Precise meaning of "promote" in the context of dates

[danielo]

Hi!

I'm currently using the Digg stories API and had a question that I
don't see answered in the API documentation or the digg.com FAQ or
other "about" pages. What, precisely, is the difference between min/
max_update_date and min/max_promote_date? What constitutes
"promotion"?

Thanks very much,

-daniel

[Steve Williams]

At 11:30 AM 7/1/2009, danielo wrote:
>What, precisely, is the difference between min/max_update_date and
>min/max_promote_date?

Pretty sure you mean min/max_SUBMIT_date.

The submit date (timestamp, really) is when the story was submitted.

The promote date is when the story first appeared on the Digg home
page. Of course, most stories never appear on the Digg home page.

>What constitutes "promotion"?

"Promoted" means that the story was selected by Digg's algorithms to
be displayed on the home page.

[danielo]

Sorry, I goofed. I meant min/max_date instead of min/max_update_date.

Thanks for the info!

[danielo]

One other question: if I'm accessing a particular container or topic,
will min/max_promote_date function with respect to that topic or
container's home page, or the digg.com home page? In other words, is
there a way to get "Science" front-page stories between two
timestamps?

Thanks!

On Jul 1, 12:03 pm, Steve Williams <s...@digg.com> wrote:

[Steve Williams]

At 01:41 PM 7/1/2009, danielo wrote:
>if I'm accessing a particular container or topic, will
>min/max_promote_date function with respect to that topic or
>container's home page, or the digg.com home page?

There's not really a difference there. Everything that appears on a
topic or container "Popular" page appears on the Digg home page at
the same time.

>In other words, is there a way to get "Science" front-page stories
>between two timestamps?

Yes, the min and max date args work on /stories/topic/.../popular and
/stories/container/.../popular just as /stories/popular. The former
are subsets of the latter.

A note on "promote" vs. "popular":

"Promote" is the transitive verb describing what happens to the
story. "Popular" is the status of the story after that transition
happens. Inside Digg, we tend to use the two words more or less
interchangeably.

The API uses also both words. The endpoint path /stories/popular
means "Please give me the popular stories." The argument
?min_promote_date=xxx means "From the stories I described in the
path, please select the stories promoted on or after a given time."

Probably more than you wanted to know.

[danielo]

Makes sense. Thanks!