*Lights Dim*
Ladies and Gentlemen. It is time for our feature bout. And it’s for the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE! In this corner, In the Red shorts, bringing you news since 1999, Drew Curtis and FARK.com. And in this corner in the Blue Shorts, bringing you news since 2004, Kevin Rose and Digg.com. So, with the thousands in attendance, and the millions drinking a cappuccino and not really caring a lot, LETS GET READY TO POST!
Ok, so it’s not the fight of the century, but it’s pretty interesting. A few weeks back, Fark.com posted an article pointing to Digg.com. The article was a Digg that pointed to Fark. Infinite recursion and Duke still sucks (You have to be a real Farker to understand that one).
Fark has been around since 1999, but technically was created in 1997. If you went to Fark.com back then, you would have seen the picture of the popular squirrel with large… um…. marbles. It’s founder - Drew Curtis - set it up for people to keep tabs on what was “Not News”. Fark is NOT a connotation for another famous four-letter “F” word. Fark has also had some celebrity backing - Wil Wheaton would judge the photoshop contests between Fark and then (and still) rival Somethingawful.com. Fark has a pay content side found at TotalFark.com - in which you can preview all submitted links and get into the photoshop challenges early.
Digg was founded in 2004 by 4 people - Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson. It was a brainchild while Kevin was working at TechTV. Digg’s rival, Yahoo Buzz, came out shortly after to take away from Digg’s popularity. Digg has been criticized for “Pay per rank” posts and is also a part of a continuous rumor that it is being sold to various companies (depending on which article you read).
Both sites do pretty much the same thing - the community finds an article, they post it on the site. Granted, there are a few other cool things each site does. For instance:
Fark:
- Photoshop challenges
- Audio Edit challenges
- Classifieds
- Foobies - the site used to link to pornography, but all “adult” sites were moved over to foobies.com to give the main site a child safe rating.
- Fark TV
- Wil Wheaton
Digg:
- The “Digg/Dugg” widget
- Friends lists - set like a social Networking site
- Diggnation - the Podcast
- Digg Reel - Video
- Customizable content
So here we go with the fight of the century. We are going to entail what advantages/disadvantages each site has.
| Feature |
Digg |
Fark |
Winner |
| Submit content |
Yes – viewable to all |
Sort of – You can submit, but unless you are a TotalFark subscriber, you might not see the link |
Digg |
| Already submitted |
Yes – The user is asked if it’s totally original, but can choose to post it if it’s not |
Yes – if the page has been linked, it will not let you re-submit |
Fark |
| Pay to Play |
No – Advertisers flip the bill of the site |
Yes – TotalFark has a subscription service and will block content to non-subscribers |
Digg |
| Users/ Community |
Yes – Friends lists, ability to follow their content, messaging |
Sort of – You can block bad posters, but there is no friends list |
Digg |
| Look |
Very appeasing to the eye, easy to search |
The look is very simple – mostly text with small graphics. |
No Winner. Tie |
| Scannability |
15 links on front page – Top 10 links to the right, but those can consist of the 15 |
Appx. 80. Links on page spanning 2 days of posts and filtered by moderators. No Top 10 links, but links to other great sites. |
Fark |
| Humor |
Links are informational. Humor in link titles is not really encouraged |
The idea is to have a great tagline. Still no cure for cancer. |
Fark |
| Searchability |
You can sort content out and follow your friends list |
Basic Search options, otherwise it’s a chronological ordering system |
Digg |
| Comments |
Minimal. You can choose whether you like or dislike the comment. When you comment, you must fill out the CAPTCHA. |
Fark thrives on the community this way. Each post seems to have a ton of comments attached. Comments can be sardonic, and can also include pictures. No CAPTCHA, but there seems to be no spam comments. |
Fark |
| Popularity |
Digg has widgets that people can encode on their site. This brings people to the site more. |
If you forget about Fark, you don’t get reminded too much. |
Digg |
| Reach |
Digg’s PageRank is 8. According to Alexa.com, Digg has a traffic Rank of 168 |
Farks’ PageRank is 4. Alexa.com Ranks Fark at 2926 |
Digg |
Did you keep score? The judges are tallying up the content and will have the winner on the next page.
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