Environmentally Conscious Social News Site Prone To Gaming
I’ve always thought that for as long as there are social news sites, there will be people who will use these to their advantage. Some for profit, some for link currency, and some even for malicious intentions.
One such social news site is HUGG, a DIGG clone created by environmentally-conscious design firm Treehugger, but focusing on environmental news and awareness. Just recently, the issue of Hugg being gamed came into light.
I think it’s interesting with all the green enthusiasts on this site that the gaming is actually perpetuating a system of green washing and frivolity. I love Hugg, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve seen some killer stories stuck at 2 Huggs and I’ve seen some terrible stuff promoted to 6 in a matter of hours. Why? Here’s what you do to game hugg: First you become friends with a ton of other green bloggers. When they post on hugg, you hugg. When you post on hugg, they hugg. Scratch my back. If you run a group blog, you post all your website’s stories on hugg, the good ones and the bad, and the whole team of writers huggs that story. It goes to the top. Good job. You got traffic from that one. I hope you enjoy the adsense check, because it’s greenwashing. These weird cliques and systems of hugging and scratching backs and team huggings is leading to bad news getting promoted.
The point being made by the author is that the site is supposed to be about environmental news, but a lot of irrelevant—and probably useless—stories are getting the limelight instead. This is because of the friends system currently in place in the social network. Friends will “Hugg” items that are submitted by their friends, whether or not these are considered relevant to the environment niche.
So this means social news sites, no matter how noble the intention, nor how socially conscious the niche, are very prone to manipulation. Or at the very least, they don’t do their job very well. The system is supposed to reflect information that’s relevant to the group of people the site caters to. But then since that group consists of people who aren’t really savvy about selecting the relevant news, then the system fails.
Social networks are just as good as the community that makes up its members.
Well, I cant agree more.
Morris said this on December 6, 2007 6:26 am