Taking her cue from the respective Alexa ratings of these two sites, Ackerman assumes we know about Digg and focuses on NewsTrust, which will not hurt the feelings of us aficionados. In lieu of soliciting users’ evaluations, Ackerman wisely substitutes a survey of one day’s top stories on Digg, Reddit, and NT which neatly encapsulate the differences. (Given Juan Cole’s fame, “Informed Comment” ought to be identified by name, and his University of Michigan post acknowledged.) Though NT is well characterized, this is the second major story posted on NT itself which claims that members “rate a story on the basis of 10 factors,” when by using your toes as well you can count that there are 12. (Didn’t the reporter give the ... More »

Good overview of NewsTrust. Though comparing newcomer NewTrust's Alexa ranking with Digg's at this point seems a bit unfair :-)

A fine piece of journalism. The author spotted the NewsTrust story way ahead of other seasoned journalists. She gives an insightful and thorough overview about NewsTrust's unique approach. And by contrasting it with Digg's approach, she makes the story even more interesting. As the primary subject of the story, I feel uniquely qualified to rate its accuracy (finally, a story I'm an expert on!). I'm glad to say it's quite factual, except for a couple references. It's also well sourced, and provides useful context. It would have been nice to hear what Digg and NewsTrust members have to say about all this, as well as get a perspective from news providers and journalists (whose work is being evaluated on NewsTrust). Overall, I ... More »

I think there are two key phrases in the story about NewsTrust. One concerns NT's goal and it's stated by Mr. Fabrice Florin: raising the civic spirit of a community through its own enlightenment. This reminds someone of Howard Rheingold's "smart mobs" concept, of cooperation through technology and of knowledge as a commons (as in the new book of Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom). NT conveys these concepts into action with palpable results. The second key phrase concerns the "how," the manner in which NT works to achieve its goal, and would be the one stated by Mr. Gilmore: "[NewsTrust] It's adding judgment about quality." Digg's "thumb up/thumb down" methodology of news evaluation is less relevant -- for obvious reasons -- when ... More »

I joined NewsTrust today, and found a link to this article from there. Very insightful - that funny line on "Top Ten Myths About Iraq 2006" vs "50 Reasons why it's great to be a Guy" just about says it all. I've long stopped using Digg, and am thankful NewsTrust is here. At this stage in human evolution, Stravinsky cannot be as popular as Britney Spears, and NewsTrust cannot be as popular as Digg. That’s one more thing to be thankful for.

Its great to see Newstrust getting press but the bigger picture about the dropping quality of what passes for news is touched on but not in much depth. The "rate by popularity" people are not given as much ink to defend their method as Newstrust related sources. Overall this story does a great job of informing the world about a better place to get quality news.

Good for NewTrust ... not really terrific journalism. Like the author, I find Digg less than insightful much of the time and wonder where it will evolve. Newstrust's more demanding and time-consuming process limits participation but produces more valuable insights. Can Kevin, another very bright guy, It's early days in this business of citizen journalistic participation. The writer should have celebrated these and others more to attract more attention and participation, IMHO

The artice reminds me of all the blogs comparing Digg to Slashdot, but on the plus side it did let me know about NewsTrust.

I'm a Digg user, a Mercury News subscriber, and former MN editorial staff. I read about NewsTrust in my morning edition, which contained an incorrect url by the way (newstrust.com). I enjoy Digg, but have always been annoyed by the typical asinine behavior encouraged by anonymity there. This is my first story review here. Best wishes for success! By the way here's the comparable Digg page.

Good comparison between NewsTrust and Digg. Hopefully this will bring more participants to NT.