Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose spoke to dozens of Digg users through an emergency episode of The Drill Down tonight (part 1 of 2 is live now). They were asked about the lack of responses to emails, the change in the algorithm, the autobury theory, an open forum, and other topics.
The initial reason for the episode was to discuss a plan of action that users could do to tackle what many view as “negative changes” to Digg as of late. Rumors of revolt have been spreading across the blogosphere. Word of the episode got to Rose and Adelson, and after a humorous verification process that included having Rose digg and favorite a story on demand, they were brought into the live broadcast in front of over 100 listeners. The blogging of the event started quickly.
“We had a two and a half hour digg focus group where we showed everyone for the first time Digg Stories – Suggest,” said Rose. It won’t be popular stories, but is a possible alternative to the Upcoming section. Stories will get exposure in a different way – in theory, stories dugg or submitted by other people who seem to like similar stories will be served to us.
Rose continued by saying, “The upcoming section is flawed.” It will be another way to “expose people to those great stories you are finding.”
Other topics that were covered:
- Autobury – doesn’t exist. There are still plenty of doubts, judging by the response of users in the chat section during the stream, but Jay completely refuted the concept of autobury.
- Banned users – there are those who claim they have not been contacted but, according to Adelson, they have been. He said that some can slip through the cracks because of the bulk of email that they receive, but I know, for a fact, without a chance of error, that one particular account sent 5 emails with no responses.
- Open communication – Rose and Adelson agree that there should be something, possibly once or twice a month, that offers a way for people to communicate with Digg and receive responses. A forum? A monthly community chat, like a town hall meeting? We’ll see. Adelson sent a message to Muhammad Saleem during the closing minutes of the show that something to open up communications is in the works already.
Step number one, according to the hosts, was to open a method of communication. This is absolutely true. If we do open up communication, then Digg may actually be in great shape. If not, this was just a pacification. Only time will tell.
(the airing of this “special edition” of The Drill Down will be posted here once it has been edited)