Digg is gone again • Hacker News Board

Re: Digg is gone again

#51

Post by mikeocool » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:35 PM UTC

Kinda seems like we’re rapidly headed for the complete collapse of the internet as we know it.

Every site that is driven by user posting seems to be headed towards being overrun by AI bots chatting with each other, either for sake of promoting something or farming karma.

And there’s really not much point in publishing good content anymore, since AI is just going slurp it up and regurgitate it without driving you any traffic.

Though it’ll be interesting to see what happens to ChatGPT and the like once the amount of quality content for them to consume slows to a trickle. Will people still use ChatGPT to get product recommendations without Reddit posts and Wirecutter providing good content for those recommendations?

Re: Digg is gone again

#52

Post by ranger_danger » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:35 PM UTC

int32_64 wrote: post #49

I would pay cash for access to a social site that bans all US politics, the astroturfing associated with it is simply unbearable.

Why do you think people will stop at politics?

Re: Digg is gone again

#53

Post by ranger_danger » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

RobotToaster wrote: post #34

MildlySerious wrote: post #6

I am kind of peeved. I started a community there and diligently posted links to topical news, and it kind of became a reference to me. Like many others, I've put in some amount of effort. Now it's gone, again. Without a head's up or a way to get a backup out of it, it seems like. Can't say I am a fan of that.

If you're looking for a new platform lemmy is probably your best bet, at least if a server goes down everything is still saved on federated servers.

My experience with lemmy has not been nice. A majority of people there are just downright awful, and the mods are often power-hungry and overzealous in their actions. Many times entire servers are defederated from many others due to how a large percentage of their users behave.

Example: https://0x0.st/8RmU.png

Re: Digg is gone again

#54

Post by softwaredoug » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

They literally just went public in Jan. Building it back up was going to take years

I don’t understand what kind of shenanigans transpired. But it seems there’s more to in than “bots”

If it truly is bots, maybe a private invite only social network is the way to go.

Re: Digg is gone again

#55

Post by hazelnut » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:40 PM UTC

Is Kevin Rose known to know how to address bot problems? I think it's a little absurd to address a bot problem with bringing back the original founder. I believe he was great at community building and functionality, but bot prevention is a different beast. The post mentioned that they also worked with third parties which I believe should have more bot prevention experience than Kevin.

To be fair, I don't know Kevin Rose personally, so maybe he knows more than the industry, but I highly doubt it.

Reddit has the same problem. They are fighting it more or less successfully. I would look more in that direction.

Re: Digg is gone again

#56

Post by sunaookami » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:42 PM UTC

The "new" Digg was just Reddit with the exact same type of comments you can find there and I left it (Digg and Reddit) because of that. There are very few sites where real discourse is still possible without it being filled with memes, running jokes, "witty" one-liners and the constant need to "one-up" and call-out each other. What does Digg even want to be? Nobody needs a second nu-Reddit. It speaks volumes that this post also seems to be AI-generated.

Re: Digg is gone again

#57

Post by gagik_co » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

hazelnut wrote: post #55

Is Kevin Rose known to know how to address bot problems? I think it's a little absurd to address a bot problem with bringing back the original founder. I believe he was great at community building and functionality, but bot prevention is a different beast. The post mentioned that they also worked with third parties which I believe should have more bot prevention experience than Kevin. To be fair, I don't know Kevin R…

Is Reddit fighting the bot problem? They introduced a feature to hide post history which makes it hard to know whether you’re interacting with a spammy bot account. If anything they’re embracing it.

Re: Digg is gone again

#58

Post by axus » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

keyboardJones wrote: post #47

> We're not giving up. Digg isn't going away. I think the HN title needs adjusted

"Digg is Just Resting"

Re: Digg is gone again

#59

Post by duckkg5 » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:47 PM UTC

Digg may have a bot problem but Reddit isn't far behind. So many subreddits are full of slop that they've become useless and/ or completely unreliable.

What's an actual viable solution to this kind of thing?

CATPCHAs aren't it. Maybe micro-fees to actually post things would discourage bot posting? I really don't know.

Seems like it's just dead internet all over the place these days.

Re: Digg is gone again

#60

Post by tannhaeuser » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

Is that the whole story? Why isn't reddit overrun by bots then (or are they?), and why wouldn't basic proof-of-work techniques fence against bots? Since they started out just in January, isn't it plausible to assume they didn't meet their target user figures and investors jumped ship?