Jon Holato

It has been reported that there are over one million registered users at Digg.com. Granted, the actual number of active users is probably much less, but still likely to be in the hundreds of thousands. When we think of a Digger what usually comes to mind is the teenage boy who never leaves his parents’ basement except to visit Game Stop for the latest Wii game, or the atheistic Ron Paul supporter. However, I’m here to report that Diggers are actually real, everyday people that you pass by on the street.

A few weeks ago some co-workers and I decided to adopt a ritual called “Geek T-shirt Wednesday.” I was immediately overcome with excitement, as long have I desired a Digg t-shirt to sport, and the perfect opportunity had finally presented itself. I went to the Digg Store and purchased a plain black t-shirt with gray lettering on the front that says “Digg.”

Before last Friday, I had worn the t-shirt twice without any recognition. Not to be discouraged, a week ago exactly I decided to wear it again. The day passed, and nothing. I figured it was going to be a normal day just like any other, when all of a sudden a man walked up to me while I was standing at the train station in Hoboken, NJ on my way home from New York City.

He approached and said “nice t-shirt, Digg.com.” I said “oh you know it?” He said yes and asked me if I had purchased it from the Digg Store. I said yes and then he mentioned that he was a big fan of the API. Then he proceeded to talk about how he wrote some Java code that uses the API to make it easier to Digg a story. I mentioned that I had seen stuff like that before. Then he mentioned Digg Swarm, and talked about how great he thought that was. I told him I liked the home page visualization site, which shows the top Digg stories as thumbnail images. Shortly after that the conversation ended with him saying “keep Digging,” and me replying with “you too.”

It was really cool to randomly run into a Digger in the real world. Sure, some of my friends use Digg. But most of them aren’t as big of a geek as I am, and they don’t truly understand the excitement that is Digg. I think this serves as a good example to illustrate just how mainstream the Internet has become. Five years ago how likely would it have been to run into a Slashdot user on the street? Probably not very likely. But in today’s society, where life and the Web are increasingly integrated, such an anomaly is no longer all that improbable.

To any other Diggers in the NYC area I welcome the opportunity to meet randomly in the street. Until then, keep Digging!