The promised Digg Town Hall Meetings seemed like such a great idea. They were mentioned on the Drill Down by Jay and Kevin as something that could happen every couple of weeks, possibly every month. Then, the disappointment hit.
We hope to have these virtual meetings every three to four months.
Instead of taking down the wall that separates users from being able to communicate with Digg, it has forced a "be there or miss it, but at least we're trying" type of new wall. This is a worse sort of wall, as it makes it even more difficult to communicate. Why? The time frame makes it to where issues will come and go, but only those issues that are given their allotted time will come to light. If you miss one, you're stuck for another quarter of a year.
There are things that Digg can do. First off, hire some more people. Answer the emails. Every other social media site out there shows the courtesy to its users of answering their emails. Digg is bigger and gets much more spam, as Jay and Kevin pointed out, but it's also big enough to hire a couple of "Membership Retention" staffers who can sort through the spam and answer emails.
Open up a forum for Digg users that is "patroled" by Digg representatives. Surely there's enough money in the coffers to afford to hire some forum moderators.
Whatever you do, do something. Take down the wall and communicate with us.
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4 comments:
The trolls did well. They had it buried in just over an hour. Why would Diggers want to ask for responses on emails or a forum to discuss issues? That's madman talk!
I have it on good authority from an inside source that digg is actually working quite feverishly in preparation for the Digg Town Hall, which should be coming on Monday Feb, 25, as announced in the Digg Blog http://blog.digg.com/?p=109
My feelings about Digg are by now well known by many. I find it remarkable that after 14 consecutive submissions to Digg were removed from upcoming at 20-25 Diggs the last of these hit the front page at both Mixx and Subbitt and has gone down a storm at StumbleUpon too.
Having said that, I sincerely hope they get it right before it is surpassed by the many up and coming rivals and would be the first to support it if they did.
Image in business is everything and communication is key and here Digg fail miserably. Lack of communication results in suspicion and mistrust. It is the first order of business not something to work on or get around to sorting.
For those who haven't read about my experiences with them:
http://www.howtowritefortheweb.blogspot.com/
Digg has been downright depressing lately. I did some writing of my own on my blog, including Two Diggs, One Cup, and some follow ups, but unfortunately things really didn't change much. I know there's some possible changes coming at Digg, but I'm afraid the mentality won't change much. That's why I created subbitt.com, in lofty hopes of perhaps filling that need and focusing on customer service as #1. In my thinking, the users are as mucha partner in a venture as any CEO, and should have a say in how a user driven site like Digg is run, but that's just me... wish me luck on the website. Everything is almost in place =)
Ross
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