Digg loses
I’m sure a few of you have seen a couple things unfold in the past day or so surrounding one of the most popular stories on Digg being deleted - and even the submitting Digger having his user account banned. If you bother to take a look at the Digg homepage now, you’ll most likely see that the top stories are actually related or exactly the same as the story that was originally removed. In fact, the number one story right now is "Digg Banned me for Typing a Number!". The original submitter was CJ, who details his account of what happened on his own site here. What we’re seeing is a backlash from the users of one of the most popular, if not THE most popular "user-driven social content websites" in the World. In addition, Digg’s current Top 10 is filled to the brim with users voting on HD-DVD stories which have the very key that was removed in the original Digg article.
UPDATE: Looks like Digg and Kevin Rose have caved into the tremendous amount of pressure from it’s users. He has in fact created this story, which has the HD DVD key in it. It’s also currently the #1 story on Digg with over 23,000 "Diggs"…
In fact, Digg has the following to say about itself, "Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on Digg is submitted by our community (that would be you). After you submit content, other people read your submission and Digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see." Well, not really guys. Not if you have a team of moderators that run around deleting stories that you personally don’t like or are being paid by a company that you want to keep a rosey relationship with. Just like the HD DVD Group who sponsored your DiggNation vidcast, and now coincidentially the story that got deleted was about the HD DVD key being hacked and broadcasted to the entire world to see. "Administrators have also apparently begun deleting stories criticizing their actions, and also banned numerous members – according to angry statements posted by Digg users on the site and elsewhere." You posted on your blog that, "We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights. In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention", yet there are countless other stories with the code still on the homepage. This is not by any means the first time something like this has happened, and is quite ridiculous. Jason Calacanis had some great points about some of the sneaky, and shameful ways of Digg. He actually details their scam on his blog in detail. There is no trace to who "buried" stories meaning who voted it down. Except the problem with this is, unlike the positive voting scheme, there’s no name attached to whoever "buried" a story leaving it open for moderators, and anyone else with the right access to completely hide any story that they felt necessary. There is abolsutely no accountability, and really isn’t what we’d like to call an "open" social network. Another excellent Calacanis point, you can’t comment on Digg’s own blog. "Hello!??!!? How can you be for social media and audience empowerment and not let folks have a discussion on your blog?!" Horrible way to gain a visitors trust and honestly, from a marketing point of view, one of the stupidest things to do, especially not admitting to it, and coming clean with everything. I don’t really give a crap about Digg, I personally never liked the site and couldn’t care less if people voted or "Dugg" stories we published. Afterall you are just reaching your same target audience anyway when your story appears on Digg. I do however make a point to be as upfront with you as possible, and if wrong, correct the problem in question immediately. We will be removing all "Digg This!" type buttons and anything relating to Digg in the following day or so. I’m actually adding a "Scrape This" button to our RSS feeds now. Do I expect the world to follow? No, but personally this is the move I feel we should make.
You do know they retracted this right? And that they’re allowing all of this stuff now right?
Hmmm… I really cant believe your going at digg like that when there is no proof of digg doing anything wrong, they give you what they give you and yet you always just want more. Well I understand its life but dont bitch when they are just trying to keep making things better and I bet at one oint they felt that they could get in alot of trouble havingthat on the site like that, but now that they see how we feel, they decide to fight with us. They arent fighting against us. I just think all this digg bashing is hidden jealousy. Sory, your the shit but I feel this true.
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Digg_This_09_f9_11_02_9d_74_e3_5b_d8_41_56_c5_63_56_88_c0_4
come on you are going to turn some people off to BGR if you dont fix the story. The same Kevin Rose you have pictured has in fact retracted the actions taken and has in fact made the above linked post showing that he feels the same way as his sites users. He was/is famous for being the “dark tipper” and is not someone to call a “Dick”. Get a clue BGR as if you dont you will lose some supporters. Me for one.
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
That picture of Kevin is great. The best part (and why this picture suits him) is after the whole debacle, when they retracted their actions and allowed the posts… in the Top 10 box on the right, Kevin’s post was #1 with a ton of Diggs. (Because, you know, his fans are sheepish followers.)
The topic: “Digg This: [STRING FOLLOWING]”
So, he has the top 10 Digged post (at that time) and he had the string in his subject.
Dick.
Sounds like you’r giving in to the mob mentality. If your users don’t want the digg button, they can stop using it. Then you would be correct in removing it.
Hey…I get the whole ownership and social sphere sharing of ideas thing. But seriously, this thing with Digg is getting blown WAAAYY out of proportion. Yeah, Kevin Rose and the crew made a bit of miscalculation and now everyone who was ever remotely pissed off at Digg is taking jabs and this is becoming “Digg-gate”.
Take a deep breath, visit Digg or don’t, but let’s not turn the Digg guys and gals into the “Fourth Reich” or something. I mean, come on!
Yeah, just saw that he made that story, and wants to “go down fighting”. Updating post.
what i dont understand is how many people are still bashing kevin and digg? they have made right in my eyes by caving to their people. Who here thinks the BG would not cave or has not caved to much less in the past. Honestly if you think you would have done differntly then prove it. They are risking their business and “life saving” in Kevin’s case for this right to post this one key so I think people need a little perspective before they jump in and bash them.
and I think the “Your comment is awaiting moderation” is hilarious considering BG own comments in this story…
No, it’s really that Kevin POSTED the same thing they removed, and it’s the number 1 Digged post ATM.
You know, nothing like taking away the thunder from everyone else but using the lightning for yourself.
The commenting system here is completely open. You personally posted many times, with links and the system saw it as possible spam and held it. That’s all. I went in saw the comment in their waiting, and approved it.
do you honestly think he did this all so he could take some kind of credit?
He’s hardly your normal publicity whore.
“do you honestly think he did this all so he could take some kind of credit?
He’s hardly your normal publicity whore.”
No, certainly not! I’m saying by them going apeshit crazy removing all of the posts, suspending/banning users, etc, then turning face and saying “you know what, you’re right, we shouldn’t be blocking this stuff”.
That’s fine.
But… to see the high and Digg-mighty Kevin post his own “Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0″, the same key that others were punished for, the top Digg with a current 27660 Diggs is utterly ridiculous.
Like I said, use the lightning when the others’ thunder was taken away.
It’s the little details that can sway an opinion, and him basically posting the same key was that last detail.
I was wondering what was up with this pic a I Can Has Cheezeburger:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/8a93c570-4ead-4477-bcbe-e4b2472479cc1.jpg
Hey.. boy genius, get off your butt and remove this story. You’re attacking a friend and that aint cool.
Kevin is ethical and has done the right thing. Don’t forget he has a business to protect, like you.
So, I’ve removed your site from my favorites. Have fun with one less viewer.
Jim Rainey / Saint Louis
I’ll second that, you’ve had it up for over 7 hours and I dont care to see it anymore. I apologize for posting so much on this thread but that will not happen again.
I will get all my hyped up rumors from other sources…
btw how long till you get a take down notice.
@test & James
You know the unspoken blogging rules and deleting a blog post. Come on now.
We all have our views and that’s fine. I’ve made a real effort to keep my personal opinions pretty much away from this site, and I just think that this was an important display of what not to do. Did Kevin now let it slide finally? He sure did. Was there anything else he could have done? No. I can almost gurantee that Digg would have lost a ton of it’s users if they would have gone on mass-deleting the stories and banning them. Look at it from another angle. He’s worried about a C&D? Does anyone think that after all the drama this has caused that HD DVD would even think about asking him to take down the key? Not a chance. We get C&D’s all the time. That’s part of the risk with publishing leaked info, or prototype devices. That’s the game we’re in, and looks like Digg unwillingly stepped in too. I’ll make another effort to again keep my personal opinons away from this site, because to be fair that’s not why most people visit it. It’s for the scoops, news, gadgets, and rumors. I fully understand that. At the same time, the “Digg Loses” post won’t be taken down. We have never removed a post, and don’t plan to.