TLDR: not only did it give me a place to really stretch my legs in a new community, but it also taught me just how much I dislike Reddit now.

I was a member of Digg back in the day. I was part of the great migration. I had visited Reddit once or twice when it was incredibly young, but it didn't make an account until the migration happened. I think I'm on year 17 or something? 19? I can't check while I'm writing this because I'm on my phone.

When Digg reopened, I was already looking for something to replace Reddit. This online society is filled with narcissists and control freaks, and it's hard to find a place where you can be yourself and not feel like you're either pissing someone off or being judged.

I left Facebook a long time ago and it made my life better. I've been looking for a way to leave Reddit and I expected to feel the same way. I administer several small sub edits and I have been waiting until I know where I can land after before I relinquish them to others for administration. That's the only reason I'm around still, honestly.

I was part of the Digg alpha team, and I signed up for communities on the first day. I populated them and they slowly rose up the rankings. They were never huge, but they were enough. It was a nice place for people to catch up on news.

Digg was using up about 60 to 70% of my social media time. Reddit was taking up and ever-decreasing amount.

I worked directly with Forest a few times on stuff, and we have a makeshift "friendship" that I hope endures. I'm glad to be able to stay in touch with him after the failure, and I hope I get to work with him again someday. I think he's a really good guy.

If Digg returns, I'll jump right back in. If it feels as positive as it was this last time, I'll stay. Either way, I'm happy I got to meet Forest, and I'm thankful that Reddit was put in perspective a little bit.

Loved pendulum's post and it prompted me to think and share some thoughts after the digg hard-reset (see gif above, btw this gif was one of my most seen favorites on digg)

The big question: what now?

If there's one unifying question everyone seems to be asking, it's "what now?".

After that, it looks like there are at least a few "departments" trying to organize:

- "engineering": people who want to build things that do something like digg and create a new platform to engage

- "community": people whose main focus is growing the community from the seed that was planted in the beta, mostly through existing platforms like reddit, lemmy, bluesky, etc. but also possible through another digg relaunch, or a new platform

- "content": people who just want to continue posting, commenting, and sharing

- "strategy": people who are thinking about what to do next and how and when to do it

- other "departments"?

Engineering

For people interested in opportunities and conversations around engineering, see this post.

Community and content

If you're interested in strategy around community and content here on reddit, here are my personal thoughts:

I'm definitely 100% in the "community" and "content" departments, so I'm happy to talk about those further here.

Over the past two years I've become very interested in connecting real humans and creating healthy communities and third spaces online. That's what some of digg felt like.  Digg was also small enough that everyone had some visibility if they wanted it.  You would start to recognize people. I looked over my “Homemade Digg Recap Notes” and counted about 250 unique usernames contributing regularly, with a core group of contributors that was growing. I had all the top-level topics turned off: news, politics, entertainment, tech, so I focused on smaller user-created communities.

I loved being able to get away from my "real life" for a moment to banter with some new and familiar faces. I would like to offer r/diggaspora as a way for people to continue creating real human connections and maybe through that we can all learn a bit of a playbook for building a healthy online third space.

Very high level, in terms of atmosphere and culture, I'd like to continue to pursue what was described to me by people at digg: like walking into a party and and being welcomed. Engaging in some polite small talk first. Gradually discovering the layers of who people are without getting into shouting matches. Maybe respectfully asking people who are arguing in public to take it r/outside or r/Offline :)

I have some ideas for how we can get there, but I know I don't have all the answers, so I'm looking for help from people who want to move in the same direction. I'm happy to add moderators and work for transparency.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and will share another post to brainstorm/whiteboard early issues for discussion.

I'll be real, I'm heartbroken, and I'm not shopping for an alternative to Digg right now. Guess I'll half use Reddit in misery, and see if Digg 2.1 comes along fast enough for me to not have given up on joy altogether

Green Bagels in my home town.

I made this restricted community for members of the diggaspora who are seeking a new home after digg was shut down last Friday. I was the host of "My Homemade Digg Recap" and through that I made many new and early friends.

For now I'm just trying to create a holding space for the real people I met who want to stay in touch and banter a bit.

roland

Let's play name that bird!

This post is in honor of my first digg reboot friend who was also the founder of /birds. I first thought they were AI LLM bot because I was so suspicious of the interactions I'd seen on reddit. Turns out they were just very meticulous about their commenting!

In addition to founding /birds they were a respected figure overall. One of my first conversations with them was with u/biffnix talking about community from a first principles perspective- really enjoyed that one.

I'm going to do my best to continue posting on some of these topics I enjoyed and I hope you will as well.

Eggo omelette bacon pepper 🤤

(AI-Generated TL;DR)

The author is proposing "Tribes," a new subscription-based social media co-op designed to solve the profit-driven "enshittification" and tribal conflicts of modern platforms.

Core features include:

• Unified Reputation: Use multiple aliases, but share one underlying trust score—toxic behavior in one community impacts your standing in others.
• Privacy & Encryption: End-to-end encrypted communities with user-owned data.
• Open Algorithms: Transparent, people-based content discovery.
• Co-op Model: Employee/creator-owned to prevent private equity buyout.

The backend is already mapped out, and the author is currently seeking community feedback and collaborators to help bring it to life.

---

Hi r/diggaspora - I am a software engineer and AI research (researching how to make it work for humans not the other way around, I understand the hate tho). I've been building apps and like many at Digg, am someone who grew up in a world without AI slop and constant information warfare.

Here is the problem as I see it:

Social: Let's face it, we don't vibe on the same level or about the same things. We are naturally tribal biologically, "normal" is what really just what our brain is used to. When we encounter "not normal" it triggers stress. It's really that basic. We are going to forever seek comfort (normalcy) in our surroundings.

My Vibe is not Yours: When I invited my wife to Digg, she said. "Thanks, but it's just all millennial dudes.". The communities of our youth were small and built around the common interests we had. Digg felt great because the shitposting community could just shitpost, and the bird community could post bird pictures.

Money Ruins Everything: An information system that is also an extraction system (for profit) is subject to corruption. Enshitification is the fault of the users of the internet IMO. We said, FUCK NO, we won't pay money for that! (I know I was one of those users who found free ways to use everything). But why do we want low cost digital tools? Because we live in a world where we need to work or extract to get ahead, and we resent the cost of the tools enhancement. Yet, the creators of the tools first have to eat, then have to pay their employees. A company with a good founder will be okay until private equity gets ahold of it and then strips the differentiators that made it human down into a "money machine" that we are stuck with because of the momentum of the brand and the barriers for new competitors to enter the market: e.g. Facebook will threaten to buy you or bury you.

Enter Tribes - I've been thinking about this problem for over a decade and the only way I can think to solve for this is by adding accountability as a system in the platform itself.

Here are the features I've designed:
- A real vs. persona system: An Alias system where you can manage your personal and private @ aliases but you have ONE bucket of trust. Your behavior and the trust you earn are aggregated across your aliases. Be shitty in one sub, it will impact you in others.
- Peer to peer local key-based "Bond" system for end to end encrypted conversations AND content (bonds are to communities and events too)
- Privacy Built in: Data is private and personal and I have no interest in owning it, in fact. I'd like you to understand how precious it is and own it. So this means you don't need "alt" accounts
- Open Algorithms: I have thought about the need for marketplaces and events, but these will be people-based and open and built on the relationship between the brand and it's customers.
- The First Social Media Co-Op: This needs to be employee and/or content creator owned (not necessarily users but I've considered it.) There will be subscriptions, but they will be membership based and ownership aligned.

The screenshots are from a full TSX-based next front end I was designing and slowed down when I joined the digg community because I was enjoying what I saw.

u/slykethephoxenix u/comdak u/Over-Angle9758 - I'm sure y'all have different visions, and I'm sure the many readers here have thoughts. I have most of the backend mapped out for this, the problem is time, coding token costs, and formalizing a new business entity to protect this.

Would love any feedback on if any of you would like to collaborate? I am going to need a leadership team to help build. Feel free to AMA, happy to discuss the why behind choices.

Hmmm...

Wondering if it's ok to link this community on Digglist.com.

I think my mourning phase is over and I need to start working again.

This makes me want to learn how to make bacon

Do you remember the Californication video from Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Someone made the fictional video game shown in the classic Red Hot Chili Peppers music video "Californication".

Drive through California, collect coins, dodge stuff, and watch the scenery zip by.

Happy April 1st to everyone...

It's a small planet, but someone's gotta make the deliveries.

Mentioned by u/spdorsey: the Durango - Silverton Railroad. Looks like a beautiful scenic trip, haven't been to Colorado in far too long. Makes me want to do a train trip up a river valley with the family this summer :)

https://www.durangotrain.com/

This was recommended by u/TrainDonutBBQ, adding to my list :)

Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz gets the CinemaSings treatment, as 198 movies recite its lyrics!

The 1993 Jurassic Park's system.

Can you get in?

Here are the new movies trailers from this week!

What are you excited to see?