Neaveru

I retrieved the last 1100 (Minus one by kevinrose, which skewed all the numbers) stories that hit the front page and found out some info about the users who submitted the stories.
Here’s what I’ve found:

	Users	Stories	Fans	Friends
Total	251	1099.0	449035.0	66976.0
Average	-	4.4	1789.0	266.8
Median	-	2.0	991.0	218.0

Some graphs:
This one shows the number of stories each user had on the front page (horizontal axis) and the number of friends that user had (vertical axis). So for example, there’s a user who had about 43 stories on the front page (of the first 1100). That user had about 210 friends).

This one shows the number of stories each user had and the number of fans that user has.

Raw data:

username	storyCount	fans	friends
MrBabyMan	43	14090	241
ScottMcIntyre	35	2765	152
d2002	34	2333	306
AmyVernon	30	4049	155
louiebaur	29	4448	222
msaleem	29	11849	154
AFelsinger	25	1639	190
albyliontk	20	1746	163
badwithcomputer	20	7781	415
jaybol	20	5984	474
linkserf	20	2172	209
xdvx	20	2789	472
Burento	19	7959	331
badqat	18	1945	216
pavelmah	16	2563	287
Overmind12812	15	2940	194
TheEngineer2008	15	2688	224
BeShirtHappy	14	1563	208
gamebittk	14	2109	272
nitmeh3	14	410	122
oboy	13	4424	488
Griny	12	2127	168
Six6	12	973	581
DigSomeMore	11	2331	255
hooplow	11	467	126
TalSiach	11	5993	327
trentmonica	11	1192	309
upick	11	4091	249
bamafun	10	6028	404
hdar3415	10	6296	177
irfanmp	10	3510	150
lekahe	10	4661	217
naturalpapa	10	973	215
tbhurst	10	2960	235
thegamingguy	10	1489	213
ThePowerDigger	10	2120	204
DiggieHowser	9	651	167
DirectTulip	8	1364	191
GamingForever	8	1285	374
Spielbergo	8	1084	227
anderzole	7	4496	436
brainnovate	7	2614	529
divinediva	7	1433	279
imbanksy	7	551	810
KaiserArny	7	2131	385
mark076h	7	3438	275
openthink	7	4043	150
tnerd	7	607	153
vroom101	7	7540	45
EmitStop	6	2212	218
jboitnott	6	3284	216
lovemorgul	6	956	250
mklopez	6	7479	270
victoryguy	6	1363	453
1KrazyKorean	5	4793	234
bianconeri4ever	5	1904	181
bixby1	5	2845	193
chicagojack	5	1182	141
hsinray	5	1180	223
netgeek06	5	2679	251
orangederange	5	1831	260
redwolfwalker	5	1252	342
smilingcandle	5	1046	575
sungoddess808	5	4301	257
alapoet	4	3206	522
Bukowsky	4	5280	353
chris1234	4	4872	157
dirkdiggler1337	4	264	300
FirstDigg	4	4414	412
Jabrams2	4	875	339
janet25	4	985	364
MediaSight	4	4420	262
michaelpinto	4	1224	475
MiddleAmerica	4	458	331
motang	4	3932	328
Nathrat	4	929	154
noupsell	4	7227	424
PeterNorton	4	1295	420
Rekzai	4	690	125
Slashered	4	655	150
suxmonkey	4	6173	531
virgintech	4	756	256
7FluidAH	3	657	136
davincih	3	1118	485
hantata	3	1207	174
IvanB	3	6734	453
MercyPolitics	3	1481	147
onlysc	3	828	398
philostrato	3	3096	218
skored	3	6780	218
Tychee	3	991	200
XXXL	3	247	87
antdude	2	3676	6
astorygirl	2	950	539
authorfriendly	2	770	889
bakkouz	2	1547	122
bluenile	2	471	9
Cararan	2	1276	111
casspa	2	2698	313
chicagojacobs	2	381	759
Dailydose4me	2	418	221
Darren07	2	1862	316
Dftw	2	1579	208
diggleague	2	4811	226
EMFK	2	448	199
emily543	2	638	337
FennecFox	2	1896	273
granolajoe	2	1738	115
israeligirl	2	1716	812
Jeffler	2	1841	90
jerryjamesstone	2	408	262
kamper07	2	613	437
kevinlouis	2	879	158
Lucas123	2	1552	270
maheshee11	2	4915	268
MakiMaki	2	8305	247
Michaelabehsera	2	1318	527
MrStrider	2	208	92
NewsFeed	2	3314	297
nickceleb	2	442	133
numberneal	2	4824	209
ohnoerino	2	1305	123
pitchblack16	2	1230	191
reflex768	2	5484	198
Relaxxation	2	719	136
Shiner76	2	1098	202
SirPopper	2	4728	411
SpillReviews	2	2654	226
techguru2006	2	3034	348
trmanco	2	98	26
Tuscarosa	2	551	457
WriterSD	2	2628	233
Ac1dburn	1	292	183
acmaurer	1	2174	222
AJB44125	1	10	0
Algeriano	1	327	71
allocate	1	156	315
arijit57	1	553	802
aubs	1	733	167
awesometastic1	1	2337	996
axalon	1	225	217
becurious	1	532	106
Bicep	1	328	413
BillyB	1	326	321
bishvili	1	354	145
bobertf	1	25	2
brotherbob1	1	156	315
Bruceleo	1	855	383
burntbeans	1	33	13
Cancerkitty	1	1441	125
CaptainPlanet	1	875	965
castevens	1	1788	90
ccblaker	1	11	1
Chase357	1	15	10
climatewarrior	1	41	10
clintm77	1	555	105
Clydesdale	1	14	0
ConeBone6t9	1	23	2
conspirator	1	6	6
corybohon	1	53	55
cport11	1	433	138
CrazyNick78	1	206	299
cyndezu	1	969	175
DaedalusIcarus	1	130	404
darkchild82	1	4404	226
darthsand	1	1683	517
davidmesaaz	1	555	490
Deeaannooo	1	240	478
defaultfilter	1	1778	157
dgoddard	1	133	26
DiggFellow	1	513	500
djlaptop	1	527	744
doiveo	1	813	204
domfosnz	1	2715	201
doubleplus	1	134	143
DPozzy	1	325	149
DrOZMAC	1	287	555
ethanator1088	1	406	213
ezentmyer	1	27	0
gbudavid	1	1512	208
godofpumpkins	1	66	8
GonzoMuckraker	1	172	15
goodevil	1	732	237
greenfyre	1	1424	340
greenx	1	74	247
hardyjennz85	1	300	86
hbyrne	1	669	199
iSeven	1	706	463
j0kr555	1	163	265
JacobHey	1	477	124
Jericho6	1	270	183
johnd24	1	316	185
lazycat	1	4963	237
loyalKNG	1	684	315
MacBigot	1	736	284
mageek	1	896	644
ManMProductions	1	471	811
Mernahuana	1	30	63
mikelgan	1	2411	1001
miranda622	1	2503	194
Mogwlaii	1	348	479
mokki	1	2021	647
MookiBlaylock	1	2938	166
moredown	1	399	85
MrBeaverhousing	1	337	334
nebkiwi	1	24	6
niradg	1	757	411
normalkid	1	247	135
oh2dc	1	291	159
orfilms	1	2766	785
paperclipsNsoup	1	1159	751
Peterix	1	19	1
PhantomJM	1	14	0
posthocergo	1	8	4
raisedinhell	1	250	350
raphaeltmnt	1	24	25
redsfaithful	1	3081	155
reincarnate	1	492	241
ritubpant	1	3083	272
rjwusa	1	489	160
Ronbry	1	299	0
ruibochen	1	372	130
saadkamal	1	940	523
sam2gemini	1	342	95
sarafina42	1	1282	235
sarahlee	1	535	220
Sarjalis	1	100	75
schestowitz	1	2538	1001
scottysmith	1	321	129
Sh0rtstak	1	1444	169
shahruz84	1	18	4
sharjeelsayed	1	105	2
sinisa10	1	1522	157
SlipperyNipple	1	53	136
socialpyramid	1	3627	507
sophie81de	1	33	0
spokenkaraoke	1	174	367
stachesnmullets	1	1092	225
Surferess	1	3137	131
tbagginzz	1	32	2
TechnicalTalk	1	504	143
theadvinci	1	472	132
Thesoilawyer	1	208	217
ThunderKitty	1	224	967
Turkman182	1	903	558
vats	1	1794	238
WarmAlaskaman	1	10	1
whisperingeye	1	45	97
wjappe	1	350	238
WordsnCollision	1	4140	184
wyldstallyns	1	763	334

Found a small easter egg in the digg comment code.
Type the following into the comment box at the bottom of the page (Make sure not to hit any keys for at least 2 seconds before you type this, and make sure to type this relatively quickly. No copy and paste):
&&((%’%'ba

For all you greasemonkey script developers, I’ve created a nicely formatted version of diggs new comment javascript.
It’s a replica of what my console looks like, so I apologize for the black background.

I’ll be creating a few scripts that I’ve been thinking of doing sometime in the near future (hopefully).

I’ve created a new greasemonkey script to ‘normalize’ the top ten sidebar in digg. Now instead of linking to the comments, it links directly to the story. Beside it there is a link to the comments:

Enjoy: Digg Top Ten Normalizer

I’ve been rewriting the Digg Rating Extender greasemonkey script to not use unsafeWindow (The new version is out by the way, so go get it) and ran into an interesting bug.

I’m using the DOMNodeInserted event to see when any comments/replies are added to the comments of the currently viewed story. (It turns out that even though by default you only see the first x (50?) comments in digg, in the background it fetches the rest of the comments and inserts them into the DOM, hidden). So I figure if I see a reply to a comment and I haven’t received the data from the digg api of the number of ups/downs of that reply, I will fetch it using GM_xmlhttpRequest. Fine, should be simple enough.

But, turns out there is a problem with running GM_xmlhttpRequest inside a DOMNodeInserted event. You get the following error:

Error: Greasemonkey access violation: unsafeWindow cannot call GM_xmlhttpRequest.

Why does it consider it an unsafeWindow? I’m not sure. I’m not sure if it’s a firefox issue or a greasemonkey issue, but I have found a simple workaround. Just add the GM_xmlhttpRequest inside of a setTimeout:

Result: no error!
I’ve submitted a ticket to greasemonkey, but haven’t heard anything back. And since there is a simple workaround I don’t think it’s a high priority for anyone.

Looks like I let me domain expire… oops.
I got the domain back so all should be back to normal. Sorry for the scare

UPDATE: They’ve fixed the issue

---

Sorry all, looks like the digg api is broken/down for a bit.
I can’t update the main digg stats page cause I don’t have ssh access at work.

I’ll keep you all updated on any changes as I find out.

In the mean time, I’ve started a thread on it in the Digg API google group: http://groups.google.com/group/diggapi/browse_thread/thread/45b81c0ab610968b
And I’ve also sent a bug report.

Thanks for the patience!

---

UPDATE: They’ve fixed the issue

I’ve been playing around with graphviz a little bit.
It’s an interesting application that uses some algorithms I’ve been reading up on to graph different nodes in either a directed or undirected graph (and a bunch of other features that I haven’t played around with).

I thought that maybe I could use it to plot the relationship of friends in a digg story. Works fine for stories with only a few diggs… not so well with any more than 30 or 40.
For the uninitiated, Digg gives members the ability to befriend other members. However, unlike facebook, myspace and the like, the other person doesn’t have to befriend you back. So, person A can have B as a friend, but not necessarily vice-versa.

So, I got a nice looking graph for a story with 30 people, but it was sort of boring. There was a small cluster of about 5 people who were friends with each other, but the rest were pretty much separate. So I tried a larger story, with 120 diggs. Not a good idea.
The result is a 1.5 mb file that doesn’t say anything at all.

For your amusement, I’ve uploaded it here. Click on the fuzziness below:

WARNING: 1.3MB

Install Script (Must have Greasemonkey installed on Firefox)

I created a greasemonkey script (FIREFOX ONLY, for now) to show the digg ups and digg downs on digg stories. Here’s a picture of what it looks like now:

For those who are interested, details are below. Those who aren’t can’t just go straight to downloading the script.

Some bugs that I am aware of:

• If you digg a comment up or down, the up and down don’t get updated. (Simple fix, I believe)
• Sometimes, the up and down don’t match the current rating. There is no fix to that. I’m retrieving the most up to date info from the API and sometimes either there is a delay with that or there is a delay with either the api (likely) or digg. This shouldn’t be a big problem, I’ve only noticed it once or twice while testing and it was only off by one.
• Doesn’t work with Opera. Will be fixed soon, for both of you.
• Under heavy load, the ups and downs may not get loaded. You can see if there was an API error in your javascript console, it will probably say error 500. Not sure what I can do about that. I could possibly make the API keep trying, but that’s just going to compound the problem on the server
• There is a delay, especially when loading large pages. Don’t know what I can do about that, but I’ll look into it

Features I want to add:

• Clicking on the number of digg downs or digg ups will down down or digg up the story.
• Ability to choose the design for how to display the ups/downs. (See previous post)
• Implementing any ideas you suggest.

Other random bits of information:

• Overhead: There is of course some overhead when using this. Essentially, for every comment you see, the script needs to retrieve that comment again from the api server. This is done asynchronously thanks to AJAX, so the page won’t load any slower than before (Unless you’re running on something like a 56k modem, in which case, welcome to the 21st century).
• Errors: Let me know if you run into any errors. They should be logged on the javascript console. (Firefox: Tools -> Error Console, should be under messages or errors depending on what the issue was).

I’ve been on a Digg API kick recently and it doesn’t seem to be stopping.
What surprised me particularly about the API is that theres some info that you can retrieve that’s not even shown on the digg pages. One example of that is the number of ups and downs that a comment received.
Personally, I think that would be really interesting to see, especially for sensitive topic stories (politics, religion, your favorite console (ha), etc).
So of course, I went ahead and did that. Using greasemonkey, I’ve written a short script that shows both the up, the down, and the rating for comments.

I’m planning on releasing the script shortly, I just have to work some small bugs out first. Keep on the lookout.

Also, I still haven’t received any designs for the digg comment statistics page, so if you are interested in that, there’s still time. Some people have already expressed interest, but I haven’t seen anything yet.