[Air-l] Digg user 'riot' going on now

[Christine Moellenberndt]

Actually, the big reason why everyone threw a fit was because of a 
perceived preference given to sponsorship.  The last Digg podcast was 
sponsored by HD-DVD, and so when the encryption code stories started 
springing up and getting deleted, the community assumed it was due to 
pressure from their sponsor and the threat of losing money.

This is a HUGE thing for online communities in my experience... the 
threat of your favourite site selling out not only their morals, but you 
in the process.  I think that's a big reason why we saw the reaction 
from Digg'ers that we saw last  night and today.

Interesting stuff!

While Digg has pulled an about-face, I'll be interested to see what the 
fallout is from this, and if Digg will have the trust of its users back 
after this blows over.  As with a lot of things, it's more about the 
perception of the action by the community, not the actual reasoning 
behind it no matter how many blog posts the Digg crew makes.

btw, hi everyone.. somewhat-long-time listener, first time caller. Grad 
student in anthro hoping to study identity in online communities. 
Needless to say, that's why this issue fascinates me so!

-Christine


Ellie Wix wrote:
> I found this story on gizmodo.com this morning and thought I might share for
> anyone who might be interested.
> 
> Apparently someone found an HD-DVD key code that would allow users to bypass
> copy protection.  This was posted onto Digg but was then removed for obvious
> reasons.  Out of anger the users are now (is diggbombing a word?) flooding
> the site with the code in retaliation to it being removed.  Even now I'm
> looking at a few of my friends who have the code as their away messages.
> 
> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/geeks-will-not-be-silenced/breaking-digg-riot-in-full-effect-over-pulled-hd+dvd-key-story-256982.php
> 
> And thanks to the entire list.  I posted a question and req for lit a few
> months back and it helped tremendously, even changed the course of my
> project.
> 
> -Ellie
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