You know how social news sites like Kevin Rose's Digg, which rank stories according to the votes of readers, were going to make editors redundant? Well, turns out that even Digg needs editors. Ha!

Why do some stories abruptly disappear from Digg? Duncan Riley of TechCrunch suspects "super users." But there's a much simpler explanation: Digg's shadowy moderators. Digg cofounder Kevin Rose has admitted that the social-news site, a supposedly democratic venue where users pick the headlines, employs moderators: "We have site moderators that ban spammers, remove illegal content, and keep an eye on things. Always have, always will." But what, exactly, does keeping an eye on things entail?

OK, so Ask.com is no longer Ask Jeeves, and you've never heard of Cracked.com. And really, the Internet isn't that much like a bad college house party at all. But still, parts of the humorous short "The Internet Party," from which we briefly excerpt above, ring true. Like the perky, plucky "Google," who's played by a much less pretty but equally nerdy version of Marissa Mayer.

Probably by not watching shows like the newly launched "Digg Reel." Instead of letting you just watch the top-rated videos on Digg, "The Digg Reel" shows them to you — but not before it wastes 96 seconds of your life with a bumper and chatter from overly loquacious host Jessica Corbin.

By "world news" I mean "the current favorite video being passed around online." And by that I don't even mean it's the most-watched video of the week, but that this video of an unapologetic Australian hipster ruffian is being passed around every pass-stuff-around site until it seems it's taken over the Internet. Below, a summary of the video and a timeline of how it spread (and of course the video itself).

Working for Barry Diller is a harrowing experience. Just take a look at Jim Lanzone, the former CEO of Ask.com, before he joined IAC, and after. Even so, we're reconsidering our sympathetic view of Lanzone. We hear that one big reason he was fired was the slipping schedule on an Ask.com news site. Despite putting 20 people nearly full-time on the project, and getting help from Digg, Lanzone missed a December deadline for the site, now slated for a February launch.

Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka lavishes praise on Quincy Smith, CBS's hyperactive interactive dealmaker. The ostensible reason? A well-executed deal between Digg and CBSNews.com, designed to avoid offending the fragile feelings of the social news site's oversensitive communities. Forget all that. The real reason? Kafka has a massive mancrush on Smith — as does just about every other tech reporter I know. Smith is witty, adorable, and just geeky enough for us to relate. He's also got an open pocketbook to buy Web properties, which makes him a font of story-generating deal rumors. But he's mostly adorable. Oh, those eyebrows!

Ron Paul, inexplicably, has locked up the geek vote. The quasi-libertarian crackpot has plenty of fans, affectionately known as "Paultards," from San Francisco to the Googleplex. Add to them Digg cofounder Kevin Rose, who listed Paul and Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama as his favorite candidates. (Blogger Will Chen noted the preferences on Rose's Digg profile page.) But I'd ask this: How much is Rose's support really worth?

Fleshbot, a NSFW site published, like Valleywag, by Gawker Media, feels left out. Digg's terms of service do not allow pornographic content, so Fleshbot doesn't benefit from the flood of traffic prominent placement on Digg allows. Boo frickin' hoo, I say.

Just a tip for those who wonder what Digg is like. The most popular item on the social news site is a mockup of the site itself, which sums up the opinions of the users. (Digg users vote up news items; a vote is supposed to mean "this is interesting" but really means "I agree.") For injokes, click through.

Kina Grannis knows how the Digg algorithm works. Her Digg fanboy-baiting "Digg Song" got dugg and now the word is record companies have noticed. One has even approached her to discuss a record deal. Guess this means the guys at Famesource have even more competition.

Digg CEO Jay Adelson insists the company isn't selling out anytime soon. He also downplays the possibility that his company might buy smaller startups. But he did tell BusinessWeek to expect new "customization and personalization" features for Digg in 2008. These include a story-suggestion function, alerts, and a user-grading system similar to eBay's buyer and seller ratings. Throw in a few badly needed customer support reps and you might have yourself a gen-yoo-wine Web 2.0 company there, Jay.

Digg CEO Jay Adelson told BusinessWeek that the company is not planning a 2008 IPO, holding acquisition talks, or looking for more money. Which is obviously bullshit. That is, unless Digg hired Allen & Company, an investment bank which specializes in media deals, to bolster its ultimate frisbee team.

She sings:

Notorious nerdbody Julia Allison, the Star editor-at-large best known for her geek conquests, has this to share with Valleywag: Digg cofounder Kevin Rose has asked her out on a date. Really, could she have come with a more thoughtful present for a gossip blogger? How sweet. Let me go out on a limb here with my prediction: This is going to end badly. Incredibly, someone has already registered kevinandjulia.com.

Valleywag is of course known for its dead-on accuracy, so our predictions for 2008 need no introduction. Inside, my 25 predictions (made without inside information) cover the futures of Facebook, Google, Digg, YouTube, Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, Apple, Yahoo, Gawker Media, AOL, Dell, LOLcats, the president, and more.

Digg has hired an investment bank in hopes of selling the company for at least $300 million. Digg users, in case you haven't heard, aren't happy about this. One of them, Tamar Weinberg, who ranks among Digg's top 50 users measured by success at getting stories to the site's homepage, has penned a rant on why anybody would be dumb to buy Digg anyway. Here's the 100-word version.

At last, an explanation for the renewed rumors of a Digg sale. Digg has hired Allen & Co., the boutique investment bank which specializes in media deals, according to VentureBeat. Which makes sense, since Digg CEO Jay Adelson got an invite to this year's exclusive Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley. The wave of buzz about a Digg sale is likely explained by Allen bankers' discreet inquiries. The company, as we'd heard, is seeking a price tag of $300 million. One possible acquirer, IAC, which had previously expressed interest but has backed off before. One reason for the renewed interest now: We hear that Barry Diller's online conglomerate is secretly working with Digg on some kind of project — possibly a white-label version of Digg's social news site. (Photo by Lane Hartwell)

The wonderful thing about Digg? Critical thinking is not required. You can vote for stories based on your personal belief system, not whether they're, say, true. Take, for example, a brief New York Times story about UPS's cost-saving route software. Digg users translated this into a tall tale about UPS saving 3 million gallons of gas by elminating left-hand turns. Computers save the environment! It's a tale that comforts geeks who believe software will fix everything.

Sandra Soroka, the New York videoblogger who dumped her boyfriend through her Facebook status message may not have had her Flickr account hacked by outraged Digg users, as we previously reported. Some now suggest she staged the hack, hoping it would stem the tide of invective flooding her Facebook inbox, according to Underwire. "You can't write anything because I'm not saying anything," Soroka told fellow videoblogger Sarah Meyers, who reported Soroka was closing all her online accounts. Doesn't look like that worked, hmm?