Few weeks back i came across with Zaibatsu to get his opinion about social media for my article; he was among top 10 diggers at that time. For the reason he was among top diggers i presumed he might have been rude or impolite; but to my surprise he was very friendly and helping. Even he offered me to get assistance from MrBabyMan for my article. While being in social media we only can know people by their conversations online, approaches towards requests and dealings in terms of help and favors; so i established a perception about him as a man who can go out of the way to help others. My encounter with him was purely professional though i started deeming him as “my good friend and mentor”.

Yesterday we were talking to each other regarding several things including the Islamabad blasts and he was like “oh! There is not much I can do in my diminished capacity on digg, but that should change in the next few days…. I’ll try and get the word out”

When he got to know about the Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek died in Islamabad Blast he said “damn do I have to contact my people in the well U.S. Govt to find out what the real story is?, now I’m trying to tone down the response from the U.S. in a major crisis”

He told me his father died of cancer last year and his mother has Alzheimer and a bad heart; he always tries to please her. At that time I could never have thought he would be banned from digg.

Regarding his ban on digg he contacted Digg support and wrote them “I had linked directly to the pictures of the digg user on her site. However the site owner apparently redirected the site to a spam site after my initial post.”

In his other mail On Sep 19, 2008, at 11:59 AM, R.J. Saddler( Zaibatsu)wrote:

Guys, hey I didn’t know that a picture of a female digger was against the TOS. I didn’t even know that she was selling something on the site. I’ve submitted over 3000 – 4000 articles and I’ve been on Digg since month 1. I definitely didn’t try and promote a site to sell a product. I really have tried to be a good digger.

Is there anyway that you could reinstate my account?

Reg
________________________________________________________
His request was declined by Digg Support saying

Hello R.J.,

Thanks for contacting us at Digg.com. At this time, we are unable to remove the ban on your account.

–Digg Support
__________________________________________________________

I feel bad for him and few thing that go in his favour are:
1. He was such an active and popular digger that out of 3000 – 4000 submissions; a full 1,196 have gone popular making total 40%.
2. He never have deliberately violated the TOS of digg in entire four years.
3. He has explained his position in his email to Digg support too.
4. He is a man with wish to bring change He told me while talking about digg:

“I started with digg … a member from month 1, it was fun, and it still is. I enjoy getting stories that I care about to the masses. It’s so much hard then just a year ago due to digg and other sites changing the algo. But for every cute bunny story, I want to get 1 out about the environment, or politics. Just the stuff I care about. Don’t get me wrong I have to feed the masses, but what makes it for me is the fact that I can make a difference. A change for good”

5. He has been not only a loyal digg user for four years but a mentor for many a user and emerged as an devoted promoter of the site.

6. Digg is just a site; i am sure he has much strength to start his own social media Company as He claimed that,

“I’ll have the largest social media market company on the planet in 1 year”

7. I have solid grounds to say that group can change things a group that has power to influence the mind in making and breaking a story as Reg Saddler told me

We’re a groups of people can influence the media more than a 3 minute blurb on CNN It’s the wisdom of the informed masses. The power of the masses to move a concept, stories or even a cute picture forward so a group of people can enjoy, comment or talk action for good or bad on a topic. The old media just doesn’t get it

However as Digg CEO Jay Adelson “Digg revolt” that took place last night? It wasn’t really a revolt, he says. Several of the top diggers — including Andrew “MrBabyMan” Sorcini, Muhammad “msaleem” Saleem and Reg “Zaibatsu” Saddler, held an emergency chat/podcast to discuss their response to a recent change in the Digg algorithm which made it more difficult for veteran Diggers to get their submissions on the front page. After nearly a couple hours of debate, it was decided that they would boycott the site. They backed down from the plan, though, when Digg founder Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson showed up and talked them down from it.

“Let’s be realistic about what happened yesterday,” Adelson says. “It wasn’t a revolt. To me, a revolt is when a statistically significant group of people cause a disruption. These guys are significant to me personally, but this wasn’t a revolt. I hope that the next time a small group of users voice their concerns, it’s not represented as a ‘mass movement’ or a ‘revolt.’”

If this groups will seriously revolt i am sure he can be unbanned and reinstated. Despite the fact that he would have become the lead story of American press; i would want raise my little voice for him.

About Rubab Saleem

Rubab Saleem has written 2672 articles on this journal.

Rubab Saleem is Editor of Pakistan Times

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