Growing Censorship Concerns at Digg 473
I find site rivalries boring, but growing concerns over Digg "censorship" have been submitted steadily for the last few months. Today two such stories were submitted so numerous that I had little choice but to post. The first claims that Digg is
the editor's playground- it explains how a few users control Digg, and that it's not really the 'Democracy' that they claim it to be. Personally I think this is all totally within the rights of their editors to choose content however they like. But it's less pleasant when combined with accounts getting banned for posting content critical of digg, and watching other content getting
removed for being critical of sponsors (also, here is Kevin Rose's reply).
This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
It is also worth noting that Digg has rapidly gained popularity to the point that Slashdot and Digg are now neck and neck [alexa.com] according to Alexa.
Digg is an interesting site that implements a number of things many long-time Slashdot users have wished Slashdot would do for quite some time. It would be a shame if they are failing to live up to their claim of non-hierarchial editorial control. If this is true, then they deserve to be outed.
Boo hoo (Score:1, Insightful)
Accusing All Commander Tacos (Score:5, Insightful)
And all is good.
But your reader base hates you for it. And one day, dissent might arise. If you don't address it you risk losing your user base. If you try to cover it up and the truth breaks out, I guarantee you will lose your user base.
So the editors do what they want and you vote with your clicks. This is no grand concept, we provide them revenue by visiting their sites. We are traveling to their sites by keystrokes and clicks (not our feet) so vote with them and everyone is happy!
If you can't find a fair site, build your own! Show us how it's done and let us know where it's at. I, for one, would like to see more slash/digg hybrids popping up that rate everything (stories, users, comments, etc) and have a tight handle on who gets how many mod points. I don't care for the easy exploitation of digg and I don't care for the veto happy choice editors for Slashdot.
This isn't a cold war (yet) since they aren't openly bashing each other like the USSR Vs USA war
It would most likely boil down to a witch hunt. Sites will be judged by two qualities: fascist nazism & crap content. It's like precision versus recall, everyone has their own preferred happy medium.
Frankly, the Godaddy digg [digg.com] seems to be there and intact. But I did have to Google it. Remember, you can hate the diggers who submit (and digg) crap [digg.com], the GNAA trolls [slashdot.org] & Adolf Hitroll [slashdot.org] but only as much as you hate your freedom to submit, digg and post yourself.
Fair enough, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If you think Digg is bad, Slashdot is worse. (Score:2, Insightful)
weird timing (Score:3, Insightful)
Digg - "tech" for twelve year olds (Score:4, Insightful)
Most stories have no bearing at all on tech, and comments range for the childish to outright stupid.
Digg.com is more like Fark.com, except it's not as good.
As to Kevin Rose, who cares. Like his site, he's a major tech poser.
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
I still find a story or two that is interesting, but mainly I just try to mod up the trash just to prove how fucked up and bias it is.
Digg is already old news, earning perhaps a footnote in Wikipedia someday.
slashdot is more censored (Score:3, Insightful)
On slashdot you have no idea who is removing your submitted articles and comments, not who is modding you down.
In both groups there is an intolerant and active "politically correct" core. If you dont agree with them on IT or social comments, you get abused.
My prediction is this comment will disappear because it is "wrong".
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This should be fun (Score:4, Insightful)
To be honest, a lot of these "F'ing censoring bastards!" posts come from trolls who hate seeing a particularly good troll post get canned. If you're trying to game the system and get called on it, don't be surprised when you lose privleges. That's all I'm saying.
True Anonymity (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people need to be bitchslapped. Personally, I think that the tiny bit of editorial control that /. editors exert is a plus, not a minus.
Re:This should be fun (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:True Anonymity (Score:3, Insightful)
Viewing failed submissions with the submitters names not shown sounds a lot better.
Re:This should be fun (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:weird timing (Score:2, Insightful)
Still worth an occasional visit, but it's gotten a lot less likely that you'll find anything worth reading.
Solution to Digg VS Slash (Score:2, Insightful)
They are no rivals and have completely different models of providing news.
Most people come to
Let's not follow into the thinking many digg-users seem to have that "a war is going on".
Re:Very true (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:This should be fun (Score:3, Insightful)
That, and Digg's travesty of articles like "How to increase your adsense dollars" (aka "How to make your e-penis larger").
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole thing pisses me off to no end because I basically got trolled into moderating up one of the "offensive" posts, and I feel like I was caught up in the general moderation bitch-slap that went around at that time. What's worse is I've never actually "trolled" on Slashdot. I've posted some stuff that I thought was funny, and some of those may have been "in opposition" to the prevailing attitudes about the topic (maybe pro-Microsoft or questioning the sanctity of Linux or whatever.) But I've certainly never done any frist ps0ts, obscene ASCII art, or any of the other griefer-type posts.
I like that Slashdot has a strong policy against censoring, and that they use the mod system to hide the griefers. I honestly don't know how they've avoided the casino spam, but whatever they're doing in that regard is also excellent and appreciated.
But I don't mind the occasional off topic discussion, and I don't have a problem replying to ACs. I also find some of the trolls hilarious, and I've even befriended one just because she's an excellent creative writer. So while I'm not a troll myself, I do enjoy the (very occasional) troll. I sometimes wonder if I'm too close to the border for them to restore my mod points.
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, you could make the argument that you shouldn't have been using the moderation system to push your own viewpoint. Although, of course, those with "popular" viewpoints can do it without any fear of retribution, which is a big part of the problem.
Bunk (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, but there's meta-moderation to deal with the abusers. Whatever. The same people that only want to see certain viewpoints also judge the moderation. That works. Not!
I lost interest in slashdot (and let my sponsorship lapse) when I lost moderation privileges. I was never told I was black listed. I simply stopped receiving mod points. It doesn't really matter if the editors or the hive mind blacklisted me; the result is the same. The moderation system here is not an asset, it's just a tool for the status quo. It's not even available if you don't pass some test of conformity.
It pains me to read some other forums because the quality of the commentary is so bad. Slashdot is capable of so much more, but it takes more time than I have to find the good through the parrotry. Go ahead, mod me down. Whatever.
Digg reminds me of pre-moderation Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
With moderation, I find /. bearable, but it does suffer from that "attention curve" -- comments posted after attention has decayed from the story will probably never be moderated up. If you want moderation attention, you have to post very early.
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot is like a pub where everyone knows you, so you find more meaningful conversation. People actually give a damn about Slashdot, even when pointing out the flaws. Actually, if they didn't care, they wouldn't bother. Digg just isn't a "community" and never will be.
Re:This should be fun (Score:5, Insightful)
I could whine and moan that the admins don't like me because I'm Mormon, or religious, or some of my politcal views - but that would just be random speculation.
In any case, I'm not really a fan of modding myself. If I care enough to mod, I'd rather post. When I have mod points I try to pick a topic I'm reasonably well-informed on but don't really care too much about and use them to be helpful. It really is more of a chore than anythign else, however, and I just do it to be doing my part. So if I don't get mod points as often, I'm not missing them.
-stormin
Re:Create acount moderation metrics (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd love to see more open-ness and an open metric and stuff like that, but as long as there are people like you wandering the byways of cyberspace with this insane feeling of being entitled to every website you land on I'm not really that surprised that the creators retain (and delegate) more authority than would otherwise be optimal.
It's precisely this attitude of being entitled to stuff other people created that makes socialists so annoying.
-stormin
Re:It always comes to this. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This should be fun (Score:3, Insightful)
A good moderator is someone willing to read through all the 0 rated stuff to find the hidden gems that deserve moderation up, and frankly I'm not willing to waste time reading the drivel at that level, so rather than just spending points on already high rated stuff (I browse slashdot at +4) I just got out of the system altogether. I haven't missed it.
Re:This should be fun (Score:3, Insightful)
This story is fairly interesting to me because I recently started reading Digg and using RSS feeds, etc. though I've been a Slashdot mainstay for a long time. I find digg's practice of hiding the fact the editors filter the frontpage stories and ban site submitters at least a huge turn off if not all out scandalous.
They need to get their shit together or they will die. Slashdot's crowd keeps coming back because they're mostly no b.s. Trust > all.
Re:True Anonymity (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There is no democracy in the 'net (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but no. If google did something irrational that pissed everyone off, they would go and use a different search engine and there is nothing google could do about that.
The 'USA' as 'google' however, would blow up all the other rival websites claiming its 'their internet' and you can't stop us... god told me to do <insert stupid thing that pissed everyone off in the first place
But I digress from the actual topic, as has been mentioned by another reply, the whole world is made up of tiny dictatorships, with the illution of democracy etc... internet included.
Well thats my two pence... night all.
Re:This should be fun (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:True Anonymity (Score:4, Insightful)