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Digg.com is back

digg.com

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Re: Digg.com is back

#31

Post by crmd »

Back in the day I was mostly on slashdot, Reddit, digg, and metafilter.

Digg was the first site where I started seeing brainrot nonsense content on the front page every day, with orders of magnitude larger than usual upvotes of tech news, from the same small number of usernames (Mr BabyMan, I hate that I even remember your stupid username).

For me, Digg was the first time experiencing product managers experimenting with modern proto-influencer virality algorithms. It made the internet worse, and now every site does it.

Re: Digg.com is back

#32

Post by autoexec »

Digg failed because they weren't listening to what the users wanted. Reddit has been doing the same thing for a long time, and there's a large number of people looking for somewhere to migrate to. It'd be hilarious if New Digg becomes that, but I'm feeling pretty skeptical that New Digg is going to be any better. What little I've seen about New Digg talks about crypto, AI, and "Gems" you can earn which is far from a good sign.

Re: Digg.com is back

#34

Post by nemomarx »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #22
haburka wrote: post #5

I think that social media has been a massive experiment where we asked, what if we let capital interests subvert our desire for community to get us to watch ads? And we have learned that it’s just not a good idea. I think perhaps Digg was one of the better ones but I solemnly wish social media was mostly illegal, especially advertising based, for profit sites. I think hacker news manages to be ok since it doesn’t rel…

I've thought about how I'd build one and I keep landing on content based ads, give me ads that target page content. You are already interested in the content you see, so why not. Generic "show everyone you can" ads should also be fine, and slightly discounted. But I do wonder if it would even be enough to keep the lights on.

you'd think Reddit could handle this, since subreddits are very narrow and coupled to interests. but I guess you'd also think a PC review site would be able to do the same thing and not show car ads or etc

Re: Digg.com is back

#35

Post by whywhywhywhy »

tempfile wrote: post #23
phailhaus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense, since it's advertisers who are the ones putting pressure on sites like Twitter to stop spreading extremist content. The problem is that humans are extremely willing to enter echo chambers where they are told they are right all the time. That's what they will do by default. So if you optimize for engagement, they will radicalize themselves very quickly. If you figure out how to power a social…

Case in point, 4chan

Funnily enough it still has ads.

Re: Digg.com is back

#36

Post by hn_throw_250820 »

Wonnk13 wrote: post #15

I was a refugee of the Great Digg Migration to reddit some 14 or so years ago. old.reddit and adblockers as well as very aggressive curation of subreddits have kept it to an overall positive experience over the decade. I think overall I'm just less enthusiastic about the internet; everytime I come back from a week or two of backpacking without internet connection I realize how overstimulated with inane bullshit we al…

Agreed. Throwaway account because I’m an internet nomad and I don’t have a long term account here (they get banned anyway).

Don’t forget Digg’s demise wasn’t just the revamp, it’s that most of the front page was dominated by a few people who were literally posting all the damn time.

It’s amusing to see the usual HN flex with smug superiority but both Reddit and 4chan even to this today demolish HN in every (good and bad) criteria. Moderation here has stifled honest discussion in favor of safe-harbor, bullshit talking points.

But it’s all for lulz.

Re: Digg.com is back

#37

Post by nailer »

Havoc wrote: post #8

Will be interesting to see if they manage to pull off a reboot of what is functionally a semi-tarnished brand.

The struggle isn't people remembering Digg badly, it's people not remembering Digg at all.

Re: Digg.com is back

#38

Post by Yhippa »

crmd wrote: post #31

Back in the day I was mostly on slashdot, Reddit, digg, and metafilter. Digg was the first site where I started seeing brainrot nonsense content on the front page every day, with orders of magnitude larger than usual upvotes of tech news, from the same small number of usernames (Mr BabyMan, I hate that I even remember your stupid username). For me, Digg was the first time experiencing product managers experimenting w…

You forgot Fark! Except that was unironic brainrot and everybody knew what it was. Unlike now, where critical thinking went out the window and everybody takes things at face value.

Re: Digg.com is back

#39

Post by mtillman »

I’ve been a user during the alpha/beta process and their response rate to bug fixes has been great imo. The frequent posters kickstarting the flywheel are pretty spammy but I think it’s to drive traffic to publishers who have consistent ad traffic. They will eventually have to monetize their traffic so I’m pretty convinced they’ve hired people to post content from trash sites like pc world and the like. That said, impressed with the pace of development.

Re: Digg.com is back

#40

Post by bee_rider »

haburka wrote: post #5

I think that social media has been a massive experiment where we asked, what if we let capital interests subvert our desire for community to get us to watch ads? And we have learned that it’s just not a good idea. I think perhaps Digg was one of the better ones but I solemnly wish social media was mostly illegal, especially advertising based, for profit sites. I think hacker news manages to be ok since it doesn’t rel…

Hackernews remains mostly ok by focusing on a niche that’s always been easy on the Internet for obvious reasons: tech. Once it strays even one step away, like the intersection of tech and policy, or the intersections of science and humanities, guaranteed you will get some totally ridiculous takes.

And, HN can only not-rely on advertising because it exists as a sort of funny pseudo-advertisement thing for some startup incubator.

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