How do you consume Digg?
There’s been a lot of controversy about Digg over the past few months, ranging from cries of secret moderation to condemnations about its worthlessness as a news site. Recently, Jason Clarke of DownloadSquad wrote a scathing article about why Digg is doomed.
For the most part, I tend to agree with Jason about how Digg is more an entertainment site rather than a news site:
Although digg claims to be a news aggregation service, in the scheme of things digg articles skew much further towards the Entertainment side of the online content spectrum than they do to the News side. Therefore, a better analogy to illustrate the problem with the digg community would be to liken it to a rock concert that gets out of control where a riot breaks out. The people in the crowd at the concert weren’t looking for a riot when they showed up at the concert, they were there looking to be entertained. The problem is that when a few idiots in the crowd begin taking part in antisocial behavior, the “wisdom of crowds” tells the people in the crowd (particularly those who feel anonymous) that it’s okay to take part in the nonsense.
A few of my friends and I were at a coffee shop discussing the state of online social media. One of us asked the fabled question, “How do you consume Digg?” All of us agreed that it’s basically the technogeek’s equivalent of reading trashy tabloids on the checkout aisle of the supermarket. I don’t go to Digg for serious news, but rather, for a quick peek at some viral videos and articles.
And, I always have a feeling of guilty pleasure.
However, I think it’s sensationalistic to say that Digg is doomed. There’s a place in the online social ecosystem for entertaining quickie types of links. I’m not sure if this is the vision that Kevin Rose had two years ago when he started Digg, but, it’s the reality at the moment.
So, how do you consume the content on Digg?
Categories - Social News, Digg | 
December 12th, 2006 at 6:26 am
Much the same way as you’ve described above. I visit digg for a little bit of titillation as & when the mood takes me.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:21 am
I’ve used digg sometime ago, but then some bad stories came up e.g. moderation and heavy users are dominating, which is annoying.
So i stopped “diggin’”.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:27 am
As one of the folks in the coffee shop, I’ve heard a couple of people say the ‘quality has gone down’ since the new algorithms were implemented. I may be off, but that is a bit like saying ‘the Enquirer really doesn’t hold up to the journalist integrity it once had - they’ll print anything these days’
December 18th, 2006 at 11:52 am
[…] Early in the morning today, Kevin Rose announced a major site redesign on digg. The changes include a fluid layout, a top 10 hottest stories list, a podcasting section, and most importantly, a concerted emphasis on video. I’m actually pretty happy about this, since I primarily go to digg for my intake of viral videos. […]
December 24th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I use a RSS feed that I keep track of feeds. Main problem with Digg, is that stuff gets put into the wrong categories at times. Makes me wonder if they need more categories or not.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Thanks boysa18fbe9f384774207306ae0f4042e4c2