2008 has been a remarkable and outstanding year for Mixx.com. The website has experienced some extraordinary growth through the year, and made some pretty astonishing accomplishments for a social media service that is just a little more than one-year-old.
And through the year, Mixx was also on hand for Mixxers to examine some of the bigger news stories of 2008 as well as some general interest submissions that gained a lot of votes.
I decided to take a glimpse back at some of the top Mixx stories for 2008. Some are big news headlines of the year, some related to social media in general, and others are general interest posts.
Join me in a flashback on the year that was 2008 based upon the stories made most popular by Mixxers...
January
A Revolution is Brewing at Digg Amongst Disgruntled Users...
219 Votes at time of writing
Posted by MrBabyMan
Submitter's description: The latest change in the algorithm, along with rumors of secret editors, auto-buries, etc., have led us to believe it is time to break ties with Digg.com. Its lack of transparency and faith in the community is reason for concern
Looking back:
Digg's major algorithm change was the beginning of a downward spiral for the site. Despite the fact it spawned what would later become known as Digg Revolt 2008, the issue was followed by more unsavory changes at the site, as well as the banning of hundreds of well-known and respected members of the site. Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead In NYC
92 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Bdog2g2
Submitter's description: A New York Police Department spokesman says the actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence
Looking back:
The tragedy of Heath Ledger's passing was breaking news from the get-go - but was broken online very differently than in traditional circumstances. The first site that had traces of the news was actually Wikipedia, followed closely by numerous messages by people on Twitter. The news was a shock to everyone, and his final encore onscreen was perhaps one of his more finer performances. RIP... Direct Link to Related Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
February
The 25 Most Memorable Super Bowl Ads
101 Votes at time of writing
Posted by TunisianGuy
Submitter's description: The Times is reporting today that this year's crop of crazy expensive Super Bowl ads is going to be tamer than usual...
Looking back:
2008 was a great year for Mixxing for many users, but especially Tunisian Guy. For a good portion of the year, TG was the number one Mixxer, but was later overtaken by S_Lockyer and KatharineC. This particular submission was one of the most-voted stories during February, and as always, topics and videos related to ads played during the SuperBowl are always popular. Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Baby found alive in field after tornado
92 Votes at time of writing
Posted by SilentJay74
Submitter's description: The muddy field was littered with debris: Living room couches, strollers, children's toys. So when two rescuers came upon a baby, they thought he was a doll. Then he moved.
Looking back:
One of the shocking US stories in early 2008 was the onslaught of tornadoes and severe weather hitting Tennessee and Kentucky among many other states. The damage and destruction was frightening in many areas, and the loss of life was tragic. During all the debris and tragedy, one glimmer of hope surfaced... An 11 month old boy, flung 100 yards from his home in the storms, was found alive. It gave hope and boosted morale to those helping others who lost so much in the event...
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
March
Mixx gets credibility boost from NYTimes
154 Votes at time of writing
Posted by MakiMaki
Submitter's description: The New York Times tonight added Mixx bookmarking buttons on its site, which is an important milestone for the company. Facebook, Digg and Yahoo Buzz are the only other third party social bookmarking services that are offered.
Looking back:
As early as March 2008, Mixxers knew they had signed up for a winning service, as indications began rising that the year would indeed be a good one for Mixx.com. Before the incredible news of outstanding traffic growth, and innovative features yet to be revealed, Mixx teamed up with the New York Times - a partnership that TechCrunch looked upon very favorably indeed...
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Disturbing video of soldier throwing puppy off cliff
79 Votes at time of writing
Posted by cGt2099
Submitter's description: Please note... this should bear no reflection on the military. Instead, it should bear reflection on the cruel asshole who actually did this. This totally broke my heart, and I hope this guy gets his much deserved consequence.
Looking back:
The tale of David Motari began as shocking and disturbing animal abuse, and ended with justice served. Out of all the social media services, and well before mainstream media picked up on the story, Mixx.com was first to break the news with the posting of the disturbing video of David Motari throwing a puppy off a cliff. Marine, and Social Blend co-host, Joe SilentJay74 Fowler got the ball rolling on the military investigation by being the first to report the incident to the Marine Corps. The following week, the incident was covered on Social Blend. Months later, Motari was expelled from the Marines. It was a first in many ways for Mixx: the first to break the news, and the first submission that helped inspired justice being served against an animal abuser.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
April
Something look familiar?
95 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Honest_Ape
Submitter's description: Kur tu esi? What's that mean? I'm sure it means "I stole Mixx's theme and design scheme" in some language or another. Too close to be a coincidence.
Looking back:
While the site in question, Kur Tu Esi, has sinced (we hope) seen the error of their ways; the above submission angered a lot of Mixxers. And justifiably so: the website had completely ripped off Mixx's design, look, and feel. It wasn't just emulated imitation... no, no... these guys had copied Mixx's code word for word - including the Copyright statement that reads "Copyright (c) 2007 Recommended Reading, Inc. (http://www.mixx.com) "
Direct Link to Site as it appears at time of writing Direct Link to Mixx Story
Charlton Heston dead at 84
84 Votes at time of writing
Posted by danielsale
Submitter's description: Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.
Looking back:
2008 saw many sad passings of famous figures, and the loss of Charlton Heston was felt strongly by many fans and admirers around the world. Despite the sorrow-filled news, it was hard to imagine someone famous for the line, "from my cold dead hands" passing away. He was one of Hollywood's finest, and will be remembered for a very long time.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
May
Robot + {Million Rounds Per Second} Super Gun = 'Crowd Control'?
170 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Zaibatsu
Submitter's description: What do you do with a robot armed with a million-round-per-minute gun? Crowd control, naturally. For several months, Metal Storm, the troubled electronic gun developer, has been working with iRobot. Sounds like overkill to me!
Looking back:
May 2008 was when Reg Saddler aka Zaibatsu, one of the top Diggers, decided to begin dabbling in the playground known as Mixx. This was one of his earlier, more popular submissions. Later in the year, Reg was banned from Digg, along with hundreds of others, and has since made Mixx a more permanent social media home for himself.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Mom indicted in MySpace suicide
97 Votes at time of writing
Posted by SilentJay74
Submitter's description: Federal prosecutors are seeking an indictment against a Missouri mother for her alleged role in an online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide.
Looking back:
2008 was also the year for people using the web for reprehensible behavior. One story that comes to mind is the tale of the teenage girls who violently beat another girl, filmed it, and uploaded it to YouTube. However, nothing was more reprehensible than the above-mentioned MySpace suicide. Lori Drew created a fake "teen boy" identity on MySpace, trolled young Megan Meier with cruel messages - ultimately the online abuse led to Megan hanging herself. Lori Drew was convicted of violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in December this year.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
June
Crack found in man's buttocks
197 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Yoda
Submitter's description: Whoever said Fox isn't "fair and blanced", eh? and they have a sense of humour, too, i guess.... News? you decide... all the more reason to tune them out and sites like this in.
Looking back:
June's most popular story, submitted by Yoda, was aided with a mildly amusing headline. Mixx founder, Chris McGill, commented, "That headline will go down in the Anals of history". As you could imagine, the ass jokes flowed freely from there on in. This submission was the second post known to have been tagged with the keyword buttocks.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Kucinich reads Articles of Impeachment against Bush
105 Votes at time of writing
Posted by MrBabyMan
Submitter's description: Ohio Democratic lawmaker and former presidential candidate has presented articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to Congress. Thirty-five articles were presented by Rep. Dennis Kucinich to the House of Representatives late Monday eve.
Looking back:
While not much has happened in following up from this event, this submission at Mixx is significant for one main reason: it was the first time we saw Mixx's Breaking News feature get the word out to visitors quicker than any other social media site. While many Mixxers had already embraced the Breaking News feature, this was the first event that showed to many people new to the site that Mixx.com was much more effective at getting the word out than other places like Digg.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
July
Starving bears eat 2 men in Russia
108 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Alllo
Submitter's description: A pack of enormous bears searching for food killed and ate two men at mines in Russia's Pacific Kamchatka region and have kept hundreds of geologists and miners from reaching the mine.
Looking back:
While Bart The Bear was overly enthusiastic about this story, this submission will have to be one of the more offbeat popular Mixx stories of the year. The rampant fish poaching in the region has lead the giant Kamchatka Bears to search for other food - in this case, a couple of guards.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
'Last Lecture' professor dies at 47
79 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Kerry
Submitter's description: Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, has died. He was 47.
Looking back:
The touching online video of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has had an impact on countless people around the world - and thus, news of his passing - though expected - was still sad. His last lecture is a must-see. Look for him in his cameo in the upcoming Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams.
Direct Link to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
August
Stumbleupon removes the limit of 200 friends
102 Votes at time of writing
Posted by JessicaLaurie
Submitter's description: A few days ago Stumbleupon released some changes to the Friends & Fans system, in preparation for a separation of "Friends" and "Subscription" functionality and removing the limit of 200 friends
Looking back:
Mixx has a large proportion of users that are (clearly) social media enthusiasts. The August 2008 news that StumbleUpon were removing their 200 Friends limit was huge news in the world of social media sites.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Joe Biden Is Barack Obama's Vice Presidential Running Mate
94 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Zaibatsu
Submitter's description: Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
Looking back:
By August, the race to the election was heating up. The announcement that Biden was Obama's running mate was huge news that proved to be the catalyst for a wide range of opinions and comments posted on this particular submission.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
September
Google Offers $10 million Prize Fund for Ideas that will Change the World
119 Votes at time of writing
Posted by DigitalFever
Submitter's description: Google are putting forward a $10million fund to help develop ideas from members of the public that will help to make the world a better place.
Looking back:
It seems that as time goes forward, Google keep getting bigger and expanding further. The news that they were offering a huge financial pool for world changing concepts was MASSIVE news.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
McCain is Backing Out of Friday Debate to Focus on Economy
97 Votes at time of writing
Posted by Zaibatsu
Submitter's description: Republican John McCain says he's directing his staff to work with Barack Obama's campaign and the debate commission to delay Friday's debate because of the economic crisis.
Looking back:
By September, if you weren't excited by the election news, you were sick and tired of it. As word began hitting the web that the economic situation was worsening, and the fat rich cats on Wall Street were crying for government handouts, McCain announced that he was stepping out of the Presidential debate to "save the economy". The result was a very unimpressed public, as well as public outlash at McCain by celebrities such as David Letterman. Obama called McCain on his shenanigans. The postponement/cancellation was dropped, and the debate went ahead as scheduled. This was one of the nails in the coffin of McCain's presidential hopes - another being the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate...
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
LHC 'Big bang machine' Broken From Day 2
46 Votes at time of writing
Posted by OnReact.com
Submitter's description: The world's largest atom smasher which was launched with great fanfare earlier this month has been damaged worse than previously thought and will be out of commission for at least two months, its operators said Saturday
Looking back:
Science and Tech fans were enthused about 2008 for one very HUGE reason: The Large Hadron Collider. After many years of construction costing billions, the device was scheduled for its first runs during the year. The first test run was scheduled for May, but was cancelled. By September, the LHC was up and running successfully...... only to go into utter "EPIC FAIL" mode and ceased working just days after its activation. The LHC provided some wide ranging debates on Mixx - from the science geeks in favor of the project, to the alarmists who were genuinely concerned about the creation of black holes.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
October
34 Geeky Pumpkin Faces
132 Votes at time of writing
Posted by MacBookForMe
Submitter's description: 34 Geeky Pumpkin Faces Creations as Awesome Halloween Craft that may not be scary but still relate to Technology, Video Games, Movies, and some other fun...
Looking back:
Mixx.com and Mixxers are big on celebrating holidays through the site. This year saw Mixx jump in on the 'underground' geeky holidays - changing their logo for Universal Day of the Jedi, Day of the Ninja, and Festivus. One of the more popular holiday-themed submissions from the year came from MacBookForMe above, as we headed into Halloween. The Pumkins in the article included Star Wars designs, Batman designs, Space Invaders, and much more!
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Shots Reportedly Fired on WKU's Campus
103 Votes at time of writing
Posted by SilentJay74
Submitter's description: Western Kentucky University is under lock-down after the threat of a gunman on school grounds.
Looking back:
Thankfully the incident reported above was not as tragic as the VT massacre or Columbine; but as the news was happening it was nonetheless frightening. SilentJay74 was near the campus as the issue was happening. The submission was another testament to Mixx's Breaking News feature, as it - along with the tweets coming from WKU students on Twitter - helped get the word out very quickly.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Looking back:
The biggest news of 2008 was the historic presidential win of Barack Obama. It was an incredible night. In retrospect, it's funny these submissions ended up the way they did on Mixx... Reg and myself are long-time social media buds - we've never competed against each other by any means; but we've always seemed to work together with sharing good content on the sites we get involved in. These two submissions were posted at exactly the same time and marked as breaking news at exactly the same time also.
Iceland could be first "national bankruptcy" of the Global Financial Meltdown
141 Votes at time of writing
Posted by WebAddict
Submitter's description: "Everything is closed. We couldn't sell our stock or take money from the bank," said Johann Sigurdsson as he left a branch of Landsbanki in downtown Reykjavik. Iceland is negotiating a $5.4 billion loan from Russia to shore up the nation's finances.
Looking back:
As the election race pressed onwards, signs of the economy's dwindling times began worsening. No longer was the crisis restricted to the United States, the issues were spreading globally - and affecting many international economies in a wide range of ways. WebAddict's submission of the serious problems being faced in Iceland was sobering and scary.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
December
Six Apart acquires and shuts down Pownce
90 Votes at time of writing
Posted by cGt2099
Submitter's description: Blogging company Six Apart has acquired micro-blogging startup Pownce for undisclosed financial terms... only to announce they will shut down Pownce in about two weeks!
Looking back:
While unsurprising news to some, the announcement of Pownce's closure was still a shock to some users who enjoyed using the microblogging service. However, this news announcement was the beginning of something else entirely: further revelations that "not all was well" in "Diggnation". Following the closing of Kevin Rose's lovechild known as Pownce, came the controversial news from Business Week that Digg.com - as a business - was losing millions of dollars per year. Adding the negative backlash faced after banning hundreds of users, as well as the declining traffic figures, December 2008 is most likely an indication that 2009 will probably not be a good year for Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson, and Digg.com
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
Bush Administration Eviscerates Endangered Species Act
101 Votes at time of writing
Posted by MacBookForMe
Submitter's description: The Bush administration today issued a final rule eliminating the Endangered Species Act requirement that federal agencies consult with independent scientists.
Looking back:
As Obama was gearing up for his White House entrance, and getting feedback from the American public at Change.gov; the Bush Administration slipped through further detrimental changes to the Endangered Species Act just before his scheduled exit from Washington. While international terror attacks, economic issues, and celebrities dominated the news headlines, the Administration's decision slipped through the cracks of mainstream media - but not so on Mixx.com. The issue was clearly one of importance to Mixxers - with the submission generating over 50 comments.
Direct Link to Article Direct Link to Mixx Story
A Revolution is Brewing at Digg Amongst Disgruntled Users...
Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead In NYC
The 25 Most Memorable Super Bowl Ads
Baby found alive in field after tornado
Mixx gets credibility boost from NYTimes
Disturbing video of soldier throwing puppy off cliff
Something look familiar?
Charlton Heston dead at 84
Robot + {Million Rounds Per Second} Super Gun = 'Crowd Control'?
Mom indicted in MySpace suicide
Crack found in man's buttocks
Kucinich reads Articles of Impeachment against Bush 
Starving bears eat 2 men in Russia 
'Last Lecture' professor dies at 47 
Stumbleupon removes the limit of 200 friends
Joe Biden Is Barack Obama's Vice Presidential Running Mate
Google Offers $10 million Prize Fund for Ideas that will Change the World
McCain is Backing Out of Friday Debate to Focus on Economy
LHC 'Big bang machine' Broken From Day 2
34 Geeky Pumpkin Faces
Shots Reportedly Fired on WKU's Campus
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Iceland could be first "national bankruptcy" of the Global Financial Meltdown
Six Apart acquires and shuts down Pownce
Bush Administration Eviscerates Endangered Species Act
