At least on sites like Slashdot there some worthwhile comments, and not just a 90ish-odd comment list of one or two line off-topic gibberish posts and flames like I tend to see all over Digg.

Not to mention, generally speaking, any informative post showing any real knowledge at all about the article topic tends to get buried because others viewing the article comments don’t like what they see, or can’t seem to wrap their shriveled gray cells around the subject matter.

C’est la vie, I guess.

Don’t get me wrong, Digg has some great gems buried beneath all of the cruft that actually makes the home page. Those are why I keep reading Digg. The social aspect seems to have been a mistake, or just really poorly implemented. Kevin and his employees should have left it a commentary/voting-free technology news site. Lack of quality control is starting to really show on that site.

Digg used to be a great site that almost all of the content was interesting and intellectual news, links, papers, etc. As it has gotten bigger the
audience has changed some. Digg used really only be about technology, science, and world news, though it had entertainment, gaming and the other categories there. As it’s audience changed that changed as well. Now many of its stories revolve around mass media, entertainment, and less intellectual, more popular news. Worth while articles concerning innovative technology, science discoveries, and the like has diminished, while gaming, gadget, entertainment, and what the mass audience enjoys more. For example the top stories at this moment are:

– [PIC] What Should You Do if You Find an Athiest?

– What the F***?

– How to Create an “Invisible” Folder for Your, um, “Private” Files

– The Honest Monopoly Board [Pic]

– iPod Touch Glitch? I don’t think this is supposed to happen [PIC]

– Vicente Fox admits he and Bush have ’agreed’ on common currency.

– iPod touch now running Mail and more

– Mario Kart Wii gets bikes, Spring 2008 release date

– And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Madonna Dumps Record Industry

– Shuttleworth on Ballmer

Most places change to their audience as they grow bigger, I remember when most digg articles where at least a page long, now there are three things that are pictures on the top stories, and two concerning only the ipod touch. This is mainly the reason I don’t go on the normal digg homepage, I go to the technology page where it’s a little better than this, but still has many stories concerning the ipod, or the newest gadget out there. Where I used to be able to read interesting articles one after another almost all day if I felt like it, now I have to search through previous days and upcoming stories that never reach the homepage.

Social Sites can be great, but as their audience increases, most of the time they change with the audience. Digg is based on what the users choose to be on the homepage, so they have no control over the change unless they change the rules. It is practically inevitable that if a social site become big, the quality of its content lowers. Especially since I used to not even think digg as a social site before, just a news site with better news and information on it than any other one site.

I don’t know that your book or movie example holds up really. I mean how many movies do you go see that you haven’t heard anything about or seen any previews of? I know I don’t do that. I see previews and think, that looks awesome. When I pick up a book, I flip it over to read the back cover and find out what it’s about. Maybe Digg and the other social media sites are just forcing bloggers to adapt our styles and methods? I mean don’t magazines suffer from the same thing? And yet I find myself still reading several articles in each of my favorite magazines. Why? Because I get a teaser on the cover or the headline is good.

Maybe we as bloggers just need to adapt?

I think that Social Media contributes to the short attention spanization of society. You see all the posts about how to get hit big and they all say to make sure that you catch peoples attention as soon as the page loads, which needs to happen fast as well.

How many great movies dragged you in instantly? How many great books start out grabbing your attention?

I think in a lot of ways, Digg and others are like making a decision whether or not to read a book based solely on the first page, or to watch a movie based solely on the first scene.

I’d say you have a valid point, Ben.

@ John R. I think Digg has already taken steps to limit the power of their top users. Sure you still see many of the same avatars/icons up there but their submissions require a lot more votes to hit the front page. To me that seems ludicrous though because they are essentially punishing those people for using the site too much. Just seems odd to me but there has definitely been a backlash against the top users so maybe Digg was representing the majority on that issue.

@ Carl, I think your point is a valid one. In fact, in the examples pops discussed earlier, wouldn’t the fact that Digg and Reddit and the rest have stayed popular be a good thing? I mean sure there have been knockoffs but the popular sites have stayed very popular. Maybe the specialized versions aren’t a result of splintering and trying to hear what you want to hear, but rather just a spreading of the social media methodology? Also, these sites aren’t one or the other. I personally use a few on a daily basis and several more on occasion so even if some of them are specialized, I’m still getting a wide array of opinions and ideas.