Digg and Mob Rule
There is a copy and paste culture on the web and I don’t like it. When you go to Digg, to Youtube, to myspace and other websites what you find are short comments. They’re contributing nothing to the debate, in fact they make the online experience online less enjoyable. There has been quite a vocal outcry from certain people about the HD DVD codec and how forcing articles to be pulled down and deleting user accounts was going against their user rights. In fact, there is nothing of the sort. It was nice to see that these users would be held accountable for the content they link to and provide. Adding fuel to the fire Kevin Rose said something in his blog to the effect that since so many people feel so strongly about this issue he would not pull down any more links. I don’t agree with this. There’s a level of mob rule which I think is counterproductive. There’s all this talk about user-generated content and networking. Ok. Where’s the original and innovative content. Simply digging a story and putting a few remarks is not enough. Do some journalism, do some research, learn the topic inside out and then post an informed opinion. I’m not going to be part of sites where accountability is irrelevant. It’s irresponsible for them to publish such information. It’s also given a massive PR boost to Digg.
Just look at how they’ve shot up according to blogpulse’s trend analysis tool. <!– D([“mb”,“activity has been dropping ridiculously fast. In other words, K5 is dying,\u003cbr /\>or at least in the worst slump ever according to our ship\\’s scientist\u003cbr /\>[\u003ca onclick\u003d\“return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\” href\u003d\“http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/sammy_vr_1979/8858avatar9mp.jpg\” target\u003d_blank\>http://i17.photobucket.com\u003cwbr /\>/albums/b68/sammy_vr_1979\u003cwbr /\>/8858avatar9mp.jpg\u003c/a\>],\u003cbr /\>who believe we\\’re traveling at warp speed straight toward oblivion. I,\u003cbr /\>Ensign N0574 believe there are Four Stern Measures which can be\u003cbr /\>implemented to stage a serious khey5 comeback that will keep us from\u003cbr /\>getting sucked into that bigass black hole of oblivion we\\’ve been getting\u003cbr /\>readings for [\u003ca onclick\u003d\“return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\” href\u003d\“http://news.com.com/2311-10784_3-79.html].Legally\” target\u003d_blank\>http://news.com.com/2311-10784\u003cwbr /\>_3-79.html].Legally\u003c/a\> binding\u003cbr /\>pole inside.\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>\u003ca onclick\u003d\“return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\” href\u003d\“http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/4/24/112010/162\” target\u003d_blank\>http://www.kuro5hin.org/story\u003cwbr /\>/2007/4/24/112010/162\u003c/a\>\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>—-\u003cbr /\>Very Earth-like Body Discovered Close By\u003cbr /\> By circletimessquare, 2007-04-25 14:59:39\u003cbr /\> Section: Science, Topic:\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>The most important event in human history so far just occurred\u003cbr /\>[\u003ca onclick\u003d\“return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\” href\u003d\“http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html\” target\u003d_blank\>http://www.dailymail.co.uk\u003cwbr /\>/pages/live/articles/technolog\u003cwbr /\>y/technology.html\u003c/a\>\u003cbr /\>?in_article_id\u003d450467&in\u003cwbr /\>_page_id\u003d1965]. The obsession of all of human\u003cbr /\>civilization has just been fixed for the next few centuries. Assuming\u003cbr /\>mankind doesn\\’t off himself, and assuming a natural catastrophe doesn\\’t\u003cbr /\>wipe mankind out, our insurance policy is close at hand. …If by close at\u003cbr /\>hand you mean 20 light years, and a couple of centuries worth of\u003cbr /\>technological innovation, away.\u003cbr /\>",1] ); //–>