Ryan j Budke

So Digg is apparently having just a few issues at the moment in how its top users have felt they’ve been treated. A topic that I think deserves a long hard look. We’ve had similar situations at Propeller (formerly Netscape), and they’re never easy, but we always came out a much stronger and richer site because of it. Personally, I don’t like Digg’s behind the scenes methods, I think that leads to a very us against them mentality. It’s also naive to think that any completely open and social site could survive without an editorial layer. There’s always going to be spam, there’s always going to be questionable content, and there’s always going to be a need to combat those things. The major difference is that at Propeller, we put those parts of the site on display. That way you not only have a more direct means of reporting problems, and thus helping the site to grow, but also someone that can be held accountable when it’s not living up to your standards.

I’d like to invite anyone from Digg that’s feeling “disenfranchised” to come and spend some time at Propeller for a few days. Not only that, but if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get a hold of me directly either via email (Ryan@propeller.com) or IM (Ryan45209). I’m not trying to “steal” users from Digg in doing this (some of our paid employees are among Digg’s top users, and I read the site everyday), I just want the guys and gals who feel like they’ve been put out by Digg to know that there are other venues who may appreciate them more.

Again, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.