AOL Targets Digg, YouTube With New Netscape Site

Dotnaught writes "AOL has re-launched its Netscape.com portal as a place where user participation is balanced by moderator control. The renovated site will feature community-driven news and user-submitted video, guided by editors called anchors. "The hive mind sometimes doesn't do a thorough job," says Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a blog network acquired last year by AOL."

Comments

As Yoda says

[Rob T Firefly]

Fear leads to anchors, anchors lead to hate..

Ackkk it's recursive

[technoextreme]

I click on the Netscape headline about how it's a ripoff of Digg which leads to an article about how Netscape is ripping off of Digg which links back to the Netscape article about how it's a ripoff of Digg which leads to an article about how Netscape is ripping off of Digg. Also, Netscape is using those stupid popup adds that get around Firefox.

Pointless: Fark content meets Digg layout...

[bigmouth_strikes]

What it all boils down to is still the quality of the comments that the users post. Nothing else. There are dozens and dozens of story submission sites with some sort of social networking thingie, but it's really uninteresting unless there is a userbase with knowledge, experience, diversity and some degree of communication skills.

That is why sites like Digg et al is a miserable failure from that aspect; the comment section is entirely uninteresting and the intolerance and mob-mentality is mind-numbing. As a tool for staying within a 24hrs of the technology (hype) curve it is successful.

I read Slashdot for the comments and Digg/Playboy for the articles...

Re:Pointless: Fark content meets Digg layout...

[christopherfinke]

Is there an ironic tag for posting this on Slashdot?

Slashdot's comment section is invaluable; when browsing at +2 (or even +1), you'll find that 95%+ of the comments are from well-educated, literate users who have useful (or at least humorous) information about the subject at hand. Possibly 0.5% of Digg's commenters could comment at Slashdot without appearing out of place; the other 99.5% will have to wait until they graduate from middle school at the very least.

Re:Targetting Slashdot, too?

[antic]

I've always figured that I visited Slashdot often because of its timely updates. I liked to think that if aliens invaded the Earth, I'd probably hear about it via Slashdot before the local news. Now I think I'd hear about it through Digg first, and then wait for it to appear on Slashdot a day or so later so that I could read the comments (which are pretty retarded on Digg).

Back on topic, the Netscape site is a pretty blatant rip-off of the Digg format - have they no shame? Not only is it the same format, but it's laid out in such a similar fashion. Not particularly imaginative.