Hacking Digg for Ron Paul

Posted on May 11th, 2007
By Steve Petersen in Politics, Social Networks

Isn't it annoying when a "digger" on digg digs a web page and uses a horrible headline?  Well, I've found out how you can counter that by submitting the same URL with a small hack to get the same page on the site with a better headline.  I did this while trying to chime in on the digg fray around Republican 2008 US Presidential hopeful Ron Paul.

As Todd has chronicled, many diggers vehemently support Ron Paul on the site. 

With all of this hubbub, I wanted to participate by submitting a link to the site calling others to make him the "Greatest Living American" since – as several search engine news sources have reported in the last several days — Stephen Colbert is no longer Google's "Greatest Living American."  Google defused the recent Google bomb (think "miserable failure" and "waffle" in relation to George W. Bush and John Kerry) that placed the Comedy Central show host as the number one result for that query.

I wanted to submit one specific article about Colbert's fall with a headline calling others to help put Paul at number one.  However, someone already submitted the article with only reference to Colbert, and Digg does not allow people to submit a URL more than once.  Thus, I couldn't chime in on the fray as I wanted.

Here's where I made myself proud of myself.  I decided to attempt submitting the article URL with a "#" appended to the end.  This character is used for anchor HTML tags in the page that enable people to point others to predefined spots on a page.  Not only did the URL with only the "#" work in my browser, Digg also accepted it as a different address.  Violà! I got to submit the same article with a Ron Paul touting headline.

"?" and "/" also work on digg.  "#" and "/"don't seem to work on reddit, but "/" does. "#", "?", and "/" all work on Netscape.

Of course, you can do more fancy stuff with this, and servers react differently to each case.

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  1. postpolitical » Ron Paul Pwnership
  2. RyanUnderdown.com » 2007 » May » 07.11.06

Comments

  1. Alex Hammer

    Ron Paul and the Internet ongoing unresolved saga:

    ABC News - The Ron Paul Effect - Congressman Seeks Republican Nomination Backed by Libertarian Faithful (May 7)
    http://hammer2006.blogspot.com.....ssman.html

    ‘The Net’ shoves Ron Paul right down ABC’s throat ! - OpEd News
    http://hammer2006.blogspot.com.....-abcs.html

    EXCLUSIVE: Ron Paul Website Traffic Passes Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and John Edwards - Alexa.com graphs
    http://hammer2006.blogspot.com.....affic.html

  2. Steve Petersen

    Hey Alex,

    I’m glad that Todd brought Ron Paul to my attention since this is truly an interesting phenomenon.

    With Paul’s apparent following it makes me wonder if his tech savvy supporters like his libertarian stances. I wonder how strong the libertarian strain is in the young techie crowd. It makes one wonder how this cohort feels about the government’s ability to enforce net neutrality…

  3. Kevin Fitzroy

    Promoting Ron Paul anywhere and everywhere is no different than standing around a pickle barrel, talking to the undecided voter, 150 years ago. We, Ron Paul’s early adopters and ardent supporters, are using the prevailing technology of our time to spread the message that this man is the best candidate for the presidency of the United States of America.

  4. Alex Hammer

    Updated: Ron Paul explodes in popularity across Google, Technorati, YouTube, Website traffic (surpassing Hillary, Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Edwards) and more. Includes also controversy with ABC and mainstream media status.
    http://hammer2006.blogspot.com.....ernet.html

  5. Concerned

    more Ron Paul grassroots campaigning.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....Gc3-rq2D34

  6. Search Ron Paul

    Please allow me to suggest a website for Ron Paul supporters. It’s a fundraising search engine where the owner contributes 50% of his site’s monthly earnings to help elect Ron Paul the next President of the United States in 2008.

    Ron Paul Fundraising

    Thank you.

  7. libertysilver

    Ron Paul is now in the top tier.

about this blog

The Bivings Report (TBR) is a source of news, insight, research and analysis on the web-based communications industry. TBR content is posted, created and managed by internet strategists, media/communications analysts, web developers, designers and programmers, all of whom are employees of The Bivings Group.

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