Digging 101 (DEFUNCT)

Digging is in many ways similar to Catrography. A digger often finds themselves building maps of social connections in order to better understand the relationships between people. I am talking about finding connections. We can find these connections through various means. Facebook friends, twitter followings, patrons in Patreon, LinkedIN connections, and even message boards.

The key to digging is the anchor. This is your target. Random digging without any purpose can produce results, but a focused approach can be more efficient and productive.

Decide on your target and then map their networks. Understand their movements and the various circles they associate with. Observe connections between those they have a financial or personal relationship with, and from those particular connections dig further.

Google is your best friend. You will use much of your time simply googling names. For example, your target has a patreon and one of the patrons is a developer. You take note of how long that developer has been donating and then google both names ("John Smith" AND "Sheryl Lin"). You take note of the cross-references and look for particular facts. Did John Smith write an article on Sheryl Lin at any point? If so, was the article written after donations began?

From there it is simply a matter of sifting through, gathering and recording the evidence.

Digging is not difficult if you approach it intelligently, but even so it is still long and boring work with many dead-ends. Don't be discouraged. If you work hard, you will get the hang of it and come up with your own unique method. I wish you all luck.