Vanity Metrics For News Sites

Community news sites have had a difficult time getting people to sign up and contribute - one big reason could be the lack of satisfaction that exists when on sites such as Twitter and Facebook... i.e. a friend request, a follow, @reply, # of followers, etc. Can news ever be social? How can sites like Digg (and others that go beyond Digg, where you're actually writing something more than a comment) get people to care/feel good about their participation?