Digg as replacement for Slashdot? Try both.
Wired just published an article on Digg replacing Slashdot as geek news source of choice. The article also pointed me to a site I hadn't seen before, digg vs dot, a running comparison of how fast news breaks on each.
Now for some commentary. I wouldn't say I'm a heavy user of either. My user ID is not amazingly low on Slashdot, and I haven't posted one new story to Digg. But as a casual user, it seems to me that there might be a place for both of these sites. The Wired article seems to scoff at Slashdot for the control editors have over what stories get published, implying its less authentic or representative of people's real interest. But what people need to remember is that social sites can be gamed and can take on whole new directions quickly. A lot of people still do not use the net. A slight change in Digg's demographic profile could have it take on a different flavor of news that we cannot predict today. Slashdot, on the other hand, by keeping its editorial staff geek pure, has less chance of swaying with the winds of the day. I'm not saying one is better than the other; that would be akin to saying broadcast news is better than blogs. What I am saying is that most of us seek balance, and both sites might fill a need for a long time to come in our media diets. And as the net population continues to grow, the real number of geeks will, too. Both could see real audience increases over time. But maybe that's not as news-worthy as a clash of the titans story.