Top Digg Users Page Removal : Was It Right?
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In his blog post titled A couple updates …, Digg founder Kevin Rose announced that they were going to take off the “Top Diggers” page. This decision he cited was taken in light of the fact that some top diggers were being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg. He also goes ahead to say that the decision to remove the “Top Diggers” page was taken after considerable internal debate and consultation with many of those who make up the top digger list.
In reply to that, Christopher Finke used screen scrapping techniques to create his own (unofficial) list of top 100 Digg users here. He could do that because the information is still available on Digg on each user’s profile page It is generated by tracking the stories that hit the homepage and the users that submitted them, not simply by grabbing the rank value on each profile page. It then uses the last available data available from the official Top Users list to determine the latest top users[Thanks for the feedback Christopher Finke]. His reasoning was that people who have worked hard to submit content should be given proper recognition.
I came across another post here where in randfish presents an interesting analysis on how top 100 Digg users control 56% of Digg’s home page content. This shows that a select group of users is dominating the home page content. That means they carry the potential within them to promote things they want.
All this made me thinking on whether removal of the top Digg users page was right or not.
I think that Kevin took that step in good faith but that was not the right way to handle this situation. You cannot/should not give power to the users and then cut that power out when you desire. It is just like saying, you have a democracy and if you select a bad leader, we will overrule people’s verdict.
Here is what he could have done or should do (it is not too late):
1) Open the discussion to Digg users and let them decide on this, let them vote on it. Digg has become synonymous with user power so no decision like this should be taken within a selected group of people. It should be taken by the Digg community.
2) He should have tried to identify or detect patterns in the postings of the Top Diggers to see if they are doing some manipulation. If not then let it slip by and if yes then take action against those users (by bringing them in the limelight). If nothing is being done intentionally then there is no one at fault.
I sincerely wish of Digg to come out of this clean and I do not wish any of the honest Top Diggers to suffer or miss the limelight they used to have on the Top Diggers page.
I look forward to comments/thoughts/opinion of the user community on this topic.
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Kevin has taken a strong step that might bring a variety of reactions from the Digg community. This step is much in favor of newbies who want to be a part of Digg. It decreased the potential of being ruled out by the giant fish of the community, and it will help bringing Good stories to the top in a better way.
[...] Like many others, Technacular incorrectly reported that I was scraping user profile pages for the rank number that is displayed there; kudos to them, however, for being the only ones to update their post after I sent them a clarification on how the script actually works. [...]
[...] On resurrecting Digg’s Top Users page My restoration of Digg’s Top Users page yesterday got a lot of press around the Web: Both the list and my blog post about the list were submitted to Digg, but both were buried off of the front page. (Buried, or manually removed?) Michael Arrington mentioned the list at TechCrunch, and the readers commenting on his post inexplicably turned against Netscape. Even though my actions had nothing to do with Netscape, the fact that I write code for them as well apparently makes my reproduction of the list “lame”: “If this would have come from someone NOT at a competitor (in this case Netscape), I would have thought ‘cool!’ The fact that this comes from someone at Netscape makes me think ‘lame!’.” Deep Jive Interests (a personal favorite of mine) was the first to wonder how long it would be until I heard from Digg’s infamous legal team. Nothing yet, but I’ll blog about anything that comes in. This blog somehow decided to go with the headline “Netscape Bringing Top Digg Users Page Back.” I think if Netscape was sponsoring this effort, they’d want some kind of mention somewhere on the page. What? It only links to Digg? That’s awfully strange. Like many others, Technacular incorrectly reported that I was scraping user profile pages for the rank number that is displayed there; kudos to them, however, for being the only ones to update their post after I sent them a clarification on how the script actually works. Additionally, my blog was linked from Techmeme, blurbed on Download Squad, and mentioned at ValleyWag. Oh, and there’s one question that I’ve been asked a few times that I’d like to address here: Sorry ladies, but I’m already taken. [...]