Diggers can be a downright angry bunch — and if you’ve incurred their wrath long enough for them to pull away from their mac-lovefests, bush hate-a-thons, and latest-gadget-of-the-week navel gazing, they can get downright ugly. If you have any questions, just ask Yahoo — who recently copied Digg’s vote (i.e. “digg”) feature on their suggestion engine for feedback, right down to the yellow, curved-corner, pastel voting icons, coupled with a description of the “suggestions” to the right of that.
Mat Ingram has a nice screen capture of Diggers gone buck wild on the site (it has since implemented a spam feature, flagging everything with “digg” in it), but it beggs the question (sorry, had to) “what makes Digg so damn unique?” After all, there are a hundred sites which use a voting style system. And there are even sites that like to use the same design elements as digg (some, like tribal war, or redflagdeals, are not small either) — so, what is it?
Well, its the community itself, silly. Yes, the same mac-loving, bush-hating, gadget-obsessing group that is so stereotypically like many others in that demographic it wants to make my hair curl — even if I don’t like George W. Bush myself.
Yes, its obvious “the community made Digg”, because there are many other Digg-like tools that exist, but aren’t successful because they lack a critical mass of users (cough cough John Batelle’s Search Mob cough cough). But, I do find it ironic that the reason why Yahoo is currently getting flamed is NOT *really* because of their Digg-like interface. Because I can find a bajillion of them.
(and as an aside, the design similarity that many of them are “going to war” over? Its the yellow pastel voting box. That’s right)
No, the reason why Yahoo is getting flamed is precisely because of what makes Digg “digg” — and that’s its users. Love’em or hate’em, Diggnation marches to its own predictable beat and is quick to defend its beloved turf … even when that turf hasn’t really been besmirched in the first place.
9 Comments
That “digg community” you speak of is definitely an interesting bunch. Yes they are unique, and it’s difficult for any other digg-like site to get the community that digg has.
Why? Because the core digg community was a result of none other than Kevin Rose.
Kevin was one of the most popular hosts on the old TechTV (a personal favorite of mine), and when G4 absorbed TTV and Kevin quit, these uber-geeks lost one of the most dearly loved outlets for all things geeky.
I know this because it was my personal experience. A buddy of mine from school mentioned that Kevin from the old TTV started this really cool, super innovative website called digg.com. He also mentioned that he and Alex host a vidcast dealing with the super-awesome (yes I’m exaggerating for illustrative purposes) tech stories on digg every week.
Naturally, I just HAD to check it out. Turns out, I liked the show and the site.
Boom. Instant core digg community member.
I really can’t see any other social digg-like site ever really being able to compete with the core digg community. They’re just too big and too loyal.
Nathan
http;//www.nathanrice.org/
Nathan, you speak as though I’ve never heard about Digg ;)
http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/category/digg/
All facetiousness aside, I *do* know what you mean — the Diggnation is G4TV community (and even Kevin Rose himself) writ large, isn’t it?
Cheers
tony.
Absolutely. I even find myself falling for it sometimes. The dude is just plain cool, and geeks can’t seem to resist him (I have a similar sentiment for Leo Laporte). I imagine it all started with those darn “dark tips”. Hooked me. Aspiring young hackers latched on for dear life, myself included. Some people turned out to be digg users, others of us actually went to school to learn about the stuff we loved (me included). But we’re all geeks, and I guess that’s why we love (or started loving) digg in the first place.
Awesome post Tony! Love it!
I found out about digg through their diggnation video podcast first. I was looking for stuff to test out my video iPod. I still listen to the podcast regularly, Why? It’s just two guys drinking beer and yapping about tech. They don’t script, they obviously love technology and can talk endlessly about it, of course, sprinkled with guy junk like babes, ninjas, etc.
Sounds simple but one great way to build a rabid community is to demonstrate that you’re just like them (even if it might be an illusion). The target demographic feels like Kevin rose is their buddy and not just some guy who runs a site they use.
I beg to differ on this one.
As much as the community definitely is a big factor, the success and uniqueness of Digg lays in a very clever combination of marketing, design, branding, and functionality, and the credit for these goes to the creators.
First of all, the name: Digg. It’s fantastic. It’s short, easy to remember, unique, very relevant to the service. It can be used in various contexts. It’s recognizable. In short, it’s great branding.
Secondly, Digg as a site has a fantastic design. It’s simple, very usable, instantly recognizable.
And lastly, as I’ve written in some of my older in-depth Digg-related articles, Digg admins take great care to the minutiae of Digg’s internal mechanisms to ensure that everything is always ticking perfectly. No other similar site comes close – and I’ve tried out all of them.
So, yes, I agree with your initial statement – it’s got nothing to do with voting – but the community is only a part of it. Digg is a great product – as good as they come in the Web 2.0 era. That’s why it’s unique.
franticindustries,
you’re right, in one sense. But all that stuff (save perhaps the name “digg” which I admit is a very effective term) can be copied.
What cannot be copied, at least not that I can imagine, is the core digg community. Great marketing, great design, great admins and programmers, etc. can all be replicated. Coaxing a solid core community is difficult to do.
But your point is well taken. there definitely no “social news” site that does it better than digg.
Nathan
http://www.nathanrice.org/
Sounds a little bit like how I would have talked about the Slashdot community a year or two ago. A story posted there would drive tremendous traffic, sell lots of books, etc. Nowadays, however, the Slashdot effect isn’t so pronounced, nor is it as sustained. How long do we give Digg to stay at the top of the heap?
Even i don understand what is the big boo abt digg.COz it can bring traffic to your site well then where is the natural instinct gone from bloggers!!!! Do it on your own and rest is history.
I am not against digg but i hate the monopoly its trying to create.And whats the big hush if somebody wants to create something similar to it.Everybody has its own idea….if you keep comparing with digg no other will grow…give a chance
I dont think neither Y! nor Dell has tried to copy Digg. I believe, they are just using the Digg’s super hit formula for their own purpose.
My only issue with Y! and Dell’s approach is their receding interest in innovation! There are 100 ways to do a thing, and Y!/Dell just proposed to take the easiest way out.
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[...] Anyway, I explained in the comments of this story my experience in becoming a core digg community member. I find the story of digg.com to be extremely fascinating, so I thought I’d share it with you guys as well. [...]