X111.com

There, I’ve said it. Out loud, in black and white, there’s no denying it anymore. I know looking down on the 2 is the hip thing to do on blogs these days. You only need to look at some of the blogs on Technorati’s top 100 to see plenty of posts and countless comments praising the latest Web 2.0 fad (Newsvine anyone) and saying it’ll bury Slashdot. Well guess what… it’s not going to happen.

And you know why? Because Newsvine, as with a lot of the blogs on said top 100, is filled with people who talk for the sake of talking. Some of the best read blogs make me cringe because they’re full of long posts written purely for the sake of attracting the largest possible readership. Calling it an ‘article’ instead of a post or an entry, as if that suddenly makes it worth while, entertaining, or even journalism. But they suck, it’s nothing but hot air. Slashdot and Digg on the other hand are quite the opposite. While the actually news that gets posted may not necessarily always be that newsworthy, or even old or a dupe, it’s the comments that are often pure gold.
Yes they’re flooded with lamers as well, but I dare anyone to find another newssource on the web with such a high number of very eloquent and knowledgeable commenters as you find on slashdot. Take a topic like for example security, skip the actual news and just check out the +5 rated comments (whether they be rated as informative or funny, equally educational.. ;) and you’ll undoubtedly end up with a nice and balanced up to date view of the current state of affairs with both pro and con arguments and a few handy tips to boot.
It really doesn’t get much better than that, and I’ll take that over 99.9% of the blogs any day of the week.
As for Digg; yes there’s a lot of crap/spam/dupes that get entered, but if you’re bored for a minute and just want to do a little browsing, or if you’re looking for news hot before the press instead of off the press when everyone else has already chewed it to death; look no further.