For me, being part of an online community started with Digg. Digg was the precursor to Reddit and the place to be on the internet. I never got a MySpace account, I was late to the Facebook game, but I was on Digg.

When Digg redesigned their website (V4), it felt like a slap in the face. We didn't like the new design, but the community had no say in the direction. To make it worse, they removed the bury button. It's interesting how many social websites remove the ability to downvote. There must be a study somewhere that makes a sound argument for it, because it makes no sense to me.

Anyway, when Digg announced they were back in January 2026, I quickly requested an invite. It was nostalgic to log in once more and see an active community building back up right where we left off.

But then, just today, I read that they are shutting down. I had a single post in the technology sub. It was starting to garner some interest and then, boom! Digg is gone once more.

The CEO said that one major reason was that they faced "an unprecedented bot problem."

This is our new reality. Bots are now powered by AI and they are more disruptive than ever. They quickly circumvent bot detection schemes and flood every conversation with senseless text.

It seems like there are very few places left where people can have a real conversation online. This is not the future I was looking for. I'll quietly write on my blog and ignore future communities that form.

Rest in peace, Digg.