Hell Yeah Bitch! .com

I just got done reading Russell Beattie’s article about his issues with “sensationalist blogging” and the page where all of that type of crap seems to float to: Digg

Here’s an excerpt:

Digg.com is a perfect example of this effect at work, but contained one site. I’ve been keeping track of their front page links recently because of all the buzz the site has gotten, and I have to say, it’s really full of crap. No really – the site is nicely designed, and the system is interesting, but the links produced are pure garbage. It seems that the ranking system they’ve created ends up promoting only the most sensationalist headlines to the front page. Pretty much if the title to an article doesn’t have a least three exclamation points, it doesn’t get promoted.

I couldn’t agree with Russell more. At the very heart of it, Digg is a great idea. You find something cool, you post it. If others like it, they can vote for it an push it to the top. A wonderful idea that at one point, in the beginning, did in fact work very well*. But as time went on and Digg’s popularity grew the whole thing seemed to break down. It seemed that people started voting or “digging” stories without actually reading them. They were just going purely on the title, which, more and more was becoming less and less descriptive of the news itself. For example, if Apple was rumored to be making a new version of the Mac Mini by some blog, then the Digg title became “Apple will release new Mac Mini next Tuesday!!!!!” People read that, gave it a click and its up on the front page, raising that day’s exclamation point count by five. Throwing an idea like that on the public and making them responsible for its safe keeping never works out, just as the Communists. Sure Communism sounds great in your head, everyone does the work that needs to be done, everyone shares, everyone is happy. It never works though because people can’t do the work and stay in the lines to keep the outcome as pure as the idea. So yes, Digg, like Communism, is a wonderfully altruistic idea, ruined and made ugly because of the fact that not everyone seems to be able to do the work necessary to keep it clean and pure as intended.

Actually, when you really get down to it, it seems poor Kevin Rose will forever be cursed with a flood of pre-pubesant ruining everything he makes.

Link: Russell Beattie Notebook >> Blog Sensationalism

* Digg was working so well during this time, we were “Dugg” on the front page, not once, but twice. This note, it turns out, was less about full disclosure, and more about bragging.