Digg Down

While getting to know the Digg website, I was initially intrigued by the variety of news stories on display. As opposed to newspaper websites like NY Times and The Boston Globe, the general feel of Digg was relaxed and diverse. Many story titles caught my eye, and it was encouraging to see how many people "dugg" each article. It didn't necessarily focus on hard news based current events, for there were many stories that were purely amusing and funny. The site's layout was very easy to navigate and learn to use effectively. I didn't feel the pressure to post a scholarly article because all the news stories were so varying in content.

I was used to the option of "digging" a story because it mimicked the "like" function on Facebook which, in my opinion is slightly overused. "Liking" something doesn't necessarily show one's contribution. It's a simple way of showing the least bit of emotion. It shows a snippet of one's opinion. This function's implementation on Digg, however, I deemed to be crucial. The more diggs, the more likely people are to dive into a story. Contributing comments was the second step in the conversation. This could be done with ease, but I felt that many of the contributions from other Digg users were unprofessional.

I didn't quite understand how the news stream worked. It reminded me of the constant flow of Facebook statuses as it posted stories in chronological order, that is, from what time they were posted. I almost would have preferred if it was presented in a "most popular" to "least popular" fashion based on "diggs."

I posted a few stories, and didn't get much feedback. I posted an article from the Daily Collegian, and another article on Rebecca Black which I found through my Yahoo home page that rotates trending news stories. Nobody commented on or dugg (digged?) my stories. I then wondered if it was a hit or miss setting or if there was something else I needed to do in order to get people to read my posts. In this case, what is the point of posting an article that is so unlikely to be read? Perhaps it takes time: accumulation of followers, or by making more time to follow others? I suppose I decided that I'm not a stage in my life where I feel the need to be an active Digg user. I'd rather find my news in other places.