At the 37 Signals blog, Matt is discussing the efficacy of having buttons for Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, etc. listed on the bottom of article pages or blog posts. Here's what he had to say:

Given the Ebola-like spread of these things they must be really effective, right? Not so much. Zero out of Technorati’s top 10 blogs feature those icons. And only two out of the 15 entries in the current crop at Digg’s Top Today page offer “Digg me” icons.

This focus on campaigning over content seems like a classic case of misplaced priorities. The reason posts wind up at Digg, Delicious, or elsewhere isn’t because the authors made it easier to vote for them (it’s already easy). A post winds up at these sites because people respond to its content and quality.

To me, his post is generally awful. The examples he uses to back up his assertion (that those buttons are ineffective) are overly narrow and show no real data supporting or rejecting the assesment. His primary issue with the buttons focuses on the "priorities" of the site owners using them. In essence, he argues that you can either you spend your time placing social bookmarking buttons on the bottom of your pages OR build great content. This is utter nonsense - if you ask for the 15-minute feature addition of social buttons to your blog template from a developer, you are not cutting into content-development time.

This is not to say that the point Matt brought up isn't valid - it absolutely is. He just did a terrible job of phrasing the issue. I would contend that adding those bookmarks to the bottom of pages has both positives and negatives.

Positives

• You make it easier for your visitors to bookmark/tag/submit/vote on your content
• You help to suggest that performing those social actions is desired
• You make it clear that you're a fan/supporter/devotee of those sites

Negatives

• You're potentially turning off audiences who feel that the buttons are too self-promotional
• Having the buttons on every page could reduce the value of placing them on certain pages on occassion by giving your readers "button blinders" (similar to ad blinders)

The 51 comments in Matt's post generally agree with his assertion, but I don't. Despite the potential negative stigma that a select few might attach to seeing the buttons, I personally do use them on other people's sites (particularly the del.icio.us button) and feel that as long as they're well-integrated into the site's layout, they're more of a potential positive than a negative.