The Digg Rev[fizzle]

When I began reading all the news which had been emailed to me and made popular on Mixx last night I thought something real was in motion. A real “Digg Revolt”! People would stop complaining and take some action. This was not the case.
The Digg users got all riled up and finally organized to demand answers and perhaps a change or 2. They organized in a way which was obviously meaningful enough to bring Kevin and Jay out to answer questions… or so it seemed. What resulted was more of a calming action than a Q&A session. Certainly I wasn’t there, but what was solved? In reading all subsequent analysis I can’t see much of anything which was changed. Sure some questions were danced around and answers hinted at, but that’s about all. Basically this should be used as a case study in crisis management within business school strategic management classes worldwide. It’s really a textbook example; my old StratMana professor would have been proud of these guys (really!).
Honestly I don’t know if I expected anything less. The Digg community most likely has little incentive to actually revolt until they are actually forced out, which is no revolt. I love good online communities as much as anyone, but once people get insulated in their network they rarely want to disrupt that network on ideological grounds. Just look at the proof: a number of top Diggers have been banned, yet the friends of these high profile users remained. They didn’t move to Mixx on principle as their banned brethren were forced to do. With all the negatives floating around Digg and the obvious dismissal by the user community, I suppose we shouldn’t have truly expected much; certainly not an actual revolt.
***
Have a good Digg Day, the holiday commemorating a revolution that never was.