Yesterday I had one of the best experiences a blogger could have so why do I wake up today feeling like I was pounded over the head with a shovel? Let me tell you the story.

As the sun was going down in Halifax last night it was business as usual. Finished watching an episode of The Wire and I figured I would check to see how the blog was doing after a busy and successful day.

It loaded slower than normal and when it popped up the little counter that shows how many people are on the site was over 1000! There could only be on explanation for this, the Digg factor.

Earlier in the day I put up a post that featured some Wheaties boxes that I doctored to show athletes, celebs and even Bosco on the box cover. Now I have never claimed to be a pro at Photoshop so I figured the photos were good for a laugh from my usual readership.

They were posted on Ball Hype and other social sites and were recieving good buzz. I find that Sports bloggers tend to have more of a sense of humour about this kind of post and don’t look to deep into the concept.

A few emails here and there saying the photos were funny etc. and then SI.com’s Extra Mustard linked it up. Great, that is a huge boost in traffic and contains pretty much my target audience.

The day went on, numbers were rolling in and comments were piling up. Mostly on the good side commenting on the content rather than the actual graphics work.

Usually around 5pm ET the Extra Mustard crowd dies down because everyone is going home from work. It is weird since there is still the central and western time zones but I am not about to try and figure that one out.

Anyways things were going as usual and then like I said just around 9pm the Digg bomb happened. Now I knew it had been submitted to Digg and was getting decent feedback but the last I saw it was around 100 diggs. Certainly not front page material with those kind of numbers. Friends and other bloggers in my network were shouting it and getting the word out but after hearing about decent posts getting buried I figured my post would get buried quick.

In the post I even went over the top by placing the Digg logo on a Wheaties box and I thought that was almost a death sentence since some Digg snob would not see it as a joke and banish my story forever.

Well guess what, it got to around 200 diggs I believe and whoever or whatever system decides it, up it went on the front page. Then the experience took a turn for the better (traffic and achievement) and then in many ways the worst.

The feedback and comments I was getting from the Digg community was harsh, hate filled and down right awful. I am not even going to post any examples and if you really need to read them I am sure you can find out where they are.

After I took some time to take it all in, I remembered that they are just people with an opinion and they were not bashing me, they were protecting the front page of Digg.

The front page is like this holy place that very few get to step into. It is a place for the best of the best and something that is not considered the best gets destroyed by snobs, haters and people who think the front page of Digg is the most important thing in the world.

Now there were a lot of comments that were positive but just like in society, the loudest of the bunch seemed to be the negative ones. Hateful words people would never use face to face and clearly they had other issues going on.

The blog world is kind of funny because it gives us all the chance to hide behind our words and just rip on things without any consequence. You would never call someone’s work out like that in a meeting or on the street, so why do it on Digg?

Everyone kept saying, that does not belong here, how did that get on the front page etc.

I did not put it there, I did not set out as my goal in life to have it pop up on the front page of Digg and ruin everyone’s day. I posted it in on my blog and then it was out of my hands.

That is the beauty of Digg and other sites like it. People have to like it for it to go anywhere. If all of those people commenting about how bad it was were the ones voting, it would of never gotten over 20 diggs.

So stop being haters, stop bashing people’s work and stop blaming them for something that is out of their control.

The post is currently closing in on 400 Diggs, so once again I will say, there must be people out there who liked it, or maybe there are just too many people who do not value their Digg vote and just hit yes to anything.

Whatever the case is, I had the best traffic day ever and all of the benefits that come with it.

To all of you who hate my blog and hate what I do, guess what? I am up today blogging just the same way I did yesterday and I will be doing it tomorrow and the next day. Why? Because I love doing it and I know there are those out there that enjoy reading it.

You can stay in your snobby Digg world and continue to bash people just trying to do their best.

I will be back one day and this time the shovel to the face won’t hurt quite as much because everything is easier the second time around.

Happy Digging everyone. I wish you all get to feel the pleasure of front page status.

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