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As community news and networking sites like Digg and Reddit grow in size and popularity, many top bloggers and web commentators have started to notice alarming trends of abuse and manipulation. Top users have clearly learned how to work the systems rather than develop communities. There is more and more discussion of how to maximize incoming traffic for personal gain. A few days ago, one top blog even suggested that people may be writing stories targetted exclusively for success on Digg and social news or networking sites. The fact that we’re not partiucularly surprised to learn this reveals just how used to these trends we have all become.

Another alarming example: the top WTF on Technorati about WTFs is about how users can game the system to drive traffic to their sites. WTFs are supposed to be a way of sharing information, not getting traffic just for one’s own site. A different WTF that advises users to spread the WTFs around, delete outdated WTFs and generally use the system for the good of others has a depressingly small fraction of the votes.

These issues raise some critical questions. Are these sites still egalitarian communities for sharing information? Or have they reverted back to the old tried-and-trued top-down model, where those in power pass down information to everyone else? The answer seems to lie somewhere in between, and the issue clearly isn’t black-and-white.

Perhaps most importantly: are these sites becoming less about community and more about competition? Are those same people who helped build this new wave of online communities now using their knowledge to destroy them? What do you think? Leave your comments, questions and opinions below - let’s move back toward shared information, and away from top-down perspectives.