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82 Comments
- theone3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31"On Wednesday, for example, leaked screenshots of the long rumored Google Calendar were in the top spot on Tailrank and Memeorandum, but the story was nowhere to be found on Google News' editorial calendar."
Geez, I wonder why.
Seriously, Wired, how thick can you get? - alexp2ad, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24That's stupid, it's a tech news site, of course it is predominantly about tech things like gadgets, video games and good old AJAX.
Have they looked at the list of categories? It's not meant to be a Google News competitor... - nihilator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17IMO, when you consider most of the "comments" on Digg, I think their assessment is fairly accurate.
- panicofficer, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17I resent their core audience assessment... I'm a woman and I love Digg... I think 25 as the top mean age is inaccurate as well.
It looks like the robots are going to win according to this story.... Oh well.
"Digg and Memeorandum are catching one slice, and it’s fantastic and a total breath of fresh air, because it's not The New York Times or the L.A. Times. But it's still only one slice. If you are really going to nail this, you have to have thousands of slices." - davidaq, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19'But currently Digg's list of stories, whether on the homepage or a customized search term, are highly reflective of Digg's core audience -- seemingly guys aged 15 to 25 who like gadgets and video games.'
- panicofficer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Maybe you're right, but I think that most people with half a brain tend not to comment very often which leaves a disproportional number of idiots commenting. Also, as I see it, many don't comment because they have anything useful to add to the discussion, but because they want to see their own comments.
- TheTap, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I'm 49 and I look at Digg every day. The upper limit of 25 for the core is way off. Most digg users I know are in the 30-45 range.
- diggerphelps, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I'm 41, a Mac-head, who is tired of all the Apple stories, and am not into video games.
No, that is NOT my picture.
The author of the article is WAYYY off.
Also, there is no reason someone can't use BOTH Digg AND Google news, as well as Slashdot and others.
Reporters are often real idiots. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I hadn't though of it this way, but I guess I agree. Digg's user base is comprised of individuals who get to 'vote' on every story and every comment. The next reader gets filtered news based on those votes. Teh real question is, is it manageable? Can we keep out the spammers, hackers and folks who would otherwise abuse the system. I've always wondered about how much we can trust the internet population to demonstrate intelligence...
For the record, I'm WAYYYYY outside that age range. :)
http://www.gfx.com - yllabianbitpipe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I have noticed stories are showing up on the front page of digg a day before they do on slashdot. So at least as my reading is concerned, it looks like good bye slashdot. As for what I'm interested in reading, digg is consitently showing the money. I won't go beyond just saying at least for one user who is looking to read interesting and entertaining articles around the general subject of technology, digg is doing great.
Oh, and the commenting system is basically craigslist's done in a cooler way. Another point in digg's favor. - james155, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I to have a problem with the demographics. I am 62 and still digging. I bought my first Apple II in 1978 and have never looked back.
- panicofficer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Wired and Digg are fundamentally different. You can't compare them. Of course they aren't going to be as dynamic as a site where all of the news stories come from other sources. Wired writes actual stories while Digg is merely a way to sort and rank other people's content. (This is, of course, obvious but I find it hard to take when people compare totally different news mediums.) Wired still has value or it wouldn't end up as a link on Digg so often.
- myxyplik, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11@cacoe
I've done this a couple times myself. The digg/undigg buttons need to be bigger. It's too easy to click the wrong button. - Reliant, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I think it's time to stop calling Digg an upstart organization. If it is being mentioned in all kinds of media from CNN to whatever newsource that wants to talk about it, I think that Digg has established itself pretty well in the tech news circles. Job well done. Mission accomplished!
- Rounin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Digg is great, however the level of intellect is often on par with that of a freshman in high school. Many just don't take the time to spell, write decent headlines and/or summaries, or comments.
I want news. Digg is for news. If you want to post "how-to's" or whatever you think is "cool" or "1337" please do it somewhere else. Stick to the format or spin off your own digg clone. - rgremill, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10I was thinking Digg should put the Thumbs Up Image on the other side of the Digg Count to avoid miss-clicks.
- Bhima, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11At least Google news does not send me into some recursive blog link adverstiving scam, come blond joke hell. If Digg has a failing that's it!
- lasermike026, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Don't think of it as Man vs. Machine. Think of it as meat algorithms vs. synthetic algorithms.
- el_jefe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think you are dead on. Simply looking at the headlines and story summaries, as well as the types of stories being dugg would make one think they digg user base averages the low 20's. Even reading the comments, you see reasons the stories are dugg (a lot have nothing to do with the story quality, or content, but simply "dugg because i want to read it later", or "dugg because it has in the title") and it would be hard to believe the majority of digg users are over 25. Perhaps it simply because those making comments or entering stories are not the users over 30. Perhaps it has to do with the old mentality or sterotype that people over 30 are not into video games, using the internet, and keeping up with technology. I mean, it wasn't too long that only a few people had computers in their house, or had access to the internet. Perhaps someone should do a poll, or survey of digg users...
- liquidjill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Demographics are way off indeed. They forget so quickly how many of us are in our 30's now. Although Gen Y constitutes a good deal of savvy internet traffic, we still command a healthy, if not greater portion.
Dugg however, cause I think it's worth a read. - R4wBon3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This comparison is pretty futile. It's apples to oranges, the only similarity is that computers and people read data and format results. Digg works because it is entertainment for people who have mind sponges yearning to suck up the blood from the bleeding edge.
Of course AI can be develop to weight buzzwords, tone, excitement, and disdain, but it would not have the same relevance to me/you because we are looking for what the dork across the country/pond/cube is thinking about another dorks post.
Pile a bunch of us in a room and force us to read topic articles that sway away from our interests and I guarantee the results will be skewed. Trust a computer/grid for that. Trust the dorks for entertainment. - AlphaModel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I discovered digg.com recently and love it but I agree with wired that the core audience at the moment is the tech crowd/geeks. There is not a single day on the latest front page stories without something about css, linux, ajax or google...
- jmz668, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Amen. Stop with the self promoting blog references and at least link to the story you are submitting.
- databyss, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Can you really call what Wired does writing?
Their stories are generally inaccurate and slanted, and they're always a good few weeks behind the rest of the world. - lasermike026, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What bugged me about Slashdot was their "karma" concept. It seemed unfair and I got the sense that if you didn't go along with the long standing "herd" your bad karma would be driven down and your voice silenced. At Digg every time you come to a new comment stream your karma is clean. Now isn't that a refreshing concept.
- dergachev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the ability to vote on articles is going to help with this. Comments are going to get a lot more filtered, I think.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I like the clean slate karma too. On Slashdot, I swear I never trolled or even misspelled a word. Every time they had a military story, like about the new ID cards with the chip in, I would post my take. I was freaking in the military and had one of those cards, why am I modded down by people who never seen them? On Digg, everyone has a fair chance on every news article. On Slashdot, in my profile, it clearly says, Karma: Bad. Better off posting as AC! There is no point in commenting on Slashdot if nobody is going to read it, regardless of how useful the info is. Digg has faster news and is a lot more fair, simple as that. Been on Slashdot for years, I don't miss it, and they don't miss me.
- ramallama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hmm I wonder if 'Wired' charges their advertisers more when they write these articles in anticipation of the 'digg effect'. "We'll be writing an article about a bunch of news sites which will certainly bring in a lot of views from users of those site." Cha-ching!!
- apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Maybe I missed that one?! But how often does it happen? Probably < 1%. If you want I'll find you a story on google that does something similar.
- 4tygames, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Clicking on the link reminded me of how much I hate Lycos with all of the ads everywhere.
Hopefully Digg will never turn into a site that is overrun with ads. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1An interesting read but I disagree with the viewpoint of the author. I think any position which pits one ideology against the other is fundamentally flawed. By my understanding, Google's original "algorithm" was fundamentally based on human judgement (i.e. The foundation of the whole system was people's hyperlinks and their contex.). That's a method I don't see as being fundamentally different from Digg's system. A vote here would be the equivilant of seeing a hyperlink to the Google system.
I think the ultimate method will always be a view which allows humans to use computations to assist them. The article mentions The Onion pitting an accountant against a spreadsheet application; The superior choice is obviously having an accountant use the spreadsheet application. - dotcomlarry, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Standing up for the human intellect" ??????
*scoff* - grat2001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Your comment only stands because Digg has not expanded yet. Once topics like Sports, Politics, and World News come on-line, the user base will diversify.
I don't think Digg is corruptible because of the whole idea of the the site, user driven. - captaindan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anybody even think that Digg and Google News are even in the same category? They serve different purposes. Digg is like the lifestyle section of the local paper, except that "local" in this case is the Internet.
- OneZeroZeroOne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Maybe I don't "get it", but I thought the whole purpose of Digg was to be a "by the users for the users" site. Basically slash-dot meets fark...a tech-centric news site where the users decide what's interesting. The "hook" is the user interaction and involvement. Strangely, the only difference between Digg and Slashdot is that here you can vote for a story. Everything else like commenting on stories or rating user comments can be done on Slashdot....yet...Digg is so much more satisfying for some reason.
- databyss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You make it sound like you've been following digg for years and the digg following has aged. It's not even a year old yet.
Most people hear are young. You're not as young. It's ok, it doesn't make you a bad person because you're not near the average.
There needs to be a stop to the older people whining that they're not in the general age demographic. - alphaterminus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Age 34, but yes I like technology and video games. I imagine at least 1/2 of Diggs readership is over 25.
- m0nk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I think there's a lot of Mac/Apple stuff lately because Apple is actually making news in general. I've never been much of a Mac user but I enjoy seeing the new stuff they're coming up with. As far as this article, it's clearly biased as it comes from a site where the site owners choose all the content. They probably want to skew people away from user chosen content to begin with.
- topcataj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is so much rubbish posted on Digg, it's no wonder people question it's usefulness.
I imagine most of Digg's users are 15-25 yr old males, and to all those people saying "well I'm not", it's a generalisation, and average, not a statement that EVERYONE fits that description.
Generally I find the comments the worst part. God knows how some of this stuff gets on the from page, it barely warrants reporting on sometimes, let alone getting dugg enough to appear that important.
I think it's a fairly low percentage of articles I actually click through from Digg, it's useful to fill in gaps rather than my prime source of information and news.
For the same reasons I dislike Slashdot, though at least there is some editorial over there, so not every tom, dick and harry can post the most amazing new thing they've spotted at the age of 12. - tetfsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll agree that the home page stories all end up primarily Tech-Related. This is due to the majority of Digg users being tech minded, and that Digg is, as of now at least, a tech related news site. However, if you digg for stories beyond the home page, you will find that there are many stories that are "fringe" tech related (may have a tech angle but aren't necessarily tech stories) that get posted. Most of them just don't make it to the front page. I think that those people who have posted cool "non-tech" related items usually put them in the links section of Digg. And unfortunately those people get flamed by people who can't see that Digg could be way more than tech news.
I'm all for Jay's assertion in the article that Digg will be expanding into other areas of the newspaper. I'd love to be able to come to Digg and see the most dugg sports stories of the day or whatever. I think it's only a matter of Digg adding a few more sections to the list for this to take off in other directions than tech. - JimNtexas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm 54. Guess I better leave and report to the home.
- duodave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2No digg. When I followed this link a massive flash popup ad for Verizon obscured the first paragraph entirely, and refused to go away until i clicked the "back" button. What kind of site allows ads to obscure their own content?
- Furious, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Humans will always out think machines... Or will they???
- cabazorro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Let's look at the 5 top stories of digg right now:
-When and how to use internet image formats (coders choice)
-The Woman who Remebers EVERYTHING PERFECTLY (male coder choice)
-Cable Companies: We'll Kill VoIP (techno-mind choice)
-Effective Style with CSS and em ( coder choice)
-Is Vista Microsoft's last OS? ( techno-mind choice)
Digg is the collective conciousness of a bunch of guys stuck in their cubes coding or doing some
technology releated tasks. Like Google, Digg is built for speed. Stories get's pushed to the top at lightning speed and new stories are fed likewise. Unlike Google, Digg does not suffers the manipulation and political pressures because has not being comercialized....yet. It's just matter of time. - databyss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hey! Stop that!
You're going to upset all the little diggers with your logic and stuff! - cphuntington97, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These comments made me think - wouldn't it be cool if we could vote on polls in digg?
Anyone could post a poll, and then we could digg it and or vote in it. I guess a simple way would be to use an external website and post the link on digg... - jmz668, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Suckling on Kevin Rose's and Steve Jobs' teet. That's what all the Digg fanboys do. Who cares if there's a real news story, let's post the same list again or yet another self-referential Digg.com story or Mac or iPod rumour.
- Eraserhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bluddy cheek, I am 47
'But currently Digg's list of stories, whether on the homepage or a customized search term, are highly reflective of Digg's core audience -- seemingly guys aged 15 to 25 who like gadgets and video games - Pioto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Humanity is dead.
Long live humanity. - _HAM_, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Aye, I'm 30. Everyone I know that is younger than 30 doesn't even know about Digg. And about half the people I know over 30 do.
There demographic definitely seems off. -
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