[esc]:set rant on
Alright, so i’m an RSS junkie. Google homepage, Liferea, whatever… just give me the news man! Throughout the years, there have been many different pages up there, but there’s always been slashdot… always. If it wasn’t RSS, I had the headlines e-mailed to me. (Still do) With that being said, let’s talk about Digg.
So, Digg appeared almost out of nowhere. Sure, it’s been there for a while but it really just got popular lately. More and more people are flocking to it… including me. Like any good netizen, I added it to my RSS and feeds and gave them a shot at attracting my attention. At first, that was a good move, the stories were flying fast and I was clicking like a wild man trying to keep up. It was great… and then the BS started happening.
I never left Slashdot, it’s been there for a long time and I still take the time to read it daily. Part of the Slashdot “aura” is the commentary. From funny to informative to flame wars, whatever, almost always fun to read and a LOT of information comes in those comments. (If you’re only reading the headlines, you’re missing the point)
In accordance with that, I started reading the Digg commentary… which mostly seems to consist of “Cool, I digg”, “Rockin! +digg”, or “This sucks, no digg”, and let’s not forget “Dude, this is so old! But i’ll digg it anyway”. This really started to bother me after a while. (Apparently, old crap is still digg worthy, even if we all saw it 3 months ago) Now, i’m not saying this NEVER happens on Slashdot, but it happens less(tm).
At this point, I was still okay with Digg… they still had some good stuff pop up there from time to time. (Then again, so does del.icio.us) The part where I had a problem is when the war began. All of sudden, Digg got some traffic, and a whole new “kill slashdot” community emerged.
What’s this all about? What are they so angry at Slashdot? And who cares who is on top? Just do the best job you can and let the people decide! Okay, i’ll admit, the Slashdot community can be a bit tough to break into. They tend to lean towards the eccentric uber-geek kind of stuff. (Which is why I like it!) I’ve posted a few stories there, and to this day, not one of them has managed to hit the front page… ever. Oh well, life goes on, i’m a sh!tty writer. I still submit, I still read.
I guess my point here is that i’ve now completely abandoned Digg b/c of the “kill slashdot” community. It’s damned near every other article on there these days. Talking about how good Digg is compared to Slashdot. In reality, Digg has turned into a social bookmarking site and is becoming less and less a technology site. It’s really quite pathetic.
Then again, I have this same problem with the “Kill IE” community. Okay, so Microsoft stepped up and made a browser when there really wasn’t much else to choose from. Okay, so IE has been riddled with security holes and lacks ALOT of functionality. So, MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT AND LET THE COMMUNITY DECIDE. I use Firefox BECAUSE it’s a better product, not because I want to see IE die. IE can stay, I just won’t use it. Problem solved.
Do you see what I mean, start reading some of the Digg commentary and see some of the fan sites that have spawned (like “diggvsdot.com”). What a joke. Slashdot is a solid web site with a lot to offer. Digg needs some polishing, but it could be very good. So, COMPETE Digg… don’t try to win the war with FUD. I don’t have time for it and just don’t care.
[esc]:set rant off