Spike the Vote, the so-called "anti-Digg," is being auctioned off on eBay because of the owners inability to maintain it.
It was previously reported that the site was created as a "bulletproof way to cheat Digg."
Tired of "... 30 elite users (or bots, perhaps) controlling the front page content of digg.com," they "...created this little community.." whereby users "...collectively vote each other's stories to the front page."
 The site apparently worked well enough, though there were some reports of users being banned at any hint of their participation in this Digg-gaming scheme.
The scheme worked as follows:
 I act as the middle man, verifying votes and keeping everyone in line. If someone stops digging, they won't earn enough points to get their own stories dugg.
Spike the Vote works on a point system. Each day I give you a mission with several stories to Digg. 20% of your mission involves digging stories submitted by users in this community, while 80% of of your mission is completely random. This is to eliminate footprints and keep things anonymous.
You earn 1 point for each story Dugg. Once you earn enough points, you can trade them in for Diggs on your own stories.
But, in a recent e-mail distributed to users of the site and recently passed onto me, the owner of Spike the Vote cited an "overflow of of ongoing projects" which prevents him from keeping up with Spike the Vote. Thus, he decided to put the site up for auction.
 He writes:
Dear Spikers,
Due to an overflow of ongoing projects, I cannot keep up with Spike the Vote. I have decided to put the site up for auction. If you are interested in owning Spike the Vote, it can be purchased here.
Thank you.
Now whether or not anybody decides to purchase the site remains to be seen, with the current bid being $1000 USD. I do know however, that the Digg admins will still be on the outlook for those suspected of using this dubious Digg cheating service.
SOULXTC: "walkin' the streets of P2P"
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