Digg Profile For Sale on eBay

written by John Chow on July 30th, 2006

Just saw over on Digg that there is a story on Tech Crunch about a digg user selling his account on eBay. The current bid is $157.50.

Now why would anyone want to buy a Digg profile? Well Geekforlife, the profile up for sale, is currently ranked 75th among Digg’s 445,000 registered users. A user with a higher rank is given more importance over a person with a lower rank and therefore the chances of getting a story to the front page are greater if the higher profile submits and votes for the story.

I find this all very funny and I feel sorry for the person who buys the profile. I’m pretty sure Digg will just ban the profile once it’s sold. The question is, why is Geekforlife selling his profile? The answer may have to do with the new Netscape, which has recently gone to a Digg style setup.

See Netscape understands that most of Digg’s submissions are done by just a handful of users and Netscape has been trying to steal those users away by offering to pay them to submit stories to Netscape. My theory is Geekforlife got an offer to join Netscape and figure he’ll try to cash in on his high profile before leaving.

Hold on to your seat, the battle between Digg and Netscape is just starting.

Knuckles10 said on July 31st, 2006 at 2:05 am

Apparently this accounts password got guessed and stolen anyway before the action ends/ended.

Reply to this comment

David Lithman said on July 31st, 2006 at 6:06 am

I think Netscape will have a hard time taking users and readers away from digg. Digg just has a cool name and loyal following. They were first on the market too. They might have to pay a lot more than just the top few if they want to take over the market.

Reply to this comment

geekforlife said on August 1st, 2006 at 6:16 pm

just to set the record straight:
1) I have not been offered a job at netscape, I did it just to see what would happen. I have spent a lot of time on Digg and need to take a break.
2)My account has not been stolen, it was taken over for about a half hour on Sunday, but I have full control over it again.

Reply to this comment

John Chow said on August 1st, 2006 at 9:45 pm