Can Digg recover from v4 user backlash?
Digg has had user backlashes in the past, but none as the one currently tearing the site apart. Can Digg recover from this, and if so will it be a different site with a different set of users as a result?
Digg has built its name, reputation, and traffic, on the backs of its regular and heavy users. These are the souls who drive the social media site, submitting stories and voting other submissions up and down to create the site they want to see. Unfortunately, the new version of Digg seems to have disenfranchised these people, and a user backlash in well underway.
A new version of Digg, officially classified as v4, was first revealed in March at the Bigg Digg Shindigg at SXSWi 2010. An alpha preview of the new Digg was then unveiled, and things escalated until Digg version 4 finally went live, replacing the old site, last week.
It’s fair to say that things haven’t gone smoothly so far, with the transition throwing up a number of big issues. The two main complaints are of the amount of bugs present even though the site had been thoroughly put through its paces in the run-up to launch, and that the everyday users who have driven the site over the past few years have been pushed to the shadows in favor of big-name media outlets and celebrities.
Andrew Sorcini, known as ‘MrBabyMan‘ on the site, is the top Digg user of all time. And according to an interview he gave to VentureBeat, he could see this coming a mile off. He said:
I think Digg expected some backlash for sure but not this much. I think they honestly do want the site to suit both the needs of the publishers and the individual users, but when it comes to a dominant direction for the site, ultimately money has to talk for the site to continue to exist.
Kevin Rose has labeled the issue one of “source diversity,” which is a clear admission that certain sites are being given more credence in the new order. What Rose and his Digg cohorts intend to do about it remains to be seen, but they had better hurry up or they risk losing the hardcore group of users they’ve nurtured to this point. But then maybe that’s the idea.
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August 31st, 2010
A cash grab attempt that has fallen flatly on it’s face. I don’t understand breaking something as fundamental as your iPhone app – if it isn’t finished don’t release it.
August 31st, 2010
I understand your point at the end. The old digg user group could be replaced by the facebook and twitter multitudes.
And yet the lurkers who never logged in were the existing digg audience, not users, and they came to expect a unique stream of non-commercial info with no purpose and standard publisher stories.
The idea that an all “big publisher” feed on fp will be more attractive is untested, imo.
The sophistication of all us internet users and our appetite for purely big publisher content is evidenced by the currently viral video of a girl throwing puppies in a river.
my digg article: http://advertific.com/thats-big-thats-digg/
August 31st, 2010
I fled a long time ago to reddit and http://stock.ly and I will never go back to digg.