Somebody e-mailed me this satirical article about Digg’s userbase revolting, which “quotes” me talking about Kevin Rose defacing my blog. I’m undecided as to whether it’s actually funny, but I did like this bit:
“What, is our Alexa ranking gonna drop from 73 to 74?” said Digg CEO Jay Adelson. “You know, for every 30-something who decides he’s got something better to do than digg a couple hundred stories a day, there’s a 15-year-old kid willing to skip his homework and take care of that for us. We’re not worried.”
Had I read that quote in any other context, I probably would have reluctantly believed that Jay said it.
Update: The site that was hosting the original article is now gone; here it is for posterity:
Digg Users Form Union, Refute Site Changes
SAN FRANCISCO (CAP) – In a rare show of solidarity on the Internet, users of the popular website digg.com have banded together to form a union in response to Kevin Rose’s decision to remove the “Top 100 Users” feature from the site. They intend to boycott Digg until the feature is reinstated.
“This could be the start of Web 3.0,” said independent internet analyst Will Scurto. “Instead of user-generated content, it’s user-demand management. Gives a whole new meaning to gaming the system.”
The union, aptly named Digg Users United in Harmony, has already received the backing of the ACLU, and is reportedly close to hundreds of thousands of dollars in venture capital funding to help support the effort. DUUH is the brainchild of once-and-future top Digg user, iliv2dig4u.
“We made Kevin Rose what he is today,” said the 28-year-old iliv2dig4u in a phone interview from the basement of his mother’s house. “Until he gets this fixed, we’re urging all Digg users to go use Netscape, where at least we can be recognized for all the free work we do to help these websites make money.”
However, the list has not totally disappeared from the Internet, having popped up on an independent blog run by Christopher Finke. Although Rose left a mean-spirited message on Finke’s blog about the rogue list, Finke said that doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I erased most of it because it was pretty childish,” Finke told CAP News. “It said something like, Baby, baby, stick your head in gravy, and then something else about bubblegum and the Navy. Kinda weird coming from a guy who’s almost 30.”
For their part, Digg staffers don’t believe the union or impending boycott will have any effect on the site itself.
“What, is our Alexa ranking gonna drop from 73 to 74?” said Digg CEO Jay Adelson. “You know, for every 30-something who decides he’s got something better to do than digg a couple hundred stories a day, there’s a 15-year-old kid willing to skip his homework and take care of that for us. We’re not worried.”
DUUH’s new website to promote their cause is expected to be live by the end of the week, and their first rally will take place on ICQ over the weekend.