New Digg v1 Design Interface Sucks. It’s Experiment Went Wrong [Review]

It’s good to change but not all changes are good. Digg v1 new design by Betaworks completely changed the way it worked as a Social Bookmarking site. Not just the way it looks but the way users interacted and algorithm of Voting has completely changed now. Old users may probably react in word saying – it sucks!

Here’s how new Digg interface looks.

1. User Profile Deleted without Warning

No matter how old your Digg account was, how great your profile was built, everything was deleted overnight. User accounts no more exists with New Digg v1 and to your surprise there is no official word about getting it back.

Facebook Login is the only way. You need to have Facebook account in order to sign in and that’s mandatory. Your basic info including, name, Picture, Gender, List of Friends, etc will be exposed to Digg by authorizing Facebook to sign in.

No More anonymity. When Facebook is the only way, you cannot be anonymous anymore. This kills the freedom of commenting for which Reddit is liked and loved.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that you CANNOT COMMENT. Yes, at least as of now on v1 design, it is not possible to comment your views on any story. Not sure whether it will be implemented in future upgrades.

2. Digg Archives Deleted

Along with the user data, all those old archives are deleted. Digg had around 14 million pages indexed in Google and now they are all 404 (Not Found). These includes archives and user profiles as I mentioned above.

3. Submitted Stories are No Where?

This is another change. Just enter the permalink URL and click Submit. There is no provision to mention Category or Thumbnail or anything. Also, when you submit, what you get is a Thanks!

Nothing is mentioned about the link of your story or where it would appear (Just in case you want to confirm). I checked the upcoming section for new stories but it was no where.

It should be noted that the Digg buttons on website to submit no more works (doesn’t fill the URL automatically). It just takes you to the Submit Link page.

4. Digging doesn’t mean Voting up

Remember when we used to Digg a story, it was counted as upvote. This was a criteria for a story to make it to the top; more the votes, more chances of reaching top.

It isn’t same thing anymore. New Digg tagline says- “What the Internet is Talking about Right now“. And the word “Internet” there means Twitter and Facebook. To make a story to the top, number of Facebook Likes and Retweets are taken into consideration and then Digg votes.

5. What’s Good (but still not so good)

Homepage looks clean and easy to read. Bigger images also catches the readers eye towards story.

But then doesn’t it make Digg just another Content site or Homepage with Headline and Description?

Using Facebook to sign in will certainly reduce number of spam.

But it is a harsh measure and Folks are really not liking the restriction of Facebook sign-in.

What’s the Main Problem with Digg

Real problem is Digg failed to build a supporting community like Reddit does. Users were always fragmented and this rethinking made it just another News aggregator. It may attract new users, but it’s not going to get back former diggers back and doubt if existing users will even prefer to stay.

Digg underwent number of relaunches and design changes but this was the most pathetic after being taken over by Betajerks , Betaworks I mean.

I am no pessimist but I am really disappointed by this change and this article was my rant and the way to spit it out. I really don’t want to see Digg dying. I believe All great Changes are preceded by chaos and hope Digg is changing for its own good.