How the hell do you know whether digg paid him or not? The article says that they did and thats the only source of information on the matter. Nobody really knows for sure what actually happened.
Actually I took the link you sent me Read the "whole article" and saw the below right underneath your quote above I bolded italizied and underlined the part that allows me to know how the hell whether Digg paid him or not.... I guess if you had done what you advised me to do... then you too could know how the hell I know.,... Next?
No problems and excuse the tone ...just seems I get ripped on at times... and already had a new friend on my butt
I am confused as to why Sem-Advance's testing of Digg is cheating which implies an unethical behavior, but link exchange, MySpace bulletin, automatic submission tool, content generator, scraping packages, and various other activites being sold are not cheating... What makes Sem-Advance's work interesting and valuable (and different from the above listed) is s/he clearly indicates the plans to test the system, and generates empirical evidence. Something valuable. (This is a rhetorical question. I know the answer.)
I don't think its cheating or unethical. Its just a basic principle of marketing - you need connections in order to be a success.