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130 Comments
- navinjohnson, on 10/12/2007, -4/+102I agree with the post. I don't agree with Leo's profile pic.
- Experiment626, on 10/12/2007, -3/+51Calacanis is following the classic John C. Dvorak strategy for drumming up spin (especially when it comes to Apple news) - JCD is a columnist after all, and he routinely posts provocative ideas on his column to make sure that it is being talked about. But Dvorak usually sticks to real issues that need to be discussed. That people aren't being paid to digg stories is a non-issue - nobody forces Diggers to contribute. Does YouTube pay contributors of homebrew videos? Calacanis is insinuating that Kevin Rose is getting a free ride from the Digg community (since he's the same guy who revolutionized the idea of being paid to blog, he's trying the same tactic over at Netscape). Ultimately the whole thing smacks of a poorly thought out publicity stunt, since it is not the presence of the top diggers that makes Digg worthwhile - it's the sheer size of the community digging interesting stories left and right - even stories that never make it to the home page.
- FishyJoe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+45I never heard of Calacanis before listening to him on TWIT, and I don't think I've reacted to anyone on that show so negatively. Very annoying person. Dvorak is controversial but polite, Calacanis just seems like an ass.
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+44Netscape.com will fail for many reasons:
1) Netscape is just a lame brand. Nothing screams "Welcome to 1996" like Netscape.
2) Netscape traffic stats are inflated due to the homepage effect. People come to digg on their own free will. People goto Netscape.com because they don't know any better. The average Netscape.com user probably has no interest in social news. You can't just flip a brand into something new. It ALWAYS fails.
3) AOL doesn't really care about users. They just want ad revenue and page hits. They'll probably drop this whole idea in 6 months and turn Netscape.com into a MySpace clone. Hey Calacanis: I'll write stupid blog posts on a gawdy web page for $1k a month.
4) Netscape's weekly podcast will be 30 minutes of Calacanis drinking beer, by himself, reading stories from digg.com. I hear they're going to get Pauly Shore to play the role of Alex. - RadiantBeing, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43I hope Leo Laporte's post is the final word on this. Jason Calacanis and AOL don't deserve any more free publicity. This whole controversy is a pretty transparent attempt to stir up interest in his site. Anyone who ever worked in media or communications will tell you that his ploy rellies on other people keeping it going by stooping to his level and feeding the flames. If you wrestle with a pig, you're going to get muddy. Calacanis destroyed his reputation and revealed his character the moment he copied Digg. He doesn't have any original ideas and he doesn't understand how to build a website. All he has is spin and AOL money. If history is any guide, his site will eventually suffer the same fate as iWon, the search engine that paid it users to use it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwon - geuisteses, on 10/12/2007, -1/+40Man, it takes alot to get Leo stirred up. Good to yah.
- computerdude33, on 10/12/2007, -2/+38Calacanis is a ***** idiot.
"Until next time, Netscape sucks." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34Dvorak, as rough as he can be to listen to sometimes, completes the show.
It wouldn't be the same without him, I think. - Xfrost4, on 10/12/2007, -5/+36Leo Laporte Rules!!! Bring back the New Screen Savers!!! Leo, Patrick, Kevin!!!
- deut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25Too be honest, Dvorak, Leo, Norton plus that guy from the UK, for me, is the best TWiT line up.
Dvorak is fine. Sure he goes a bit loopy from time to time, but his comments (whether I agree with them or not) are always interesting to listen to. - senseigmg, on 10/12/2007, -18/+41In Soviet Russia, Netscape Diggs you!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+26Leo is just so *****' cool.
- etruscan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Oh... my... God. Can we not let this die? How could a attention seeking punk like this Calacanis spew out a few critical comments about Digg and make so much news? This is Digg at its navel-gazing worst.
- easy4lif, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21The only reasons I started coming to digg was cause of all the positive comments Leo and the other TWIT's did on TWIT. Once I saw how nice this comcept was, I decided to join. I have yet to submit a story, but I luv reading all the interesting articles the rest of the diggers find on the web.
if this is a pissing match, my money's on Rose! - doxx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Netscape really should try to figure out what it is and stop ripping off ideas from clueful web sites such as Digg. I hope the Digg team puts Netscape to death.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+31This Digg vs Netscape Controversy is great for Digg. Its like war. When a persons country (website community) is under threat by a another country (Netscape) citizens of that country (digg users) become hardened in their sense of nationalism. They become blinded by loyalty and stubborn in opinion. They demonize the enemy and praise the virtues of their mother country.
Its Netscape Fascism vs Digg Communism. The Nazis vs the Soviets. Im I right fellow comrades? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17What makes digg great is that nobody here is paid for their time. They just post stuff because they love digg.
- SPARTACVS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Yeah, he has more beers in him. :)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18We must protect the Mother Digg from the Facist Pigs!
- cvrefugee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Wow, I think I'll go back to listening to TWiT...good job Leo!
- haleym, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Leo's absolutely right - losing the "top" 10/50/100 Digg users isn't going to affect the site in the least. The good stuff will still get posted, just by someone else. The only reason these "top users" get so much of the credit is that, for whatever reason, they have a knack for beating others to the punch in getting stories submitted. Worst case scenario, with the fastest submitters gone, the average lag time between a story appearing on the web and getting submitted to Digg will increase slightly, and I'd be very surprised if that increase was even noticeable.
- EdgarVerona, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Let's get realistic here. Yes, perhaps 10 posters on Digg right now make up the bulk of the front page posts.
But why?
Because they surf enough to happen to post it before anyone else. Usually only one post of any given topic makes it to the front page, and when others see it they don't bother to post it.
In truth, hundreds (or thousands even) of Digg users have seen the direct articles spoken of in Digg. They just didn't hit the trigger fast enough. I know I have turned away just before posting on at least a hundred occasions when I noticed that someone else beat me to the punch.
These 10 or so people are basically "Digg focused". Whenever they see an article that's even remotely diggworthy, they'll post it. Perhaps they even post it regardless of if someone else has already posted about it: relying on their large friends lists etc... to propagate the knowledge of this particular posts' existence.
But their loss would really mean nothing... no offense to them intended. Like I said, if they weren't here I'd have posted at least a hundred stories so far... and I'm sure many other Diggers would have done the same. In the end, it would likely come to the point again where it seemed like 10 people were responsible for posting content: in actuality, it's a coincidental shifting to the top caused by a few posters happening to get on the front page at just the right time, get added to a few friends' lists, and then every post they do is slowly seen by more and more people until their posts become the ones that other people don't post because of.
So yeah, I'm not worried, and neither should you be. - cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I guess the real question is will Leo have Calacacaface back on TWIT?
- treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12ok, it's been proven that a small % of the Digg community contribute stories which make it to the front page.
But as a whole the digging can't be done by that small % alone... it's the majority of us that digg these stories and push them to the front page.
The reason that a particular % are the ones that have stories that get to the front page are because they are crazy Digg-Freaks (in a good way) that submit dozens of stories each and every day. - aesir_loki, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I love the fact that netscape's home page (if lucky) gets about 70 "votes" per item, and you don't even need to be signed in. Ha that is weak, At least Diggs 2000 or more "Diggs" are register users. Netscape is probably paying people to click vote.
- SAOSiN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12They already did...:O
- lunchbox170, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I just looked at Netscape.com wow that site sucks. When will Netscape, msn, yahoo learn that people like simplistic sites, I don't like sites that are covered with text and information. Go to yahoo.com and look at it, there is practically no white space at all. They need to learn simple is better, I mean Google, Digg, and Apple have gotten that idea.
- EvilCheeseWedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10And since I am an EvilCheeseWedge I am practically obliged to offer the following: If, IF the top users were responsible for Digg's success it's not like it would be hard to replicate. How so? A Digg user has merely to watch what the "Netscape Navigator" (which is apparently Calacanis slang for "prostitute") is linking to and - bam - link to it here. It's not like Netscape is paying these "Navigators" to create content, so there's really nothing that Netscape can do about it.
However, they don't need to worry about it happening anyways, since as soon as you remove one top poster on Digg, another will merely fill their place. And as plenty of others have said already (yet apparently Calacanis' selective hearing has yet to pick up any of it) most of the users on Digg find the same stuff the top users do, just not as fast.
Hell, if you take away Digg's top 10, it's just as likely they'll be replaced by 15 people who spend less individual time compared to the original top 10 but produce just as many links.
Although I bet you feel pretty good when you tell your mom you get paid $1,000 a month to merely link to stuff somebody else wrote. - Crid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Laporte (and Rose) are correct. The whole point of the success we admire in Rose is that he knows it's not a few precious personalities who make the miracle happen. The genius of Digg is distributed. When I see a story that means something to me here I feel an extra charge knowing that a few thousand similar techheads have the same opinion of it. Or the opposite one, but we all think it's a meaningful story! Calcanis is trying to pretend it's 1906, and all he has to do is hire that one perfect editor.
People who are interested in the fine points of this should visit dynamist dot com. Virginia Postrel wrote a brilliant book about how systems like this organize themselves. - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Because there aren't any?
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Simpsons quote? No, it's a Yakov Smirnoff, russian reversal. And I'm sure *everyone* caught it.
But I don't doubt one was done in an episode of, The Simpsons, because just about everyone has done a russian reversal joke. - flamingmb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I always liked Leo, what he said was true and I agree with him on everything. I did watch the diggnation and laughed at what kevin said, he is right, even if he is drunk when he says it.
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14Ahh, I never get tired of those “In Soviet Russia, things are just the opposite” jokes...
- Hootyea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Leo's been around for a while. TTS, TWiT. His comments have some weight to them.
- navster15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Frankly, if the top users of Digg leave, there will be hundreds more willing to contribute on the same scale. I know I'd be more willing to submit stories if I knew that every attempt wouldn't just end up a dupe.
- n8dawg87, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8@bdude: chill out man, Leo's a cool guy, As moussam said:
"Leo is just so *****' cool"
He's a nice guy and seems to care about promoting community around the internet and not hierarchy like this Calcanis character. - mobilehavoc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Dugg only because I'm a Twit.
- ttntyler, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10How the hell did the screen savers come up? This is an entirely different topic
- manatee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6lol awesome! I saw it too!
- LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Dvorak is fine. Sure he goes a bit loopy from time to time, but his comments (whether I agree with them or not) are always interesting to listen to."
Especially this week when they're talking about the ATI-AMD merger. There were a lot of excellent things said by Dvorak in that segment of the show. - MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Seriously... Andrew Baron and Jason Calacanis were at each other's throats. Baron, "You're a sell out. I would never sell out." Calacanis, "You have no business model, I'm so rich!" The whole situation was worse, because the audio was bad where they were recording and no one could hear each other, and the audio was also terrible when the show was released. Leo has since apologized for the audio problems and for Baron and Calacanis's behavior.
Baron was a total diva on the show, and it was right before he "fired" Amanda from Rocketboom. Calacanis was just launching the Digg rip-off site at the time. Needless to say, I don't think that the two of them have a whole lot of supporters. - felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I notice that jdawg (one of Calcanis' names on Digg) is absent from this discussion...
- apushsuks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Yes bring back TSS not AOTS. Actually bring back TechTV. All G4 does is show Star Trek and re-runs. AOTS was good when Kevin was on it w/ dark tips and cool hacks and stuff. It was even better when it was TSS w/ Leo, Patrick and Kevin. Bring the tech back!! Death to the stupid cult following indie crap that id AOTS!!
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7That's what you think. Look at MySpace.
If Rupert Murdoch can deal with pedophiles and juvenile delinquents, some other corporate fiend out there can deal with Digg's unruly yet harmless geek horde.
Digg: Mos Eisley Cantina
Netscape: Starbuck's
I'm not disagreeing that it would be nice to have fewer flamewars and more useful content/serious discussions on Digg.
What Digg needs is some sort of Malicious Troll Detector. Not for people that might have an unpopular but informed opinion, but for the competely oblivious "morans" out there that are here solely to cause trouble and repeatedly post completely useless comments and insults. - vesten82, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Actually, in TWiT 58, Leo mentions the backlash from the TWiT audience due to the presence of Calacanis in the previous episode and implies he will never have him back. I say good riddance! Calacanis is a self-promoting hack.
- PunkFenixJT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@FishyJoe
The only person I have reacted to more negatively was Andew from Rocketboom. The 2 of them on that Vloggercon episode left me wishing I'd go deaf....or their mics died, that woulda been nice too. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Voof, that Vloggercon episode is right up with with "Yellow Lasers" as TWiT episodes that never should have seen the light of day. Agree that Calcanis and the ***** from Rocketboom made me wish I never found out what a podcast was. I made it about 20 minutes in, then hit the "skip" button, it was too painful.
- eplawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It's a very poorly coded ripoff. I'm still unimpressed with their inability to fix the cross site scripting vulnerability in their search box. Seriously, try it out, you can make it do all sorts of crazy things.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I just registered
http://www.calacANUS.com
and was thinking of turning into a blog where many people can submit their posts and opinions on this topic. Anyone interested? Or, have a better idea? I could just turn it into a spoof of his blog. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+14Isn't the actual saying, "Don't wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and the pig likes it"
Actually, that fits this thing quite nicely, don't ya think. -
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