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Mob Rule at Digg »

Posted by: Ousama 2 years, 10 months ago

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Somehow, I don't think the "social bookmarking" model is supposed to operate like this. The idea behind an ostensibly non-partisan site like Digg.com is that people submit links to interesting things, and other people rate the links, so that interesting stuff gets more votes and rises to the top.

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Comments: 51

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1-2-Oscar
Feb. 25, 2007, 10:50 p.m.
The same crowd has driven many intelligent and thoughtful people away from Netscape. Such people must have a very thick skin to withstand the abuse directed at them by those who insist upon political conformity here.
Unfortunately, I don't expect either site to improve in this regard. At Digg there are no effective controls, while at Netscape some of the worst abusers are paid employees of the site.
"Social bookmarking" initially created a sense of enthusiasm among people who thought that they were being allowed to be part of the discussion process. As these activist types are gradually more successful in excluding independent thought, the "social bookmarking" rage surely dies. Very few are strong enough to withstand the personal attacks and vituperation, and the few activists will eventually end up talking only to themselves.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
nottinghills
Feb. 25, 2007, 11:19 p.m.
Well. Hmm. Digg makes less than 1% of what google makes. So why does anyone care so much. They are great sites, both digg and netscape! They are fun! We should be more concerned about who controls what's in Google!
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
snowman36r
Feb. 25, 2007, 11:26 p.m.
I agree with you 1-2 oscar, with in the next few years sites like Digg and netscape will be passing fads. Digg because of thier mob rule mentality and netscape because of thier anchors holyer then thou attitudes towards any poster they don't agree with or which ever poster is the flavor of the month to flex their banning mussles on. Digg I don't use very much and netscape only very rarely now, it seems they have chased off or banned there better posters and posters that could accually debate. It will only be a matter of time before their advertisors take notice and start bailing on them.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
braveone
Feb. 25, 2007, 11:30 p.m.
Digg, gimme a break...
it's anarchy over there,
if they disagree, you disapear
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
nottinghills
Feb. 26, 2007, 12:50 a.m.
People with 15,000 friends, just have too much power in their votes. But hey, doesn't matter to me. One thing that's inaccurate about this post, is there is no "group" of people. Everyone works alone.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
INDYANKK
Feb. 26, 2007, 1:08 a.m.
Digg is one of the worst social bookmarking sites...Netscape, alarmingly, seem to be following the footsteps of Digg... :(
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
TheAttacks
Feb. 26, 2007, 1:11 a.m.
See, that's why Digg is having a problem with political news. The stories are buried because one side disagrees, but instead of just having a "I disagree" vote (like our Sink system), the story is actually deemed bad content by their algorithm and removed from the site promptly.
"It's a leftist totalitarian dreamworld. They simply exclude any and all points of view that violate the groupthink-and call it "democracy.""
And, as for this part, I sadly have to disagree. You want democracy, you got it. The majority rules in any democracy, and it just so happens that the majority of Digg users are "leftist" (as the author puts it).
Avg rating: (+5/-0 5)
nottinghills
Feb. 26, 2007, 1:37 a.m.
I just use digg/netscape so I can see what my friends are interested in. AND they can see what I submit/vote and I can see what they submit/vote. It's much hipper than myspace, IMHO. Most the stories that make front page, I don't even read. In fact, I didn't even read this story. :-) Some are cool though. Netscape is nice, because you can go exactly where your friends comment.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
okitech
Feb. 26, 2007, 8:54 a.m.
sounds like someone got their feelings hurt. honestly we need a whine catag for netscape. it should be obviuos that politics should not go into a grass roots site such as digg. digg was born for technology related posts. The originating story was a New York AP item and the dude just copied into his own "blog" and added nothing of value to the original story. if I see something like that it gets a sink from me as well irregardless of the topic. now stop whining and get original or get a thick skin
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
moortiez
Feb. 26, 2007, 9:45 a.m.
The real point here is that right wingers cannot condone anyone disagreeing with them, particularly if it turns out that a solid MAJORITY of people disagree. When that happens, the usual whining and crying like spoiled little girls happens. "Waaagh! people are being mean to us" Wake up, douchebags. Look at the polls. A solid majority of americans disagrees with you on everthing from the iraq war to global warming to evolution vs. I.D. and even your stance on immigration. In the next elections, you are going to be marginalized further down the food chain than repigf*ckin's ever have been. Not a moment too soon for me. You are about to suffer a multi generational shunning by the american people, mostly because "retail" politics are dead in the US, mainly because of the internet. Have fun whining and screaming to yourselves, with no-one listening, because that is how it is gonna be by 2008.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
nakedtruth
Feb. 26, 2007, 10:30 a.m.
I don't know what is more pathetic. The whining from the miserable facists at littlegreenfootballs or all of the "anti digg" stories that show up at Netscape while Netscape tries to be more "digg like" every day. (Case in point the "bury" feature). Hey, digg is an open website (unlike littlegreenfootballs) and anyone can join and vote. If the LGF jokers think that they're being "swarmed" by "leftists" they can always get their gazillions of readers to "swarm back" and up their votes.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
silverfox3
Feb. 26, 2007, 11:22 a.m.
Maybe the most fun americans can have is making liberal bed wetters scream and pull their hair. this can be accomplished in several ways like disavowing global warming, telling womenslibbers to iron our shirts, supporting the war etc.
SusanParrishComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+3/-1 2)
NoSpinDave
Feb. 26, 2007, 2:19 p.m.
My question is, if these people are really interested in making educated decisions based on all the facts, they why do they feel its necessary to silence opposing viewpoints? I can totally understand disagreeing with opposing viewpoints, but to silence them suggests nothing more than likeminded groupthink is acceptable.
The irony is how often we hear from the left about how the government does not tell the truth or how its involved in this conspiracy or that, but when put in a position of power what do they do with it.....they silence all opposing views as quickly as possible. Scarry. Very scarry.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
MikeReardon
Feb. 26, 2007, 7:22 p.m.
I've have seen and been in politically correct comments on netscape that have been real expressions of the opposition to Bush Administration handling of the war. Getting 116 comments all set in one direction against an issue are not debate, but they are information that defines the position against that issue. This is not a great place to form real debate, stories getting up to 608 comments that cover 17 different subjects not related in any way to the story posted make it hard to follow real comments. This is about getting a chance to communicate your ideas, Diggs 'burys' may have been born like netscape block but as a group stop, but killing comments and stories with 'burys' and deletions is not the best of democratic discussion. The other side always needs to come back against your position.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
INDYANKK
Feb. 26, 2007, 11:03 p.m.
I would call Digg as an Antisocial bookmarking site.There are some antisocial elements working 24 hours a day(probably this is a group that has offshore presence as well) to promote their stories to homepage.Also they make sure that other stories are buried before they can find a place in the Home page.
But I am not sure whether this group is close to the Digg "family".I hope that those element don't find a back door to netscape.Netscape should remain vigilant.
I see this group working at reditt as well.A few stories hitting the home page at digg also gets to the homepage of reditt.Some of the stories are good but there are few others, that aren't worth a read, hitting the homepage of Digg and reditt.This creates the suspicion that the antisocial group is active at both the sites.
But one thing for sure - any story against Kevin Rose gets buried forever at Digg.