Marketing Pilgrim

Digg reports they’ve reached an impressive 1 million user accounts. (If you’re a Diggr and planning on being in the San Francisco area “mid April,” possibly April 19, you’re being invited to a party in that post, so check it out.)

Digg doesn’t mention, however, how many of the accounts are duplicates, suspended or inactive. Michael Arrington (and some commenters on the post) openly admits that at least 10 of those 1 million accounts are his. Time for my favorite smiley: :\ .

Reddit’s also in the news today, finally beginning to see some of the same bad press that Digg made famous (and then buried). Paul McNamara at NetworkWorld calls them a meritocracy and points out that, at the time of his writing, 14 of the 15 top items on Reddit were calling for Bush’s impeachment.

Now, before the Constitution freak in me rants about what an impeachment is and how we’re nowhere close to the constitutional criteria, I’d like to point out that word meritocracy. Most of the commenters to Paul’s post are eager to jump on him and say, “No, Paul, Reddit is a DEMOCRACY.” (Right. Just like the US is a democracy.)

Digg and Reddit users truly want to believe they’re operating in a pure, direct democracy. However, I’m going to add a third alternative to label Digg, Reddit, et al.: oligarchy—power is held by a small, elite group. Sounds apt to me.

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