After Digg got soldout to Betaworks for a paltry $500K despite being valued at $164 million previously, news of website's Social Network competitors killing Digg is doing the rounds even as messiahs urge competitors to refrain from going the Digg way.

A column in Techradar urges Twitter not to do a Digg. It tracks the journey of Digg and how it made an impact that could knock any site off the internet.

However, rapid redesign of the site with version 4 being the last major change appear to have forced users to look at other sites as they felt increasingly alienated with such changes.

On the otherhand, the strategy adopted by Reddit, Digg's direct competitor seems to have paid off. The site which did not opt for any fancy redesign package and opted to have tweaks that enhanced its user experience seems to have garnered more eyeballs than Digg.

Besides Digg refused to heed to warning calls from Diggers - against constant redesign of the site -who tried to salvage the website from impending crisis. The site which received up to $40 million in venture funding according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal did not receive the payoffs as sought by investors. But the popularity of Facebook and Twitter seem to have overshadowed Digg despite the site being redesigned to add more social and personalization features.

The major lessons cited for Facebook and Twitter amidst the Digg debacle include constant communication with the community; focusing efforts on one aspect that works for the website; according importance to user experience; and doing things right irrespective of the volume it consumes.

A Forbes report cites how it is crucial to listen to users and maintain consistency in operations that allows networks to sustain themselves and prevents the website from losing crucial readership.

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