Filed under: Features, Web services
What Would You Change about Digg?
This week we're going to be taking a cue from a couple of our sister sites and starting a new regular feature called "What Would You Change." Here's the idea: Even the best apps and web services aren't perfect for everybody. Maybe the buttons are in the wrong order, maybe it takes too many clicks to change some setting, or maybe the icon is just the wrong shade of blue. "What Would You Change" is your chance to throw in your two cents.
And what better place to start than one of our favorite web services, Digg? Digg's popularity has been surging essentially since its birth, and the Digg crew have made some updates including a killer redesign a few months back, but no site is perfect. What's the worst thing about Digg? What would you eliminate, what would you revamp, and what would you tweak? Chime in below, and then check back later this week when we'll count up all those two cents and see what it adds up to.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
David Chartier said 3:09PM on 11-29-2005
My biggest complaint is dupe-handling; they really need a better way of weeding out stories. Also, speaking of weeding out, it'd be great if there was some sort of a more rigid or effective system than the "this is lame" option for weeding out posts that are nothing more than attempts at snagging Google ad impressions. I'm talking about the posts that are written terribly and barely manage to stay on topic.
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Pasha said 3:26PM on 11-29-2005
i just read digg, i rarely digg, and almost never post
but, i would love to see a "merge" feature for stories
this would help when a new iPod gets realeased, and 50 people submit that story, and 10 make it to the front page.
would be nice not to see that
also, i would love to have pretty much a fill blown forum to comment on stories.
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Tom said 3:18PM on 11-29-2005
I'd like to step something backwards to digg 1.x, visited links changed colour, thats all
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KissTheRing said 3:22PM on 11-29-2005
Digg count and digg link in the rss feed
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KissTheRing said 3:24PM on 11-29-2005
Multiple colors of bands for multiple friends
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Meaty Puffs said 3:41PM on 11-29-2005
I'd like to see a way to counter the "digg effect". There will be times I will go to read a story and digg will have killed the server. We've all seen it happen. Digg needs a way to cache the stories and add a link to that cached version in case the original server is dugg. These links could just sit below the Article's title and description, next to the comments link, so it may easily be used when the main server is killed. This alternate link could be used to spare the original server's bandwidth some too. I know there is some hosting/caching service out there that you just add their address to the article's address and it will present the cached version of the story; but that's simply the problem, no one remembers the address. If it was done automatically to each story and a link provided, it would be much easier for the diggers to use.
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Resource said 4:14PM on 11-29-2005
Block out the comments.
The info is good but the tone of that site is so annoying.
All they do is compare themselves to Slashdot and worship their favorite diggers.
Slashdot is much more comprehensive and funnier.
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Dave M. said 6:05PM on 11-29-2005
Actually, sometimes the comments are life savers. Sure there are a lot of children out there that make them hard to read, but there are also many helpful comments and links to alternative processes/articles/sites that I have found invaluable.
Personally, I would like to see more people use the comment ratings. If they did, bad comments could be weeded out. Also, have a user comment karma so that as a commenter posts more and more good comments, they are set to a higher level by default.
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Seun Osewa said 9:58AM on 11-30-2005
I don't like the category system very much (I don't think it's well designed), so I'd like it to be scrapped.
I'd also like to be able to see more topics in the front page (that is, including more topics with less diggs).
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Matt said 4:42AM on 11-30-2005
Better comment system. You can rate comments right now but it doesn't put the higher rated ones at top unless you filter out all the bad ones with the "Comment View Threshold". Not really a great way to do it.
And the comments should be threaded.
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Ben said 4:43AM on 11-30-2005
I understand that the more popular stories reach the frontpage, but what about all the other diggs that seem to get lost in the ether? When I search for a keyword, I find at least 4 or 5 other articals that are digg worthy. There should be an easier way to get to these articals without haveing to search for a mysterious keyword.
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spanner said 4:59AM on 11-30-2005
Digg has outgrown its technology focus.
You see that in the many off topic and misfiled articles here.
Instead of deleting and griping about mis posts (which seemn to take up a lot of time here in the comments) how about creating some NEW forums, even just a couple, to meet the growing submissions from newbies.
You can't fight it Marsha, its bigger than both of us :)
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Kevin A said 4:47AM on 11-30-2005
People have their own political opinions no matter what side of the aisle that they are on. However, it needs to be said that political news, unless technology related, needs to be kept out of Digg. Digg administrators need to do more to watch for stories that are based solely on political commentary. Digg is intended for technology updates, not political satire.
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Mat said 4:58AM on 11-30-2005
I hardly ever go to the Digg site but I read the RSS feed every day. The only minor gripe I have is that the link on the RSS feed takes you to the article on the Digg site on not to the site you actually want to see. I'd like 2 links, one to the site being discussed and one to the Digg site please.
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Chris H said 5:04AM on 11-30-2005
Agree with 12, though in a broader sense.
Overly sensational, tabloidish headlines, or stories with obvious slant need to be a thing of the past. No idea how to come about that without turning to the methods digg is trying to get away from (centralized moderation body censoring the user submitted stories).
At the least, be legible. Ideally, keep it as objective as is possible for the subject matter; it's a tech site, not an extention of your personal M$ hate blog.
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Chris H said 5:05AM on 11-30-2005
Blagh, make that poster 13
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Sourabh said 5:11AM on 11-30-2005
Yes, Digg count and Digg link in the RSS feed would be great.
I subscribe to an RSS feed for every other news/information source I view - just not for digg. Reason being - I find value in the number of diggs each post has (this not being in the feed significantly reduces its value), and the fact that the link goes to the digg page means it is more of a hassle to get a feed, click on the link and then click on the actual link.
If I was to only have one of the above two though, it would be the digg count.
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mekrob said 5:25AM on 11-30-2005
Sites like Joystiq use digg for promotion to earn revenue, even though their articles are just short opinion blurbs. It's obvious they do self-promotion
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phaze2 said 5:40AM on 11-30-2005
I'm fairly new to digg, so maybe I haven't found it yet... but is there really no way to sort search results, like 'sort by number of digs (descending)' ?
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Subal Krsna das said 5:42AM on 11-30-2005
I really enjoy reading Digg, and can't suggest any kind of improvement. Keep it up!!
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