Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg - Latest Comments in Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

knud — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:44:08 -0000

I am working on a site which try to solve many of the problems with digg.com.
You can find it on http://crowdnews.eu.

The main problem with digg is the voting system.
When only top voted stories get on the front page it has
to be a subject that many can relate to,
which result in stories with a low information content.

Crowdnews solves this by using sharing instead of voting.
Every have a personal news page on which they can subscribe to other users and when those users share stories they will appear on the personal news page.

Join me on CrowdNews

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

USB Drive — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:31:10 -0000

Nice - now Valleywag linked to ya. :)

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Vectorpedia(Rick) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:38:31 -0000

Excellent article........A number of my friends have also been banned for no reason and Digg would never reply..........everyone should drop Digg and move on

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:55:22 -0000

Actually, 1389, I'd be inclined to agree, but I think that the lack of response from anyone in an authoritative position is what is most disappointing about how Digg is being operated. It already feels that nobody is running it. That's what needs to change. The people who have a responsibility to answer support@digg.com emails should actually answer them instead of leaving them ignored. I don't care if they're unable to disclose whatever to whoever, but the fact that they even bother to answer will remove all the speculation and might actually show some maturity on their part.

It's interesting because I'm reading "Now is Gone" from Geoff Livingston and it's all about how companies should be using new media to communicate with their "audience" (or more correctly stated, "communities"). Digg is a site that is built on the "new media" foundation, but yet it fails at actually communicating with the users. It's irony at its best.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

1389 — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:49:22 -0000

Never mind a seventeen-year-old doing a better job of running Digg than the current management. It'd work better than this if nobody were running it at all!

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

sam — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:13:03 -0000

Its all about the money

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Raja sekharan — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:49:44 -0000

Wow!

For once I had some respect for Kevin Rose after what he did with that secret code thing. I almost thought he gave a damn for the community.

As usual people corrupted by power and success. Just another brick in the wall.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Rafi Vartanian — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:54:01 -0000

Tamar - Love the commentary and agree with you 100% on the following "you built the platform. We, however, built the success"

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Vince — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:49:29 -0000

Awesome post, Tamar! I have a similar situation with some of these banned users. I'm not in the top 100 or anything, but I digg anywhere from 50-100 stories per day and I have many of the top guys as mutual friends. My account, as of the last update (images) took a downward spiral...even though I was doing all the right things and submitting quality content, my stories rarely made it the upcoming section (even with some 20-50 diggs on the story with a 12 hour period). I did a little test and setup a new user (FYI: I have an anonymous browser when I surf, so it wasn't on the same IP) and all I did was digg, digg, digg (no submissions). Within 2 days I had received a mutual friendship with 2 of the top diggers and I was stoked. On the 3rd day, my account was deleted. Why ban a user that only dugg stories that were upcoming or from top diggers? Oh, and it's been a couple days now...and, unsurprisingly, no response to my emails about reinstating my account.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Webomatica — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:39:42 -0000

Nice - now Valleywag linked to ya. :)

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:15:45 -0000

Just a heads up to the 300 people who have IM'd me asking me "what did the two users do wrong [to get banned]?"

Dudes, if I knew the answer to that question, do you think this blog post would be here?! ;)

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Jeff F. — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:10:00 -0000

Tamar - Way to stick it to the man! I love your posts. Mainly because you always exploit the flaws...

...Just remember, the squeeky wheel always gets the grease.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Scott Baradell — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:37:38 -0000

This is very frank, informative post, Tamar. Thank you for sharing this.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

SilentJay74 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:48:43 -0000

HELLO TAMAR!!! Love the article! Words cannot express how much you hit the nail on head.
I think Digg started going down hill when they brought in new advertisers. I think that they wanted Kevin and Digg to clean house a bit so these advertisers would not have to be linked to something they felt differently about. Digg has been going down hill. Another of my friends who was in the Digg Top 100 just received his ban this week. It's is getting stupid over there. After Greg was tossed I had about had it with them.
No matter what the Digg management thinks it still comes down to USER DRIVEN CONTENT! So if you guys at Digg think you are cleaning house, here is the truth, the house was fine, but you guys are polishing the turd.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:22:50 -0000

You know, I was just thinking about that. What's up with that images lab update? Who cares?!

This is why I think Digg is not being run effectively. Why allocate resources to fluffiness and not to the core problems? Obviously, Digg management sucks. That's the bottom line. I think a 17 year old can run Digg better than Kevin and Jay and the powers that be can.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Kelly — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:19:32 -0000

haha...I've always liked the unsettled side of you actually. Aren't we all more interesting and effective when we are a bit unsettled?

I hope digg staff is reading this too, and I agree they screwed up. They'll lose good users if they keep it up. Meanwhile, as you point out, there are so many other abuses that go unpunished and unresolved. For instance, I wish we could ban some of the digg staff for not fixing our site...while spending time on fluffy stuff like digg labs. Where is the sense of urgency?

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:09:19 -0000

Kelly, I think you misconstrued my comment. I'm all settled. ;)

I agree with you. I'm just saying in her defense (and if Digg is reading) that they blatantly screwed up. If they think it's because of an IM network, they're clearly wrong. But if Digg really wanted to get people for that reason, I've got the ammunition for plenty of other spammers who really do take advantage of it.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Kelly — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:05:43 -0000

Settle down there, tamar. I never said that user spammed anything. I've never seen her do it once either. She's a solid user. I said she was taken advantage of....and pointed out that it her being banned was a direct result of the IM network at it's worst.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:00:18 -0000

Kelly: maybe you've heard something I haven't. I'm in the IM network with said individual (as in, she has my screenname and we've talked many times) and she's never IM'd me once to Digg her stories. But if Digg really is on a mission to ban people for IMing stories (which isn't much different than shouting, imo), then I can give them a list with about 100 people who have done the same to me over the past few months (and no, I don't know them, but they "found [my info] on Digg" or so I'm informed every time I get one of these IMs).

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Kelly — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:55:28 -0000

I don't know what happened with emobrat's account being banned, but the other user that was banned? From what I've heard, it's a very sad and disturbing tale of a new user being taken advantage of by a veteran user...shenanigans coming off of the dark side of the IM network.

I've also never understood digg banning first and asking questions later when it comes to established users. Why not fire off an email warning first? If not, at the very least respond to the user once it's done.

...and I agree with Dave above, the community is the strongest part of digg right now. As far as pure function, he site is almost impossible to use. Clicking on anything is a waiting game.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Doug — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:39:48 -0000

I have been banned by Digg probably 4 times in the past few months. They never give me a good reason and it gets frustrating. I play by the rules and submit quality stories. I myself wrote a blog post to vent my anger here.

My Blog post

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:59:01 -0000

Patrick, you do realize who was banned, right? If not, as far as I can discern, they weren't spammers. I've Dugg both users before, and I honestly only found out about both users AFTER the fact. I guess they specifically sought me out because of my past criticisms about Digg. Apparently, nobody else is vocal enough.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

Patrick Altoft — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:52:24 -0000

If Digg bans you for being a spammer they don't respond to emails. If they ban you for some other rules breakage then they respond and let you back in.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

tamar — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:42:17 -0000

There are still good users there. There are also bad users. They obviously needed to open up (hence the recent images section and taxonomy updates) to appeal to non-techies too. But Digg has made changes people don't like, and they could make substantial changes that people do like if they actually cared about the people. That's where they fail because they leave no indication that they care about the users. They only care about the money.

Re: Why Nobody Should Buy Digg

graywolf — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:40:31 -0000

@lyndon damn gold star for that one baby!

@tamar do you really think it can be salvaged I don't, the problems are in the code, the philosophy, the users, it's infected the system so much it's part of the system. It would collapse without it.