Death for Digg

I am constantly amazed by digg.com. Frankly, it is the coolest website I've ever seen. I would go so far as to say I'm addicted. I digg for stories with enthusiasm and read entire comment threads. This stuff (community driven and controlled networks) is changing the internet. But is digg doomed?

The growth of the digg community has been amazing. According to Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson (two of the Head Diggers) there were 30,000 users within 6 months. Today there are close to 5 million page visits per day. Psycho.

Can the future be this bright?

As digg gets more popular, the readership will change. The whole site is designed so that the content is user (audience) driven, and when the audience changes, so will the content. That's the problem.

Digg is so successful, partly, because it gives users control. As the population gets larger, that control diminishes. In the past it has been fun to watch a story I dugg percolate its way to the front page. However, as the community gets larger, my level of control - the effect of my diggs - goes down.

But that's basic democracy. The real problem for digg is that adding a critical mass of new users to the digg community will tangibly change the community. The early community was often very focused on technology, counter culture, the internet, etc. As this community changes, and the focus changes, early users may be turned off and stop using the site. However, the new people were only attracted to the site by the content provided by the old people, and so they leave. Pretty soon, the massive surge in popularity changes what was good and unique about the site, and a descent into oblivion occurs as users look elsewhere.

I think the future of digg-like websites is bright, but I believe a return to niche sites is inevitable. The critical mass of users, those who jump on the bandwagon rather than build it, will ultimately drag the site down. Perhaps the traditional media was right all along to appeal to the common denominator and achieve steady - if uninteresting, unchallenging and unimportant - results.

But that is just a sad thought. Until this day of bleakness and mourning I will be diligently digging away.