Digg Alters the Definition of “Popular”

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Most people know how Digg works. You submit a story, and based on how many people vote it up or down, it will hopefully be moved from “upcoming” to “popular.” Until now it’s been based on sheer numbers, but last night Digg founder Kevin Rose unveiled a new algorithm which turns this upside down.

According to his blog post, popularity depends on:

One of the keys to getting a story promoted is diversity in Digging activity. When the algorithm gets the diversity it needs, it will promote a story from the Upcoming section to the home page. This way, the system knows a large variety of people will be into the story.

What’s this mean? It means, basically, if the algorithm works, an end to groups voting up a story. Frequently Digg and other social networking sites have groups of people voting up each others’ stories. There’s also a lot of politics involved, too, with some people voting down stories of members they may dislike for one reason or another.

According to Rose, this could mean a story with 100+ Diggs would remain “upcoming.” I can see the point of this change. Additionally, one of Merriam-Webster’s definition of popular is of or relating to the general public,” which this diversity aspect would hope to achieve.

But a second one is “suitable to the majority.” Hard to see how leaving out something with 100+ Diggs satisfies that definition.

Although Rose asks for feedback, it’s clear from the comments in this thread most feel that any feedback will be “buried,” just like an unpopular story.

Here’s just one of the comments:

This is stupid. It should be based on the most diggs, period. So what if there are “brigades”? If you don’t like what MOST people like go to a different site. If I post a story on the book Island of the Blue Dolphins, it won’t be very interesting, and people won’t digg it. If I post a story on the downfall of Scientology, Apple, or Ron Paul, it will be much more likely to be dugg (or buried). Why? Because that’s what MOST people here want to see (or not)! Change the f***ing thing so most diggs on a story decides whether it gets to the front page. What the f*** is the argument against this? This s*** is buried.