14 DAY TRIAL // Digg has been trailing behind Twitter in terms of relevance lately, but it still commands a sizable audience. The site has ‘democratic’ system which allows users to digg or bury a story, depending on how much they like it. The stories that get the most diggs get to the front page, guaranteeing a huge amount of traffic to their source websites. The ones that get buried are eventually pushed off the site.
There have always been accounts of users working to systematically digg or bury stories, but a group discovered and ‘infiltrated’ by AlterNet's Ole Ole Olson shows the extremes to what some users would go. The report shows how this rather organized group, called Digg Patriots, with tens of members, some of which were influential Digg users, worked to bury any story they saw as ‘liberal,’ either coming from publications with a liberal leaning or from users which they perceived as having these political inclinations.
“[The] conservative group that has become so organized and influential that they are able to bury over 90% of the articles by certain users and websites submitted within 1-3 hours, regardless of subject material. Literally thousands of stories have already been artificially removed from Digg due to this group,” the report reads. “DP was founded on 21 May 2009. Since then, over 40,000 posts have been logged at a steady rate of around 3000-4000 per month.” You can read the full report to see the extent of this.
Digg cofounder and recent CEO Kevin Rose said he is looking into the matter, though the team is busy with the impending launch of the revamped Digg. In fact, it’s this new version of the site that makes the whole point moot. With the new Digg, users won’t be able to bury stories. What’s more, the recommended stories will be tailored to every user, so the importance of the homepage should be much smaller.