Comments on: Digg Revolt: Social Media’s Other Shoe Has Dropped

By: mutednoise » 5 Enemies of the Future

mutednoise » 5 Enemies of the Future — Mon, 14 May 2007 06:21:50 +0000

[...] The Government – remember how Digg is in hot water because its users posted a certain number to it? Thank the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We have a political body made up of almost entirely lawyers attempting to make technology policy. Of course they don’t try and come up with this on their own – that’s what lobbyists from well funded corporate players are for (see IP industry below). [...]

By: Militant Geek Custom Shirts » Blog Archive » HD-DVD vs. Digg vs. Diggnation

Wed, 09 May 2007 08:45:24 +0000

[...] Early last week on our sister site mutednoise I bantered about how Digg’s user base rising up in revolt represented the hereto unmentioned side of social networks; that is, the crowd will bite the hand that feeds it if they think the hand is red. In the comments I mentioned that playing hardball with the entire Internet was absolutely the worst possible strategy. That action took a so-so bit of geek errata and firmly planted it in popular culture. Case in point is this most recent episode of Galacticast (it does get a bit slow in the middle and if you’re not familiar with the television program Lost some jokes might not make sense – but the end gag is killer): Pick your metaphor: the cat is out of the bag, geni out of the bottle, the milk has been spilled and no amount of crying is going to put it back. Digg has since stopped censoring its users and has made the statement that it will ‘go down fighting’. The outcome of which, according to certain legal circles, doesn’t look good. [...]

By: Milkman

Milkman — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:00:48 +0000

Oh i don’t disagree.. i guess i should have been more clear i was posting in response to the comment above, not your original post.

By: Matthew Reinbold

Matthew Reinbold — Sun, 06 May 2007 06:04:03 +0000

I think you’ve got a lot more than just two issues Milkman. For example, can someone really ‘own’ a number? Can I run out and say that the digits that make up ‘pi’ represent the critical intellectual property of a new algorithm that belongs to mutednoise? Or better yet, can I threaten everyone who uses a secret combination of letters that I just made up but can’t reveal to you?

And really, the HD-DVD folks sealed their own fate when they played hardball. If the post would have lived and died on its own a few people would have taken note. Then it would have become quickly buried under news of Paris Hilton’s pending jail time. However, by threatening all comers with legal action they’ve sensationalized a random number into permanent Internet infamy.

Somebody somewhere failed public relations 101.

By: Milkman

Milkman — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:06:50 +0000

Does that mean i can’t post 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 here?

You have 2 issues here. Those who believe that the content protection system being used on HD-DVD’s is illegal and are so fighting it anyway they can, and how the original posts got started. Then you have a bandwagoneers(that a word?) that just like to be part of a cause… preferably one that is edgy/cool/rebellious. And really…i have no idea on any effects either one is likely going to have.

By: Laura Moncur

Laura Moncur — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:09:40 +0000

That’s a good question: why do Digg users hate Digg? Why would they use the smallest thing as an excuse to take down the site?

Mike and I argued about this all day yesterday and still have come to no final solution…