Is SEOmoz taking advantage of the opportunity that Digg left on the table? Or is the Moz just asking for a good spamming?

Last week, Digg announced that they were removing the Top Users list that was known and loved by all, especially the egocentric vanity checkers who loved seeing how they fared against other users. Kevin Rose had the original http://digg.com/topusers URL redirect to his announcement, and it marked the end of an era. Or so they want you to believe.

Where One Era Ends, Another One Begins

SEOmoz, a company known for the savvy advice they presented on their corporate website, was preparing to launch the 3rd rendition of their website after months (perhaps years) of hard work and reprogramming. It is by no coincidence that their new version features more social networking tools for its rather large and continually growing community. While the new features were previously made known to be in the works, the one item of coincidence was the release of their own Top Users list, less than one week after the company who originally popularized the online concept took their list of Top Users down.

Adam: The Original Top User (OTU)

The concept of the Top User list is by no means anything new. It is, in essence, an online popularity race. Popularity contests have been around since the beginning of time. The belonging desire to know where one's own self stands has been around ever since Adam told Eve, "I'm better than you!", and she replied, "Oh yeah, watch this", and ate an apple to prove her point. (My wife reminds me of my ranking in similar symbolic ways. Also pardon my un-researched biblical reference as I study a different bible.) Who's Who, Forbes 100, Billboard, NYT Bestsellers List, Consumer Reports, Time Person of the Year, People's Sexiest People Lists, Miss America, etc are all examples of various popularity contests. Whether it's a bid by a large corporation to outweigh another corporation, or two celebrities pairing off in a red-carpet "sexiest dress" fashion show, the practice of ranking against peers is a common way of thinking in our society. Someone always wants to be better than you, get used to it.

Opportunity, Sure. But For Which Party?

The questions must be asked: Is SEOmoz ready to take advantage of this since Digg left the party early? Or will SEOmoz eventually fall to the same fate that maintaining such a list can bring? A Top Users list will encourage more UGC (User Generated Content) by rewarding users for their participation. This new stream of data alone will be a huge advantage for the SEOmoz community. But at the same time, where does the line blur for generating "useful content" and "attempting to spam"? There is no doubt that users will submit content and participate in comments just to build their Moz profile. Unlike Digg, a card that SEOmoz is keeping close to their chest is their willingness to moderate each and every post that is submitted by users. This will certainly filter a lot of the obvious attempts at abuse, but it is only another layer that abusers will attempt to get around. I'm sure some user will try to sneak in a link or two hoping that their post makes front page content (for example, see the footer of this article). It makes you wonder what other ways the users could attempt to manipulate the system.

The Rise of the SEOmobz!

A common occurrence on any social media site is that users always eventually find that there is "power in numbers." How long before offsite networks of SEOmoz users form as a means to manipulate the system is unsure. But such occurrence of a gathering is almost imminent. Members of the clan will be able to use their "majority rules" leverage and influence the quality and quantity of posts made by their own members. And if any member of such clan were to decide an outside member's post or comment wasn't worthy of the clan, the group could form to make their voice heard by voting "thumbs down" on everything within their destructive path. The effect of such collaborative work could place an article on the Popular Posts lists, and/or remove it. It could also artificially enhance or deflate the personal brand of the poster or commenter in the eyes of the unassuming public.

New Users Take Note: Use or Abuse!

It is during the critical moments of a site's launch where it is the responsibility of the users to decide how they will use the new system. This should be a conscious decision of whether to exploit what is new, or support and report. It is during this time that you'll define your own presence in the community. You can build the community up for the benefit of others, or you can take advantage of it for your own means. I suspect that the majority of users here will probably choose to dabble a little in both to get a feel for what works and what doesn't, just like advanced users of MySpace and Digg have done and continue to do. As marketers, it's in our blood to test and test some more. SEOmoz is by no means a community equal to that of Digg or MySpace. To some, the content and level of expertise make it much more valuable than anything a general site could offer them. To others, it's just a blog and treated as such.

But Will It Blend? 

Whether or not adding a Top Users lists to a blogging community will work for good or for evil is still yet to be determined. Although it eventually didn't work out for Digg, this may be just what SEOmoz needs to get an edge in the SEO news industry. User generated content is a great thing, if used wisely.

About the Author:
Jason Murphy lives in Las Vegas, where he is a Delivery Strategies Manager for PartnerWeekly, LLC, a CPA affiliate marketing network. His daily functions include monitoring incoming traffic from email, SEO, PPC, and XML for third-party advertising offers and detecting fraudulant abuse by affiliate publishers. Jason maintains a general internet marketing blog at TheJasonMurphyShow.com and has been an SEOmoz subscriber for over 2 years. Jason uses the username "roadies" on sites such as SEOmoz, DigitalPoint, SitePoint, SEOchat, WickedFire, and others.