Tuesday, November 28, 2006

On Diggs and Votes, but no Reads....

One thing I hear a lot about is the fact that people do not read the articles they Digg or vote for. While this is the case and there is no denying it, there are some very plausible reasons for this occurance.

1. The Title and Description Give Everything Away.
A lot of times I find that there is no need to click through to the actual story because it is already summarized for me. However, the summary is usually a poor one that doesn't explain everything. This causes people to digg, vote, and comment on stories without knowing exactly what the story is talking about.

2. Diggs and Votes are used as bookmarks.
I believe that Diggs and Votes are to signify that you like something, or feel that other people should see it. All too often, users 'bookmark' a story because they are at work or cannot read it at that moment. This inflates the digg count and is not helpful at all. I am hoping for some sort of bookmarking feature to come in the future.

3. Users Post the Content of the Story in the Comments.
I don't know that I have ever seen this on Netscape, but it happens fairly often on Digg. Some users feel the need to include the content of the article in the comments. This happens most often with lists and makes it unnecessary to view the article.

I'll give users the benefit of the doubt here. Sometimes there is simply no need to read the article.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for one would love to see a bookmarking feature. I use digg at work during the day, but because of time issues and blocked websites etc. I copy the Url to my home email and looksee when I get home.. the problem with that is I have to go thru digg and find where I pulled the link from if I decide its worth digging. *shrugs* meh thats my opinion anyways

h

Stephen Searer said...

I agree, I usually digg a couple things from work as a bookmark for later. My previous post about this had a bunch of supporters as well.

Thanks for the feedback :)