Comments on: Is Digg Broken? Here are Some Suggestions

By: baron

baron — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:02:23 +0000

I think the priorities are ass backwards too. Complainers and nasty customers are everywhere in the economy. Outside IT, companies that only listen to the complainers are the ones that go out of business. I don’t think it’ll be any different here.

I’m sure we wont see a mass exodus but the passion will be dampened. Where’s The Fire?

By: Ilya Lichtenstein

Ilya Lichtenstein — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:41:10 +0000

I agree completely. Kevin Rose is shooting himself in the foot with this. By alienating the top users, he is taking away the very thing that makes Digg stand out- a consistent flow of high quality stories. As usual, Kevin Rose is pandering to the “silent majority” of Digg users (because that’s where the $$ is- the number of users, that’s why Digg is expanding first to all news and then to videos, to draw in a wider audience), at the expense of the core group of users. It remains to be seen whether the core Digg users are truly so expendable.

By: baron

baron — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:02:05 +0000

Thanks for the comment. They are lashing out at their best. If I was high on that list I’d be alarmed and dismayed. The fact that they’re not raising hell as much as they could shows how much they care in my opinion.

Removing the top rankers list is not so much an issue as giving the top users due recognition. You really can’t put the top 10 on the same level as say someone who visits often but mostly just makes comments.

Either that or they need somekind of forum or more personal channels between top management and the development/management team. Not sporadic emails but an ongoing dialogue. These people are stakeholders.

I’m a bit concerned about Digg’s tendency to try pleasing the masses even at the expense of their most passionate users. As long as the content is good, jealousy or not, people will come back.

By: Charbarred

Charbarred — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:42:19 +0000

Very good observations.
Digg has become a monster and lashing out at its most dedicated contributors is not the way to solve all of Digg’s problems.
At the moment digg doesn’t compensate its users in any way, giving people little insentive to use the site properly. The top users list at least gave users a pat on the back for their dedication. What Digg will be left with is a bunch of interested parties that will submit their made for adsense sites instead of the news.