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88 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+40Digg is a democracy as it is essentially 'mob rule'. Google is more of a dictatorship.
- blake10, on 10/12/2007, -7/+29yes, digg is as close to a democracy as it can get...but it's the way users, companies, and websites consistently abuse the site for notoriety that tarnish it. the system, the site, and the concept of digg are unbelievably great.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+20I voted no because top Digg users have much more influence, no checks and balances.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12It's more of a Greek Democracy than an American one. It lets the users participate more than usual.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14@Supernova17's comments
This coming from a guy who was almost banned from digg for gaming the system himself. I still digg your stories, but I consider your opinion on this matter worthless considering you been part of the problem...
For those that don't know what I'm talking about...
http://news.com.com/Digg+continues+to+battle+phony+stories/2100-1025_3-6144652.html - animalmuther76, on 07/30/2008, -4/+14@chris
and thats different from real life how? In theory anybody can be president, in reality only if your very rich and have a lot of friends will you ever get the chance to even run let alone be president.
lets also not forget the power of the press who can manipulate and twist things - abid786, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"Democracy (literally "rule by the people", from the Greek δημοκρατία-demokratia demos, "people," and kratos, "rule") is a form of government. "
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy - ezweave, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9In a literal sense, digg is a democracy.
In fact, what makes it bad illustrates the problems with a democracy (i.e. it's not perfect). How many stories are just links to lame blogs? How many stories get dugg up that are totally incorrect? If everyone cared about what they were reading/promoting, invalid entries would get marked as such, blog-spam would be ignored, and things would be more factual.
At the end of the day, it's more entertainment than news. - jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7here is what actually happened to Supernova17: http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Supernova17_Story_What_Actually_Transpired_Confirmed_Facts
- ryland2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Top digger or not, a story should never reach 100 diggs and not be on the home page.
- ryland2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Well, it now appers that MrBabyMan is being screwed by digg, TWO stories with 100+ diggs and neither on the Homepage!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Not really, people have busy lives (school, work, etc...) or they lose interest.
- Itazura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The Digg is a democracy as all people have near the same vote. A true Democracy is all people, majority rules which America is not (I'm not gonna argue why, just go look it up on the net or in a book). Google however is not, it is run with specific goals and advertising means in place, google does not turn up every page related to the words you search for so it is not treating all sites with the same weight, in fact it censors itself from legally questionable content, which is understandable but not democratic.
- jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6wow, 94 diggs right now and this still hasn't made the front page!
- dime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Digg is the perfect example of a democracy:
It's tyranny of the majority. - pensivewombat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I would agree that Digg is about as democratic as anything of its size can be. To those claiming that people can "game" the digg system to move things to the front page, that does not make it undemocratic. There is a word for working a system (including democratic systems) to you advantage: politics.
- qeek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I also believe that Digg is very close to a democracy, at least in it's original concept.
"Millions of marketing man-hours are undoubtedly spent annually to “influence” the Digg user-driven social content democracy" - sounds like a huge exaggeration to me. - PopcornDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Digg isn't democratic or a dictatorship either. It's more like Speaker's Corner in London. Anybody can get up on a soap box and start spewing out anything and someone else can pull one up aside and start spewing why there wrong.
Nothing wrong with that. :) - GRTWHT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3digg's 'democracy' (US style):
Top diggers are like politicians, they have to make it into the 'inner circle' before they can have the major influence of the position.
Getting to that level requires the support of 'the little guy' (the rest of us) or some carefully planned/executed ballot box stuffing.
Once at that level they can (and some do) abuse their position for all it's worth before either getting caught and fading away into obscurity or moving on to bigger and better things. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Digg is not a democracy if you count everyone who tries Digg, it is a democracy for everyone that uses Digg regularly. If you are into technical and geeky news, Digg is for you.
- slantyeyed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Digg is more like anarchy than democracy. Mobs RULE! Except if you're part of the elite, cool kids, top users club.
- airykmn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Is Digg really a democracy when you can "bury" the voice of those whose comments are deemed unacceptable, but still manage to be intelligent? I'd say no, as in a democracy all have an equal voice. I'm not sure WHAT I would call it, however.
I am assuming this post will be buried. If it is, my point will be proven. :)
---actually now I really will be buried, I just read a few posts above (nestafett) who is saying the same thing. Maybe I'll be buried for duplicating his point.
OR maybe, I'm in the majority. In that case, DIGG my comment!!!! :D - jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3i submitted an image of this earlier: http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Does_it_take_more_Diggs_now_to_make_the_Front_Page_image
- jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5geez now at 100 diggs and still not promoted to front page
- rholloway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3being as how democracies are generally controlled by herd mobs and mafias, yes, one can conclusively say that Digg is a democracy.
- jasnmb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe a total of 5 people buried this so it's having trouble getting promoted. :o
- ryland2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Another good point, digg needs to completely overhaul the bury system, WAY to many good stories are knocked off the front page with much less buries than diggs, if a story receives 100 diggs, it should need 100 in order to become buried. How is it what the majority of the cummunity wants when a story is buried with less buries then diggs?
- geekee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Digg illustrates the flaws of a democracy. Lazy people with no time to look at submitted stories rely on others to tell them what stories to Digg. And of course these other people are pushing their personal agendas, rather than giving any sort of balanced news.
- bishop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Digg is has a SEVERE left-wing slant.
It represents the people visiting the site.
For some unknown reasons, it seems that more left-leaning people visit the site than right-leaning one. - aegis9975, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Digg in close to a democracy in that you vote for the stories, however the comment section is the furthest thing from a democracy being that people can get censored ("dugg down") if their views or thoughts are not inline with the mainstream Digg mentality. A true "democracy" allows a variety of views and opinions regardless if people agree with them or not; this is not he case with Digg.
- ggypsy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Digg is not a technically a democracy, as every vote is not counted equally. I believe that it would be closest to a meritocracy, since those who show the most "merit" are weighted more heavily in the ranking algorithm.
In the spirit of democracy and giving the people a voice, though, I wouldn't disagree with the statement that Digg is democratic. - tekrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Pure democracies are simply mob rules. Whoever has the most votes or votes the most rules.
The US has a representative republic. The power is divided among several branches. So all the branches must agree to get anything done. Horribly inefficient but in the end it produces a good result. - LiquidTim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For the most part I would say that they are ''controlled'' democracies.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If Digg is a democracy, I'll take Communism any day.
- cyn0sure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Google is a dictatorship, albeit fairly benevolent, and don't forget that all corporations are command structures. Digg is an elite democracy, not a "true" democracy.
- Pix869, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If it is it is an example of why the president isn't elected by the popular vote..
- greenreefer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is the front page based on Diggs, or page hits?
I never hit the digg button. I will though, soon.
Digg is anarchy.
Google are Bolsheviks. Control freaks selling a lie. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Digg is a democracy for a certain class of "privileged" users. Google is a psychocracy. Much like world politics today.
- Jack9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No. next question.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No, they're not democracies, they're democratocracies.
- The_Dude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Neither are American democracies because neither are awash in money-grubbing lawyers and lobbyists. Neither are run by lawyers as well.
- jo42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Digg is mob rule by what I call "DiggIdiots" - the Beavis' and Butthead's of the Internet...
- Robotsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So much for Democracy! :P
- zombiedepot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Digg and Google are websites neither are sovereign nations, nor have a form of government. Democratic in nature perhaps, excluding Google.
We're more like the gatekeepers of net media than anything. - Dilz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ Lnomis
Agreed. Any good comparative politics class will obliterate one's concept of "democracy." Anyone looking to "dig" deeper should look at John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty." Though antiquated, Mill's essay is a great starting point for understanding the complexities of modern democracy in its many forms. Larry Diamond's work could also apply to rating the power exhibited by/among/within web entities.
As a poli sci major, I would hazard that Digg is a strong SMP parliamentary democracy.
Parliament, comprised of the most active users on Digg, determine which stories make it to the front page. Since the definition "most active user" is constantly subject to change, it would not be appropriate to call Digg a presidential democracy, because term lengths would automatically apply. The electorate is comprised of everyone else.
/.02 - andrewgreve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No. The internet has NOTHING to do with democracy.
The goal of propaganda is to reinforce the legitimacy of the State. Toward this goal, modern democracies have had rousing success. In most Western countries, democracy has replaced Christianity as the dominant religion, the new fanatics are political activists, the flag has replaced the cross as an object of worship, voting is now our most hallowed ritual, and the new holy war is American Imperialism. It would hardly seem inappropriate any more to recite the "Lord's Prayer" by replacing "God" with one's own "country," and in fact altogether fitting- one imaginary entity deserves another. - StateofMind09, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1America is a republic not a democracy, and it is so partly for that reason. Majorities tend to agree for more reasons than what they believe is what's right.
- StateofMind09, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"is America democratic?"
Republic actually. - StateofMind09, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Didn't Google bow down to China on several occasions?
- radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is ZDNet a worthless publication full of articles written by people with no common sense about technology?
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