On the web attention is the currency that is most sought after. When you’re the technology news aggregator Digg, with 250,000 members, millions of readers a week, the 350th most visited site on the web, you’ve got a system that people are going to try to de-fraud for their own gain.
Digg’s an important site because it has pioneered the "wisdom of crowds" editing model, where the community decides on the stories that make the front page. Now the dream is running into reality and facing up to the challenge of people who subvert the system – and Digg is effectively having to moderate its posts to a certain degree.
There’s a big debate going on all over blogs about Digg’s editorial policy – as it has started banning people it sees as gaming the system by creating automated accounts that Digg.
As usual for the web, serious debate is flanked by conspiracy theories.
See the following posts for a flavour:
Digg’s Kevin Rose on Digg fraud
Some people he banned feeling hard done by
Someone else who was banned
Jason Calcanis of Weblogs inc with good analysis
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