Digg: Frustratingly Addictive

I've recently added Digg to my iGoogle home page. It's both addictive and frustrating at the same time.

Digg is basically a collection of stories, comments, articles, presented to the Digg community for comment. Digg(ers) can promote or demote articles, with the most popular appearing in my iGoogle homepage.

At any time, there's at least two or three articles that I must read. It is addictive.

Now here's the frustrating part.

At the same time I want to read the atricles, everyone else wants to read them too! So intense is the server traffic, that in most cases, it takes persistence to even get the original article to load into my browser.

Some sites mirror the original content to allow better access and sometimes Digg(ers) will post the original content in a reply so people can see it.

Unless Digg can address this situation soon, I think my impatience will win out over my curiosity. My attention span is just too short.

Moderating Web 2.0 Discussions Can Be Like Navigating a Minefield

...As the founders of Digg, found out yesterday....

Sometime yesterday, someone posted a digital key which is supposed to enable those with the know how to unlock the copy protection on HD-DVDs on Digg.com. Facing a Cease and Desist order, Digg decided to remove all posts relating to the digital key.

What followed was a huge backlash by the online Digg community.

Today, one of the founders has decided that to suppress the discussion ran contrary to what Digg was all about and vowed to allow discussion on this topic, regardless of the legal consequences.

The situation highlights a few (self-evident?) truths.

1. If you're going to host an online community, you have to be very careful when you insert your right to moderation (links to porn and hate speech are obviously banned).

2. We're still learning "the rules" in a Web 2.0 world.

3. Ownership in an online world is very muddy. Who owns Digg? The founders or the community? The answer is both. One doesn't exist without the other. And they're still figuring out the power sharing.

Is all of the pain worth it?

Absolutely.