Kevin Rose has posted details tonight of a major change to the Digg Algorithm that would seemingly put an end to group voting up stories.
According to Rose, the changes are focused on ensuring that “the most popular content dugg by a diverse, unique group of diggers reaches the home page.”
Rose gives an example of the new algorithm keeping a story with over 100 votes in the upcoming list based on a diversity rank, essentially saying that group voting amongst friends will now work against a story. Rose was not clear as to at which point a story with a low diversity score can break out of the upcoming stories, but at the time writing some stories in upcoming show over 140 votes, higher than the previous levels required to make the front page.
The Drill Down show tonight suggested that the changes would mean that new members without Digg friends would have a better chance of stories making the front page than established users (as friends usually vote for stories from friends), and that the changes would result in massive fraud attempts using fake accounts to try and manipulate the new diversity system.