Great post - quite interesting. They must leave the "friends" feature.
Perhaps Digg Labs is working with http://stamen.com/ on something simlar to their "Stack" feature - to watch Top diggers and digg activity by user, real time?
HMTKSteve
· 2 years ago
I don't expect them to remove the friends feature but... removing the ability to Digg a story from the friends area would stop people from rapidly digging all the stories their friends submit.
Tamar Weinberg
· 2 years ago
Steve, I'm mostly with you on point #2. I actually pointed this out on my own blog post on quality of Digg, where I said "If you’re going to Digg a story, a text box should pop up allowing you to submit reasons why that story has your endorsement... I want a smart system that gives people the ability to think ... [and not] where people click on random buttons for the hell of it." (The latter statement fit in better with lame stories making the front page, though it fits somewhat in this context as well.)
I personally only Digg stories that I read (yes, I follow the link) and found that those posts deserved a vote from me. If I follow a page and it isn't deserving of my Digg, I simply won't promote it.
My friends probably hate me for that. :)
HMTKSteve
· 2 years ago
As much as I hate frames... A solution may exist where a small sliver of a frame appears above the story when you follow the link. This small frame would give you the option to Digg, bury or comment on the story.
You could then remove the digg option from the story page on Digg and force users to at least view the story before digging it. This could be used with the bookmark idea in that if you have not read the story you only bookmark it and the story gains no digg weight.
I know some people have done studies in the past where people dugg a story because of the title when the story itself was just a test page saying, "did you read before you dugg this?"
Tamar Weinberg
· 2 years ago
Right, Steve. I'm not sure a frame is a great idea either. But there should be measures in place to ensure that people participate for the right reasons. If it means forcing people to share why they're digging the post, then great. If following the story is a requirement, even better. The only downside of the latter is that when stuff hits the main page, it can often bring servers down... and then what? Stuff still gets Dugg regardless even then.
I think something should be put in place to make sure people are using Digg for the right reasons. Clicking "digg" because your friends do doesn't really add any real value to the system.
Digg is still a great network, but these changes as of late are a little depressing and other options should be considered instead. The incentives are completely gone now. Why aim for the top if there's no reason to get there?
kyle
· 2 years ago
i think this will stop marketers from calling the top diggers and wanting to pay them. but, some of the underhanded "pay for diggs" tricks will still happen...
for instance, I read today in the comments of techcrunch that the top digg user "webtech" gets her site mentioned on techcrunch as a reward for submiting as many techcrunch stories as she can...
now that nobody knows who the top diggers are, but they are still powerful, it will be easier for them to exchange their power for money or favors. to stop people like webtech and techcrunch from forcing stories to the frontpage, digg needs to change the friends system....
btw: i always wondered why there were so many techcrunch stories on digg. now i know.
Christopher Finke
· 2 years ago
That'd be Chris, not Eric. :-)
Chris Winfield
· 2 years ago
Sorry 'bout that Chris - fixed...
Nice job on that list BTW. What's the daily traffic to it like?
Ari Lestariono
· 1 year ago
Thanks Chris for sharing....I learn many things
RohitK
· 7 months ago
In these year digg has changed a lot..lost of new improvements we are watching every month they are updating..digg is doing good job..
All Comments
Perhaps Digg Labs is working with http://stamen.com/ on something simlar to their "Stack" feature - to watch Top diggers and digg activity by user, real time?
I personally only Digg stories that I read (yes, I follow the link) and found that those posts deserved a vote from me. If I follow a page and it isn't deserving of my Digg, I simply won't promote it.
My friends probably hate me for that. :)
You could then remove the digg option from the story page on Digg and force users to at least view the story before digging it. This could be used with the bookmark idea in that if you have not read the story you only bookmark it and the story gains no digg weight.
I know some people have done studies in the past where people dugg a story because of the title when the story itself was just a test page saying, "did you read before you dugg this?"
I think something should be put in place to make sure people are using Digg for the right reasons. Clicking "digg" because your friends do doesn't really add any real value to the system.
Digg is still a great network, but these changes as of late are a little depressing and other options should be considered instead. The incentives are completely gone now. Why aim for the top if there's no reason to get there?
for instance, I read today in the comments of techcrunch that the top digg user "webtech" gets her site mentioned on techcrunch as a reward for submiting as many techcrunch stories as she can...
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/05/web-20-dir...
here is another story about it...
http://michaelarringtonsucks.com/2007/02/05/doe...
now that nobody knows who the top diggers are, but they are still powerful, it will be easier for them to exchange their power for money or favors. to stop people like webtech and techcrunch from forcing stories to the frontpage, digg needs to change the friends system....
btw: i always wondered why there were so many techcrunch stories on digg. now i know.
Nice job on that list BTW. What's the daily traffic to it like?