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Topic: The Day Digg Users Revolted (Read 745 times) |
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Walter Watts
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The Day Digg Users Revolted
« on: 2007-05-02 10:27:39 » |
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The New York Times
May 2, 2007, 9:15 am
The Day Digg Users Revolted
By Mike Nizza
Digg was founded in 2004 on a simple principle: hand editorial control of a news site to anyone that wanted it.
A dedicated community quickly formed around the idea, and it fueled Digg’s rise to the top of the burgeoning market of social news sites.
Last night, Digg’s founders learned how strongly their users would protect the control given to them.
The episode started when users began linking to a page containing a code that unlocked copyrighted DVDs. The site’s administrators began taking down the links and suspending the accounts of those who posted them.
Chief Executive Jay Adelson, explaining the site’s rationale, said Digg was simply trying to avoid a lawsuit threatened by the owner of the copyright technology.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law,” he wrote.
The users not only disagreed, they revolted by flooding the site with all kinds of different iterations of the now banned information — hidden in image files, tacked on to entries with thinly-veiled headlines, and even a song posted to YouTube.
One blog post climbed the rankings with 15,000 votes, which was said to be a record. In comments attached to the Digg entry, users were exuberant:
OMG THIS DAY IS BEAUTIFUL!!! I WANT TO HUG MY FELLOW GEEKS!!!!
That entry was deleted by Digg as the battle continued, but someone saved a copy and posted it to their own site.
At one point, the entire front page of Digg contained nothing but stories about the DVD hack and Digg’s ban.
At 9 p.m. Pacific time, Digg’s founder surrendered to the rebellion.
After pointing out that the site was acting within its “terms of use” policy, Kevin Rose bravely tied the site’s fate to the people who have brought it this far:
After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Digg on,
Kevin
Victorious, the Digg community appears to have stood down.
Mr. Rose’s post has earned over 11,000 votes so far, and Digg’s front page seems to be returning to its usual mix of technology and random news bits.
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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Walter Watts
Archon
Gender:
Posts: 1571
Reputation: 8.53
Rate Walter Watts
Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
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Re:The Day Digg Users Revolted
« Reply #1 on: 2007-05-05 20:04:28 » |
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Quote from: Aurorum on 2007-05-02 18:33:56
They also were censoring the "conspiracy" website InfoWars.Com.
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The important thing is that they stopped the censorship.
"After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."
"If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."
Three cheers to Digg!
Walter
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Walter Watts
Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
No one gets to see the Wizard! Not nobody! Not no how!
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