On Tuesday, there was a huge revolt against Digg for removing a story that contained the code used for an HD DVD crack. Every story on the front page of Digg was either about the code or about Diggs removal of stories that contained the code. It was crazy. Here is what the sites founder, Kevin Rose, had to say.
Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughts.
In building and shaping the site Iíve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. Weíve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, youíve made it clear. Youíd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we wonít delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Digg on,
Kevin
Wow. Well, I understand why they removed the story in the first place, but I think it's really cool how they have decided to listen to their users and will fight the good fight. I think that the best thing they can do is leave the stories containing the code on the site up, because this will keep people happy and the code will eventually be forgotten by most. If they fight it, users will just keep putting it up there. Check out the whole mess.
and here's one of the clever things someone thought of for Digg
