I had a story out in CJR today. It’s called "Digg This — a top ‘Digger,’ worries about his own power to drive traffic– and the potential rewards."

And at times I do. Social bookmarking is a young field and it has some growing to do. My number one piece of advice — Transparency, transparency, transparency.

I’m proud of this piece. Although the story doesn’t reflect it, I did a fair amount of reporting on it (and I want to thank all the social bookmarkers that took time to talk to me — some of whom I continue to keep in touch with).

Another thing to note: This story doesn’t really give the complete picture. I was limited in word count. For example "In the beginning, I was afraid of being called out as a self-promoter,
someone who manipulates a tool that is meant to give people without
access to the mainstream media a say in the countryâ??s news agenda."  I wrote that originally to explain why I only used Digidave in my profile. In the begining I would hide the fact that the author of these stories was also the one submitting them to Digg.

I eventually got over this fear — deciding that the content can speak for itself. Better to stand up and say this is me — take it or leave it — than continue to submit stories under a fake name (I still use Digidave — but in my profile I link to this blog and give my real name).

I had every intention of submitting the story to Digg — but someone beat me to it. I don’t know MrBabyMan — but I have seen him/her around Digg — so, I was happy to see it reach the front page before I even had a chance to Digg it myself.

The comments from Diggers were most appreciated. One has already contacted me via email. I have also commented in the Digg thread.

I could rant for a long time about social news sites. I’ll keep it brief here — but I will end on this note: Social news sites are not going away. They will only become more sophisticated. If you look at the Epic 2014 video there is talk about people becoming the new news filters. A trusted journalist in the future doesn’t just produce news — they recomend news.

Food for thought.