Could troubles in Diggville mean less press for 2OLD2PLAY?

“Political blogger Michelle Malkin was one of the first to complain that groups of conservative or liberal Digg users were acting to remove posts from pundits on the other side. More recently, another blogger analyzed Digg home page stories and concluded that a small group of powerful Digg users, acting together, control a large percentage of total home page stories.

To some this is troubling because it removes the supposedly democratic nature of Digg. Unlike newspapers like the New York Times, where a small group of editors decide what is “news” and therefore included in the paper, Digg is a more meritocritous and democratic process where the readers actually decide what is newsworthy. If Digg is being corrupted by a relatively small group of users, the difference between Digg and the NYT becomes less clear.

Others respond that these groups are just very hard core Digg users that spend much of their day scouring the web for good stories to promote on Digg. Digg ranks users based on how successful their submitted stories become, and a handful of users are hyper-competitive about their Digg ranking. The argument is that these users are simply more proficient at finding stories.

Today Digg co-founder Kevin Rose responded to these complaints. He takes both sides of the argument. Kevin says that groups of people recommending stories to each other is actually a good thing. But he also says that Digg will soon be implementing a new algorithm that weighs a diversified group of Diggers more heavily than groups acting together:

This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story. Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn’t mean that the story won’t be promoted, it just means that a more diverse pool of individuals will be need to deem the story homepage-worthy.”

If I read this right - when a great gaming article surfaces like the one’s from our writing contest and we as gamers go to Digg and digg them and since we are not a diverse group but a group that mainly scours gaming and technical Diggs, our votes won’t count as much.

Let’s admit it. When we have one of our writers put up something good many of us tend to bounce over to Digg and help that article move up the standings so it will be noticed by the more “diversified” Diggers out there. Once it gets up high enough, then the articles are left to stand on their own merit. Many continue to head up the Digg list. I’m guessing that most articles get a 30 – 60 Digg push from our loyal 2OLD2PLAY members. What I fear is that the new “algorithm” will make that initial push to be recognized a more difficult affair. I’m assuming most people are like me and don’t have time to read a 10 – 20 person Digg. Perhaps I’m wrong there; at least I hope I am.

Should we be concerned about this? Does this group really need any more publicity? I wish I could answer those questions but I like many have joined the group late and don’t really have a feel for what that core group that founded 2OLD2PLAY have in mind. I do know that this group is doing an excellent job and I’m glad to be here,