Diggnation Calling it Quits

Today over at Revision 3, producer David Prager announced that Diggnation would end its run in December of this year.

Diggnation was one of the first, if not the first video podcast that helped launch Revision 3 as an online content network. Diggnation's neighbors at the time were podcasts like "CTRL ALT Chicken" and "The Broken", both of which disappeared from Rev 3's lineup some time ago. Diggnation covered some of the top stories that would appear on the website, Digg.com.

(Photo courtesy of Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

While everyone at Revision 3 seems to be all rosey eyed and sentimental about the departure, I remain somewhat skeptical about the reasons given for the shutdown.

In a New York Times piece, hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht say that the time has come, because they've both grown up and they want to move on to other things. While those may be good reasons, I think they've glossed over one major issue that HAD to have an effect on this show, namely that Digg's traffic went down the toilet after a very unpopular site redesign. The Digg staff tried their best to do damage control, then the CEO resigned (or was forced out, depending on who you talk to), and by then it was too late, the damage was done, and Digg could not recover.

Digg's content relied solely on its user base, the show in turn relied on Digg's content. Fewer users meant less content, less to talk about on the show. For the last few episodes I caught, this seemed fairly obvious. More filler, less killer.

We've not seen the last of Kevin or Alex, which is good, as they are definitely entertaining personalities (let's not forget they got started together on "The Screen Savers" before its own demise).

Alex continues to host the "Totally Rad Show" with Jeff Cannata and Dan Trachtenberg (a personal favorite). Kevin now hosts "Foundation", a podcast about entrepreneurs, something Rose has become known for.

Thanks for the shows guys, it was great while it lasted.