Digg.com is probably one of the most powerful sites right now. I’ve seen Digg send websites an unbelievable amount of traffic.
As users gain power on Digg, they let it influence them to do things that are against the company’s user policy. As users gain power on Digg, they let it influence them to do things that are against the company’s user policy. Digg users who are not as influential as users like MrBabyMan, Zaibatsu, MSaleem, and MKLopez have been using scripts to help them gain access to features that are not available to other users.
These scripts allowed Digg users to do things such as checking to see which of your friends are Digging your stories. Another script would even automatically Digg stories for you while you were sleeping. And another Digg script placed a Digg It button in the Incoming shouts page.
Jen Burton, Community Manager at Digg wrote a blog post stating that using scripts results in a violation of the Digg Terms of Use and will result in a ban.
Over 80 accounts have been deleted overnight. One of the notable bans that were made for using scripts is Brian Cuban, the brother of Internet billionaire Mark Cuban.
None of the top 10 was banned. But when Mr. Baby Man was interviewed recently, he denied using scripts or even from knowing what the scripts were on his live video podcast.
One of the most interesting parts of Mr. Baby Man’s discussion about whether he uses scripts was when he was asked what he would have Kevin Rose change about the company. He replied to make it more open and transparent– allow users to see what is going on. Owen Byrne, a developer credited as building the original version of Digg, agreed with MrBabyMan and said:
“Open up the site, open up transparency, let people see what’s going on…” How true that is, and I can guarantee you that you won’t see it until Jay and Kevin are gone. I should know, as they did a masterful job of suppressing my role as co-founder.
