A Contrarian Digg at effective web ministry notes

A Contrarian Digg

filed under Community by rob on 13Dec06 @ 1:14 pm EST

This is a very interesting article about Why digg is destined for failure. I’m not sure if I agree with the conclusion, but it’s very interesting reading about how social media and wisdom of the crowds may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Social media sites are an unproven phenomenon, in terms of the value that they provide to content creators. Digg in particular is the biggest of the bunch, and also seemingly the most negative. I predict that in the near future sites will start to attempt to block digg as a referrer, since getting a link from digg will simply cost them money. And over time I believe users will tire of the constant negativity that characterizes digg, and move on to better endeavors, unless digg can find a way to clean up their collective act.

What do you think about this?

2 Responses to “A Contrarian Digg”

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1 Joe Suh on Dec 13th, 2006 said:

I think the argument is flawed. The comments on a Digg story are vintage 90/9/1% rule of internet contribution. The minority of cacophanous commenters are not representative of the majority of quiet content-consuming clickers.

I’ve gotten our site (MyChurch.org) on Digg’s front-page twice. On both accounts, traffic was unprecedented for a day and then dropped off sharply. I knew this spike would happen, and that the residual retention would be minimal. But I equate a Digg front-pager to a NY Times or USA Today article. Tons of new eyeballs, most of which are not your demographic. But brand equity is being built and the viral effect starts to snowball.

Any publisher or media company wants to be on the front page of Digg. A front-pager brings in 50K unique visitors - who wouldn’t want that? I’ll tell you who - the opportunists who are hoping to translate the eyeballs to immediate Google AdSense dollars and cents. If you look at the exposure in short-term monetary lenses as opposed to long-term brand equity or awareness, then of course you wouldn’t care to be on Digg, Slashdot, NY Times, or any large audience for that matter.

Just my 2 cents
2 rob on Dec 14th, 2006 said:

Yeah, I’m not so sure either. I fill like there will continue to be niche sites like this displaying what they currently like. The thing is, what will that community tolerate? If there are too many submissions that the main people don’t like, they will either tighten it down or get run out.

Either way, it’s a very interesting thought about how social communities work.