Yahoo has launched a new public voting system on their Suggestion Boards which lets users contribute, comment and vote on feedback given by Yahoo users on different Yahoo Channels.
Yahoo Suggestion Boards is a smart way for Yahoo to gather and prioritize user feedback from their half a billion registered members.
Yahoo employees monitor the discussions, and respond to suggestions or prompt members for extra feedback within the Boards’ comments.
Yahoo also uses a Digg-style voting system to let users vote on their favorite suggestions; “Digg-style voting means we can quickly discover what’s most important to users. In addition to reading feedback from other users, you’ll find responses from Yahoo! employees about the issues.“
There is currently a story on Digg.com about Yahoo ripping off Digg which has led to thousands of immature & hypocritical Diggers spamming and tearing apart the Yahoo Suggestion Boards with spam about Yahoo ripping off Digg.
Kevin Rose needs to step up and stop this irresponsible mob scene nonsense.
Digg can no longer be used as a breeding ground for such malicious behavior and targeted hitlists.
Using Digg and its community as an attack tool is wrong.
The irony is that Yahoo Suggestion Boards are nothing like Digg. They only use Digg-style voting, which has been commonly adapted throughout the web, to prioritize user feedback.
- Users cannot submit offsite articles or stories, only suggestions and feedback for certain Yahoo channels.
- There is no social news sharing.
- There is no burrying.
- There is no marketing of the service.
- It’s more of an internal tool than anything.
Yahoo should be commended for using Digg style voting in a way that is beneficial to the Yahoo support and feedback teams.
Now, Yahoo can prioritize feedback more efficiently and if you have 100′s of Yahoo users voting on one suggestion, it’s probably worth paying attention to.
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I have just used the service to submit a suggestion about Pipes.
Even WordPress have introduced something similar in a way, for voting on new features people want to see in future versions and to gauge which ones are most popular.
There is almost nothing similar between this application and Digg.
Have you taken a look at BUMPzee yet? I know Carsten is an active user.
It takes Digg type services off into a totally new direction with some great innovative features and whilst its focus currently is purely on internet marketing, the backend I am sure will be used to power other vertical sites or categories.
That’s “burying” with one “r”.
The negativity used to lash out at Yahoo is the same negativity directed within. I don’t think Digg management has a firm enough grasp of the matter to do anything.
Digg wanted a user-controlled environment, they got it. It is now becoming a very nasty place with tons of useless and inaccurate information.
The irony is that Digg doesn’t have the 10 users needed to bury this story (with 3000+ diggs) while so many other stories are buried for being on “the wrong side.”
Just because it’sa voting system, it doesn’t mean it’s a rip-off from Digg… it’s like saying ask is a rip-off of yahoo which is a rip-off from google, which is a rip-off from altavista… etc. Just because it’s born around a certain concept, it doesn’t mean it’s a rip-off… it’s business evolution
What is the point in burying it – if Yahoo really was offering a Digg clone rather than a user feedback interface, Digg would provide free advertising and bury itself.
Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog is full of anti-Yahoo comments about this product:
http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/02/14/it-takes-two-to-tango/
I have a sneaking suspicion one or two people with a lot of time on their hands wrote all of these. Maybe they once tried to apply at Yahoo and were rejected?
Here’s the main issue as I see it: Digg popularized the notion of social voting for articles, which is its claim to fame. Yahoo! in my opinion has leaned a little too close to Digg’s implementation of voting AND their user interface, hence the backlash.
http://www.jasonsalas.com/2007/02/yahoos-new-suggestion-board-w-e-k.html
This is not a ripoff of Digg. Yeah the interface looks familiar and yes you vote “Digg style” as Yahoo put it but it is not trying to do what Digg does. Yes ,Yahoo could have changed the interface to look less Digg like but who cares?
Wait until we all vote for President in 2008. The Diggers will go nuts!