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At Digg, a power play on power users

Margaret Kane Former Staff writer, CNET News
Margaret is a former news editor for CNET News, based in the Boston bureau.
Margaret Kane

Trouble is brewing over at Digg.

Posters at the popular social bookmarking site have been complaining that so-called "power users" have too much influence. The site allows users to vote on ranking for links, and studies of the site have determined that a small group of core users can control the rankings.

digg

Digg founder Kevin Rose has pledged to update the site to prevent users from "gaming the system." But while that vow appeased some of the critics, it launched new complaints from some of the more active users, several of whom removed their avatar icons from the site in protest.

Blog community response:

"These people earned their spots as top users, and it's really unfair for them to pay the price for putting in countless hours to get to the top of the list. This shows yet another Achilles (heel) to social media as a business: you're really not in control."
--Jason Calacanis

"I think the basic problem they're facing is 'groupthink' (as described by James Surowiecki and others): a group's ability to measure something objectively sharply drops if the group is too like-minded, acting too much like a herd."
--Google Blogoscoped

"Don't alienate your users, try to work with them as closely as possible. Even though I support both the changes made to prevent spam and the stance on you guys take on remaining 'democratic' with your user base, you'd better darn well start looking at a reward system that does not conflict with your principles."
--Lockergnome