Digg has so much room to expand, I'm not sure why they haven't done so. For instance, users should be able to create 'sub-digg' pages for specific subjects that they can then build a community around, or even embed into their own sites, instead of using pligg, etc. By allowing niche communities to develop, quality of news will increase, and digg can become a pretty reputable and valuable source of news. Also, by catering to niches, users will see a greater value in using and contributing to digg. I still see digg as a novelty site which serves as a mere gateway for internet jokes and the typical anti-cop/george bush/microsoft/etc. shit.
Interesting ideas, but once you start adding tons and tons of features that look good on paper, the site starts to lose its community focus and you alienate some people.
By nichifying digg, you'd convert one huge community in a ton of little ones.
Anyway, you can already kind of do this, by selecting specific categories and viewing only stories sorted there.
Well, I'd rather be part of a bunch of smaller communities who share the same interests as I do, tend to have more in depth knowledge than the whole community about said subjects, and who care about the quality of submissions, like here on news.yc. I find much more value in that. And I think news.yc is evidence enough that social news sites run by niche communities can thrive and prosper.
Yeah, but from the perspective of converting digg into a bunch of news.yc communities surrounding other niches, I highly doubt that could ever happen. And any attempt to do that would just ruin the digg community.
