When I added Digg to RSSowl last December, it was a red letter day for my content consumption. Digg seemed to cover every random event in the realm of technology. It seemed to make up for the shortcomings of Slashdot. However, there is no ideal solution for information distribution.

With the addition of categories like World & Business, Sports, and Videos, Digg is approaching a critical mass of content. Even as an unemployed college student, there is not enough free time in the day to digg through the huge number of stories that make the front page. The logical solution is to only subscribe to the Technology section. However, there are stories that are still worthwhile in those other categories.

In the 604 days of Digg there have been 466,263 stories (as of this moment anyway). Using a straight average that amounts to about 32 new stories every hour. In reality this is an increasing and potentially exponential trend, especially since the launch of Digg V3.

In the meantime, there is an over abundance of content available via Digg. These stories are promoted by a very small percentage of registered users. Even the most popular article in the history of Digg received only about 1/9 th of the available diggs. However, a single front-page article will still receive tens of thousands of visits. In other words, a high percentage of visitors are freeloaders.

I don’t particularly see a problem with social freeloaders on Digg except for the fact that it results in a distinct oligarchy of submission. Those few users that have taken a vow of celibacy to devote all their time and effort to digging, commenting, and submitting stories control the majority of front page content.

As with the rest of society, it is easy to stay on top once you get there. Being in the top ten of the recently active 96,900 users (or all time 248,363 users) on Digg results in having more than a few friends that compulsively digg everything that user submits. There is little difference between this form of inflation and simply having multiple accounts.

Example: Digital Gopher
These are the last three stories that Digital Gopher has submitted:

1. Does your PC have a good rep? To send e-mail, it better
2. Cable bundle pricing dings AT&T broadband growth
3. Health benefits of moderate drinking extend to elderly

Here is a list of the people who have dugg them thus far. The names in bold appear on at least two lists, the twelve usernames that are italicized appear on all three.

Health benefits...	Cable bundle...	Does your PC...
hemphill81	hemphill81	p9s50W5k4GUD2c6p
greenamp	wayjer	gwjc
sickaltima	webtech	sunny3
webtech	sickaltima	wayjer
zepequeno	reject	Tiabin
gwjc	gwjc	3monkeys
3monkeys	zepequeno	tlmac59
wayjer	tlmac59	gelu88
johndi	3monkeys	brainiator
schestowitz	johndi	webtech
iFelix	schestowitz	chriseldred03
itwizpro	iFelix	johndi
msaleem	itwizpro	curtissthompson
	msaleem	zepequeno
		schestowitz
		crtune
		Aidenag
		chrismcelligott
		iFelix
		sickaltima
		TheAttacks
		blaineg
		gorka
		hemphill81
		floorhead
		itwizpro
		msaleem
		black2back
		SidneyjS

This would not be quite as interesting if not for the fact that two of these submissions received less than 20 diggs. Note: I have no particular gripe against Digital Gopher; he submits interesting stories and has a Transformer for his icon.

In closing, Digg isn't really collapsing, it is just so large that it burries individual users, content, and servers. The democracy of it's inception has been traded for an oligarchy. It's up to the users to take it back through active participation.

Related: Digg Records