---
title: "suggestion: tinfoil hat for digg mind control laser defense "
date: 2007-02-15T11:34:27-05:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2007/02/15/it-takes-two-to-tango-yodel-anecdotal/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [asides, yahoo, digg]
---

# suggestion: tinfoil hat for digg mind control laser defense

<blockquote cite="http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/02/14/it-takes-two-to-tango/">We call it a Suggestion Board — you can browse suggestions from other site visitors or post your own. Digg-style voting means we can quickly discover what’s most important to users.</blockquote><div class="quotesource">Source: <a href="http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/02/14/it-takes-two-to-tango/">It takes two to Tango - Yodel Anecdotal</a></div>

Sweet merciful crap are [Digg][] fans a scary, groupthink-y bunch.  I work at Yahoo! — so I guess I'm vulnerable to bias — but it seems like the guys on this team just can't get a break.  They open up public suggestion boards to get open feedback on products — something that I think is very cool and clueful.  They took inspiration from Digg and other prior examples of web-based voting, and what do they get for their trouble?  A few hundred lemmings marching to the beat of "OMFG HAX YOU STOLE DIGGS SITE!"

It's not a major news site; it's not like the front page of Yahoo! turned into a Digg clone and they started offering to pay top Digg users.  Seriously - it's just a suggestion board with simple flat comment threads that invites voting to surface good suggestions.  So it's got a big thumbs-up button reminiscent of [Digg][]'s counter badges - they mentioned that it's like [Digg][].  That's inspiration, maybe flattery-level imitation.  But theft?  If I were a thief, would I tell you where I stole my stuff from?

[digg]: http://digg.com

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082493">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://negatendo.net/~brett/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=4c39d783a464ec45de052c62873b4ac0&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://negatendo.net/~brett/">Brett</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082493" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-02-15T17:06:18">2007-02-15T17:06:18</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Digg always makes me think of: <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/01/mob_justice.html
">http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/01/mob_justice.html</a></p>

<p>"piling on is safe and fun"</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082494">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://decafbad.net"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=ab21890e84fd31ff0d651d77bc82d118&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://decafbad.net">Craig</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082494" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-02-15T18:37:08">2007-02-15T18:37:08</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Delete this if you think this is off topic, but am I the only person on the planet that doesn't quite understand the allure of Digg? Call me stodgy, but I kinda like the editor-in-control feel of Slashdot vs the "OMFG! KITTIES!" attention-cluster-bomb nature of Digg. I've subscribed several times via RSS, and haven't remained subscribed more than a day or two because of the complete crap-flood in my RSS reader.</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082495">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://rasterweb.net/raster/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=db0fab74bcb564ebb09295498b892fb6&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://rasterweb.net/raster/">Pete Prodoehl</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082495" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-02-15T21:39:24">2007-02-15T21:39:24</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Don't tell the Digg mobb about Jyte, I mean, besides voting buttons it even has a 4 letter name like Digg does! OMG C0P13RS!</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082496">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://plasmasturm.org/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=e17949267bbfe21a0fadf1bbf00592b4&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://plasmasturm.org/">Aristotle Pagaltzis</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082496" class="permalink"><time datetime="2007-02-16T00:14:26">2007-02-16T00:14:26</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>I assume you saw <a href="http://tomayko.com/weblog/2006/12/30/digg-scares-me" rel="nofollow">Digg scares me (403 Go Away!)</a>?</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>