I Don't Dig Digg Anymore

I don't want to hate on Digg. Afterall, it is the site that introduced me (and I would assume many others) to social networking. However, I just don't feel like it's the right place for me anymore. And I would like to tell you why.

Digg Is Slow
I don't know if anybody else has noticed this, but it seems to take forever for digg to load. I realize they have a lot of users, but I have a mild case of ADHD and I just can't stand waiting for digg to load. Here are some comparative stats that I took from websiteoptimization.com. I don't think these stats really show you how slow digg really is, but it's definitely last compared to other popular social networking sites.

Load Times:
buzz.stumbleupon.com - 0.23
reddit.com - 0.24
digg.com - 0.28

Digg's Front Page Is Not Current
I follow quite a few RSS feeds from various blogs, websites, and social networking sites. Digg is almost always the last to publish a story. Stories on Digg usually show up somewhere between 2 hours to 2 days after I have already read them on another feed.

Speaking of feeds...
Digg's feed sucks. Other feeds allow me to click on the link in the feed and go directly to the website. However, digg's feed makes me go to the digg page, wait for it to load, and then I can click the link to go to the story. I strive for efficiency, and to me the extra click to get to an article is just dumb.

The Social Aspects of Digg
I don't like them, not even a little bit. In fact they annoy me. When digg first added the shout capability I was getting 15-20 emails a day that someone had sent me a shout or a friend request. A shout is basically a way for someone to say "Hey please dig my story because I'm trying to get it to the front page. I don't really know why I strive to get stories to front page, but I just do! (Note: It appears I'm not the only one that doesn't like shouts. Read this.)

Digg Is Mean
I really thought something would have been done about this by now. I quit posting comments about 6 months ago. I was just sick of getting blasted for every comment I posted. I thought the point of comments to voice one's opinion. I realize that everyone is not going to agree with everyone else's opinion but does the person who does agree the right to call the other person a "stupid mother fucker"? Very rarely do I see a comment thread on a story that doesn't involve someone calling someone else a name.

Digg Is Rigged
Yes, I know I am beating a dead horse here. Like I said before, I read a lot of feeds. There are things that show up on the digg front page that don't show up on any other feeds that I am reading. Now how can this be? Is it possible that the digg community finds things interesting that other social networking communities do not? Sure it is. Is it possible that these stories are being purposely promoted to the front page? That is possible too. I realize that no social networking site is safe from pumping stories and articles, but in my opinion it seems to happen a lot more on digg.