robwebb2k

I read a Valleywag story earlier today about how Digg was banning users that posted a hexidecimal number used to unlock DVDs. The Valleywag story noted that users were getting upset because Digg never bans anyone and the way the site has built community is through the premise that what gets voted to to top or voted down from the top is completely up to the users. Digg admins didn’t interfere…until today. My buddy Joe just gave me a heads up that Digg is complete chaos right now. Every post on every front page either contains the hexidecimal number or is about the number.

It will be interesting to see if they can recover from this one. They have built a huge loyal user base, but they may be at the point where they can loose the diehards and keep flurishing. The only issue they may have if that is the case is the fact that their diehards are hackers who may just mess with them for a long, long time.

Maybe Stumbleupon will get an exit just in time? Their userbase of bizarro but very docile 38 year old single female gardners in Sioux City, Iowa never looked so good.

Update: Digg founder Kevin Rose posted to the Digg blog last night that the users had spoken and that Digg would no longer delete posts about the encryption key. So the Digg users won, and Digg has basically told them that posts about hacking and stealing content will not be moderated. I think this is going to hurt Digg in the long run, especially if they ever want to sell to a larger PR sensitive media company.