Uma revolução no meio virtual

O site chama-se Digg, ja foi alvo de um post aqui neste blog pela ideia original que coloca nos seus objectivos. Desta vez o dia foi de "loucos" como o caracterizou o seu co-fundador Kevin Rose pelas consequências que decorreram de um conjunto de operação de remoção de alguns posts e suspensão de alguns utilizadores.
Tudo começou por causa de um post que descrevia uma chave de encriptação da tecnologia HD-DVD e que sob a justificação de violar direitos de propriedade, foi removido. A questão é que a comunidade Digg não gostou, acima de tudo não gostaram da atitude da equipa Digg e inundaram o próprio Digg com centenas de novos posts com a chave e milhares de comentários obre este tema, enquanto que a equipa tentava repor a normalidade. A tal ponto que às tantas já se discutia mais a decisão da Digg do que propriamente o post original.
Este comentário expõe o estado a que esta questão chegou:

While they can do what they want on their own site, it is more a matter of credibility than anything else right now. The whole revolt isn't even about the HD-DVD key. What has people feeling burnt is the fact that Digg purports to be about free and open user-driven content in a democratic setting, and what we're seeing here is a cabal of admins who are subverting the entire process of the system to suit their own whims.

Now as I said, it's not even about the 128-bit key anymore. And it's not about the DMCA or its merits(or lack thereof). The problem goes much deeper than that, and the encryption key debacle was more of a catalyst for what the more perceptive Diggers knew was going on all along but never really had any proof of. See, it's not just any posts containing the number they're removing. The Digg admins are removing and banning any discussion on the topic, even legitimate discussions on the ramifications of censorship in the user-driven internet era. Quite a few legitimate and thought-provoking discussions got clobbered when the admins got ban-happy today.

They have unwittingly set themselves up as a prime example of what can go wrong when marketing dollars(it is being reported that the HD-DVD guys throw ad dollars at Diggnation) meet the voice of the people. It is now being said that the Digg admins are stepping in and removing "objectionable" content when it conflicts with the will of their advertisers or displays any anti-Digg sentiment. While I'm sure this is good business sense, it's a very ugly way of being outed as a shill and a fraud to your readers. Digg is supposed to be the underdog who fought the status-quo and beat overwhelming odds against "the system". Now people are finding out that Digg has become the system, and they're a bit disillusioned that their hero Mr. Rose is just like any other business man who is out to make a buck. But like I said, the admins of Digg are obviously free to do with their site as they see fit. But Digg is only as good as the people who contribute to it. Kiss them good-bye and you kiss Digg good-bye.

O poder do Digg reside na sua comunidade. Uma forma de protesto que ninguém estava à espera, mas que prova a força e a diferença possíveis de aingir nas comunidades virtuais.