://tinyurl.co.uk/cicm which redirects to here

PLEASE for the sake of digg remove this story. You are giving him what he wants the most, attention, and from a major news site. Or atleast remove all the text from his blog."

After that koolaidguy himself posted a comment, which I won't repeat here, entitled "Free Speech does not exist at Digg".

I don't know the full story behind koolaidguy's actions, but I like and respect the people behind the Digg site. So I accept Digg's version that this guy is a spammer who probably doesn't warrent all the attention he's getting. I hate spammers as much as the next person. 

But on the other hand, the free speech issue is an interesting one. I think people who read ZDNet will be able to judge for themselves whether koolaidguy is a spammer or not. Personally I have no reason to doubt Digg's assertion that he is a spammer. What I don't understand is why Digg users are asking me to delete my post about the issue - because that is not going to make the spam go away

There are obviously serious issues with the Digg system being spammed. As Greg Linden pointed out, Digg is an "attractive target for spammers". And to its credit, Digg is addressing those issues. So if Digg can fix up its system and prevent the attacks, then that's the best way to deflect 'attention' away from the spammers. Isn't it?

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