Ways to improve digg

You guys really need to check out Thoof.com. It's a personalized news site that give users control of the content. Users submit the stories. Users vote on the stories. Users make up their own tags. Users can even edit stories that have already been submitted - (this process is moderated, so users can't just destroy stories they don't like).

Thoof can easily be compared to the Social News super-site digg.com.

I am a long time user of digg. I like digg, but there are problems.

1) Users don't control what the categories are. They have to pick from a limited number of categories. Less than 50, to be exact. If you count the videos section and the podcast section - that number goes up a little bit, but it's still less than 100. That may seem like a lot, but when you consider all the information that is available online - 100 categories is no where near enough - especially when you consider the next point. And if you think users don't want to control what the categories are - just search the comments on stories with the word [pic] in the title. Digg users have been begging for months for a pictures section. Digg.com doesn't seem to care.

2) Stories can only be under one category. Since users can filter what they see based on the categories - when you submit a story, choosing a category is very important. Some people may hate Microsoft Windows, but love the Xbox. If a story comes out about a new service pack for Windows that lets you play Xbox games on your PC - you'd have to choose what category to put that in. Is that Tech Industry news? Gaming News? Microsoft News? Xbox News? What if there's a video - would that make it a Gaming Video instead - or maybe an educational video (if it shows you how to install it)? No matter what category you pick - some people won't see it because they don't like that category.

3) Uncorrectable stories. I don't know how many stories I've seen where people say in the comments - "Great story, but inaccurate description." or something like that. If users could correct the description - digg would be a more reliable resource. As it stands now - users can't even correct their own submissions!

On these 3 points at least, Thoof has digg beat. Only time will tell if the community grows around Thoof like it has around digg.