Where did Digg go so wrong and can we dance on their grave yet?

Sunday, October 12th, 2008
by Mark Carras

So Digg continues to go down the tubes. They keep banning top users for no apparent reason. They say it is because they were using bot programs to automate blind voting of friends’ submissions. However, many have made it very clear that this was not the case. These are people that I trust way more than the Digg staff.  It seems that this is now starting to really affect their traffic as well. Mixx seems to be gaining most of these rejected Digg users and a few web traffic ranking sites are starting to show Mixx catching up very quickly. How much will they have to lose before they see that this is not the way to go?

Now this doesn’t affect me in any way because I gave up on Digg a long time ago. I think it has been around a year at this point. In fact, when they put RockMyMonkey.com on the auto-bury it inspired me to start my own site, HeavyAsHell.com. The Digg community wouldn’t know what rock was if Lemmy (from Motorhead) shoved it up their backside with the end of his boot! If it isn’t some weak 3 piece suit crap like Radiohead, Coldplay, or Weezer they get afraid and run away like the pink dress wearing little girls they are. So I created a site made for people that like to rock a little harder. Sure we have those wussy 3 piece suit rock bands, but it’s more about meat and potatoes rock, metal and punk. To me this was the start of the fall of Digg. So none of the garbage they are trying now is much of a shock to me.

Why are they doing these things that are so obviously suicide for their previously successful business? I mean they pretty much invented the style of site that so many others are now taking to the next level. So when they started to auto-bury sites like RockMyMonkey and other great bloggers it was driven by pure ego. They were the undisputed kings and no one could touch them. However, they played bully too long and the masses started to resent them. Instead of the proverbial ‘David’ kicking the butt of ‘Goliath’, they became the ‘Goliath’ that everyone wanted to bring down. Now that everyone wants to bring them down, they are making desperate last gasp efforts to reinvent themselves.

So why save themselves? Well, there is the several times they came close to being bought for millions by much bigger companies. After Google recently rejected them they started acting like they were drowning more than anything. Their moves became more desperate and the suicide began. Can they save themselves? Maybe.

How can they save themselves? Well, take a note from Mixx. Mixx kisses their users’ collective asses. Instead of looking down their noses at their users like Digg has done for so long, they seem to come off like humble servants. This has created a rather passionate fanbase. The other thing Mixx has done to win people over is an insanely open attitude towards the users. Try and email Kevin Rose and email Chris from Mixx at the same time. Don’t bother starting a time clock because it won’t be even close. Be more open. Be more honest. Don’t just accuse all the banned users of using a bot. Be clear about what each one did. If Digg was more honest, more open, more clear, and more humble they would be able to keep the king’s crown. If not, Mixx will destroy them and micro-Social sites like HeavyAsHell will grow from eating off of their corpse as well. Let’s not dance on their grave yet, though. Let’s wait until they get a little closer to their death!