Since launching its new version last Wednesday, Digg has been met by a slew of criticism from users unhappy with the latest iteration of the social news site. In a current Mashable poll (open until September 1), the majority of users are saying they prefer the old Digg over the new.

Today, the situation escalated further, as users flooded the site's Top News page with links to Reddit by digging stories auto-submitted by the Digg competitor. Similarly, a mention of Reddit's takeover on the Top News page was also doing well on Reddit with user comments such as, "At this rate, by noon digg.com will just redirect to reddit.com." Other acts of revolt included submissions of content "Not Suitable For Work."

At launch, we predicted that this might happen, as the changes in the functionality of the new Digg are a dramatic shift for its core users. The backlash stems from features that were stripped away in the new design and a repositioning of the site to become more Twitter-like by including its own version of the Suggested Users List, which promotes publishers and celebrities to follow.

As a result of the new system, which gives more exposure to users with more followers, some of these publishers and user accounts (including Mashable), have been repeatedly landing on the front page of Digg.







Digg Founder Kevin Rose responded to some of the backlash on his personal blog, defending some of the changes and noting that some previous features would be returning, such as the Upcoming News section. Rose also said that the site's SUL would be expanded and based more on users that make quality submissions.

"All diggs are still equal, nothing has changed there," Rose said in his post. "Our directory of recommended users will eventually open to the entire world. We will sort users, not on popularity (followers), but based on how good you are at finding/digging content (similar to wefollow.com). This will remove the popularity contest and put the focus on quality diggers."

Digg has encountered and survived significant user backlash before as a result of changes on the site, like its new commenting system, changes to its algorithm and the infamous encryption key fiasco. Still, this is one of the biggest shifts for Digg in user experience and functionality to-date, and the backlash will once again test the company's resolve as it looks to add new mainstream users.

What effect will the new Digg version have on its future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.