Previous episodes of unavailability at Digg have been related to tweaks and fixes being put in place. Those changes included adding an Images category to the site, and shifting around the navigation elements (remember when links ran down the left side of the page?)
At other times, the algorithm needed work. People gamed Digg for the chance to gain a spot on its front page. Digg fought back with updates to thwart those tactics.
Rose said on his blog the time had come for another algorithm fix:
Digg’s promotional algorithm ensures that the most popular content dugg by a diverse, unique group of diggers reaches the home page. Our goal is to give each person a fair chance of getting their submission promoted to the home page. Since Digg began more than three years ago, we’ve constantly been making tweaks to the promotional algorithm and will continue to do so.
These tweaks may results in stories sitting in the Upcoming queue with a hundred Diggs before being promoted. "When the algorithm gets the diversity it needs, it will promote a story from the Upcoming section to the home page," said Rose.
It sounds as though larger organized groups have been plaguing Digg with their activity. If it isn't enough to ban offending accounts, the next step would be to make a change to how article promote.
The problem for Digg, in a way, is self-inflicted. A front page spot sends hordes of traffic to the destination site. If that site can handle the traffic, and has CPM advertising in place, those visitors become a lucrative asset.
Digg's ultimate cure for gaming the system could come if online advertising makes a greater shift to cost per action advertising instead of the venerable impressions method. All the traffic in the world means nothing if people choose not to interact with an ad and complete a conversion activity.
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Comments
Might work
I think that this idea might work, it seems to me that the opponents of this idea are the very people affected by such a change. The spammers who utalize their networks to spam specified content to the top. Good content will get to the top regardless of the new hurdles put in place, it might take little longer to get the new articles but at least they will be made popular naturally and not spammed.
Bad Move
I understand where Digg / Kevin is coming from. I think on the surface their idea is good but only as an idea.
The problem is you're penalizing people who are good at digg. If some one is a good marketer and can do this on a consistant basis why penalize them for that? They are finding viable content that people enjoy. Yes marketers are taking advantage of the traffic but the content still needs to be good (People can still burry bad content).
This is really a huge mistake for digg. I have an account that isn't a power account but I dont think it is unfair that the same 50 people dominate digg, they do so because this is what they do well.
This would be like benching the top scorers in the NBA, so the 6th and 7th man on the team can score more points.
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