Are Diggers Done Digging
May 4th, 2007 by Michael Gray in Social MediaIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
It’s no secret I’ve been watching Digg this week, and after the HD-DVD fiasco I’m definitely seeing a different Digg emerging from the aftermath.
First off Greg is spot on that Digg has been slowly declining, however the homepage was still fairly active, so much so that refreshing the home page after more than a few hours had passed yielded a completely different set of stories. This week I’m seeing a lot less action on how many stories are making the home page.
First off to understand how the diggers controlled the homepage Tuesday night and got a 100% HD-DVD saturation you need to be familiar with the Digg dirty little secret the bury feature. Unfortunately I’m well acquainted with the bury feature and I do find some slight vindication when others see problems with the bury feature. The bury feature which was abused daily on a small scale was turned against Digg itself as the angry mob buried every story that didn’t contain the now infamous number string. To be completely honest I don’t know how sophisticated digg’s algo is and if they can dial the power of buries down without taking the algo apart or not, but if the bury feature was emasculated, I’d toast an extra Corona to Digg this Cinco de Mayo.
Another side effect of this revolt was a lot of users had their accounts banned. Creating a new account isn’t hard, but after working and building a power account, having it sacked leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth about the whole Digg experience. I imagine quite a few users simply abandoned ship or have reconsidered the amount of time they are willing to devote to a non paying part time job.
I’m not saying Digg is done, but they have definitely hit a bump in the road and need to make some adjustments. Kevin really needs grow up and realize you you can’t trust the inmates to run the asylum full time. You can leave them alone for a little while, but like any child they will test the boundaries to see what they can get away with, and keep pushing until they hit a wall. I know someone will chime in about how Digg is admitting they have moderators, but if the admins and moderators were unable to control what happened Tuesday, plain and simple they were and still are ineffective. Digg it’s time to stop acting like a bunch of petulant teenagers and grow up a little.
Sphere It
May 4th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I don’t think Digg is done but I definitely think it has changed. Kevin didn’t suddenly decide to fight the man, he just realized the users were a bigger threat to his site’s survival than the lawyers were at that point. However, by giving in to the users he’s set a dangerous precedence and in fact lost even more of my respect by flip flopping on the issue. Take a stance and stick with it man!
That being said, I think Digg has been headed in this direction for a while. The issue of censorship as well as the bury brigade has chased away many of the most productive members and the riot the other day just sped that process up a bit.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:58 am
To butcher a Gore Vidal quote “when my friends fail a piece of me rejoices.”
I feel a deep down joy over what’s happened at Digg and think it’s wonderful that they are eating their own. Like spider babies feeding on the dead carcass of their mother.
Kevin Rowse’s ass is definately misshapen after all those itty bitty diggers took a bite out of it. I have this mental picture of a 13 year old kid running to his Mum, “Mum Mum, guess what, I just destroyed Digg.” His Mum looks at him, “That’s nice dear, now wash your hands before dinner”.
I know it’s bad of me, but I really got a kick out of what has happened. Personally I prefer Netscape and Reddit for mind numbing distractions to my own existence. The only reason I will miss Digg is for the traffic it helps me send my clients sites. Oh, and I will miss reading about Michael buried all the time.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I must admit that I had some fun of my own with a DIGG story about the HD-DVD code.
May 6th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Digg’s one of those sites everybody loves to hate. Predictions of its demise have so far been off the mark. The whole thing will have died down in a few weeks after the teens forget, or realise that there’s nowhere else for them to go.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I doubt that Digg is completely dead (okay, that statement makes no sense), rather they will morph into being something completely different. Like Wikipedia which has grown into a Monster, there is always room for someone else to step in and do the Digg job better.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:16 am
Has there still be no news of any potential legal remifications of the HD DVD fun and games…
It would be fun that it was a law suit that ended digg, it does seem that digg has more in common with old skool napster and kaaza than wikipedia.
May 11th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I reckon is will slowly die away towards the end of the year with another front runner emerging .
May 11th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
The true measure of Digg (or any site) will be what they learn and how they respond to this event.
I used a photo critique site (photoSIG) for a good long while, and was an active and positive (I think) member. But I think they failed to respond to the repeated and obvious issues of their own growth and the subsequent simple issues of how humans behave in groups. The site degraded into a kind of mob-rule randomness, which turned off many of the core members.
Google faced a similar challenge. Again, and again, and again, and again, and realized almost from the start that *challenges* was the problem they had to solve (not just “relevant search results”). Responding well to events or trends can help. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
As a somewhat passive observer of Digg (and before that Slashdot), I would have to say that there’s a level of “not getting it” that appears to be ingrained in the site. If they hear this wake-up call and rethink their whole population and power, they might evolve from their current “cute parlor trick” status to something more. I am dubious.