digg is similar to social news. Users submit links. Then other users can “digg” the links to indicate that the like them or thumb down the links if they do not. The more “diggs” a link gets, the greater its visibility is on the site. If it gets enough likes, it may be featured on the front page. Being featured on the front page is considered highly desirable by many sites as it means a lot of traffic that they might not get otherwise.
According to Alexa on November 27, digg ranks 103 in Australia. The AFL appears to have an official digg account, which they use to promote some of the articles that appear on their site. Despite these two favorables, digg does not appear to play an important role in Australia’s sport fandom picture. Over in men’s sport, when the Joel Monaghan story broke, it wasn’t Australians who submitted links to digg about it; rather, articles were submitted by Americans, a Kiwi and an Indonesian. Similarly, two of the three links found for the ACT Brumbies were submitted by South Africans; only one was submitted by an Australian. In a sample of around 200 unique Australian sport related digg submitted links, the average story had only 2.7 diggs, and median and mode of 1 digg per article. Australian sport related articles are just not getting much attention on the site. This reinforces the view that digg does not have a large, active community of sport fans despite its popularity in Australia.
Data was gathered on digg for Canberra United. In gathering this data, a few other W-League teams were also picked up. Getting information on the W-League continued to be problematic because the W-League shares a name with a US league and the W-League teams, with the exception of Canberra, share names with their A-League counterparts. The easiest way to find W-League related links submitted on digg is to find a user who has submitted one link, and then see what else the user has submitted.
The links fall into two general categories: 1) Where to watch the games streaming. 2) Team profiles and game news. The type of link submitted was based on who was submitting it. In both cases, the links were posted during the W-League season, which suggests that interest in mentioning the league is not maintained during the off season.
The timeline of links being submitted also suggests that the digg users who posted them were posting them as part of a large digg submission effort: The digg submissions were not spread out over the season. It would be interesting to see if this pattern was repeated for other leagues, clubs and athletes. If it is, it suggests other fundamental problems with the Australian and Kiwi female sport community on digg. Namely, it suggests that people are less interested in long term promotion of sport but are focused on one off promotion of their sites to improve their own site’s visibility. They are not necessarily interested in promoting women’s sport in a wider context.
| Team | Diggs | Title | Description | Submitted | Submitter | Comments | Checked |
| Canberra United | 1 | WATCH LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND V CANBERRA ONLINE VIDEO STREAMIN | watsports.blogspot.com — Canberra United again will prove that they are the only team that can defeat the Queensland Roar on the green field. WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND… | 16-Jan-09 | ngl0323 | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Canberra United | 1 | LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND Vs CANBERRA ONLINE AND DOWNLOAD VIDEO | watolin1.blogspot.com — WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND FINAL LIVE AT BALLYMORE STADIUM, HERSTON. IT WILL BE AN EVENT THAT WOULD SHAPE THE COURSE OF THIS PART OF WOMENS LEA… | 16-Jan-09 | ngl0323 | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Brisbane Roar | 1 | WATCH LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND V CANBERRA ONLINE VIDEO STREAMIN | watsports.blogspot.com — Canberra United again will prove that they are the only team that can defeat the Queensland Roar on the green field. WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND… | 16-Jan-09 | ngl0323 | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Brisbane Roar | 1 | LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND Vs CANBERRA ONLINE AND DOWNLOAD VIDEO | watolin1.blogspot.com — WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND FINAL LIVE AT BALLYMORE STADIUM, HERSTON. IT WILL BE AN EVENT THAT WOULD SHAPE THE COURSE OF THIS PART OF WOMENS LEA… | 16-Jan-09 | ngl0323 | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Sydney FC | 1 | Sydney FC Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Sydney FC | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Sydney FC | 1 | Sydney FC 4 – 2 Brisbane Roar Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Sydney FC has run out comfortable 4-2 winners over the Brisbane Roar in the opening round of W-League In a replay of the 2009 final, Sydney were o… | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Perth Glory | 1 | Perth Glory Women Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Perth Glory | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Newcastle Jets | 1 | Newcastle Jets Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Newcastle Jets | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Newcastle Jets | 1 | Adelaide United V Newcastle Jets Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Newcastle Jets have opened their Westfield W-League account with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday. A double to forme… | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Melbourne Victory | 1 | Melbourne Victory Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Melbourne Victory | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Canberra United | 1 | Canberra United Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Canberra United | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Canberra United | 1 | Canberra United V Perth Glory Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Michelle Heyman’s hat-trick has ensured Canberra United enjoyed a winning start to their Westfield W-League campaign, producing a 4-1 victory … | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Brisbane Roar | 1 | Brisbane Roar Women’s Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Brisbane Roar | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Adelaide United | 1 | Adelaide United V Newcastle Jets Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United | womenssoccerunited.com — Newcastle Jets have opened their Westfield W-League account with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday. A double to forme… | 6 days ago | womenssoccer | 0 Comments | 14-Nov-10 |
| Team | Username | Location | Followers | Following | Diggs | Daily Diggs | Submissions | Daily Submissions | Comments | Date checked |
| Adelaide United | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Brisbane Roar | ngl0323 | Farwania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 |
| Brisbane Roar | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Canberra United | ngl0323 | Farwania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 |
| Canberra United | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Melbourne Victory | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Newcastle Jets | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Perth Glory | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 | |
| Sydney FC | womenssoccer | 1 | 0 | 186 | 0 | 190 | 3 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 |
| League | Team | Keyword | Story Results | Profile Results | Date checked |
| ANZ Championship | West Coast Fever | West Coast Fever | 9243 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| ANZ Championship | Melbourne Vixens | Melbourne Vixens | 1 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| ANZ Championship | Queensland Firebirds | Queensland Firebirds | 0 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| ANZ Championship | West Coast Fever | West Coast Fever | 0 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| ANZ Championship | Melbourne Vixens | Melbourne Vixens | 0 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| ANZ Championship | Queensland Firebirds | Queensland Firebirds | 0 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| Hockey Australia | Hockeyroos | Hockeyroos | 2 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| Hockey Australia | Hockey Australia | Hockey Australia | 194 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| Hockey Australia | Hockey Australia | Hockey Australia | 5 | 0 | 25-Nov-10 |
| W-League | Canberra United | Canberra United | 4 | 0 | 14-Nov-10 |