Recently the Digg interface got an extreme makeover. There are now more social features on the site, like photo albums and public “shout” messages. And the new system has been designed to make reciprocal voting on friends’ stories far less convenient.
Instead of blasting down a list of your friends’ submissions (“Digg! Digg! Digg! Digg!“)… Uzi style… it now takes some real mouse-clickin’ effort. It takes so much patience that some people are submitting less, and others are ditching personal politics and “friends of convenience” and only voting on stories that they actually like.
While many of the hardcore Diggers complained that the site is ruined, I think the changes are probably making the site fairer and more accessible for the average user. And I think it has (marginally) improved the diversity and quality of the content that hits the home page.
The interface changes make it far more time consuming to maintain a Digg power account. Before you could maintain relationships with people by checking in once a day and spending 10 or 20 minutes on the site. Now it takes more like 30 to 90 minutes a day just to vote on friends’ stories, and you need to check in two or three times a day because you can only see three pages of your friends’ recent submissions.
Thankfully, there’s a way Digg through your friends’ submissions much quicker. If you’ve got a Mac, the Dugg widget for your dashboard is highly recommended.
Just hit the F12 key, and click on the tiny “i” in the upper right corner of the widget. For the “Digg Topic” select “friends’ submitted” and put your username in below:
Click “Done” and then you can see a list of your friends’ stories. Click on them and it will open up the story in your Web browser (in tabs)
All it takes to Digg a story is a quick:
F12 + Click-Click
rather than:
Opening up a browser, going to Digg.com, (maybe) logging in, clicking “Friends’ Activity,” clicking “Submissions,” then click the story, then click to Digg it, then click the back button.
I personally find the Dugg widget really makes voting quicker and more enjoyable. You can check in on your stories and your friends’ stories several times a day with minimal effort.
The only downside it is gets kind of “messy” by opening dozens of browser tabs while Digging a long list of stories…
