I’ve been a Digg user since the beginning. Back in the days of the original Digg, Digg was the place for tech news. Stories broke on Digg before anywhere else, and the users always strived to find the most interesting stories. You could spend hours on Digg, learning about new and interesting things. It was the Slashdot Killer.
Somewhere over the past six months Digg has lost its way. Digg is no longer the place to read tech news, it’s the place to find out what’s going on, on the internet. It’s where you go to post the 50th “dupe” comment. It’s the site to vote down the good stories and digg the stories that have nothing but a picture. It’s where you go to argue Mac vs PC or Firefox vs Opera on every single story, whether its relevant or not.
I use to visit Digg to find out about tech news. I would read just about every single home page story, because it was all interesting. Since I joined and Digg has grown in numbers, you just don’t find those informative, interesting stories anymore. All you find is “ChEck out ths c00l Fl@sh game…”. Because of this lack of quality, I’ve decided I’m no longer going to be an active digger. My digging shovel is officially retired.
Ok I should be honest I’m not giving Digg up completely. I’m only going to be checking out the stories that I find interesting in the Digg front page RSS feed. I’m also going to continue listening to Diggnation, because face it, Diggnation is hilarious. But, when it comes to things like monitoring Digg Spy, those days are over.
So why the sudden change? I’ve realized something. When you have a site like Digg, which gives users complete control, abuse is imminent. The Average Joe is an idiot and can’t tell the difference between a good story and a story that’s complete BS. If one person says a story is crap, you instantly have ten people backing him, because everyone just plays follow the leader. There’s a reason why websites have editors; it’s because the user never knows what they want. I’ve seen stories on Digg get voted lame one week, and the next week the story is the most popular story. Complete control is a failure in the hands of idiots.
So, if I’m done with Digg what am I switching to? Newsvine. Why is Newsvine better? It’s better because it does not give complete control to its users. The bulk of the intelligence behind the site isn’t users, it’s smart programming. Now to understand how the programming works you first need to understand what’s on the site.
The site is split into two, Associated Press articles and what they call The Vine. AP articles are automatically inserted into the website, while The Vine is a combination of user’s articles and seeded links. User’s articles are written directly on the site about a recent event, a hot topic, or just an opinion. Seeded links are in a way similar to Digg, because users scour the internet for interesting stories and then submit them to Newsvine.
In both cases, the Vine and AP articles are automatically managed by the website. The website figures out how the articles should rank by a number of factors. The freshness of the story, how many times people view the article, and how many people vote for the article are all factors which go into the rating. Did I just say vote? Yes, that’s correct. You can vote (and report) articles just like Digg; but since the votes aren’t the only factor, stories are less likely to be subject to user stupidity. This system works very well, and just because no one has voted for the story, doesn’t mean it won’t be the top story.
Besides the improved quality of stories, there are a number of reasons why Newsvine trumps Digg. First of all, Newsvine isn’t just tech. Newsvine is more like your typical news website. You’ll find politics, sports, and, yes, technology. Newsvine also reads like a typical news website. The stories aren’t sorted by date, they’re sorted by relevance. The biggest story is the first story listed, and includes a picture, just like any other news site.
Another reason why I love Newsvine is you don’t have to leave the site to read most articles (only seeded articles are not within the site); the articles appear within the familiar Newsvine interface. Another neat thing is the articles aren’t just text. Often on AP articles you’ll find photos complete with captions of the event, and on certain stories you can even find video and audio clips of the event. This additional content enhances the story, and helps to give you a complete picture of what’s going on.
Finally, Newsvine is owned and operated by a bunch of web designers from major news sites. The founders of Newsvine have all come from websites such as ESPN and ABC News. Since they come from major news sites, they know what needs to be done to keep users under control. They’ve all dealt with large scale systems, and have the skills to make Newsvine a reality. They’re not going to let Newsvine follow the path of Digg.
Now I should mention, currently Newsvine is in a closed beta. This is because all of the moderation systems aren’t fully implemented and certain things still need tweaking. While this may seem like a turn off, I think it’s great. The people who have been invited to Newsvine are dedicated to making it a success. Due to that fact, stories are interesting, comments provide additional information, and the overall feel of Newsvine is optimistic. If you’re interested in joining Newsvine, let me know. I have a few invites, but I’m only going to give them out if I feel you’re going to help make Newsvine a success.
35 Comments
I completely agree with you Ron. Digg has been so awful lately. And slashdot is full of sissies who love to fight with each other on why xyz is better than abc and they act like they are 10.
Good article, I agree completely.
I’m especially happy to see you offering newsvine invites… but only to those you think might be worthwhile inviting. I see too many people on digg offering free invites to whoever wants them, which is completely counterproductive to what newsvine is trying to do… and in fact what they are asking people to do. They take the time to ask that people not give the invites out at random, glad you paid attention.
Again, great article.
datter
i totally agree
I used to enjoy going through all of the articles but now i find myself checking digg once in a few days. It isn’t about technology anymore. I don’t remember finding articles a few months ago with the comments “I seem to do better at this when I’m drunk.” It seems that this site has basically become a myspace rejects. Where’s the good news? WHY?! WHY?! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY?!!!!
Excellent article. I feel like Kevin Rose should read this to know what people think about it. The Digg crowd has become immature and I feel like Newsvine is more mature.
Really good article Ron…..very true I used to love digg a lot…but now I need to DIGG digg to get find the good articles…all that I see now is hard drives 50% off at compusa and amazing wallpapers and all that crap…:sad:
The idea behind newsvine looks very promising…I would really like to try it out…So if I can get an invitation I would be greatly obliged…
You just summed up everything I think. I don’t digg anything anymore, i am a newsvine user now
Dinesh Cyanam, I just sent you a Newsvine invite. Take good care of the power it brings.
Paul, I think we may be getting our wish. I’ve seen quite a few hits from http://test9.digg.internal/. Maybe Kevin Rose isn’t checking it out, but at least some of the Digg administrators are.
You guys should check out this article:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=108
It looks as if Kevin Rose is going to be addressing this recent downfall of Digg. It will be interesting to read part two tomorrow. Hopefully, with these new upcoming features of Digg, Digg can slowly return to the site we used to know.
Thanks a lot for the invite Ron…….
NV is pretty good………:cool:
If people are looking for invites then Amber MacArthur (www.ambermac.com) has some kind of super invite account that Mike Davidson gave to her after being interviewed on Inside The Net – http://thisweekintech.com/node/4011
Agree on every point. I do feel that as of late digg has gotten very tiring, and full of immature comments.
I just dont read comments anymore on Digg…
Digg is full of some of the most kneejerk morons I’ve ever seen. The maturity level is somewhere around “larva”. Infinitely annoying.
Still got any of those Newsvine invites?
I don’t think Digg is totally useless but I do agree that the idiots are taking over the place. Hopefully they get things under control sooner, rather than later.
BTW, part 2 of the Kevin Rose interview is now up at http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=109
I couldn’t agree more with what you said about digg… but as for newsvine, I’m not convinced that it’s the solution — you can tell that from the front page (one giant AP photo of a random news story) as opposed to what I use these sites for (actual links) — which is why I’m still a happy redditor.
I know I am in Fear of pissing off the wrong geek over there…no restraint…punks….at best…at times….I mean with great power comes great responsibility……
But If I just Bitch I too am no better…..what can we do to help Digg? I have to read the Articles posted in the previous comments about The K. Rose Interview…. But I hope we can save DIGG!!
( But in the mean time someone throw me an invite to newsvine):oops:
Saiajin, a invite is waiting for you now.
I’m with you, I quit going to digg about three or four weeks ago. I don’t even look at the rss anymore, I figured out that the rare story I was interested in was also on Slashdot or del.icio.us/popular, or reddit.com.
I like the newsvine recommendation, but don’t forget Slashdot; sure, it’s got a crufty looking design. That aside, there are still a whole lot of people reading and commenting on slashdot, which means that the highest rated comments actually tend to be pretty interesting.
I would love to join newsvine, but, alas, i have no invite. Is there a good soul out there that will throw me a bone?
You also might want to check out News Bump which is like Digg but with more interesting content.
oops… forgot to leave my email for that invite that I KNOW someone will be kind enough to send my way
Hey..
Very interesting article, I have to say I agree for the most part, but the very front-page of Digg is generally quite good.. Nothing beats engadget though
Do you have any Beta Invites left?
)
If anyone else wants to share an invite, could you please send it to?
(Dear Spambots: Have fun spamming… Homemade spam filter at work
I listened to the Inside the Net interview the other day and NewsVine does sound promising.
I’m not so convinced digg can survive, because it’s “problem” is simply the [apparent] age of its’ audience. It’s illustrated in the article titles, article descriptions, and the painful, *painful*-to-read comments.
“Knee-jerk” is exactly the way to describe seemingly 99% of all digg users. They’re quick to post a story for fear someone else will “beat them to it,” resulting in an article that wasn’t completely read by the submitter; an unimaginative, un-spell-checked title, and a description consisting of nothing more than “The title says it all.” And the comments… to find one useful comment with a mirror link or a link to the real article – bypassing the blog post the knee-jerk submitter posted – you’ve got to wade through a hundred comments consisting of nothing more than “LOL” or “yeah.” None of which, I might add, make any kind of sense without nested commenting.
Anyway, enough of my rant. It’s great to hear others speak their minds about this too. I also am not so crazy about digg anymore, but diggnation (the podcast) is frikkin awesome. I’ve never missed an episode and hope it goes on forever.
J.Michael
PS. Anyone with a newsvine invite, I’d be much appreciative
I’d hate to hit up Amber. I know she’s getting hundreds of emails about it already.
For the people that left their email for Newsvine invites, I sent you all an invite and then removed your email address from the comments to protect you from spam.
Thank you very much cavemonkey50. I’m probably going to spend my Saturday afternoon with NewsVine
After the Inside the Net episode last week, I can’t wait to dive in.
J.Michael
(and thanks for removing my email address, I apologize for making you do it twice
I havent tried very much newsvine yet (although i have an invitation). It is very very interesting.
The big problem with NewsVine is their Terms of Service. If you add your own content, they become the owner of it and can “exploit” it and use it without attribution, etc. It has a lot of promise, but as long as they keep that verbiage in the ToS, I can’t use it to its full extent.
Digg just needs a comment moderation system like Slashdot.
That way the “Me, too!” and “No digg.” posts get modded down and useful / funny / interesting ones are all you have to wade through in the comments section.
TAD, to clarify the issue of ownership: Newsvine does not actually own copyright of your content. We have a license to use and re-publish your content (for example, in a ‘Best Posts of 2006′ scenario). You still own and are free to do anything you want with any content you publish on Newsvine.
cheers,
Calvin
Newsvine Co-Founder
Anyone else a reddit user? Good alternative to Digg as well.
I agree 100%. The idea behind Digg has always been a good one, but the way that it is setup with almost full user control is just shooting them in the foot daily. I find myself turning to ArsTechnica and other places first and last before turning to Digg. Diggnation is great as I do somewhat trust Alex and Kevin to pick up some good articles to point me to. To me, they’re all the Digg I need.
Newvine sounds like it will be on top of this little problem that Digg suffers from. To be seen, but you have to have a little faith in what is new.
If you have anymore invites, send one my way. I’m always looking for better ways to improve my way and everyone else’s way of getting their news.
@icedtrip
I sent you an invite and removed your email to protect you from spambots.
Now I just thought of something else Newsvine has going for them. There is no “point system”. On Digg users have a number which tells other users how many front page stories they’ve had. Digg also has user list ranked by the best Diggers.
Newsvine does not have a rating system, and I think this is a good thing. There is less reason to post crap on Newsvine just to get a front page story. Users should be posting stories because they think other people will find them interesting, not for more rep.
cavemonkey, I’m sorry to disappoint you but we will be adding user ratings to Newsvine. This will act as a way for users to determine the credibility of a particular contributor’s content. We’re already using these ratings behind the scenes for things like the ranking of seeds and posts in the Vine.
For instance, a user who has written 40 great posts and seeds that have a ton of votes and have also been cause for many good discussions should be considered a ‘trusted source’ when it comes to their 41st post. Another user who has written a few posts posts and seeds, most of which have been reported as inappropriate or inaccurate and has been reported for malicious behavior, should carry an indicator of the quality/reliability of their past contributions and behavior.
You’re right that people will end up doing things with the intent of improving their user rating, but hopefully these are the same types of things that other users will find of value to the community.
I prefer Digg over Newsvine, but I wish both had mobile versions of their content.
18 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Why Digg is Done and Newsvine Isn’t…
Ron over at CaveMonkey50 has a great editorial talking about digg and Newsvine. Digg used to be great but right now it is just seen as a group of immature kids that flame and spam everything. Read this article and leave a comment, I think the masses …
[...] So, unfortunately, I’ve joined the ever increasing number of people who no longer read Digg or subscribe to it’s feeds. I don’t have time to wade through ten tons of shite every morning – I want a clear and accurate description of the story and a link to read more. [...]
[...] Here’s some more noise about the impending doom of social bookmarking gone bad. [...]
[...] This isn’t simply because I finally got a story to the front on digg. It is simply that digg is too stupid. As much as it pains me to admit it; the story which I submitted really sums it all up. The fact that something about a connect 4 game can make it to the front page of digg is pretty damn stupid. This sudden turnaround comes from an entry by ‘cavemonkey‘ (I was linked via blankbaby.com), in which he comments on the general stupidity of people, and why some links are said to be lame, then the next time get 1000 diggs. Also, quite correctly, he identifies that digg suffers from the copycat syndrome, i.e. one person will say ‘this sucks’ therefore the next 50 people will post with ‘yep..this sux’. It is depressing the quality of stories on the digg front page. Right now, three out of four are something pretty un-tech related and something you would never see on Slashdot. One is ‘how fast can you type’ (a flash game), two is ’slow motion water balloon popping’ (a video), and four is ‘google snack rooms’ (photos). Digg seems to be becoming the collection of ‘cool’ stuff that people come across, or to put it another way a version of del.icio.us that is simply not as good, and more exclusive. Check out the original cavemonkey post, he talks about a new service called newsvine, which I hadn’t heard of before, but turns out you need an invite. But until then, it’s back to Slashdot for me… [...]
Can Someone Send Me A Newsvine Invite Please…
If any readers are registered for the Newsvine beta could they please email me an invite. Newsvine sounds like it could be an interesting service, based on what cavemonkey has to say about it:…articles are automatically managed by
the website….
[...] read more | digg story by Oddstar | posted in asides Trackback URL | Comment RSS Feed Tag at del.icio.us | Incoming links [...]
[...] After reading a post from cavemonkey50.com, I knew it was time to say goodbye to digg and hello to newsvine. [...]
[...] I am really liking Newsvine, it is the more adult version of Digg. So I think that Digg is Done and Newsvine Isn’t. Thought I still think that SlashDot is King. [...]
[...] From CaveMonkey50 (via PaulStamatiou.com) [...]
[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] A basic overview: The site is split into two, Associated Press articles and what they call The Vine. AP articles are automatically inserted into the website, while The Vine is a combination of user’s articles and seeded links. User’s articles are written directly on the site about a recent event, a hot topic, or just an opinion. Seeded links are in a way similar to Digg, because users scour the internet for interesting stories and then submit them to Newsvine. (read more) [...]
[...] Why Digg is Done and Newsvine Isn’t » cavemonkey50.com [...]
[...] Previous to today, Newsvine was invite only. I was lucky enough to obtain an invite early on, and I can proudly say the site you will be seeing today has greatly evolved from the site I started with. Newsvine now has tons of features to help you enjoy the site better, and prevent it from going down the gutter like other community driven sites. [...]
[...] Why Digg is Done and Newsvine Isn’t » cavemonkey50.com “I concur”, as I’ve been known to say… (tags: news newsvine) [...]
[...] Thanks to a new commenting system introduced today, Digg is finally starting to return to the site I once loved. While the quality of the stories could still use some improving, the major downfall of Digg, the comments, has now been solved. From what I’ve seen today, the crappy comments are being buried while the great comments are now sticking out. That’s the way it should have been from day one. Well, better late than never. function openSpellChecker() { // get the textarea we’re going to check var txt = document.getElementById(‘comment’); // give the spellChecker object a reference to our textarea // pass any number of text objects as arguments to the constructor: var speller = new spellChecker( txt,”http://cavemonkey50.com” ); // kick it off speller.openChecker(); } [...]
Alas, poor Digg; we hardly knew thee….
Here’s some more noise about the impending doom of social bookmarking gone bad.
I’ve reiterated my dissatisfaction with digg many times, so no need to go through that again; I’m not surprised to see a post like this, since I found it …
[...] As you may remember, I used to have a problem with Digg. At one point I stopped going to Digg for a while, but then things changed and I returned. While I wish I could say things have been fine since then, I can’t. Digg has reached yet another growing pain. [...]
[...] CaveMonkey50 Read Comments (2) | Trackback | Comments [...]