[lbo-talk] [Pen-l] Reviving the DiggLeft project...

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Mon Jun 15 19:18:43 PDT 2009


On Jun 15, 2009, at 2:40 PM, Michael Pollak wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Jun 2009, ravi wrote:
>
>> There is an open source implementation of the Digg idea called
>> Pligg. A few years ago, I proposed that I set up a "Pligg" that
>> caters to our interests. All of you can post links to news and
>> blogs you think would be of interest and the rest can vote on them.
>> Crowd-sourcing and all that rot ;-).
>> At the time of my proposal, there were few takers, but now that
>> even our host is a blogger, and tech comfort and interest might
>> have increased, it's time to reissue my call for interest. Would
>> you find such a service useful?
>
> Frankly that's a lot of what's great about lbo-talk, and at first
> sight it seems like it happens with less effort (no voting needed,
> people just feel impelled to share, and enjoy getting there first)
> and more efficiency (after 10 years I have a very nuanced view of
> people's opinions and whether it would be worth my time to follow
> their link on any particular subject) than this proposed alternative.
>

I don't disagree with the above. When a more loosely defined medium that you are immersed in (for other reasons as well) is available, the adoption of a newer tool with its own usage patterns and so on can be a needless pain. I am a sucker for Internet tools, and hence a poor judge.

There are a few new possibilities with a tool such as this... not only can those who don't want to miss out interesting news bits or analysis do so without having to keep up with list traffic, but (and this is a point I have made before) also it helps us reach others who may not already be on the list or get their info in that manner. And the voting scheme may also bring about some participation from the vast lurking majority. On the other hand, if some of us who post links and such to these lists (PEN-L, LBO, in my case) switch to posting them elsewhere, then current readers are forced (if they are interested) to adopt this new tool (unless a summary of the day's links is posted to the lists, if acceptable).

Perhaps more of you can comment on the pros and cons? I see that a few of you have already expressed interest, and I can quickly setup a version on my site (which we can migrate elsewhere if necessary) for you to play with. There are other things to consider as well -- for example: I do not want to draw the discussion away from an author's original site (which, for left-leaning site, is often an unpaid labour of love on the author's part), but we can discuss those details once we decide to go live.

--ravi



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