It's Backlash Thursday in media news: First, the user mutiny at Facebook.com (see today's
OnlineMediaDaily), and now, a
TechCrunch report says Digg.com--a news site that promotes the
most popular stories submitted by its users, who vote (or "digg") on the stories they like--is facing a similar problem. The trouble: groups of users who come from the same company can easily
collaborate to get stories written about them, or by them, on the site's home page. Some groups do this consistently, and now there's been a backlash in the Digg community. One blogger did an analysis
of Digg's home page stories and concluded that several different small groups of users act together on a regular basis, and thus control a large percentage of total home page stories. Unlike
The
New York Times, where a small group of editors decides what's news, Digg has always had a democratic structure. But like Wikipedia, even the most democratic Web sites need some editorial
oversight. Then again, Digg's loyal user base competes fervently for individual Digg rankings; it could be that several hard-core users are complaining about others who are more proficient at finding
stories. (Users are ranked, based on how successful their submitted stories become). Co-founder Kevin Rose responded to these complaints by saying that groups of people recommending stories to each
other is a good thing, but soon, the site will implement a new algorithm that weighs a diversified group of Diggers more heavily than groups acting together.
Read the whole story at TechCrunch »
