The user rank number that used to appear in all profiles seems to have been removed. As a man who’s all about “The Numbers”, I’m highly troubled to find that I cannot quantifiably compare myself to other Diggers. I worked long and hard to claw my way to the middle of Digg’s ranks and now have nothing to show for it [/sarcasm]. I’ve had a great deal of fun watching myself crawl up the ladder, but what is far more concerning than my own mediocre rank is the ranks of the top submitters. Along with the actual rank number, the link to show the big list of everyone’s rank is gone. This used to display where an individual user would fit in and you could browse through the list and see the basic stats (#submitted stories, #promoted stories, #stories dugg, etc.) about the people around you. If the ranking system is no longer available, how can it be determined what users are providing the best sources of reliable content? I get the feeling that this has been done in order to prevent outside forces from recruiting the top submitters for their own evil purposes (remember the Netscape fiasco?). If nothing else, the ranking system provided a source of personal entertainment for me and a way for those at the top to get recognition for the work they put in to making Digg a strong aggregator of quality content. I hope that this change is only temporary and that I just happened to notice this absence during some sort of maintenance or update.
Feel free to voice your opinions of this situation on this site or in Digg’s comments. Feedback is always appreciated.
P.S. I only noticed this a few minutes ago, I have no idea how long it’s been gone. I searched Digg to see if there were any announcements or if anyone else had noticed this.