14 DAY TRIAL // If there were any doubts that Digg users really don't like the new site, or rather, that they really, really hate it, you just have to look at the current Digg homepage to know.
11 out of the top 16 stories on the Digg Top News section are from Reddit and one of the others is a sponsored entry. The top story on Digg at this moment is a Reddit entry about a DeviantArt drawing of the Reddit robot.
It's fair to say that the message is hardly subtle. Reddit, for better or for worse is a Digg competitor, or at least it was for the old Digg, even if the two sites weren't exactly the same.
Digg unveiled a massive redesign last week which was meant to spur growth and enable it to fight the increasing threat of Twitter and even Facebook.
The Digg v4 redesign was in the works for more than a year but was finally launched last week. This being Digg, the core users didn't like it the least bit and, again, this being Digg, they're sure as hell having their say.
Digg cofounder and temporary CEO Kevin Rose already vowed to make some changes based on the feedback last Friday, but it looks like it wasn't enough.
So the Digg users have spoken, "fix this or we're leaving." It's clearly a well orchestrated move, but it's not that hard to push a story to the Digg front page, with a little coordination.
Of course, a story is one thing, 11 is another. Still, it doesn't necessarily mean that there are that many Digg users involved in the protest, just that they're well organized.
The question remains though, will this actually accomplish anything. Digg has been known to listen to its users, or at least the really loud ones, in the past. But it has already promised to bring back some of the features and change others and a complete roll-back is certainly out of the question.
UPDATE: Reddit is currently sporting a new logo, the Reddit robot holding a shovel. Get it?