Old Digg is coming back, code reveals an unreleased user submission flow, as user voting came back this week
RuntimeWire found a path from source URL to editable draft and story preview, extending Digg's recent return to reader participation.
By Ryan Merket · Published
RUNTIMEWIRE INVESTIGATION — Original analysis
Original reporting by RuntimeWire, based on documents, reverse engineering.
Why it matters
Reader votes give Digg a direct audience signal for ranking stories. Whether readers can also introduce stories remains unresolved in the public product information: Digg's terms say submissions are not accepted, while the terms' account language appears behind the September voting change.
Reporting record
Finding
RuntimeWire found code describing an unreleased flow from a source URL to an editable story draft and preview, but the available code does not establish a working submission action.
How we verified
Methods: documents, reverse engineering.
RuntimeWire's examination of Digg code supports the source-to-draft-to-preview flow; Digg's September 22 announcement confirms the return of reader voting but does not announce submissions.
RuntimeWire examined available Digg code for the flow and reviewed Digg's public voting announcement and terms. The reconstructed screens illustrate the proposed experience and are not evidence of a live feature.
Reproduction
Reproduction does not apply to this reporting (document-driven).
Company response
The company was not contacted before publication.
RuntimeWire found code for an unreleased Digg flow that takes a source URL through an editable story draft and preview. The code describes a reader starting with a link, editing a draft, then previewing how the story could appear on Digg. The flow has not been publicly announced, and RuntimeWire's reconstruction of its screens is not evidence of a live feature.
RuntimeWire launched a related reader-submission feature a couple of hours ago, coincidentally. Readers can submit story ideas, write a draft themselves or get help preparing one, then review the finished draft and choose when it goes to editors, according to RuntimeWire's post.
ttps://x.com/runtimewire/status/2103695696519905480
The code available for this report does not establish whether the flow has a working submission action, which accounts can access it, whether submitted stories enter review, or where a submitted draft would go. It also does not establish whether Digg supports X posts as sources alongside article links. Those details determine whether this is a submission feature or an unfinished, gated interface.
Digg restored reader voting on September 22nd. Signed-in readers can vote on stories, and CEO Justin Mezzell said each digg helps a story rise in the feed. Digg's announcement describes voting; it does not announce the source-to-draft flow.
Digg's May product leaned on clustering activity from elsewhere, including X. Its current category feeds and story cards look closer to a conventional news site. With voting back, a submission path would let readers introduce material as well as affect how stories rank. That is RuntimeWire's reading of the product and code, not a strategy Digg has announced.
The earlier reboot faced bot and spam problems. How Digg would review submissions and limit spam is therefore a central open question, alongside who can submit and how new stories would interact with Digg Score. Digg's public voting announcement does not answer those questions.
Digg's terms of service, effective June 30th, say user-submitted content is not accepted and that public accounts are not offered. That language appears older than the September voting launch and does not establish the status of the unreleased code.