How To: Get on Digg If Your Domain Is Banned
Back in December, there was considerable noise in the blogosphere surrounding the growing list of domains banned by Digg. As you all probably know by now my domain is on that list and has been for something like a year now. Digg’s efforts to hinder “gaming the system” have proved rather effective, leaving individuals whose domains are banned with no alternatives short of contacting Digg. Until now.
The Redirection
For a while, people were able to submit stories on digg by harnessing the redirection utilities available at certain mainstream sites. However, in the last few months Digg has caught on and voided these routes. However, for those individuals that are purely curious they were as follows:
These worked back in the day since they did things differently than your standard redirection services such as TinyURL, which make it easy for the server to determine whether the URL has been redirected or not. As I mentioned earlier, these do not work on Digg anymore, but they will help introduce my next, working method of getting banned domains on Digg: htaccess help from a domain-bearing friend.
Htaccess files, commonly seen with a dot in front of it and all lowercase, are Apache server configuration rules on a per-directory basis. Find a friend with an unbanned domain, get him/her to make a random folder for you, such as http://theirdomain.com/bobsfolder, and create a new .htaccess file in that directory with the following code:
Redirect /bobsfolder http://BANNEDDOMAIN.com/
</ifmodule>
Alternatively you can also go the JS route, particularly handy if you’re not working with an Apache server. You can make a new folder on your friend’s server and create an index.html file or just create a file in your friend’s root directory and link digg to that particular file. I prefer the first way. Assuming you are still using the folder named “bobsfolder”, create a blank index.html file and save the following code in it:
<!–
window.location = “http://BANNEDDOMAIN.com/”;
//–>
</script>
These 2 methods work well with digg, however I believe it would be easy for digg to void the JavaScript method by simply getting their code to ignore JavaScript. I’m not sure how they could overcome server-level .htaccess redirection though; my compliments to them if they find a way.
If you find yourself using this often you can use Zach Hale’s simple PHP+JS script to expedite the process. Instead of having to edit the code each time you want to get something redirected, just pass it the url in the format of http://domain.com/folder/?go=http://BANNEDDOMAIN.com.
if ($_GET['go']) {
$fromurl = $_GET['go'];
$testing = explode(”http://”, $fromurl);
if ($testing[0] == “”) {
$location = $fromurl;
} else {
$location = ‘http://’ . $fromurl;
}
} else {
$location = ‘http://www.digg.com/’;
}
?>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
<!–
window.location = “<?= $location ?>”;
//–>
</script>
There was also the old way of using PHP’s header(’Location: http://domain.com’); but that does not work with digg anymore.
The New Domain
Digg has made this method rather simple with their cheap deals at GoDaddy. Simply purchase a new domain at GoDaddy, utilizing promo code digg for 10% off your total order or diggnation for a single domain at $6.99 (I think). Now login to your GoDaddy domain settings and give the new domain the same DNS as your current domain. Login to your webhost’s control panel and add the new domain to your server. Next, edit the .htaccess file at the root of your server’s public directory and add the following code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^NEWDOMAIN\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://BANNEDDOMAIN.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.NEWDOMAIN\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://BANNEDDOMAIN.com/$1 [R=301,L]
#Rest of your htaccess code
</ifmodule>
While it might seem repetitive, this .htaccess code works regardless of whether or not your domain is accessed with a preceding www. This method involves the hassle of purchasing a new domain but in my opinion it’s rather foolproof. Yes, Digg will probably ban it after the first time you use it but you can always get another domain for under $10, not bad.
The Meet & Greet
If for some reason Digg establishes a new method of URL verification that is much stricter and voids all of the methods I’ve listed here (unlikely), you still have one more choice. Contact Digg via email or personally and explain your situation, clarify why you think you were banned and why they should unban you. I have heard several cases where Digg has unbanned people.
Nice one Paul, I think the last option of contacting Digg might be the most effective over the long run. Goodluck getting back onto Digg, it’s like crack and I’m sure you are ready for a fix.
Why in the world were you banned from Digg?
The way most people get banned - too many things got buried.
sneaky redirects are a sure way to get your friend’s domain banned as well.. and are frowned upon by Google.
But hey, if Digg exposure pays for $10 domains in traffic, it’s a way to grow a “banned by Digg” domains network ;)
Obviously you won’t want to get a friend to use these methods if they value their domain and digg. Ideally you’d utilize a friend who doesn’t care about traffic, PR or any of that.
Also, the htaccess methods are okay for SEO as they utilize proper 301, permanent redirection.
So why would anything on your domain get buried? I guess I’m just trying to understand, I usually find your blog pretty helpful, insightful and unique, so I can’t imagine why people would be burying your posts.
Joshua, it’s because back in the day EVERY article of Stammy’s was on Digg. People thought he was gaming the system and started burying his articles. In reality, his content was just that good and people couldn’t own up to it.
Ron: Did he submit them on his own or did readers do it? I think it’s okay for the author of a story to submit every now and then, but I do have a problem when the author submits every single article they publish.
both.
I imagine you could easily get banned if you post instructions like these.
@Yan - I don’t understand the nature of your comment as I already am banned. =)
I would submit this to Digg (I’ve got a spare domain ;) ), but I don’t want to risk getting my account banned. I like digg. :P
You might want to try to bulletproof that javascript code that redirects to banneddomain.com. In NetNewsWire the post just opens the actual banneddomain.com. Oops!
I < > ;’d it up.
lol
A hacker at large………good one Paul
Excellent! Now, Lets just keep hoping the they won’t ban user account who submit such banned URL!
Kevin, can you beat that?
I gave up on Digg a while back; it’s all the same topics and link-bait articles. I have to admit that the Reddit community is much better, and I much prefer getting traffic from Reddit now. It may not be as many people as Digg offers but the quality of the userbase is much higher.
Here is an interesting debate about top diggs:
here
“In reality, his content was just that good and people couldn’t own up to it.”
Eh, no it wasn’t. I was reading this blog at that time, and while some of the articles were great, the whore-like level of self-promotion really grated. I’m sure that probably reads rudely, but I just mean it as one guy’s honest opinion. OTOH, permanent bans seem very stupid for a medium that moves as fast as the internet does.
Can’t you just easily use other domain names and redirect to your main site? Messing htaccess is not for newbies and I believe cPanel provides you to easily redirects your domain
@Oskar - not everyone has cPanel. I’m on Plesk. But if that works for you, then great.
Very slick Paul! I really like how you used htaccess/php to do it…
check out: Force Apache to output any HTTP Status Code with ErrorDocument, Ultimate htaccess article
nice yaar! but is there a chance to get friends domain banned?