Could Mixx Be the Next Digg?
- 17 Comment
Mixx is another user-driven social networking site, one of the many that are mushrooming lately. However Mixx is certainly not your average hastily-assembled Pligg clone sites. Barely less than 6 months’ old, Mixx has achieved a pagerank 6 and Alexa rank of about 5000. This in itself is incredible, but there is more. Let’s see why Mixx is a little special.
Mixxin’ It Up
Mixx is touted as a serious challenger to the long established No. 1 social networking site Digg. With new features being introduced almost every week and a more friendly and positive crowd on Mixx, there are many former Digg users who have taken refuge in Mixx and are staying put. There has been numerous rumors around that there are
burying troops and negative users on Digg. Negative comments, plus failure of good submissions to become popular and preference over more popular sites are also noticeable on Digg. There is none of those in Mixx. If you were to submit something decent there, you will probably be surprised to find how popular it become.
Another reason why Mixx is popular among former Digg users: it does not restrict Digg bashing and there is special group and people who like to take a swipe at Digg every now and then.
One of the most noticeable features of Mixx, which is lacking on other social networking sites is its group feature. Members are allowed to create any groups that they wish and you may name the groups you create any way you want (be sensible though, don’t put an offensive name). Submissions can be shared across the whole of Mixx or just in your personal groups of yours. These created groups can be private or public and you can keep them completely secret too as long as you keep the members of the groups quiet. Oh yes, this also means that you fantasy football addicts can actually form a private group of yours and share relevant stories only in that group.
Mixx Vs Digg?
Comparing Mixx to Digg is almost inevitable. On the front page of both, popular stories from different categories are listed. Undeniably, there are more things on Digg’s front page but there is an advertisement there too. In comparison, Mixx’s front page is less cluttered and free of whatsoever forms of advertisement, those 2 factors are essential in attracting new social network users and converting existing ones. New social network users will prefer simplicity to functions and fame any time of the day, period!
Mixx maintains a unique karma reputation system, there’s not a famous service that uses a similar system to that of Mixx. In Mixx, submission is the order of the day, where members with most submissions (on Mixx as a whole, and also in any groups) are identified and given honor badges (there are also badges for group thought leader, most opinionated, hyperactive, etc.).
In the Mixx Lounge, you can easily see the authority or leader of Mixx, the top 10 users are usually active and you can even make friends with them. Anywhere else can this happen? The karma system will award points for submissions and comments made but it should be modified to also award points for good submissions or submissions made popular.
There are enough reasons as to why Mixx is special. However for Mixx to be truly considered a contender of Digg, a few improvements are needed. Firstly, it needs to attract more users, organize contests or lucky draws, and expand its influence. Technology wise and ease of use can be further improved by introducing Mixx toolbar, something like StumbleUpon’s and perhaps an automated Mixx vote count button.
You should be checking out Mixx by now. There is an unofficial Mixx forum . There you will see that the members are really passionate about Mixx, they even live, eat and celebrate Mixx!
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17 Comments on this post
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Geoserv said:
STUMBLED!
Mixx is definitely a great spot, I use it as well.
VOTED for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/industrynews/could-mixx-be-the-next-digg-blog-about-your-blog/April 15th, 2008 at 12:10 pm -
Copes Flavio said:
Great article, you convinced me to use Mixx instead of Digg, now that I’ve been banned from it for an incredible reason.
BTW, the link to the techcrunch article is wrong 🙂
Cheers
April 15th, 2008 at 1:38 pm -
Jennifer said:
I really enjoy Mixx. It actually feels like social networking. All the other sites I joined to get my blog in and so I could say digg or fave other people’s posts and they could mine. I don’t spend time within the site. With Mixx, I enjoy the site itself.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm -
Jay said:
Of course there are changes needed but once I switched to Mixx from Digg, I stopped using Digg… matter of fact, I’m protesting them!
Jay
April 16th, 2008 at 7:39 am -
BobbyT said:
So you guys think the same thing as me? Jay too? Let’s organise a drive to popularize Mixx further hehe…
April 16th, 2008 at 12:05 pm -
Carla @ WordPlay said:
Thanks for this well-written article.
I just joined Mixx last weekend and found it refreshing. Not only are the people nice, but the design is clean and easy to use. So far, I’m impressed. Your article helped me understand a little more about it so I can use it more effectively. 🙂
April 16th, 2008 at 5:35 pm -
Brent Csutoras said:
“Mixx maintains a unique karma reputation system, there’s not a famous service that uses a similar system to that of Mixx.”
Umm I think you forgot reddit gives karma for voting… 🙁
All in all a decent article and fully explains Mixx. I think comparing it to Digg is laughable at best since even sites like Propeller and Reddit get less than 25% the traffic, users, or recognition that Digg gets.
I would be willing to bet Mixx is barely scratching maybe 5% on any stat in comparison to Digg.
Good post though.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:52 pm -
Tad Chef said:
The “group feature.” link is broken. Btw. feel free to apply for membership in our SEO 2.0 group. Mixx will overcome Digg sooner or later. Sooner if Newscorp or Microsoft buy Digg.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:33 am -
Matt Keegan said:
Thank you for your personal take on Mixx. I recently became active (again) with Digg, but I must say that the results thus far are disappointing. Quality stuff gets shoved to the side while some of the worst junk seems to get Dugg. I will check out Mixx in the near future.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:46 am -
Dennis Edell said:
Excellent article. I don’t think the unrestricted DIGG bashing is a particularly spiffy idea if they want to keep a scum-free site.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:02 am -
bestre said:
interesting…I’ll drop by at this site…Thanks!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:44 pm -
????? (Jason) said:
Hmm … this could certainly be a great place, depending on the type of readers and contributors it garners over the next year or so.
Thanks for telling us about it! 🙂
April 19th, 2008 at 9:00 pm -
Malte Landwehr said:
I agree with you. Mixx already outperforms Digg in every regard (apart from user base). But unfortunately from a marketer’s perspective the amount of users a network is able to drive is the most important one.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:36 am
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