When we first found that Digg was back online we headed over to see what was going on. Now we previously had an account for the site with Digg that was validated and that we used to post articles from the site. However, when we arrived at the new Digg we found that this account no longer works. The only option is to log in with a Facebook account. Below the single button to log in with Facebook is a link for the question “Why do I need a Facebook account?”

The answer from the New Digg is; “When we asked users which problems cropped up repeatedly on Digg, the most common complaint was about spam cluttering up the homepage. Using Facebook for account registration is a short-term solution that will seriously cut down on spam, while we take our time to develop more robust spam-filter technology. We know this isn’t ideal, so rest assured: we are working towards a more lasting solution.”

When you do go to use Facebook you are greeted with a request to authorize the Digg App on your Facebook page. With the wording of; “Who can see posts this app makes for you on your Facebook timeline”. Now for starters I would never want Digg to make posts on my timeline, I can do that all on my own. I am  (as most people are) trying to put this on Digg to spread it outside the confines of Facebook so there is no reason to have Digg post anything for me.

In return Digg gets some of your information as well including your list of friends. Now according to the list about 640,000 people have already signed up for this; this is good for Digg, but we just cannot see extending permissions to Digg into our Facebook profile.  We imagine that more than a few people will feel the same way especially considering the fact that many people are already annoyed with Facebook over privacy, advertising, spam, sponsored stories and more. We said a couple of days ago that Digg had to do things right on day one, this is certainly not the way to do things.

We will check back and see how long it takes Digg to put their own login system in place and also see what their traffic looks like over the next few days. Right now it looks like they are catering to Apple (they only have a mobile app for iOS) and people that are willing to give up all of their personal information through Facebook… We just do not see that doing them that much good.

Discuss this in our forum