14 DAY TRIAL // Digg is going through some big changes and, for once, they're not related to the upcoming overhaul of the site, dubbed Digg v4. Cofounder and CEO Jay Adelson stepped down from his position on Monday without citing any real reasons. However, a growing disparity between him and Digg Founder and new CEO Kevin Rose may have been at least part of the reason. This is supported by Rose's first moves as CEO, which are to get rid of the things he probably wasn't too happy about at Digg, the DiggBar and banned domains.
The new CEO didn't mince his words either, he clearly labeled the DiggBar as a mistake and said he was very glad to see it go. "Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet. It causes confusion when bookmarking, breaks w/iFrame busters, and has no ability to communicate with the lower frame (if you browse away from a story, the old digg count still persists). It’s an inconsistent/wonky user experience, and I’m happy to say we are killing it when we launch the new Digg," he said.
The second change has to do with banned domains. Until now, Digg has been blocking domains for various 'infractions,' usually having to do with gaming the Digg voting system. "Also with the launch of the new Digg will be unbanning all previously banned domains. While we will apply automated filters to prevent malware/virus/TOS violations, no other restrictions will be placed on content," Rose added.
The DiggBar was a particularly bad received feature and for good reason, as the new CEO is eager to admit. It sparked several controversies and, despite some later tweaks and changes, most people never warmed up to it. Both of these changes will only go into effect once the new Digg is launched. Digg v4 is getting ready for beta testing, but, with the recent CEO swap, some are speculating that the launch date may be pushed further into the future, having been already delayed several months until now.