Why The Digg Mafia Will Cost Kevin Rose Millions

February 17th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

I’ve just received two trackbacks from a Techtities post entitled ‘Why The Digg Mafia Will Cost Kevin Rose Millions‘, (Update: it’s now been submitted to Digg - lets see what happens if it hits the homepage…) on Digg which suggests that not only are the actions of the ‘Digg mafia’ driving away potential digg users, but they could also be driving away potential acquirers.

I hadn’t considered this before, but after being reminded of two recent examples I actually think that this is the case - the hacking of the SuperGu website because it was accused of being a digg clone, and the defacement of a new Yahoo site just because it included some voting buttons, which of course were invented by Digg, just like fire….

I work for a large ISP/Telco in the UK and I can just picture the scene in the boardroom if I asked for permission to buy Digg. Once the CEO saw the comments left by Digg users on both Digg and on other sites that are ‘fortunate’ enough to hit the homepage, he would definitely veto the deal as it wouldn’t sit well with our family-focussed brand.

Techtities (one of Ajay’s sites btw) also pointed out that Digg’s traffic has actually been falling in the last 3 months. This stunned me, ahtough I had noticed that fewer articles were making it to the homepage and the number of diggs per article looked like it was falling, but I had been attributing this to the Digg mafia burying greater numbers of articles.

Where do you stand on the Great Digg Debate - Is Digg a Hit or a Miss?

More: Techtities

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About the Author

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Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and currently runs the Portal and online operations for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. He also writes for Windows 7 News.

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There Are 6 Responses So Far. »

  1. #1

    Comment by Ashish Mohta on 17 February 2007:

    They are pushing more than enough.IF they want to have a monopoly that wont last long

  2. #2

    Comment by Ajay on 17 February 2007:

    Thanks for the mention Everton.

    But, things are really out of hand. Digg is a great place, however, the comments out there are sometimes really bad, rude and the burying of stories is a norm now.

  3. #3

    Comment by Thilak on 17 February 2007:

    Ajay, Everton: If it hits the homepage, then I bet that TechTites will be banned on Digg!

    I can put money on that.

  4. #4

    Comment by Everton on 17 February 2007:

    update: it’s been buried already despite 32 diggs direct from the post. kind of proves Ajay’s point about the mafia

  5. #5

    Comment by Ashish Mohta on 17 February 2007:

    That was supposed to happen.They wouldnt have let it to fp anyways.Something against digg doesnt go that that way and if it does there is no more in digg

  6. #6

    Comment by Everton on 17 February 2007:

    The funny thing is - people are still voting in protest. it’s got another 10 votes in just the last 10 mins

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