Top Diggers list is back
Digg removed its top users list this morning. However, as I mentioned yesterday,
It’s an exercise in futility. A competent programmer could easily throw together a page scraper to determine the top submitters, so when the dust settles, Digg will still have problems with pay-for-play, but the most prolific users will no longer be recognized by Digg for their work that makes the site so successful.
To prove my point, I've done exactly that: I've put together a script that displays the top 100 users at Digg, with the list being updated twice per day. You can see the list here.
Update: I do work for Netscape, but this has nothing to do with them. I did this on my own time and of my own volition.
Also, I didn't create this list for any mean-spirited reasons; I enjoy Digg and the service it provides, but I think Kevin made the wrong choice in removing the top users list. I'm not trying to profit off of this, and I'm not trying to scalp members from Digg for Netscape. I'm just proving a point - this data is easily attainable by anyone who is motivated to get it. Removing the top users list from digg.com does little in stopping people from finding out who the top Diggers are.
Christopher Finke is a software engineer at Mahalo. He is available for birthday parties and bar mitzvahs. 
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:37 am
Your the f'n man Chris.
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Any chance you could send me the source code? I'm curious how this works. . .
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Thanks for bringing it back
February 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
[...] So, here’s a reason why it REALLY won’t matter: Chris Finke over at efinke.com has written a scraping program that repopulates a top digger list. You can find Chris’ own thoughts over here, and the [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
[...] impact was that an enthusiastic programmer, Cristopher Finke brought back the top 100 Digg users list and he promises that it would be updated twice a [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:01 pm
[...] Christopher Fink, who works for Digg competitor Netscape, is scraping user rankings off of individual profiles on Digg and compiling his own list here. [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
What are the odds Digg might make some API changes so that your script will no longer work?
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:40 pm
[...] Christopher Fink, who works for Digg competitor Netscape, is scraping user rankings off of individual profiles on Digg and compiling his own list here. [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
HTMKSteve: changing their API would have no effect, as I'm not using it. As long as they still publish the names of the users along with their stories, it can be tracked to determine the top users.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:03 pm
The table looks messed up in FF2.0 1600x1200.
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
How about including the time that it was last updated?
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[...] Christopher Fink, who works for Digg competitor Netscape, is scraping user rankings off of individual profiles on Digg and compiling his own list here. [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Am I the only one who thinks you're a jerk for doing this?
Why not respect the (seemingly honorable) intent of Kevin, who is the one who founded AND runs a service that you profess to appreciate? Simply because "[a] competent programmer could easily throw together a page scraper" doesn't mean that:
1) It's the RIGHT thing to do
2) You have a responsibility to beat your chest and BE that programmer
In fact, I think far too much of the 'net and the Web 2.0'osphere (blech) is hell bent on the "well, if it *can* be done, then let's do it!"
That's bullshit, IMHO. Admirable restraint is clearly in short supply nowadays.
The annoyed curmudgeon,
Adam
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Adam, I'm sorry you feel that way. I don't agree with your stance, but I understand it.
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:34 pm
[...] Diggã®ãƒ©ã‚¤ãƒãƒ«Netscapeã«å‹¤ã‚ã‚‹Christopher FinkãŒã€Diggユーザーã®ãƒ—ãƒãƒ•ã‚£ãƒ¼ãƒ«ãƒšãƒ¼ã‚¸ã‚’個別ã«åŽé›†ã€ã‚³ãƒ³ãƒ‘イルã—ã¦ç‹¬è‡ªã®ãƒªã‚¹ãƒˆã‚’ã“ã“ã§ä½œæˆã—ã¦ã„ã‚‹ã®ã 。 [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
[...] Chris Finke has hacked together a page which recreates the Top Users - check out his post here and a direct link to the list here. Posted by Chris Winfield at 12:23 pm Bookmark this post: [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
[...] delicious is this irony? The top digger list is back, reproduced by a Netscape employee. The rankings are apparently being scraped from individual user [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:06 pm
[...] podÃa durar mucho, el mismo dÃa ha aparecido nuevamente esta lista pero en otro lugar, creada por Christopher Finke que trabaja para Netscape. Lo que hace es escanear los perfiles de todos los usuarios, que son [...]
February 2nd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
[...] Netscape the Digg copy decided to try to keep Digg down by making their own Digg Top Users page. Christopher Finke who works for Netscape decided to pull data from Digg’s user page that still shows the [...]
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:27 am
[...] à peine cette annonce faite voici que Chritopher Finke, un employé de Netscape, un concurrent de Digg a réussi à reconstituer cette page en analysant [...]
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:34 am
sorry about the dropping of the "e" on your name. I was just doing a quick post before leaving the day gig; and TC had put it up without the "e".
My apologies! btw, great scrape.
Rex
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:41 am
God job man. It's not the same though, ya know? This is fucking bullshit, why should we have to go and do these things, what was so bad about competition on digg?
Oh well, good job anyway!
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:44 am
[...] back together after digg did away with it. It’s not really the same, but still pretty cool.read more | digg [...]
February 3rd, 2007 at 9:57 am
Will Diggs Removal of Top Users Start a Decline in Diggs and Participation ?
http://seo-serps.livejournal.com
Here are the final screenshots of the Final Rankings by The Top 30 Digg Users before the changeover in policy.
There is one for All Users and Active Users.
Now this blogcompiled a twice daily update of the Top 100.
We can compare as time goes by, the overall effect on participation and Diggs
February 3rd, 2007 at 1:01 pm
[...] restoration of Digg’s Top Users page yesterday got a lot of press around the [...]
February 4th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
[...] Christopher Fink, who works for Digg competitor Netscape, is scraping user rankings off of individual profiles on Digg and compiling his own list here. [...]
February 4th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Damnit msaleem passed me again. What's a digger to do!!! Okay everyone you've got to Digg my new amazing Apple, Wii post that'll give you the top ten lowdown with photos of a super secret Digg (anti - Microsoft) agenda.
February 4th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
[...] Christopher Finke, who works for Digg competitor Netscape, is scraping user rankings off of individual profiles and linking users to the front page stories on Digg. He has compiled his own list here. [...]
February 5th, 2007 at 8:41 am
They just pulled the ranking information from the user profiles. Will this have any effect on your top diggers page?
February 5th, 2007 at 8:55 am
The removal of the rank number will have no effect. (Perhaps this will prove wrong the many people who claimed I was just scraping profile pages for that rank value.) They also removed the number of profile views, which I was displaying as well, so my page will no longer contain that data. Because of that, ranking is now determined first by number of popular submissions, and then by the popular ratio, rather than number of profile views. That is the only change.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:22 am
[...] and gaming the site. However, within hours, Cristopher Finke (who actually works for Netscape) had recreated it using publicly available [...]
February 8th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
The list lives on. More features to get the algorithm. http://www.giggg.com
February 9th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
[...] and gaming the site. However, within hours, Cristopher Finke (who actually works for Netscape) had recreated it using publicly available [...]
February 10th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
[...] resurrecting Digg’s Top Users page My restoration of Digg’s Top Users page yesterday got a lot of press around the Web: Both the list and my blog post about the list were [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
[...] sptblog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptDigg removed its top users list this morning. However, as I mentioned yesterday,. It’s an exercise in futility. A competent programmer could easily throw together a page scraper to determine the top submitters, so when the dust settles, … [...]
June 23rd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I think this script is not very accurate. I found several scripts that do the same function and they were all different in their results. So, I don't know what is the best one!
August 11th, 2007 at 5:07 am
What exactly is the digg list? By top users do you mean members who post digg links or users that just click on a digg link already in place to digg what they've just read?
December 8th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I keep getting different results from different scripts. Which is the most accurate?