Panelists: Jessamyn West, Gina Trapani, Jessica Dzwigalski, Annalee Newitz

[aside] – I came to hear/see Jessamyn, who completely rocks! But the panel was good, too.

Newitz:

three kinds of user revolts:

• anarchist-style pranks
• grassroots protests
• op-ed/open letter from high-profile users

Discussed some Digg revolts:

• paying people to Digg your page
• the HD code thing

Dzwigalski (Jessica Linden):

• Griefers – tax revolt in July 2003
• CopyBot protest, Nov 2006
• Resident-Created IP rights campaign, 2008
• “if you’re taking our avatar, your’e taking our identity”

Jessamyn West (Metafilter):

• Outline
• how they handled a sexism brouhaha at metafilter

Trapani (Lifehacker):

• talked about an ad that their users didn’t like
• It was an ad featuring naked bottoms… they didn’t like “mooning their audience” – interesting way to look at it
• Readers said the ad contradicted the nature of the site (ie., it’s supposed to be safe for work)
• interesting questions – when do you listen to your users?
• 2-3 dozen emails about a single issue – that got them to notice it and change