Digg: How Long Will It Last?
November 5th, 2006
Looking at some of the latest info regarding Digg, I started wondering how much longer it can continue to be a powerhouse. Digg claims to have 20 million visitors per month and continues to grow. But the big question is how long this growth will continue. Digg is starting to approach rough waters and it will be interesting to see how it decides to navigate through them.
Digg has had to come up with different ways to keep the site from being abused by groups trying to promote their work to the home page. This has resulted in deletion of violator’s accounts and various changes to the core algorithm. The latest algorithm seems to be alienating Digg’s top posters. In my opinion, this is a major red flag. They are making their top contributors feel unappreciated. I am really concerned that Digg’s homepage will start really suffering from the growth and necessary changes. Will we start seeing lukewarm headlines that have been dugg only 10 times reach the homepage? At some point, the business model will have to be modified. Just like any business, once growth reaches a certain level - major change must take place in order to survive. I hope Digg can endure the challenges that its growth and popularity bring. I guess only time will tell.
November 5th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
I’ve been thinking about digg recently, too, even before the recent overhaul. Ultimately a social system is only as strong as its weakest link and, in this case, we are the soft spot.
By we I mean humans, and by humans I mean human nature, really. It’s hard to overcome the self-serving need at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy. Coupled with the trick that it is practically impossible to make a system that is broadly usable yet ensures that the person digging a story is who they say they are and can only digg once and have only one persona on digg. I think all the other problems spawn from this issue of identity.
Regardless, I enjoyed digg six months ago, but have lost interest/patience/respect for it and rarely visit… only if someone asks me to digg their post. I used to face an ethical dilemma with this, but it just doesn’t seem like it matters either way anymore. I know from chatting around that others feel likewise. I think fighting the apathy of desirable users may be digg’s biggest challenge.