I can't help but think this is a bad turning point for Digg. Today, the news is buzzing that Digg removed its top users list. Why? As Kevin Rose puts it:

Some of our top users – the people that have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours finding and digging the best stuff – are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg.

Got that? After reading the full post, I can't help but think that Digg is hiding the evidence of manipulation, not actually fixing the problem (if there is one to begin with). Removing the list and looking the other direction does nothing to stop spam. It just keeps it hidden.

In the meantime, Digg is yearning to be Google. Back in September, the official Digg blog posted a letter with this little gem:

I can say that a key update is coming soon. This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story.

A spam-fighting algo change? Sounds awefully familiar. What are they saying now?

The factors and the algorithm are constantly being tweaked to reflect the diversity of the Digg audience as well as to guard against manipulative behavior.

They should have a tag line for companies that do this: "In the algos we trust". All others buy ads.

Back to Digg: basically, they're saying "we have a spam problem so we removed the top diggers list but we don't actually have a spam problem because our algos are great". At the same time they tell us it's because of all the 'bad publicity' which makes me wonder: What are they doing? Where are they going with this?

Right on queue, here is an interview with Digg's current Top Digger (as of removing the list) and his take on things. He asks a very probing question:

What keeps people voluntarily contributing even when the slightest bit of reward is taken away?

Exactly. Digg has set itself on a self-destruction course now, but it's still easy to fix that. The least they can do is reinstate the Top Diggers list. The best they can do is recode their very trusty algos that rank the top diggers. Otherwise, this is the most pointless move by Digg.

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