Irfan’s Corner on the Web On Mac, Linux, Grid, Virtualization and Software Technology

Where Digg can never beat Slashdot

Like many techies in the world, I have been a regular Slashdot reader, and when Digg came around, I was initially attracted by its free-for-all-to-submit notion. A regular grudge in Slashdot has been that the moderators end up rejecting some good stories so this could not happen on Digg. Very soon Digg became very popular, it gained mainstream media attention like in CNN Business 2.0 "10 people who dont matter", Slashdots moderator Rob Malda was mentioned because Slashdot "was no match for the power of the multitudes". This was followed by the reports that Digg had surpassed Slashdot in number of visitors. , and many predicted the demise of Slashdot if it did not change towards a more open moderation system. Now, fortunately, that didn't happen, and as it turns out Digg has failed me and many techies I know who enjoy Slashdot, but not Digg! These are my presonal reasons why Digg can never replace Slashdot for me:

1. Digg is full of garbage! Just go to the main page and you'll see all sorts of gossip/political stuff and rumors being digged by people, and what 'sensible posts' there are if you follow the discussion you will find that most people don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. Slashdot is also susceptible to this, however to a lesser degree as the most lame stories get rejected by expert moderators slashdot has! Slashdot's moderation system can be likened to a "benevolent dictatorship" where the moderators who are adept in their fields approve or reject stories which in their opinion are worth approving or rejecting! Nothing like this happens in Digg, hence Digg is flooded with lame submissions! However the idea behind Digg was that the masses will separate the chaff from the grain, however that doesn't seem to be working, because majority of the masses are NOT geeks, they like gossip, political stuff hence most of these stories make it to the front page. Even the technology section in Digg is full of gossip, minor software releases etc, every single package added to Ubuntu is digged! Hence Digg is a good place if you want to waste your time!

2. Although in Digg I'm able to find stories before they land on Slashdot, but in Slashdot, I find that the level of discourse is generally higher than on Digg. Discussion are generally deeper and more informative. There have been numerous discussions where I said to myself "man this was good, I better del.icio.us it", but in Digg I have yet not come across a discussion where I said this to myself.

Digg certainly has more diverse material and is only good if you want to skim through some news very quickly without having discussion about any, Slashdot is a place where news is discussed in depth, and you certainly want to have a closer look at the submissions.