If I was to speculate, I'd say that the early Digg audience may have been what ultimately led them down the path to failure. The ranking algorithm on Digg was blatantly rigged to produce a front page with mass-market appeal. Overly nerdy or political submissions rarely made the cut. I suspect that, early on, Digg's leadership decided that allowing users too much control over content would keep Digg in a nerd/leftist niche that couldn't be monetized. A lack of respect for democratic control over the front page ultimately led them to ignore voting rings, gaming, and spammers; and eventually justified handing over control to the marketeers and content farms in Digg v4.