Is a Digg rebellion in the works?

After telling you all that Digg was the best social destination of 2007, the column made it onto the front page of the site. And while some comments echoed my sentiment--namely, that other social sites are, well, crap--the vast majority of commenters found a number of faults in Digg.

Although the general opinion of Digg faithful can't be judged based on comments on one story, can it be said that there is a Digg revolt in the works that is led by a group of individuals who are fed up with Ron Paul stories, crazy videos, and a broken comment system?

If the comments on that story are to be believed, a revolt could happen.

As one commenter put, "I think Digg has been the social site that went downhill the most in 2007." Is it true? Did Digg really go downhill in 2007? Obviously, I tend to disagree with this sentiment and I truly believe that Digg was the best social destination of the year. But why have so many disagreed?

Consider these comments on the Digg page (all of them highly dugg by fellow members):

"It became extremely slow and buggy, it implemented a horrible comment system, it introduced several useless new features while ignoring existing issues."

"Digg has gone far off course from the technology focused social news network it once was."

"I miss the old digg."

"Once you realize that Digg is NOT a social NEWS site, but rather a fun facts site, you see how worthless it really is."

Interesting, eh? Now, it should be noted that the page was not filled with anti-Digg comments and some were strong proponents of the Digg system. But with even more negative comments than positive, somewhat damning to this idea that Digg may be losing some steam is its immense success over the past year.

Even with a host of new additions that were not as well-received as the company would have liked, it enjoys growing traffic and, according to Compete, its page rank has increased 90 slots over the course of the year.

So if Digg is actually doing better than last year, why is there such an outcry of detractors? To be quite honest, it seems that the true revolt may be started at the grassroots level by a cadre of Digg zealots that were with the site at the beginning and watched it fall deeply into a state of "appealing to the mainstream."

Let's not forget--before the broken comments system and the utter inundation of Ron Paul stories, Digg was a tech site that catered to the geeky base. After realizing it could expand its footprint beyond that, the company catered to its own needs--namely, making even more money--and opened the site up to every kind of news you could think of. From there, it's as if the hard-core following has diminished, while the average person looking for a funny video or some interesting posts has found a new home.

Can you tell me the last time you saw a popular story on Digg that revolved around GNU or coding? I certainly can't. And while those topics may only attract a subset of individuals who are fond of those sort of things, it does speak to one issue--the hard-core Diggers of yesteryear may now consider the site to be the bearer of annoying commenters, wacky stories that would never gain traction anywhere else, and a few interesting tidbits of information every now and then.

If so, where has that base gone? StumbleUpon is growing at a rapid rate and Reddit is still a contender in the market. And as those sites grow, will they abandon the foundation that has made them a success, or will they stay true to their base? Time will tell. But if you ask me, these sites will follow the money--much like Digg.

Is a Digg revolt in the works? Possibly. But let's wait and see what happens and gain more evidence than a few comments before we make that call. Until then, keep Digging--it's still a great place to be entertained.

[pierreareva]

personally, am fed up with all the Ron Paul updates or the geeky "How to connect your wii to your fridge via a Mac 80s processor" & co. Have found a good new site called 19min.com that brings an edited selection of what's good online, which is where I usually go now. Otherwise, I use reddit, which I find has a more intelligent selection than Digg, and I like Mixx, although there are not enough users.

[cGt2099]

If you want to know why there is such a strong anti-Digg sentiment, why not ask the bundle of users who've recently been banned WITHOUT any given reasons? These are the same people who have tried contacting Digg (one I know of even phone their reception to the response of, "We cannot help you") to find out why - and received NO response whatsoever.

This all started a few months back when I was permanently banned from Digg, and when rumors starting flying about the site being up for sale. It's almost like they are trying to "clean house" or something.

Digg claims to be a democratic system. It is far from it. Bans without reason, secret autoburials, and so on... they are treading on very thin ice and it will be the users that get affected by it.

Mark my words: Digg Revolt II is coming. When the last one happened, it turned Digg into a user base resembling Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew. What do you think it will turn into after the next one?

For my money, I'm sticking with Mixx.com. I think 2008 will be Mixx's year.

[johnericanderson]

Er...I'm sorry.

What's a Digg, and why should I care?
Wait, I'm a geek. I guess I should know? Oh well.

[simraca]

Gosh, if we were to predict revolution based on the number of gripers on Digg, then Slashdot would have folded years ago. Every community has its trolls and complainers.