Comments on: OK, This is Lame: A Roundup of the Digg User Rankings Controversy

By: baron

baron — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:01:43 +0000

yeah, someone…

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:13:58 +0000

Well at http://www.giggg.com i can still see that about 1/3rd of the previously top 150 users are still topping the charts. I started the list on Feb 2nd, and so far this month it’s the same people topping the ranks as before. This further goes to show that the stories submitted by people who have been befriended by the most people are making it to the front page most often. Numbers can’t lie. There’s no real algorithm. It’s a simple popularity contest. Period. Someone else needs to start something that will smooth out this “digg a friend” feature. And make millions in the process.

By: baron

baron — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:23:03 +0000

I’m not as panda-looking either. Though I do have to eat bamboo chutes to stave off hunger every now and then.

By: baron

baron — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:59:39 +0000

Well, the way I see it there are all kinds of sources for “what’s hot”. At the end of the day it’s the content that is being linked to that takes center stage but the submitters add personality to it. You’d be amazed at how a top poster can make a submission stand out. Otherwise you get these half-assed submissions like: “cool story about Microsoft: Bill Gates does it again yo!” that tell you nothing.

If you just want something short and sweet reddit may do it for you or any of the other aggregation sites like del.icio.us popular urls. I just can’t agree with it on so many levels. You depend on the top contributors for 2 years building an audience, now they get no recognition (at least that’s how some could take it).

I mean even when we blog, stats aren’t everything but if everything came to a standstill tomorrow and I got like 10 visits the whole day, I’d get seriously bummed. If ranking is a crass measure there should be other fun ways to pat users on the back. Just some thoughts.

Hope I didn’t bore you with that!

By: Mindspeakr

Mindspeakr — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:10:08 +0000

BaronVC – question – I don’t know that I have the answer but am curious how you feel about it. I agree that alot of what built Digg’s momentum was the recognition factor – and that was something that people were logically willing to do without being paid because it was fun. So you remove the recognition and what else is in it for the user to encourage them to post? Where’s the value to the user? And while there is definitely value in someone who can consistently find information that others find newsworthy, isn’t the real value in the original content itself? As a blogger who produces original content, how would you reconcile that?

By: baron

baron — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 01:45:46 +0000

That’s definitely the biggest turn off for me too. It just encourages cowardly backstabbing.

I mean there’s no direct social interaction but you could definitely feel that rush and even get a picture of the person behind the avatar, behind the blurbs. It was kinda like long-distance truck drivers giving a little honk at each other when they passed by on the highway.

I don’t know what the new model will be but it sure better come out quick.

By: HMTKSteve

HMTKSteve — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 01:38:54 +0000

Digg has been getting worse in the “secret” moderator realm. It’s not just the bury brigades.

The simple fact is that they have removed the entire meta-game that is Digg. Why submit content to a site that is for profit when you get nothing in return? You wouldn’t write free code for Microsoft so why contribute free content to Digg?