This image, while funny, nails what (to us) is wrong with Digg. It's not that there isn't a place for funny/bizarre content or the chance to be goofy, but when it's all you've got, it seems a little threadbare. And it's not even their fault. It's how democracy works sometimes.

• Editors vs thumbs In a lot of ways, sites like Digg can replace rooms full of journalists and editors with a single yes/no thumb system. It works on the idea of visceral impact, much like TV news does. But when visceral impact is all you got, it stops becoming what you need to know and turns into what you want to know.
• Eating veggiesSometimes, the stories that aren’t very sexy are the most important. Newspapers spend hours debating these stories daily. But those stories can get overlooked in the hunt for a sexy headline. Editors have struggled with this very issue for years. Does it even come up for people clicking on thumbs?
• It’s not all badWe don’t want to disparage link journalism, because it can work. We’re big fans of Y! Combinator’s Hacker News, for example, because it has this strong mix of audience, community and focus. The Windy Citizen does a great job applying it to a local market. We want to see more of this.

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink