New startup Mixx, which went in to private beta just two months ago, may be finding itself with the right product at the right time. Digg users, including top contributors, are showing an increasing amount of frustration with the Digg community, and many are leaving. Conspiracy theories that Digg auto buries stories with certain topics or linking to certain sites only compounds the problem.
Some users eventually go to Reddit, Propeller or any of a number of other Digg-like sites. But a disproportionate amount of them seem to be heading to Mixx, and writing about their choice.
Dave Eaves gives Mixx a thumbs up and says “I have already had quite a lot of success with getting my submissions voted on, this may be partly due to the fact that many of my digg friends have joined the site.”
Vandelay Design says “Unlike 99% of the other Digg clones, I think Mixx has a real chance for success…Mixx has a much more positive audience than Digg. It always amazes me that even the most popular and highest quality articles can get so many negative and unnecessarily degrading comments on Digg. So far the users of Mixx have proven to be quite a bit more pleasant, something that I know will be welcomed by most users.”
Finally, JD Rucker notes that a lot of top Digg users are at least experimenting with Mixx. And he mentions specifically that Greg Davies left Digg for Mixx.
Mixx users have even set up a category in their forums called Digg Refugees for users to discuss the phenomenon and spread conspiracy theories.
Compete shows traffic rising dramatically since launch, without the usual drop off that occurs after the initial press about a site dies down. It’s still a blip compared to Digg, the fact that early adopters are leaving Digg and quite vocally telling the world about it, Mixx may be a startup to keep an eye on.
Glad to see we have a “positive” Digg out there… i do feel also there is a certain bias to the front running stories on Digg.
digg just got too big i would say if i were a top contributer i would certainly feel unhappy if i cant get to the stories first.That is probably why the top contributers are leaving
That said, mixx is a good clone although not entirely based on digg. It doesn’t seem to have the potential to become even a close competitor for digg.but then again who noes?
Digg is a phenomenal revolution is UGC, that has opened an entire dimension to the world.
But the fact remains that there is just an inequity that haunts it.
Reddit and Netscape as well had these problems.
Digg is great in that it is positive, but the bias towards top users and friends have left many great stories with just a few diggs because the submitter did not have many contacts.
A successful business model will learn from the mistakes of all that came before – then put together a powerhouse.
Can you imagine what an impact on society a perfect business model will have? Just look at the impact Digg has had on journalism and blogs?
Authors and Editors are now creating titles with Digg in mind.
LOL Micheal talks sooo much shit!!
How much did they paid you for this post ? Kinda getting sick of techcrunch recently so guess i ll just boot you guys of my rss.
Cya
It’s not April is it??
Then why the F*** are we trying to be fooled.
Hey, I do read Techcrunch and am a fan of this blog and have been for a while, but you can’t possibly claim that Mixx is even on the same playing field as Digg.
Michael, I like your stuff man, but this post is not one of your masterpieces by any stretch. Just look at all the comments.
And for the record, Mixx is nothing special. Nothing unique or revolutionary was brought to the table.
Thanks,
David
I hope there are lot of vertical social bookmarking sites are taking into shape and that will take away few specific type and interest group from digg and similar sites.
you need some REAL stories guys.
the worst post I ever read in tc
You’ve annoyed the Digg fanboys with this one look at them coming out in full force? Don’t forget they love Kevin Rose and idolize him so if you put down Digg the gay lovers will want revenge.
Compare Digg and Mixx on Compete and Mixx doesn’t even register.
A change is required at times management of virtual communities bahave like they would with flesh Customers.
http://tekno-wo...ld.blogspot.com
What described here are not quite to real mixx. I see mixx is a mixture of photo video and stories.
The problem with Mixx is that the categories you chose to view have overlap and the same story can appear 20 times. Digg and Mixx both arent very social when it comes to friends. The best you can do is comment/vote/pm and indicate you know each other.
what has happened to youtube???…and why is no reporting this!!!!…I am in Australia and can only visit countrycode.youtube.com urls
which suck..If I try and go to http://www.youtube.com I will get redirected to au. or nz.youtube.com …I love NZ but the most viewed videos of all time are no longer what we used to see at the old youtube… it is now the localised crap…I can no longer see the original famous videos…this is a MAJOR failure…if you are in America you will not understand…but every other country must hear my pain…youtube have just fractured the community…no more lisa nova
Actually I saw a lot more excitement among the Digg community when Streamy was announced – you know, the one you said “is almost sure to drop into obscurity immediately after launch”
Which is right where you said btw, mainly because after 5 months, they’re still a closed beta.
Michael,
I just wanted to point out two things one a type.
1.)
“Finally, JD Rucker notes that a lot of top Digg users are at least experimenting with Digg. And he mentions specifically that Greg Davies left Digg for Mixx.”
Shouldn’t that second Digg be “Mixx”
2.) MixxingBowl was not created by the Mixx Guys. It was created for “Mixxers” by “Mixxers”. We created it to do several things.
1.) Allow a direct line of contact with the Mixx founders and the users. They visit the site often to garner feedback and to bounce ideas off us. We also make feature requests there as well.
2.) We wanted to move nonsense and off topic discussions away from Mixx itself.
3.) We wanted to have a way to promote Mixx, more importantly, the users.
4.) Last but not least, we wanted something that would help foster the cordial environment at Mixx, allow the users to interact by another means to prevent them from going at each others throats (like you see in other sites).
Thanks much for the nice words. Just one minor correction: no one who works for Mixx had anything to do with setting up the Digg Refugee category. That was done by users. We’re just grateful to them for their enthusiasm.
It still perplexes me how Digg can be so good and the community can be so bad. I mean, Digg does get a lot of crap, but it rarely misses anything newsworthy.
It’s not like the internet will go with them, is it?
I mean, once the digg users all go to mixx, then mixx will end up like digg. What are they going to do? Ban people who are “negative?”
Regardless of what technological interface you filter them through, retards are still retards. And if you have a post about O.J. Simpsons trial, someone is going to get racial, and then it’s going to turn into WWIII just like it does on digg every day.
What’s going to stop that from happening on mixx? Absolutely nothing. I really don’t even need to read their comments or witness their software to know that there’s no way for them to stop someone from sharing their opinion on a website where the content is solely base upon opinion.
Jesus.
I still Digg, but find Mixx easy to use and really like Mixx! I put the “add to mixx” buttons on all my sites.
After registering at Mixx and spending 30 minutes reading through and using it, I think it’s a much more pleasurable user experience then digg.
I also like the ability to customize the stories I see so I don’t have to sift through endless Apple and Linux fanboy articles.
It might be a good time to use mixx now while it’s still small. That way by the time it’s ever massive like digg and controlled by politics and a few main users who dominate the submissions and control what makes the homepage … I could be one of those few main users
@Vlad
Actually, I want to thank Michael for making this post. I’ve been a digg user and religiously checking the site 4-5 times a day. Now, I despise that that and I try to avoid it at all costs. The stories are all the same (concerning the same candidates in the presidential debate, apple launches something new, a new version of Ubuntu launches, CIA leak, First Solar/Electric/Hydro Powered ___fill in blank___).
I signed up to Mixx and I like it so far. I haven’t seen any negative comments on it yet and if they can figure out how to prevent those boring and depressed Digg users from coming, then they have something big on their hands.
Good luck to Mixx fellas and thanks for letting us know about it Michael.
i am a long time supporter of DIGG, and to be honest i have noticed alot of the “splogs” and garbage has found its way to the top of digg.com
I would love to see Mixx build up just because it offers more then technology (don’t get me wrong i love tech it is my life) but the fact that they have slowly gone down hill and more sh&t has made it to the front page i even get to the point of not wanting to visit it much.
So here is to you michael for pointing this out and to Mixx for a second home for people like me
Lately digg has just been pics and vids and no real stories. It gets annoying pretty quick!
I suspect that there may be a natural size limit beyond which online communities lose that vital essence. This was pointed out several years ago by Clay Shirky in his excellent essay “Groups as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software” http://www.shir...group_user.html where he calls this “The Tragedy of Conversational Commons”.
This may hold for blogs, social sites & even news aggregators.
Im sticking to digg.
Digg has diggnation after all!
Besides, I may not like some of the latest changes, but for now I still trust Kevin Rose. My only gripe was the censoring of the HD-DVD encryption code. That was pretty ridiculous.
I created a Mixx profile when it was still in private beta because I enjoy alpha and beta testing.
My thoughts as a beta tester is that Mixx is fun and dynamic. I don’t recall encountering any bugs although there are periods of very brief downtime on occasion but this is beta so I expect that sort of thing.
When the beta went public, a Digg crossover group was formed within days it seems. I don’t really care about the “internet culture” ramifications because I’m just a geek who enjoys trying to break software but Digg seems to be p*ssing off some of their top users.
mixx.com/users/evilmonkey
I just joined mixx. It looks promising compared to digg, and I like to join beta websites.
http://www.mixx.../users/jonester
meh, there’s way too many fields to fill out to post a link.
Also: you can vote on any item you’ve submitted to give it 2 votes off the post.
What is the difference between mixx and digg? I see the same stuff with different color themes. And less users. I don’t see any reason it won’t have the same problems as digg, if it gets big.
Like 99% of users, I don’t care about any social-networking/linked-in aspect of the site. I just want to find interesting links and potentially discuss them. How is mixx going to do this better than digg?
The real Digg alternative is Conservative Pulse!
It’s Digg without all the liberal bias…
http://www.cons...vativepulse.com
@engtech
Too many fields? When submitting a link, Mixx fills the fields int, you only have tho choose the category(ies) it goes.
The only time you have to fill in the title and description is when the page you’re submitting doesn’t have a good meta data.
The red flag in this story is that if you go to the Mixx site many of the “popular” stories have 1 vote. The site can have a nice design, but users are the other 90%, and they just aren’t there. So this TechCrunch story feels like a move to drive traffic to Mixx.
I agree with the other poster who said that even if all of the Digg users went to Mixx it would essentially be the same place. The only difference would be that there would be a different group of managers and CxO’s to bury stories and ban sites at will and yet still try to spin it as a democratic online forum.
Only masochists read Digg. Its just a biased hatefest.
@Dexter
You are a f*****g spammer.
Oh give me a break diggaholics! Kevin isn’t going to put your name in his iphone for sticking up for him.
The truth is Digg has sucked for over a year.
It is a self congratulatory community of little Hitlers.
If you’re an ULTRA-Left Hillary with a microchip where your amygdala should be, you’re at home.
Everyone else: duck!
The only way you’re going front page is with Blessing of the Diggtators, or if you happen by chance to be first to post what is going to be a huge story anyway and a few friends get the ball rolling.
It’s a sucky hate-fest, and the owners don’t have the balls to clean house!
Erik..
“The red flag in this story is that if you go to the Mixx site many of the “popular” stories have 1 vote. ”
Please find me one a submission on the Popolar page with 1 vote or 10 for that matter.
That was the case when it first was open for beta, and the to get to the popular section took about 5-10 votes. Now the threshold is higher, but # of votes isn’t the only thing that counts.
I’m reminded of the cliche “Don’t knock till you try it”
Is there any concrete (facts, stats, traffic) to illustrate this story? From what I can tell, it’s purely anecdotal based on a couple of guys saying they like Mixx, and Mixx creating a Digg Refugee group.
Many Digg users are leaving Digg to join Mixx? Get your facts straight! Digg has 15M+ users, Mixx has 45K users or .003% of the Digg numbers.
Why the heck does Mixx even matter? They’re just another Digg rip-off headed for the deadpool.
I have deleted the story
LOL, calling them refugees!
You people kill me!
… not literally
……. some would probablly like to …
@Mark Evans:
Mixx.com didn’t create the group which is actually called Digg Crossovers. It was created by a user who came over from Digg. I’m not really getting the whole group thing anyway. The number of emails with the subject line of “Mixx: There’s something new in blah blah group” is beginning to approach spam-like proportions. I guess that’s why Mixx is still in beta, eh.
@everybody
I think the point of this article is being missed by a couple of posters here:
a. Some people who were quite active at Digg are not happy with the service anymore.
b. Mixx.com is making them happy and gives them an outlet to express their frustration with Digg.
I’d be interested to know what Digg’s user stats were when it was in beta. Also, was it as solid as Mixx from a usability standpoint?
I always find it funny when people talk about how the new small site they’ve moved to is more positive than the big site they left.
Well *duh* – of course it is. The bigger sites always contain more trolls, and the instant your *new* site gets bigger, they’ll show up there too. The smaller the site, the more congenial the conversation, it’s just an internet community commonality.
I have left digg after the obvious censoring of Ron Paul stories and partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal. I moved over to reddit and found it to be much more what I would have liked digg to be. Unfortunately I probably will not be visiting TechCrunch as often after reading this blatant plug for mixx.
no site will ever kill digg. not possible. brand is too strong and all over the web.
I just looked at mixx.com and most of the articles only have like 1 or 2 votes, or am I missing something?
“no site will ever kill digg. not possible. brand is too strong and all over the web.”
Really?
Remember Excite, Altavista, WebCrawler? A little company known as Google managed to blindside them.
In fact when Google was offered to Altavista to buy it, managemetn laughed and said that they didn’t need Google. They said that people already know where to search for the web.
Same sceneario is what’s eating at M$ dominance and any other large company that thinks their brand is the only brand.
I’m sorry. But how is this any different from digg.com? Same garbage.
The home page is already laden with Ruby crap and paid content – an “ad” for Tin Man.
Rhiiiight…Since you guys censor my trackbacks, I’ll post my link here: http://www.fuck...e-gigaom-uncov/
Lets not give a verdict so fast.