Comments for Mixx to Digg: We Break News Faster

Mixx to Digg: We Break News Faster

2008-03-25T15:11:28Z

Today, social news web site, Mixx, announced new features to their service that will help them break news faster by getting big news stories promoted to the home page in a timely fashion. On the Mixx blog post about the changes, they point out that timeliness has been a problem with social news sites, themselves included - until now. To solve the problem, they have created a "Breaking News" category, which will only contain stories that only "Super Mixxers" can tag. Although this change does allow for faster story promotion for now, whether it's a good long-term solution has yet to be seen.

]]> The Power of the Super Mixxer

The "Super Mixxer" is a new kind of user that brings an element of competition to Mixx, something that may appeal to former top diggers who felt that they had been penalized in the past for being active contributors and participants at Digg.com. At Mixx, a user can become a "Super Mixxer" by accumulating points for posting high quality submissions of a diverse nature and by leaving quality comments, too. The user must rack up these "Karma Points" in order to qualify as a "Super Mixxer."

Once having achieved Super Mixxer status, the user will then have access to special privileges like access to the "Related Items" feature, which allows Super Mixxers to link content with previously Mixxed stories, photos, or videos, as well as the ability to tag stories as "Breaking News." In addition to these privileges, as Mixx roles out more features, Super Mixxers will gain access to other tools beyond the reach of ordinary users, too.

How Breaking News Works on Mixx

In order for stories to be marked as "Breaking," at least two Super Mixxers will have to tag it accordingly. Only a limited number of stories can be in the "Breaking News" category at any one time and they can only remain there for a limited time. If a "Breaking News" story gets enough votes, it's moved over to the "Popular" category. To highlight the "Breaking News" category, selected "Breaking News" stories are featured on the right-hand side of both the "Popular" and "News" category pages. You can also subscribe to "Breaking News" on YourMixx.

Super Mixxers can compete for an award for breaking the best stories - the new "News Hound" award will be given to the Super Mixxer who submitted the story with the most votes that day. This award will be showcased with the others, like "Most Opinionated," "Thought Leader," "Most Contentious," and more over in the Mixx Lounge.

Breaking News

Are Super Mixxers a Good Thing?

While the awards and achievements bring back an element of fun to the social news arena, one can't help but wonder if Mixx, in its infancy (it's only 6 months old), is just repeating Digg's mistakes. Compared with Digg, the Mixx userbase is small, so awarding the Super Mixxer status makes sense for now and seems to work. But what happens when Mixx grows to Digg size? Will the Super Mixxers then begin to rule Mixx the way top diggers ruled Digg, banding together in elite groups, forcing the Digg team to change the algorithm to democratize the process?

Or perhaps Mixx doesn't want to democratize the process - by handing over control to Super Mixxers, they are essentially giving a powerful few the ability to make or break Mixx by selecting quality stories for the front page. Currently, the Super Mixxers seem like a decent bunch, thoughtfully promoting stories worthy of sharing. However, by allowing Super Mixxers to tag their own submissions as "Breaking News," it's likely that some people will be tempted to use their Super status to promote their own entries, maybe even unfairly.

To weed out the unworthy, the Mixx team is hand-picking the Super Mixxers by reviewing the comments, submissions, and participation of potential Super Mixxers before awarding them the SM badge. Again, this works for now, but will become overwhelming as the Mixx user base grows.

If allowing the most active users of the service to have the most power, then why does Mixx think this will work for them, when it didn't work for Digg? What will prevent Super Mixxers from forming voting groups or getting paid off to submit stories. Just because a user behaved for a month to achieve Super Mixxer status, doesn't mean they won't turn further down the line and begin using that power for their own purposes later on. Will Mixx then begin revoking Super Mixxer badges? That has the potential to cause just as much outrage as the algorithmic changes to Digg, if not more so, since an algorithm change is a more amorphous and vague, whereas yanking a badge away is a more obvious, direct punishment.

It seems that Mixx is hedging their bets on their ability to "choose wisely" when it comes to selecting their top Mixxers. However, since Super Mixxers don't have the ability to "bury" stories, maybe Mixx will be able to escape the backlash that comes when people feel that a select few have too much power.

Comment from Brant Tedeschi on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T16:42:17Z

While Mixx may have this feature to break stories "faster", in reality it doesn't mean a whole lot. All they are saying is that they have power users that can force stories to be "breaking" if they think its worthy to do so. How revolutionary! :boo hiss:

Also, look at how mixx handles comments. It isn't even threaded. Nor can you vote for or against a comment. How can a social news site NOT have that functionality? That's completely unacceptable in 2008.

Of course, I am not saying Digg is perfect. It's far from it. But mixx is going to have to try harder than this to make us take notice.

Comment from SilentJay74 on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T16:58:29Z

Hi,
My name is Jay and I am a Super Mixxer. Super Mixxer status is basically recognition that you have played nice in the community and proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt you have the best interests of the community at heart.
You can prove yourself in several ways. First and foremost is content. The content you submit is a direct reflection of you. If you continue to self submit, the rest of the community may label you as a spammer. No one likes to go to a Social Media site and see blatant self submissions. It cries out "Hey I want some ad sense clicks!"
Another way is voting. Do not blind vote. Next thing you know you have contributed to a porn spammer and his stuff has hit FP.
Helping new Mixxers. I would say this is the most important. Lending time to the new people offers a sense of community. Showing people around and explaining how things work is invaluable. This gives the new people a sense of what a great place Mixx is.
Always watch your submissions. Help one another out, and leave comments. Interact with the community. Oh yeah "DO NOT TROLL!" If you want to troll we have a special account set up for that at Social Blend called Greg's mail sack. Troll there.
Also sign up for the Mixxingbowl Forums. Mixxingbowl is a site set for Mixxers by Mixxers. It is a great place to hang out and discuss Mixx or whatever suits your fancy. The team at Mixx comes in all the time for feedback and to respond to user concerns. I have to say if anyone should have the title Super Mixxers, it is the team at Mixx. They always listen and always address problems.
Super Mixxers have the best interests of the community at heart, but also, if they abuse it they lose it. We would love you guys to come check out Mixx and see what all the site has to offer.

Comment from SilentJay74 on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T17:08:37Z

@Brant
Brant,
I think you are looking at thing the wrong way. It is not that we are Power Users that can push things to the front page. It takes two Super Mixxers to tag a story as breaking. Also When we mean news we mean news. Not a new blog post about blogging about someone elses SEO Blog. That drives me insane. If you were to come across something that is ligit breaking news and submit the URL. Send a Super Mixxer an onsite e-mail, if they notice it is Breaking News they will tag it as such and let other Super Mixxers know. We are not there to promote friends or our own submissions. As I mentioned earlier, abuse it you lose it.
As far as comment threading, that is in the works. But when Mixx does something they do it right. How many timnes have you gone to a certain Social Media site and it takes forever to display 200 comments and nearly breaks Firefox doing so?
Mixx is going to make sure they do not release a half-way completed feature.
BTW you asked how can a Social News site not have functionality? Hate to Digg bash but here goes:
Digg's comment system makes browers go into an epileptic fit.
Digg has no transparency.
Digg allows comment trolls to run rampant.
Digg has promised and promised to fix the comment system. (is that the functionality you are talking about?)
Digg's own Kevin Rose wants to make the Digg homepage customizable by the user (Sound familiar? We call it You Mixx)
Digg is planning to start rewardinig submitter (Oh yeah, Mixx already has that to)
Digg released it's picture section way after Mixx.
So Mixx obviously has more functionality. Take off the Digg blinders my friend and give Mixx a try.

Comment from Eric Gruber on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T17:24:21Z

I like the idea of giving perks to those who participate in a community in a positive way. Since trying to punish trolls never seems to work, I like this idea of rewarding those who play nice.

Comment from Tony on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T17:34:20Z

If you're looking for breaking news, you're better off using a RSS-driven filtering system like vocal nation.

Comment from Greg Davies aka cGt2099 on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T17:51:40Z

The philosophy behind SuperMixxers does not allow users to game the system. In fact, to become a SuperMixxer, you need to have proven yourself as a solid contributor to the community – and that you are “doing the right thing”. The whole concept also focuses on “abuse it and you lose it”; which is the way it should be. Anyone abusing these kinds of privileges should lose them; but the fundamental philosophy behind SuperMixxer powers being awarded is based upon being rewarded for good conduct in the online community.

Just because two SuperMixxers can flag a story as Breaking News does not mean it’s going to automatically hit the front popular page. The stories will only stay in the Breaking section for a limited amount of time, among a limited number of stories.

As founder Chris McGill mentioned in the announcement on the Social Blend podcast, any SuperMixxers abusing the Breaking News feature by, for example, submitting an article from their blogspam, which isn’t breaking, can and will be reported for abuse. Again: “abuse it, you lose it”.

Someone mentioned threaded comments. To my knowledge, these are in the works and coming soon to Mixx.

Comment from Brant Tedeschi on 2008-03-25

2008-03-25T23:53:24Z

@SilentJay74

I never said that breaking news was a bad idea. I think its great that there are unbiased super users making sure that the news that gets promoted quickly is only the good stuff. I'm just saying that it's not that big of a deal to warrant its own readwriteweb post.

As far as my bias for digg. . .that's incorrect. Everything you mentioned I agree with. There are a lot of things I hate about digg, especially their comment system.

The truth is that I coded my own social news website. My "Super Mixer" is called a power user. They help moderate flagged stories and comments so the site stays on track. I also penalize self promoters by limiting their user class level and vote influence.

I have no problem admitting to the fact that I took what I liked and disliked from social news sites such as reddit, mixx, digg, and propeller. That is the main reason why my comment system is one of the best out there.

It's not nearly as popular as the other social news sites, but I have a budget of $0 and created it all myself. www.celebritypwn.com is the url if you're curious.

Comment from Gerard on 2008-03-25

2008-03-26T05:15:00Z

"Super Mixxers can compete for an award for breaking the best stories - the new "News Hound" award will be given to the Super Mixxer who submitted the story with the most votes that day."

Correction for this post: *All* mixxers can compete for the News Hound award, not just supermixxers.

Comment from Matt Ellsworth on 2008-03-26

2008-03-26T14:24:28Z

Interesting Concept - I never really thought of it like this. But I guess it makes sense. I used mixx a lot when it first came out - but I haven't used it lately. I'll have to go back and do some more work.