"My question is - where were the tech reporters from the larger news organizations? They
found out about this from ValleyWag, VentureBeat and Mashable the next morning.
Those were the beat bloggers - those are the reporters who got the
scoop."

Last night there was a mini-revolt on Digg.

This post is not about the revolt itself or why the community was upset. In truth, most reporters won’t care - except to say that Digg is an interesting Web 2.0 community powered phenomena that can direct huge waves of traffic (we will have a future post on social news sites as a tool for beat blogging).

This post is about the role I played in organizing the protest - because I believe there are lessons for all beat bloggers.

A narrative recap (This narrative is also told from the point of view of Muhammad Saleem, a prominent community leader at Digg here:  From Revolt to Resolution in 12 Hours Or Less):

Recent changes to Digg had the active community members concerned. A Google Group was set up to discuss these issues. As the discussion began reaching a critical mass, which included people deciding to leave Digg for good (mostly outside the Google Group), I decided to create a simple blogspot blog that would allow others to publicly announce they were going to leave Digg too. Revoltnation (a play off of Diggnation, their weekly podcast). 

The concerns were then organized and listed in an open letter to Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson drafted by me and another co-author. At this point ValleyWag, VentureBeat, Mashable and other notable tech blogs are not only writing about what is going on, they were watching it live.

How were they privy to this? A social network was already there!

Muhameed Saleem and two of the other most notorious Diggers have a weekly podcast and they decided to do an "emergency episode." Via Twitter and IM word spread.

Using Ustream we had up to 120 active members of the Digg community chatting with text or through Skype for everyone else to hear.

I know a few reporters were watching as well. They were watching their sources form a community on the fly, and witnessing a protest form.  A protest did form. There had been a resolution to stop participating at the site until Monday in the hopes that concerns would be addressed or the community would find another social news site to join.

Sounds like a bunch of rabble rouser’s, doesn’t it?

But this community-on-the-fly was of real consequence. Enough to get Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose (CEO and founder of Digg) on Skype to chat live as well. That’s when issues were addressed and the protest was called off on the condition that Digg create a new and open mode of communication.

For beat blogging the important thing here isn’t the protest - it’s that an online community can form publicly and protest a site in the open. If a protest forms on the street - reporters are there (or should be). My question is - where were the tech reporters from the larger news organizations? They found out about this from ValleyWag and Mashable the next morning. Those were the beat bloggers - those are the reporters who got the scoop.

A link recap via TechMeme

New Digg algorithm angers the social masses

Discussion:

Brent Csutoras:   200 Diggs 1 Voice: Diggers Had Enough!

Soshable:   The Digg Algorithm has Changed

DigiDave / revoltnation:   Digg is a Game - Let’s Play For Real This Time

Tamar Weinberg / techipedia:   Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson Respond to Digg Complaints

Muhammad Saleem / muhammad.saleem:   from revolt to resolution in 12 hours or less

RyanSpoon.com Blog:   Digg Unveils New Algorithm… Is Digg Trying to Become Techmeme?

Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:   Digg faces revolt from top users as it tries to appeal to prospective purchasers

Frederic / The Last Podcast:   A New Digg Revolt