Consumerist

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Digg

appropriation

3M Steals Viral Image Idea To Avoid Licensing It

There is probably nothing more pathetic in the world of marketing than watching a big corporation try to do something "viral"—usually they end up looking like Elaine dancing. But sometimes, they're so cynical and soulless about it that they don't just come across as incompetent, but as exploitative cheapskates as well. In 3M's case, they wouldn't pay $2,000 to license a well-known photo with its own viral history, and instead recreated a fake version of it to save a grand. We guess they're just hoping none of the sites and communities that made the photo popular in the first place will notice. Oh wait, this is supposed to be viral or something... More »

breaking

Liveblogging Digg's $#@*!storm

1:30, Diggs started to take longer to register . The digg box on one post started showing 11 diggs, when the post really had 56.
1:40 Our post is the top blog post when searching for digg in technorati tags, resulting in our first noticeable traffic ever from technorati. good thing we got reinstated in the directory for the 3rd time or so recently.
1:43 Serious slowdown after digging posts...more than 30 seconds.
1:44 Digg pwns sel: "Digg will be down for a brief period, while we make some changes."
1:45 Listening to the "Oh Nine, Eff Nine" song.
1:47 Digg still down.
1:48 It is going to take them a really long time to remove all the stories with the code in it. And then there's all those pesky users to ban.
1:49 Still down.
1:51 They are never going to keep that number out. People will add it as comments just for no reason. Congrats, MPAA, you've created a powerful new meme!
1:52 Just noticed that Kevin Rose, Digg founder, posted something two hours ago about how they're effectively going to tell the MPAA to shove the C&D. It uses the AACS code as a headline so you know he is for reals, or maybe it's just Digg-bait to increase his AdSense revenue.
1:59 People say it's up. But they also say it's timing out and hanging. Still down for us.
2:03 Now everyone sees "We'll be back shortly."
2:05 We remember enjoying the headline that said, "BREAKING: DELL DUDE LANDS ON MOOn!" With the subheading "also 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63.jpg." Think it linked to a picture of Kevin Rose, a shovel, one of those terrorist creatures from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a graphical representation of the deadly number. Not quite the perfect Venn diagram of Digg user interests, but cut 'em some slack, they're working on the fly.
2:08 This is a phat rap about the number.
2:09 Fatigue, thoughts of this post's pointlessness, begin to settle in.
2:12 Posting more screencaps taken shortly before the crash, inside.
2:16 People say it's up!
2:17 Hasn't propogated to us yet. Apparently the top story is Rose's, "I will never take this down."
2:19 It's back for us. Looks like the same crazy pile of hex stories. It's well past the tipping point of where people are just clicking on, and submitting all, the hex code stories they can.
2:20 Wonder if Digg will credit their advertisers for all the page refreshes.
2:21 Again, Rose: ""But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you 've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."" Let's see what kills Digg first, fighting the MPAA suit or no one wanting to read a site full of hex spam.
2:28 Submitted this post to Digg. More »

breaking

Digg Goes Ape$#@*!

A wide-scale user revolt is disrupting popular social news networking Digg. It's a protest over Digg acquiescing to MPAA pressure and deleting a 15,000+ dugg story about a crack for the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DRM system. More »


sutori

Sutori: Digg for Consumerists

Always give a sucker an even break. In addition, always give a new consumerist oriented web site a plug! More »

digg

Diggers Tell Netscape To Fuck Itself

We love Netscape. They're just so cute! Ever since they responded to our AOL Wants to Sell "Internet" to the Dead by claiming "there is no corroborating evidence... something smacks of the urban legend or mythology in this piece" we've just adored them. It takes balls to be that painfully bought out. More »

retail

The News; High Interest Charged For Lending Of Ears

• Isn't the real solution just to stop making more children? [NYT] "Congress Identifies Pornography Purchasers"
• Investment slumming on the backs of the marginal of wealth. You stay classy, broker-dealers. [CT] "Subprime Lenders Getting 2nd Look As Investments"
• You guys are so unamerican. [NYT] "Retail Sales Dipped in June"
• Have you ever heard of this wacky new site called Digg? It's all the rage with the kids. [CT] "They Can Digg it: Sites Let People Decide News"
• The "states secrets" that isn't. [CT] "Dismissal Sought of Phone-Records Suit Against AT&T"
• Home field advantage. Shortness of breath ensues amongst the 16,000 coat-tail hopefuls, causing them to reach for their pills. [LAT] "Verdict Bolsters Merck's Vioxx"

top

Pith & Vinegar; Irony Available in 26 New Colors

• Hope they boned up on their nighttime maneuvers. [WOAI]
• Stay inside this summer and get free books from Barnes & Noble, just for reading. It's a dark spiral of increasing literacy. [NoOnesHome]
• When the president of the cruise ship company comes forward to apologize, does he have a funny little admiral's hat and epaulets? [CruiseCritic]
• Usually its the airlines that stink too much to fly, not the passengers. [Ananova]
• Digg users rush to fill AOL's Digg ripoff with stories about AOL's Digg ripoff, inadvertently swelling the member list AOL can tout to advertisers in the process. [Valleywag]

remainders

Remainders: Digg and Slate Edition

Although we don't intend to make this a regular feature just yet, we spotted a rash of Consumeristy links over at Digg that we thought we'd pass on. More »