Christian Selig, an iOS developer who ran his beloved third-party Reddit client Apollo, is taking part in Digg's new iteration as an advisor.
Earlier this year, Digg's original founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian acquired Digg's leftovers to activate what was previously known as the “internet homepage.” Rose and Ohanian were already a fascinating pairing. The two were previously considered rivals to each other.
By adding Selig to the mix, Rose and O'Hanian also show that the new digg wants to shake things up.
Selig played a prominent role in the 2023 rebound against the rise in API prices on Reddit. This created a free app like Apollo. In a Reddit post that became a virus, Selig told users that they would have to pay around $1.7 million a month to run Apollo under the new API pricing. Needless to say, Apollo was greatly closed to the disappointment of the Reddit community.
“We look forward to Selig bringing the same craft and community-first ideas to Digg and helping us create something better and better to use,” Digg CEO Justin Mezzell said in a statement.
Digg is embarking on a quest to make the social internet feel fun once again, in contrast to the current state where Ai Shrimp Jesus and other artificially generated slops take over our feed. However, Digg is not yet ready to be made public. Last month, Digg opened sign-up for an early access program called “Groundbreakers,” and will be offering a one-time $5 fee to keep bots out. (Proceeds from the program are donated to nonprofit organizations selected by the DIGG community.)
In the announcement of Selig's role, Metzel included a cheeky reference to Reddit's API drama. “I'm simply not commenting on that. I'm charting my own course here at Digg,” says Mezzell. “But if I comment, I would probably say it.”[redact] What a fumble I'm next to. “But that would only be the case if I said something publicly. ”