Kevin Rose, here is what I think went wrong with Digg
Kevin Rose is probably one of the the only celebrity/public figure I look up to consistently. Odd to say but it’s true. His delivery of tech in simple terms and enthusiasm for major technology trends inspired me for the past 25 years or so. So Kevin, if you’re reading this, it’s a speculative post-mortem on Digg. And it’s all from a place of love.
It started like a rockstar getting the band back together:
Kevin and Alexis O. did a big press release speaking about the reboot, but with no product yet. TechCrunch and The Verge were very excited for the nostalgia play. Kevin also spoke in NY at WSJ Tech Summit. The hype was freakin’ real.
Kevin and Alex A. started Diggnation back up and after watching so many podcasts of bro’s talking about the news, this was refreshing to see. They never get in the doom and gloom of current events and that’s always welcome for a change.
But it was always odd…
The press release was all over but there was no product to show and there was no Justin in the picture
But during Diggnation, the message was clear Justin was the CEO and Kevin still had his day job, as a VC.
Speaking of Diggnation, Alex A. is the life of the podcast bringing a lot of innocence and pure fun yet he had no part in Digg just like the first go-around but that’s not really my gripe, but it brings odd dynamics when the flagship podcast for the platform has 2 ppl and one is not involved but rooting for its success, with no real stake in the game.
In fact, towards the end of 2025, Kevin would ask Justin during Diggnation what was new and plans forward. I get it, there’s respect for the CEO but there was always this underlying vibe from Kevin that Justin was on the hook, and responsible for its success, meanwhile Kevin still wanted to be the face and voice.
I know many people on here say that they are mad that the rug was pulled while they were helping develop communities (the $5 username thing is whatever, it all got donated anyway and served as a bot filter) but Digg was a ghost town. I visited everyday and would see a bunch of dad joke memes, current technology and politics news and some random stuff that were cross posted from Reddit.
There were no more than 3 comments on each post that wasn’t a Digg-specific post or a politics/Trump (fun fact: I had realdonaldjtrump handle and people were so conflicted supporting me when I proposed politics to be removed form Digg).
Kevin has a vast amount of interests that he speaks about but I didnt see him post anything. I never checked to see if he did but I never saw a post from him at the top of the site. He’s the star of the show and he could’ve increased engagement tenfolds by asking people: to post their favorite beers, wines, etc, their current AI or tech project, a throwback pic or two from early 2000s, favorite Japan pics, and random updates from his life. He could have made a fun beef/competition between him, Justin Alexis and Alex on which community had the best content. He could have asked his buddy Tony Hawk for an AMA. There was nothing. Where the hell was Alexis O.? It’s absolutley mind-boggling that there was no engagement on the site by Kevin and crew, there was no hunger to keep the company alive at all cost. I wanted to do that with my own account but it was so dead that it felt like there wss no point.
That bring me to the demise of Digg..
It was clear the place wasnt going to survive. There was absolutely no engagement and originality. I’m sure bots were a problem, even though I never saw anything too alarming but network effect was a real reason for failure because getting people away from reddit is hard. But Kevin dude YOU ARE the network, people follow your shit. They root for you and sign up for your newsletters. You should’ve been doing the most crazy and silly things on Digg to get it going. At minimum, you could’ve even just shared more about your interests because if you don’t use your product then why should we?
Fast forward to March, Kevin shuts it down and becomes digg ceo. I think he’s not taking accountability. The fact that ppl feel burned and he hasnt acknowledged it leaves a bad taste. All you have to do is just own up to the fact that you rubbed people the wrong way but until you do so and if you keep ignoring it, people will greet you with contempt. This is all coming from a good place, I know we’re all human and you were trying your best but man, I can see you becoming the villain Kevin and that’s because it’s always the same formula, bring the hype, oversell the product before it’s a thing and then pulling the rug when it’s not meeting expectations without communicating to the crowd.
I never posted on Reddit because I always thought it was kinda wack but since Digg shutdown I started posting here so that just goes to show you how much disappointment and change in behavior this led to.
Having said all that, I’m sure digg was struggling and probably wasnt going to make it after half year live and no growth. People need to chill with the hate too because it’s hard running a business esp. if you took capital.
Kevin i’m still a supporter—
—but this new site ain’t it. I could care less about twitter news and people ranking. It’s not really Digg. People cant engage. You’re trying to compete with techmeme instead, which was your inspiration for Digg but Digg turned into something more than that because it became social and it brought you fans and supporters, which you haven’t acknowledged leaving behind. Just talk to them, like one person to another and own up to what happened. Meditate on it. I’m still here. Hit me up if you need to talk.