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63 Comments
- MarianaPeyton, on 05/14/2009, -8/+30When will you resolve/shut down the shout feature and finally solve the poweruser issue?
- doublsh0t, on 05/15/2009, -2/+19I organize my comments by "most dugg" and when I click a comment's "thread" button it shows the thread in the similar hierarchical form according to the number of diggs, making it still difficult to see proper context. Can we make it to where it reverts to a chronological order when in a "thread" sub-section?
You have remarked on this before in a previous Townhall, but it simply does not work this way--as it should. - SigmaEcho, on 05/15/2009, -6/+21Kevin,
You created Digg in response to, as you put it, democratize news, "as opposed to a handful of editors" deciding what would reach the front page of a news site. And yet, time and time again, you defend "power users" as people who "are good at finding quality content", and you have spent the last few years defending the fact that your site is overwhelming controlled by a handful of power users, rather than taking the proper steps to fully level the playing field for all users. Will you please consider:
1. Make Upcoming stories anonymous
2. Remove the social networking [read: popularity contest] features
3. Replace the needlessly complicated recommendation engine (that mostly features stories that are already taking off anyway) with a simple "Upcoming Stories" box that will allow ALL stories to receive at least a moment on the front page, which will effectively level the playing field for all users, doesn't require a complicated algorithm, and is a system that has worked demonstrably well on other sites.
If the creed of this site is to give full control to the users themselves, then you should implement theses changes, as the users have time and again shown overwhelming support for these actions. - AndrewDB, on 05/15/2009, -5/+19Why bother asking questions? Every time I ask the same one, they just ignore it..
The question is:
DEAR KEVIN AND OVERLORDS OF DIGG:
When will you allow us to block urls from making the front page that we don't want to make the front page as a per individual setting? This will allow users to block such sites as Cracked, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, and etc as a PER user setting. It would solve the constant bitching. - perrym, on 05/15/2009, -3/+9any chance of being able to block spammers and spam sites that are always on here?
is that too much to ask? - mithrasinvictus, on 05/15/2009, -1/+7Extend "report as offensive" with "report as spam".
- inactive, on 05/15/2009, -5/+10Dupe postings....to many of them. Should have a way to block double links of the same story, cause once a big story hits, like the swine flu, theres a billion of the same topics, same links, same pics...STUPID!
- xGrill, on 05/14/2009, -6/+11I think it would be cool if we could eliminate stories based on some keywords, I love politics, but I don't care about post-Bush stories about his administration. It would be sweet if I could just opt out of stories with the word "Bush" in the title or description.
- thespanielator, on 05/15/2009, -3/+7How about getting rid of the dialogue box telling me that I've already dugg a story and just update the digg count to the current total.
- mechnoch, on 05/18/2009, -2/+6I kinda wish that I could give a reason why I'm digging a story, not just why I'm burying a story. There's just something that doesn't seem quite right about 'digging' stuff that appalls me, but that I feel others should see. Just a nice little (optional) pulldown menu, like on the bury button has. Imagine it: digg - Breaking, Funny, Tragic, Accurate, OK this is awesome! Any chance of something like that happening in the future?
- TheVirus, on 05/15/2009, -4/+7Any reasoning for the mass banning of the 'how was mr babby man formed?'? It seems a bit extreme to ban loyal members, especially when they rallied against one of the most hated power-users on Digg. If people don't like the comments, they can digg them down, banning was excessive.
- adrianscholl, on 05/14/2009, -7/+10Kevin hinted at Digg Version 4.0 in the State of the Union. When can we expect that and can we have a teaser as to what to expect?
- MarianaPeyton, on 05/14/2009, -5/+8What is the future of Digg and how do you think collaboration and personalization will affect the site?
- mithrasinvictus, on 05/15/2009, -3/+6Since Digg is full of Mac <> Microsoft <> Linux arguments, it would be interesting to see Diggs browser user agent statistics.
- m0nger, on 05/15/2009, -2/+5Here's one thing I noticed that gets annoying. Even though an article from site A submitted and site B covers the same content (article on the same event, maybe worded a bit differently), it would be nice for users to "link" an article, like bury.
Good way to organize those articles that are technically not duplicates, but cover the same content. - Branchex, on 05/19/2009, -0/+3Can you show us a checklist of what town hall requests have been done and which have not?
- Insanekingkong, on 05/18/2009, -1/+4Can we expect to see the amount of diggs a story has in real time? Instead of refreshing the page to see a change.
- SigmaEcho, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2Kevin and Jay,
Thanks for reading my question at the Townhall. I'm sorry I gave the impression that I "Hate" the power users, because I actually don't, and I agree with you that there will always be people who dominate ANY site or community. (I wrote that question in a rush while the story was fresh in a bid to get it read by you guys, but as a result the wording was not as clear as I would have liked.) My beef is really about how hard it is for your average person to get on the front page! Submitted stories are simply lost in the haystack, and most of what gets to the front page are the "Power Users" that game the system for diggs through their large network of "friends". It's gotten so bad, average users routinely say that they don't even bother submitting content anymore. It's something that I've experienced and am especially frustrated with, and am even more troubled by the fact that I've not had any such problems on other similar sites.
But I was happy that I came away with the impression that you guys have thought about these problems a lot and considered these options, which is what I expected from smart guys like you. But I just wish we could have a real dialogue - we both agree that upcoming stories should be anonymous, and you said you plan on overhauling the Upcoming Stories system. But I think you missed the point of #2 - of course there will always be sharing of links throughout the net, but for the sake of neutrality and fairness, I think digg should be more restrictive about it's networking features, and clearly you agree because you also said you'll be removing/fixing shouts.
The suggestions were just to get you talking - the actual strategy isn't really important - it's the goal the matters: Level the playing field, and as a result we'll all get richer, more diverse content. I'm really excited about what you have in store, as I think you guys overwhelmingly do things right, so I hope we get another chance to discuss after you roll out the next site overhaul.
Thanks again! - chevyorange, on 05/19/2009, -0/+2I wonder who the one is that dugg me down? hahahahahaah pathetic. Log into your other account and bury me more, ding bat.
- joestump, on 05/14/2009, -7/+9Jay, when you get back into town you want to get beers?
- Pelikoira, on 05/18/2009, -0/+2Do you ever remove these huge bugs?
Friends system and shout system. - mytealjacket, on 05/20/2009, -0/+2I like the shout system. I think it works a lot better than upcoming, which is full of random sucky articles. Shouts come from sources I 'trust', and are usually interesting and relevant for me.
- smergs, on 05/18/2009, -0/+2Can you make a visible notice on a story that it is a dupe and was not the first one posted and then provide a link to the original (based on time of posting)? That way diggers will go and digg the one that was submitted first instead of the power user. Should stop a lot of whining.
- techguru2006, on 05/15/2009, -3/+5My question for Digg is what are they doing new that will keep the website fresh and exciting? The only new feature that seemed fresh and exciting was the DiggBar.
- waaan, on 05/15/2009, -3/+5What's Digg's take on the powerusers issue? What is/will be done on powerusers going forward?
- leedman, on 05/29/2009, -0/+2We used to be able to blog our diggs - make a blog post from a digg entry. Keeping an old blog site alive and active, now redirecting that old entity to the new domain, this was an exceptional feature worth keeping. Would Digg consider bringing this feature back?
- justjeninsf, on 05/15/2009, -4/+6Hey TheVirus -
While I can't comment on individual accounts, I can say that there was no "mass banning". Some people were banned, after full account history review, for comment spamming and harassment.
-Jen - artgoddess80, on 05/15/2009, -2/+4What about digg iPhone app?
- minnepinne, on 05/14/2009, -6/+7Whom have you planned on having on Digg Dialogg in the future and who have already turned you down?
- benologist, on 05/15/2009, -3/+4That suggestion's older than most of digg users along with filtering by url. I wouldn't hold my breath about it, they're still trying to distract us with pointless bits of candy while they struggle to deal with the people successfully gaming digg.
This townhall will be like all the others, there'll be some "great idea" remarks tossed around about user suggestions, some awesome new feature they're super excited about will be presented or hinted at - most likely another way you can put digg's url in front of people who don't care - then we'll go back to looking at the same crap we look at every day: scraped images, summarised stories and content written and tailored specifically for digg, submitted by anyone with the patience to add a couple hundred friends and recipricate diggs for a few weeks till they get enough flowing back to them. - joestump, on 05/14/2009, -2/+3The "bury bin" sort of exists in the new site search. Just add +b to your search and it will only return buried stories.
- netneutrality, on 05/15/2009, -7/+8Does Kevin Rose use AdBlock?
- mytealjacket, on 05/15/2009, -1/+2Or you can add people who make comments you like in the articles you read. What is the rush? I've found adding friends slowly to fine.
- xGrill, on 05/14/2009, -1/+2If you go to the "Upcoming" tab, on the right hand side, there is a list of users who are like you.
- AndrewDB, on 05/16/2009, -1/+2Why would you complain about it when you can disable it in your settings ?
- punkcat, on 05/15/2009, -3/+4hey i can't make it, but could someone else complain about the digg bar?
- Klitzy, on 05/18/2009, -2/+3I want to have my facebook connected with my profile but I don't want to publish every single story I digg on my facebook....just some. If I turn publishing of facebook stories off, I have to go back into settings just to publish one story. If I leave it on, I have to continuously click "Skip" after every single digg. Any future for a more seamless and less hassling way to publish digg stories on facebook?
- chevyorange, on 05/18/2009, -1/+2And we always know the bent of your comments. I doubt I need to read them anymore.
- SigmaEcho, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1Kevin and Jay,
Thanks for reading my question at the Townhall. I'm sorry I gave the impression that I "Hate" the power users, because I actually don't, and I agree with you that there will always be people who dominate ANY site or community. (I wrote that question in a rush while the story was fresh in a bid to get it read by you guys, but as a result the wording was not as clear as I would have liked.) My beef is really about how hard it is for your average person to get on the front page! Submitted stories are simply lost in the haystack, and most of what gets to the front page are the "Power Users" that game the system for diggs through their large network of "friends". It's gotten so bad, average users routinely say that they don't even bother submitting content anymore. It's something that I've experienced and am especially frustrated with, and am even more troubled by the fact that I've not had any such problems on other similar sites.
But I was happy that I came away with the impression that you guys have thought about these problems a lot and considered these options, which is what I expected from smart guys like you. But I just wish we could have a real dialogue - we both agree that upcoming stories should be anonymous, and you said you plan on overhauling the Upcoming Stories system. But I think you missed the point of #2 - of course there will always be sharing of links throughout the net, but for the sake of neutrality and fairness, I think digg should be more restrictive about it's networking features, and clearly you agree because you also said you'll be removing/fixing shouts.
The suggestions were just to get you talking - the actual strategy isn't really important - it's the goal the matters: Level the playing field, and as a result we'll all get richer, more diverse content. I'm really excited about what you have in store, as I think you guys overwhelmingly do things right, so I hope we get another chance to discuss after you roll out the next site overhaul.
Thanks again! - inactive, on 05/14/2009, -11/+121. When are you going to make a simple and lightweight commenting system that (1) doesn't utilize such a crapload of AJAX, (2) loads quickly, (3), allows for syntax such as custom hyperlinks, text formatting, etc., and most importantly, (4) allows for infinite-length threading of replies. Example: http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8249/iamproudofyo ...
2. Many of us feel that the lack of transparency in regards to burying stories allows for admins to use the promotional algorithm as a censorship scapegoat. Kevin Rose made a promise in a comment on 10/14/2007, that "This system is going to change in the near future. Soon, reported stories will fall into a ‘buried stories’ bin. Users will have the ability to pick through this story bin and vote to have a story reinstated should they believe it was falsely reported.” On a recently censored story about the digg bar, http://digg.com/tech_news/How_to_block_the_DiggBar ... , Digg employee justjeninsf alluded to the fact that this system was never put in place. It is EXTREMELY important that Kevin follows up on his promise, and that this "bury bin" is implemented by the end of the summer. It is insulting that such a feature that was promised was never implemented, never spoken about again, and still allows for scapegoating censorship to the promotional algo. Here is a link to Kevin's comment: http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg_Censors_Stories_Tha ...
3. Redesign. As much as you need one, please put more effort into improving the foundations of the system itself. Mainly the commenting system. Discussion on this site is non-existent, due ENTIRELY to the structure and styling of the comment pages themselves. If you want to see meaningful discussion ever take place in the comments (((( Recent article: "The caveat, of course, is that Rose doesn't want Digg to be a platform where the only discussion involves comments like "that ad sucks." "I'd hope [conversation] would be deeper," he added.")))). That is NEVER going to happen, unless you fix this comment system, and make it lightweight and usable. - mithrasinvictus, on 05/15/2009, -2/+3How about dividing the amount of diggs someone makes by a daily quota?
For example if someone diggs 200 stories and the quota is 50, those 200 diggs are weighted at (50/200) 0.25 instead of 1.
(anything below the quota should just count as 1 digg) - PHLAK, on 05/14/2009, -6/+7If there was one feature you as the owners/operators/developers/etc. would add to Digg, no matter how likely it would be to go live, what would it be and why?
- jeffsawyer, on 05/18/2009, -2/+3Dupes have been handled fairly well IMHO. I do think dupes could be handled a little better, but I don't see that it's a huge issue anymore. It would be nice to have a feature where users could add "possible dupes" to a post and allow voting to determine which one should be considered as the main title/link and just merge the replies.
In addition, since some people submit with the worst titles ever, couldn't there be a way users could vote on new titles for posts as well? - justjeninsf, on 05/15/2009, -1/+2yep, TheVirus, there are lots of accounts on Digg with the username "Inactive" because anytime a user requests to have their account closed or is banned due to TOU violations, their account converts to "inactive" status. This is not unique to the very few members who were banned for comment spamming the other day.
- TheVirus, on 05/15/2009, -2/+3Don't know about you, but I'm seeing a ton of 'inactive' comments in older stories. Sorry, I don't buy that excuse.
PS: I wasn't banned but I didn't get butt-hurt over some silly comments. - code, on 05/14/2009, -3/+3do you think the "friends" feature helps or hurts (1) the quality of stories that get promoted and (2) the diverse submitters that get promoted
- benologist, on 05/15/2009, -1/+1That ship already sailed, there's loads of ways to add digg's core functionality to a web or intranet site.
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