---
title: "Announcing WriterRiver.com, a Digg-like Social News Site for Technical Communicators"
date: 2008-06-10
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2008/06/10/announcing-writerrivercom-a-digg-like-social-news-site-for-technical-communicators/
---
# Announcing WriterRiver.com, a Digg-like Social News Site for Technical Communicators
I've been a long-time reader of Digg.com, but just last week it dawned on me that it would be really great if there were a Digg-like site for technical communication. So I decided to create one. It's called [WriterRiver.com](http://writerriver.com) and it's pretty much a [Digg](http://digg.com) clone, except that the entire focus is on articles related to technical communicators.

Check it out by clicking the image below.

[![Writer River: A Social News Media Site for Technical Communicators](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/writer-river-banner-image-for-announcement1.png)](http://writerriver.com/)

****

### How It Works

When you read something interesting online, you can submit the article's link to [WriterRiver.com](http://writerriver.com) through the Submit a Story tab. Everything that looks like a post on WriterRiver.com is really just a link to an article online.

When you initially submit an article/story, it appears on the Upcoming Stories tab. As other readers check out the article and vote on it -- by clicking the **Float **link -- the vote count for that article increases.

[![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/floatsink1.png)](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/2008/06/floatsink.png)

Notice how the word "Floated" appears grayed out in the lower voting button? That's because I already floated on the article.

When enough people float an article (in this case, when an article receives 5 floats), it automatically moves to the Front Page Stories tab, which is the main page. Conversely, if you dislike the article, you can decrease its votes by clicking **Sink**. (Float and sink tie in with the river metaphor. On Digg.com, you digg or bury stories.)

### Filtering By Popularity

More floats make the article more visible, and fewer votes (or more sinks) make the article harder to find. In the upper-right corner of the site, you can sort the articles by popularity. You can see the most popular articles (the articles with the most votes) today, this week, this month, or this year.

[![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/sortingoptions1.png)](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/2008/06/sortingoptions.png)

**Tip: **Set your browser's home page to show the [Upcoming Stories](http://writerriver.com/upcoming.php) or some other filter. It will help you keep up with the stream of articles.

### Other Implications

A few days ago I wrote a post saying I wanted to try a new path. I was mostly referring to my podcast and how tired I was getting of the interview format. The creators of Digg have a companion podcast called [Diggnation](http://revision3.com/diggnation/), in which they discuss the most dugg/voted stories on Digg.com. The format seems to work well — stories submitted to Digg provide endless discussion for the podcast. The [Slashdot Review](http://slashdotreview.com/) is also a popular podcast based on the top social news sites.

I think that staying updated with the news is one of main reasons people listen to podcasts. I hope to make my Tech Writer Voices podcast more like Diggnation, Slashdot Review, and [This Week in Tech](http://twit.tv/twit). (For this, I'll need a couple of regular co-hosts, so if you're interested, email me.)

### Pligg: The Tool Behind the Scenes

After looking at the WriterRiver.com site, you might be wondering, Tom, where did you get all the time to create this site? Well, WriterRiver.com is made using [Pligg](http://pligg.com/), which is a Digg clone tool. Pligg powers such sites as [meaname.com](http://meneame.net/) (Spanish version of Digg), [Kirtsy](http://www.kirtsy.com/) (a female-focused Digg clone), and a host of [other social news sites](http://franticindustries.com/2007/01/22/10-pligg-sites-worth-visiting/). Pligg is easy to install and fairly robust (although it could really use a heftier user manual).