A Digg Power User Speaks: Killing Power Users = Killing Small Publishers

Brad is the editor of Find People for Free - FinderMind online magazine and focuses on writing on the online aspects of people search. You can follow him on Twitter as well. There's a bad notion that power users are 'evil', 'power hungry' and so on. What most people don't realize is that at least 50% of Digg's power users are small publishers (they have their own small, non-mainstream site they try to promote on Digg). If you're wondering why I would know this, it's because I'm a power user (You can look me up as bradit on Digg). I have a lot of people who are also power users on my GTalk list. While talking with them, I came to realize something very surprising. From talking to around 20 power users, I discovered that around 50-70% of them had a site they promoted on Digg. I was skeptical at first. So I talked with them and asked to estimate how many of the people they know have their own sites they promote. Their answer was similar to mine. We all agreed that at least half of Digg's power users use Digg primarily to get the word out about their own site. Is this bad? Most of the sites provide top-notch content, otherwise they wouldn't get on the front page and be buried fast. The new Digg 4 is basically killing the power user status. And no, things are not gonna be so 'everyone has a fair chance to get on the front page'. Things have never been this way (read 80/20 rule). The "power user" will be replaced by the "power i.e. mainstream publisher" (NYTimes, Wired), which are, by the way, owned by a few small corporations. In the process, the smaller publisher (who's only chance to get on the front page was through having his story submitting by either his or other power user) will be wiped out. Digg is trying to introduce a system where the number of followers will be the primary thing determining whether you get popular (and guess what type of sites have the most followers). But Brad, this is just your speculation. Do you have any evidence to back this up? Yes I have. Take a look at Twitter. The new Digg is taking the Twitter concept of 'following' people and getting stories from the 'people you follow'. So Digg should experience some of the results Twitter got, right? Like for example some of the most influential Twitter users are: source: Mashable Look that the Digg homepage now. You'll see around 50% of stories from small sites owned by those 'power users' you despise so much (primarily because there was nobody to let you know what the power user status really brought.) In Digg 4, that percentage of stories is going to shrink to 5-10% max. Becoming a 'power user' was the only mechanism through which small publishers could get a chance. Killing the power user status on Digg is basically killing small publishers and replacing them with their mainstream counterparts with the "follow me" system which hugely favors big guys (as we can see from Twitter). FAQ: Isn't it unfair to have 'power' and 'ordinary' users This question comes mostly (but not always) from people who submitted a bunch of stories on DIgg, saw they could not reach the front page and now complain it's unfair to have power users that get 20-30% of their submissions on the front page. First, being a power user takes at least 2-4 months of work. The current Digg system works on the principle of reciprocity, you Digg your 'mutual friend's' submissions, they digg yours. So every power users spends 20-40 minutes per day basically digging their friend's submissions. It takes hard work to maintain the power user status. People who complain about this either a) don't understand how the system works b) are lazy and want an easier way to get on the FP. My personal opinion is that Digg listened to these people and instead of making things more fair they will make things even worse for the small guy.

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A Digg Power User Speaks: Killing Power Users = Killing Small Publishers

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