Why I like Slashdot better than Digg
There are many conduits by which information travels about the internet. Two of the largest sites on the internet are Slashdot and Digg. Both sites bring news and information about technology. Slashdot is moderated; Digg is not, opting to be run solely by its readership. For this reason alone, I will always prefer Slashdot to Digg.
Before I go any further, I should state that I read both of the sites on a regular basis. Digg will certainly win out in the volume and diversity of material it provides. I’m surprised at some of the stories I find posted on Digg. But most of the stuff on there is junk, and there is usually neither a commentary nor any constructive discussion. Instead, Digg comments tend to either be tangential (at best) to the article, troll, or yelling at someone who is trolling. Perhaps the worst feature in Digg is the ability for every user to rate the comments posted to an article. While this does help to focus the discussion a bit, it often turns into “mob justice” against a poster, sometimes unfairly.
What I enjoy about Slashdot is the depth of discussion and insight that its readers contribute to the discussion. In fact, the format of the posts tends to direct its readers to discuss the impact of the article. Slashdot does not care about the volume of news stories. There are more stories posted, and because it is moderated, the stories tend to have more depth and substance to them. Likewise, Slashdot is geared more towards IT personnel and those with technology education, not just the community at large. Slashdot gives its readers the ability to moderate the comments, but that ability must be earned by participation. Those who are simply there to be a pain will not likely gain much moderation ability.
Slashdot certainly has the benefit of maturity. I’ve been reading Slashdot since 1998, when I was first informed about it. Digg is a newcomer to the block. It has a while to go before it works out the flaws in its system; however, I’m not so sure that those flaws really can be overcome. I like to think of Digg as a source of information for people with very short attention spans.
