Another Digg Uproar

It is reported by the article entitled "Digg Uproar: Attack on Mr. Babyman and Blind Digging", on Ashmadai's Blog, some members of Digg raised the roof last week over one of the Digg Top Users known as Mr. Babyman. It seems some members of Digg were disgruntled over the fact that Mr. Babyman achieved great success on Digg and the allegations flew around about how he gained his status and kept it for over a year like finger nail's at a bar room cat fight. The accusations were so intense that Mr. Babyman felt compelled to conduct an interview to explain a few things, of course this really resolved nothing in the long run. The major complaints of Babyman using scripts and blind digging remained with some of those in attendence and it seemed to fuel their agendas.

One of the things I've seen happening in the past week or two over at Digg is not really dealing with the subject of Blind Digging or Mr. Babyman, these two topics are only the tip of the ice berg. If these bully groups get their way, then they will target new people and new things. I've seen this happen many times on the net, people who have no power often get drunk with it when they find out they can manipulate people and events.

There is a poem that I've always liked, which fits this occassion. I am sure most of you have heard it before, but I will repeat it here:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak upbecause I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

This was said to be written by the Reverand Martin Niemoller in 1945, I never checked to
insure that if this information was correct. I don't think it really matters. What matters is the thoughts being conveyed.

Mr. Babyman is under attack and many allegations are made about him, none of the allegations come along with hard fact to prove the claims. The detractors of Mr. Babyman state their case as if they have enough proof to crucify the man, expecting others on Digg to drop into line like good little sheeple. Along with this comes the pleadings of some to ban Mr. Babyman because of baseless accusations. In the old days they would say a person in Mr. Babyman's position was being "Railroaded". On the heels of the Mr. Babyman upheavel comes the agenda guided people who want to alter Digg's Rules and Policies to suit themselves. To those who have seen this done many times over in other forums, it is easy to see the drive for some to manipulate Digg and it's staff.

If these people get their way with Mr. Babyman, then who's next and where will it stop? The members of Digg need to be made to realize that their input and opinions are important, but that does not mean that just because they say something that Digg will do as they say. Digg controls Digg and they are gracious enough to say, at least, that there is a democratic process that is involved with their site. The baseline is that it is Digg who will catch the heat from the state or feds if something happens on their site that draws attention and those at Digg have to protect that, so the illusion of Digg being Democratic has it's limitations -- and this is one of them. Digg has to maintain the reins of control and not allow it to slip to special interest groups.