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.
This time it has to do with Digg’s algorithm. The recent changes have left top users alienated. Their submissions are becoming meaningless, and some are even getting banned without justification. A long time visitor of my site, Smaran, who is currently ranked 28 on Digg, has expressed concern in his Newsvine column. I agree with him completely; if the algorithms are being changed to prevent the same old submitters from having articles promoted, what’s the point? Digg offers no monetary compensation, unlike Newsvine, making ranking (number of promoted articles) the only thing fueling users’ submissions.
From an outsider position (I rarely submit Digg articles), Digg has changed noticeably since the algorithm adjustments. Less articles are being promoted, and it’s taking longer for breaking news to reach the front page. This is not something I’m enjoying. While there was a lot of crap reaching the front page, there also was a lot of gems making the front page. Now the gems are harder to come by since there are less promoted articles.
I’m sure just like last time, changes will be made, and people will be happy again. However, I have a feeling it will be a different set of top Digg users. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, but I believe the top Digg users should be rewarded for their contributions. They’ve dedicated their time sorting through the crap of the internet; Digg should reward them by giving them the only thing they ask for, acknowledgment.
3 Comments
I am in a love-hate relationship with Digg. And slashdot. I do go to newsvine daily. but i have the google personal homepage so unless something intrigues me on the RSS feed i won’t go. it isn’t because of the content. i can’t stand the immaturity with comments. slashdot seems to take pride in being stereotypical nerds. digg tends to be immature 14-year-olds. it’s one flame war after another. things get buried just because they don’t agree with it. especially when it is with politics. hmm it is late and i am tired so i can’t think of a clever way to end this comment so i’ll end it here.
Digg has been having growing pains ever since they expanded into non-tech news. It has become a hub for distasteful political debate and nasty squabbles between Apple, Linux, BSD and Microsoft fanboys. It’s no fun anymore. A lot of the true geeks moved back to Slashdot due to this.
I’m glad you share mine and many other Digg users’ concerns on the new algorithm. It’s pushed me out of Digg and to Newsvine. I was spending many hours a day hunting for and submitting stories to Digg because I enjoyed doing so. If they are going to actively prevent me from doing so, I see no point in continuing to swim in this pond that has now become a rapid, hell bent on stopping me from backfloating. I would rather move to another pond.
Spam has never really been a major issue on Digg. I see these changes more as a direct attack on an increasingly influential (towards the news) group of people, rather than a mere upgrade to the algorithm. As someone pointed out, we aren’t even sure if there is actually an algorithm. Maybe Digg too has Anchors or whatever like Netscape who decide what’s appropriate and what is not. Let me give you an example to back up my claim. After the new algorithm was implemented, there were multiple stories criticising it that got around a 100 or more diggs. All of them magically disappeared from the upcoming page and queue.
Top Digg Users Feeling Snubbed <- 82 diggs
Open Letter to Kevin Rose <- 137 diggs
Digg to Top Users: QUIT NOW? <- 144 diggs
All of these stories were removed from the Digg queue. They never saw the homepage, even though they had enough diggs and would have been promoted under normal circumstances.
Now take a look at this ZDNet story by a certain Donna Bogatin. It criticises the first one on the list above, the TechCrunch post by Michael Arrington.
The ZDNet story is not even an original one, it’s a criticism of the original post that should have made the homepage, and trust me it would have, had it not disappeared from the queue. You know how popular TechCrunch is. People joke that Arrington’s blog should have its own category on Digg.
In the end, the TechCrunch story did get a number of *diverse* diggs from people who are not on my friends list (I submitted the story). It is now showing up on a list of my homepage’d stories. Strangely, IT WAS NEVER ON THE HOMEPAGE! It should have been. And the other two stories criticising the new algorithm both have many more diggs than the TechCrunch one, but also never showed up on the homepage.
I have come to the conclusion that Digg is suffering from censorship.
It is a broken system that is becoming worse with each upgrade. The majority of comments I read on Digg are insulting, racist, outright abusive and obscene. I will not play a major role in this community unless changes are made not only to the algorithm, but also to the site’s policy concerning comments. I hear the majority of users are American. Is this really the voice of America? I don’t think so. I think Digg has attracted two opposite poles of society, the smart, savvy and polite people and the rude, smart-ass ones. I don’t see why Digg is constantly changing the foundation of the site, the algorithm, instead of trying to improve the quality of comments and stories.
Quality is something I have consistently found at Newsvine. It is a community of educated people who think before they type. As I’ve said in the Newsvine thread, I focused all my attention on Digg when it expanded to include all sorts of news. I have not enjoyed the last few months I’ve spent on the site. Even though I was submitting stories and having them promoted, I flinch when I read a lot of the comments on them. Is it so hard to elaborate and be polite? According to me, it isn’t. I’m just being honest here. Newsvine doesn’t buy off users, people use the site because they want to. I think the Digg vs. Newsvine argument can be compared to the Microsoft vs. Apple one. The majority of people use Windows, but it is commonly believed to be flawed and unsecured. On the other hand only a small percentage use Macs and Mac OS X, which is considered to be a “superior” operating system by many.
As you said, Digg offers no compensation to its users. We submit stories because we enjoy doing so. I think it’s worth stepping back and analysing the situation from a neutral third-person’s perspective. Why shouldn’t Digg’s users get something back? Digg is not a non-profit entity. I never thought the day would come when I’d agree with Jason Calacanis of Netscape, but it has come. If Digg was an Open Source, non-profit entity (think Wikipedia), it would be perfectly fine for users to get nothing in return. But it isn’t. We have earned Kevin Rose his $60 million (and counting). Newsvine, on other hand does in fact split ad-revenue with its users. That has been its goal since the private beta of the site, of which I was a part. I think we need to strike a balance between Digg’s the-users-get-nothing attitude and Netscape’s style of employing people for thousands of dollars. Right now, I think my best bet is Newsvine.
I agree with you. Before the new algorithm there was more of everything, crappy stories and ‘gems’. Now there’s less crap, but also fewer gems. I didn’t particularly mind sifting through the crap (heh, that sounds weird) to find the gems. However, I do mind the fact that there is less of everything now. Digg has slowed down to a snail-pace and has gone from being this live, fast-paced, self-updating directory of wonderful things to a D-list blog run by a many people.
I am probably going to get banned for expressing my views (according to a top10 user, it happened to him yesterday) on the topic, but I think it was necessary. Thanks for the opportunity, Ron.
Smaran,
That was a truly incredible post. Extremely articulate and very well thought out. You said what many think but you expressed into words. As I said the immaturity on Digg is absolutely disgusting. I do like Newsvine the best because it seems to be more neutral with the news. I mean on an international level. A lot of world news which I like. Slashdot and Digg are very American biased, it seems the users are the types that Borat exploits in his film.
Before Newsvine I did read only the BBC though they tend to be rather biased as well with what they report, unfortunately.
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