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  • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 25 2006 8:00 PM

Digg This

Submitted by applextrent

Edited by applextrent

Tags: digg.com

If you aren't familiar with Digg.com, you probably should be. It is a social networking "news" website propped up by TechTV fame Kevin Rose. Those of you familiar with the site probably already know how the site has expanded beyond tech-news to include all kinds of crap, from videos to press releases (otherwise known as business news). As the sites popularity grows marketers and publishers are taking notice. Much like MySpace, the site is simply becoming a tool for promotion and it is leading the charge in Spam 2.0.

Digg's supposed democracy has long been challenged as the site has consistently censored stories. In the past, the site has regularly censored stories regarding competing products owned by Digg subsidiaries and affiliates. Meanwhile, they have regularly censored any stories about them censoring user's content.

Censorship aside, Digg has simply become a popularity contest as legitimate content often goes ignored because the author or publisher of said content doesn't know enough people with Digg accounts to "digg" their content. Many groups, companies, and websites have formed what they like to call "Digg Teams" consisting upwards of 30+ people (it usually takes around 30 Diggs to reach the homepage). Theoretically, a big enough Digg Team can mean instant fame for any content a group or company submits. On top of it, new services have launched paying people for their diggs. This enables tech-savvy companies and groups to push their products and agendas meanwhile voting down competitors content.

Originally, it was simply tech-news blogs and websites that took advantage of Digg's democratic loopholes but as the site has expanded to other topics, it has become consumed with direct marketing schemes, corporate interests, and political propaganda. Which is reason for worry, for Digg commands several million unique visitors a month who are now being bombarded with inaccurate information presented as truths. Ultimately, the site will remain because it is so easily corruptible, but its reputation and popularity will likely diminish as better regulated niche sites rise to take its place for Digg's technology and concept are easily duplicated. Worse yet, the site is supposedly in talks to be acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.


Is this the beginning of the end for Digg?

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Comments
Sean

Sean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

OCT 25, 2006 08:15 PM

I am a total digg addict, I love the site, it's so well done.

Warbrain

Warbrain

Des Plaines, IL
May 2006

OCT 25, 2006 08:41 PM

I loved the site for a long time, but now I just don't give a shit about it. I deleted the bookmark since there's never anything relevant there.

onemorepanic

onemorepanic

Long Beach, NY
August 2004

OCT 25, 2006 08:43 PM

i heart kevin and all of his endeavours.

martin sargeant? i'd sacrifice my first born.

Benhamin

Benhamin

Grayslake, IL
December 2005

OCT 25, 2006 09:24 PM

yeah, i heard about it, and checked it out a while ago. While on th e one hand it links to many stories, i felt like the quality wasn't really there. I don't know it kind of felt like Slashdot, only worse. and now it seems like everyone has a "digg this" link. I don't need a 'popularity page' to tell me what to click on next. I Stumble.

Meli

Meli

Manchester, NH
October 2006

OCT 25, 2006 09:26 PM

Digg = LOVE.

We came out with a pretty kick ass shirt design for my boyfriends website... StrangeInk. But we couldn't put it up because of stupid copywrite. Cafe Press is way anal. Some day, when we are big and printing our own shirts the "Digg Me" shirt will go up!!

MaitreSinge

MaitreSinge

Silver Spring, MD
June 2004

OCT 25, 2006 09:36 PM

I always feel like there's too much on Digg. It's like Slashdot only it takes everything, and I thought Slashdot took too much junk I don't care about to start with. The signal-noise ratio is already getting low on Digg, in my opinion (especially if you read the comments--my god, what idiots). Meteoric rises sort of imply burnout, I guess.

metricoclock

metricoclock

Minneapolis, MN
June 2005

OCT 25, 2006 11:03 PM

your article is misleading and false, no digg for you, bury is your fate biggrin

applextrent

applextrent

Long Beach, CA
October 2005

OCT 25, 2006 11:24 PM

metricoclock said:
your article is misleading and false, no digg for you, bury is your fate biggrin



How is anything in it misleading and false? You really think a lot of the stories on the site are promoted legitimately?

Posh

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

OCT 25, 2006 11:59 PM

I don't think that Business Week article should ever be referenced in any way.

Posh

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

OCT 25, 2006 11:59 PM

applextrent said:

metricoclock said:
your article is misleading and false, no digg for you, bury is your fate biggrin



How is anything in it misleading and false? You really think a lot of the stories on the site are promoted legitimately?



Maybe you ought to actually hang out on Digg a bit and you'd get the joke here. wink

applextrent

applextrent

Long Beach, CA
October 2005

OCT 26, 2006 12:04 AM

Posh said:

applextrent said:

metricoclock said:
your article is misleading and false, no digg for you, bury is your fate biggrin



How is anything in it misleading and false? You really think a lot of the stories on the site are promoted legitimately?



Maybe you ought to actually hang out on Digg a bit and you'd get the joke here. wink



Pish-posh, I've been using Digg since it launched. I'm an addict too you know. http://digg.com/users/applextrent

I am ranked within the top 840 users on Digg miss 5,649. Yeah, thats right I went there. tongue

I got the joke, it was so funny I simply forget to digg it. puke

ZAMN

ZAMN

San Francisco, CA
July 2006

OCT 26, 2006 01:33 AM

Dude this article in itself should really be classified as opinion for in itself it seems that little real research has been done on the Digg concept and follow through. Alot of these issues have even been openly discussed on the Diggnation podcast (especially the miscontstrued BusinessWeek cover). Simply put in my own terms Digg was developed as a community designed website, meaning we are the ones in control. Yeah everywhere you go a site will be corrupted, especially if its one of massive interest. But the dev team from the Digg site (from what I hear) is always looking for ways to clean up and make the site more accurate and free from spamming. Man I really shouldn't even have to be explaining this, especially since this is classified as news and not commentary or "opinion" would be best. But I guess to each his own. Just struck me as odd that the article would be so openly biased. It's all good though I'll stay loyal to Digging the news I like and admiring the advancements Digg has aided in developing greater tools for our Web 2.0 world.

JP wink wink wink wink

Autrix

Autrix

San Francisco, CA
January 2004

OCT 26, 2006 02:46 AM

I was involved in beta version of Digg, which was 200 members in December 2004.... It's extremely weird to see something grow that fast and now be in talks to sell to NewsCorp.

I'm torn on how I would feel about Digg if it were bought by fox... I don't think I could go back to Fark or Slashdot at this point :/

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

OCT 26, 2006 02:55 AM

i've heard that the algorithm is going to be tweaked to defeat digg teams, so nyah.

also, why no digg button? digg vanity stories are guaranteed to hit the front page... come on sean, make bean earn his money.

ps -

Posh

Posh

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

OCT 26, 2006 05:22 AM

d20 said:
i've heard that the algorithm is going to be tweaked to defeat digg teams, so nyah.

also, why no digg button? digg vanity stories are guaranteed to hit the front page... come on sean, make bean earn his money.

ps -



There is a digg button, silly. I've used it for Mr. Corddry's articles.

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