Digg wannabe Mixx has been at it long enough now to give them a hard look.
Unfortunately for them, it appears all their clean code, slick design, integration with large sites like LATimes.com, and good intentions hasn’t been enough. The main thing about a site like this always will be strength and content of the community. A passionate, dedicated community with shared wisdom and a point of view? That describes Digg, Fark, Metafilter. So far the main community that seems to have embraced Mixx is people who want to “succeed” in social media. In other words, people who want to use social sites like Mixx to help their own failure-worthy businesses. These are “users” in the worst possible sense, people who want to “use” Mixx, rather then the core community on Digg, which wants to improve the site. The most visible evidence of this is that most of the most popular stories on Mixx are current events, breakthroughs in technology, etc. but rather crappy how-tos on how to run your “startup”, how to spam social media, and what a great site Mixx is.
Further adding to the misery, the “groups” area, which is the very first thing in the top navigation bar, is not useful, and the groups themselves are faceless link aggregators rather then anything unique, vibrant, or useful.
Mixx is proof, thus far, that even with the best tools, building a valuable online community is very, very tough. Even more difficult is changing the site’s community profile once its hit a certain point. Normal people like me who just want to find interesting news will be increasingly turned off by the site, and social media boulevardiers will continue to rush in, creating a useless echo chamber.
bloat! 
Give them a chance. They are 3 months old. It takes time to correct for the early self-promoters. It took Digg the better part of a year to do that.
right, because the psychopaths at digg are who we want new services to emulate…
“The main thing about a site like this always will be strength and content of the community.”
Wrong. The main thing about a site like that is an interesting variety of content and a high signal-to-noise ratio.
You want community, go to Facebook. You want flamewars, go to Digg or Slashdot. You want to learn and be entertained, go to Mixx.
The only way you get an interesting variety of content on a community site is by having a rich and vibrant community.
Mixx’s community currently doesn’t cut it. The content pushed to the top isn’t interesting to most people.
wow… do you ever sound like you fit right in at digg. Seriously stay there. I think you are missing the point of mixx- it isn’t just one-size popular board- I cutomized it for my interests and the content is fabulous- helps me in life and in work. Have a nice time flaming over at digg.
I personally don’t use Digg much anymore. I have an account there but only visit once in awhile. The community is pretty toxic, but they are good at finding links and not promoting lame stuff. There’s a reason why they drive so much traffic, the site works.
Thinking about it like “Digg vs. Mixx” is exactly the problem.
“The only way you get an interesting variety of content on a community site is by having a rich and vibrant community.”
Wrong again. All it takes is a few good filterers. Which is why I prefer, say, Kottke’s remaindered links and BoingBoing to Digg and Yahoo’s “Most Popular”.
“Mixx’s community currently doesn’t cut it. The content pushed to the top isn’t interesting to most people.”
Maybe they’re not aiming to appeal to “most people” or even “most Digg users”?
Celebrate diversity, bro. There’s more than one way to do it.
Mixx is very flexible and will become more personizable in the near future, i’m assured by one of the directors. So it should be good for everybody, let the blogger-crowd use it for their purposes, the political crowd use it, everyone! it’s working out, but there has been an influx of “making money off the web” crowd lately, but that will blow over. there is a core crowd of news-hounds like myself that have already been tested and hung around..not big but growing.
big is not good, necessarily, anyways…would you rather read Hemingway or wade through a year’s worth of Vanity Fair for the same amount of thought-provoking content?
Let Digg and Facebook be Vanity Fair….who needs all that?
the S/N ratio remains high on Mixx.
i only wish more people would comment on things, because that’s where the real action is in social networking!
(the site still has some usability issues that make it a little hard to comment, IMO.)
anyways, love it or leave it, but it’s pretty awesome!
Mixx is run by a left wing CEO. Most Mixxers attack conservatives, insult them and get them banned.
They are arbitrary and capricious in the enforcement of their TOU. And guys like Yoda and other left wingers defame and attack conservatives to get conservative viewpoints banned. If you are a Christian and support traditional family values you will be taken out of context, called a racist, bigot, or worse and the Admin allows it.
If you defend yourself, you will be banned. The rules are not fairly enforced. They have ads for muslim dating services. So if you challenge Islam, or quote radical passages from the koran, you are branded “intolerant” Mixx: conservatives need not apply!
Could not disagree with “Injury Lawyer” more. I’ve been on MIXX for about a month, found a niche in the community as a fact-checker. I am a Christian. I offer my opinions in an even-handed and polite manner and – no surprise – others enjoin conversation with me in likewise manner. I haven’t been banned. I haven’t been called a racist, bigot or anything of the kind. Certainly I run into vociferous characters FROM BOTH SIDES – using foul language and personal attacks – and those folks are banned. MIXX is as good as the people who participate in the conversation – and I’m one of them.
That’s because you are new. I was unfairly banned when I expressed my Christian views on morality and was labeled a “homophobe”
After I was banned without ANY explanation, many Mixx members were in an uproar about the unfair treatment and thus, the Mixx Mafia ban crew was warned and since then, they appear to have mellowed out.
But try and speak out about homosexuality and the prohibitions against it set forth in the Holy Bible and see if you ever get to Super Mixxer status. You will probably be banned for not being “politically correct”. Good luck!
I made SuperMixx (got my ‘blue’) a week ago and I exhort the Lord our Savior when appropriate. When I do, I do it in such a way as not to pass judgment and play the role of righteous lecturer. At present, I am embraced by the MIXX community – liberals and non-Christians alike – as I am in real life, an easy person to speak to about the Lord. Not to be contentious, but perhaps it was your approach?
Its amazing to look at reviews of web 2.0 sites from years ago. Digg, which at one time had promise decided to bite the hand that fed it.
Appearing on the homepage use to take 1000+ diggs, you can now get on with less than 200.