Comments on: Mob Rule at Digg

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:37:36 +0000

To, maybe, flesh out Hal's point:

If Johnson is correct, then Digg will effectively dig its own grave (sorry for the pun). After all, if it isn't giving its users the most popular posts, then why use it? If this becomes an issue for enough people they'll stop using it, and it will simply fade away or be relegated as something only for a niche market.

By: carpeicthus

carpeicthus — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:47:33 +0000

Digg IS a mob. That's how it works. The 600 people digging up Charles' crap is another mob, the same people who keep trying to make him into a living saint on Wikipedia.

By: Joe Buz

Joe Buz — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:01:39 +0000

Hal, ..kinda like having faith in a Venezuelan market?

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:36:54 +0000

I guess no one has any faith in markets any more. If collusion by a few can derail the preferences of the many, it's not a free market. If Digg or other social networking sites naturally attract a disproportionate share of lefties who don't vote for LGF, that's well and good. If, however, a handful of them are colluding to ensure that the hundreds of votes LGF gets among Digg users are canceled out, it's a broken system.

By: Hal

Hal — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:01:02 +0000

I guess no one has any faith in markets any more.

By: Joe Buz

Joe Buz — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:34:58 +0000

I'm not digging the controlled bias...same crap on youtube. There are a ton of opinion control freaks out here in the internets...or is it the wwwtf?

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:34:13 +0000

That's alright, I think Technorati has come out with something similar to digg. Too bad the initials are "WTF"...

Hey, I guess if you want to get into the front page, you better do a little ass kissing nowadays..

By: Bithead

Bithead — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:42:22 +0000

Personally, that kind of thing is one reason I've never really gotten involved with such "services". The way such things are put up, is far too subjective. You have in the past, and with some justification, main complaints about the way sitemeter is working and or not working. I submit the problem there is a matter of programmatic design. (Though frankly, and in fairness, given the numbers of hits sitemeter gets I can't imagine being able to program a way around the problem...)

But, I would also submit that the issue with Digg and the like, is also programmatic; the program is designed with far too many humans involved in the decision-making chain.

By: » OTB News

» OTB News — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Archives December 2006 August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 [IMG Outside The Beltway | OTB] AP Smears Romney With 155-Year-Old Family History Mob Rule at Digg OTB Caption JamTM Milton Friedman on Blogging New Republic Goes Canadian, Bi-Weekly Beltway Traffic Jam Should Taxes Be Raised? Tom Vilsack Drops out of Presidential Race Megan McArdle on Behavioral Economics,