This will go down in history as one of the most ironic decisions by a company. Digg.com’s decision to give CENSORSHIP control of content by use of the bury button will, in the end, bury them.
In the political section CENSORSHIP is rampant. Digg, to its credits, allows the user to “digg up” news articles they prefer so it can reach the “Popular” section (known as the front page) where more readers abide. But Digg also does something remarkably STUPID for an organization. It allows users to CENSOR an article for no logical reason by using the “bury” button. Their motive is a phobic reaction to spam. But spam would never make the front page in any case, because it would never get enough Diggs.
Instead, the political section of Digg gets railroaded by a small group of people who have learned how to game Digg and manipulate the readings.
When an article gets enough “buries” it is literally REPRESSED from Digg forever. BANNED. What ends up occurring is a blatant CENSORSHIP of articles. So, the same genre of articles occurs over and over again–bash the Bush administration, there are injustices in the world, pot smoking, atheism, Ron Paul, and crackpot Truther articles.
Can you imagine a company allowing its customers to bury a product or service, not by supply and demand, but by an elite group? Picture going into Starbucks and asking for a vanilla latte only to be told it was buried. Or envision trying to buy first class tickets on an airline only to be told your request was buried. However, if you wish to be a pot smoking, atheist, Truther you can fly first class. How long would these companies last? Any simple minded person would know it won’t be long before a company hits bottom.
Ironically, in the end Digg will bury itself by use of the bury button.
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