Posted on Wednesday 3rd of January 2007 at 06:23 in The Internet

Digg's conflicting relationship with its users

Every webmaster/blogger who has less traffic than they desire has considered Digg (and if they haven't, they should), the angel atop the social bookmarking tree, spewing traffic to all those who seek her fruit. It's well documented what Digg can do for your site but never have I known such a popular site to have this much conflict with it's users... I'll explain.

The article that started this all
I was reading an excellent article over at Frantic Industries (which I found on Digg incidentally) which discussed the dilemma of submitting your own material or leaving it to others. Obviously this is a topic of great debate and reading the comments on Digg (see them here) got me thinking - there are a lot of topics like this on Digg. I'm of the opinion that you can submit your own material there (and I do, probably too much) provided you're clear about it. Much better you put yourself up there than sit around waiting for days/weeks/months for a visitor with the same idea. If you're getting 10 visitors a day but have something good to say then surely a lack of marketing is criminal?

But there's conflict everywhere...
Digg is filled with conflict - a few minutes of browsing comments will show you that. But why? There's the obviously conflict between those with vested interests in opposites (Linux fans vs. Microsoft fans - they do exist). The conflict between the 'older' members of Digg who claim it's "dumbing down" and the newer members. Wherever you look there are people at opposite ends of the spectrum sandwiching the quiet thousands who simply browse but not comment.

Fanboyism
One of the worst words on the Internet which some will take as a compliment, others as an insult. Those with such a passion for a certain topic will obviously clash with others - which is to be expected I suppose. Far from me to harp on with Why can't we all just get along but it would be nice if there was a bit more respect for each other.

SSP - Shameless Self Promotion
If the author has no shame in submitting it then there is no shame to be had. There is no problem (in my eyes) with marketing your blog/site in a conquest for greater things - hell it's why I have readers of this site. A certain Mr. Chow made his blog popular in a similar way and now he's sitting on massive amounts of both traffic and residual income. Well, I doubt he submitted his own articles but the mechanism for becoming popular remains the same.

Digg thrives on this conflict
It really does, there are hundreds of articles on there questioning the mechanisms, offering analysis of how it works and what effect it can have on your site, how you can best market for it etc etc. It's damn-near self sufficient in that it could manage for a few days purely on submissions relevant to itself. Everyone knows controversy breeds traffic - but this (strangely enough) seldom works on Digg because it offers users the ability to "bury" stories they dislike. This means that you get some level of user controlled moderation to keep the field even. This is probably one of the only sites in the world where being overly controversial has a negative effect on your traffic. On places like LinuxToday.com - submissions declaring that "Linux sucks" always grab the most attention (and by extension grab the most traffic).

Conclusion
This was just a brief expression of thought on the topic but I think there are a few valid points made - I've never known such a place filled with arguments and self hatred to be so well maintained and prosperous. It is a fantastic site I spend a lot of time on (and enjoy plenty of SSP) but it really is an anomaly.

 

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