Meet Steve Rousseau, Features Editor
GET TO KNOW A DIGG EMPLOYEE
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Digg may seem like a cold, faceless company, but underneath the ever-shifting grid of content, lies humans who make it work. This week, we chat with features editor Steve Rousseau.

What's your name?

Stephen Matthew Rousseau. But most people call me Steve. Except my immediately family. To them I am Stephen. It's probably for the best.

What do you do at Digg?

I'm the Features Editor. So, if you see a piece of original writing on Digg, it's probably my fault. Such greatest hits include a dive into the North Korean rumor mill, and Nancy Drew video game fandom. I also edit our wonderful front page, and write a weekly weird news round-up called What We Learned This Week — among other things. Also, I'm going to take this opportunity to say that if you would like your writing to appear on Digg you should email me: [email protected].

Our interview subject, trying to break into the media industry. 

What was your job right before Digg?

This might sound like a cover letter, so I apologize in advance. But before Digg, I created content for brands. It was very stressful and I did not enjoy that job too much. Before that, however, I worked at Popular Mechanics. I wrote the table of contents, edited a letters to the editor section and offered modeling services for the magazine for free because I was desperate, young and naive. I enjoyed that job very much.

Tell us something that people don't get about your job.

Most of what we do at Digg isn't just hanging out on the Internet and just posting links to things we think are cool. I mean It's certainly part of it, but every day we have to look at EVERYTHING that's posted to the Internet and try and make sense of it.

I probably sound like I'm drinking the kool-aid here, but we try and make the front page best represent the ENTIRE Internet. It is exhausting. Every time I come back to my desk and see TweetDeck auto-scroll through all the tweets I've missed I get supreme waves of anxiety. The upside to all of this is that I can go home knowing that I have consumed just about every piece of Internet content published that day. Which is nice.

Describe your favorite project/day at Digg.

I have no shame in admitting that the best thing I have ever written is about dating an imaginary girlfriend over the Internet. It is highly embarrassing, but it was extremely cathartic and fun to write. I am not proud of most of my writing — and the worst thing you can ever do is go back and read your own writing (this Q&A probably included) — but sometimes when I feel like a massive hack I go back and read that to remind me that I am a passable writer and that I can Do It.

What was your worst day at Digg?

This is a very hard question! I feel like my answer is going to be the equivalent of answering "Oh I just care TOO much" when someone asks you what your greatest weakness is, but: I really can't remember a specific, singular day that sucked. That said, I probably average about a less-than-awesome day a week. Like today! I just recently got over a cold, and last night I managed to catch another one. My head is currently a battlefield between cold meds and cold viruses. It is not fun.

But, as someone who has had a grand total of three big-boy jobs, there are always bad days no matter what you do. Otherwise, why would we get paid to do this?

If you weren't an editor what would you be doing?

My dream contingency plan — in the event I am no longer able to make a living off of words on the Internet — is to grow a beard, move to Colorado and become a bike mechanic. I can't really grow a beard, and I know very little about bike repair, but I'd like to think that a nice big existential crisis would push me to accomplish both of these things.

What's one skill you acquired while at Digg?

Apart from re-wiring my brain to almost always think in turns-of-phrase and puns, watching things get published to the Internet day-after-day gave me a much more comprehensive understanding of online media. Which: BORING. But, like, I know when outlets publish stuff, what sources to rely on when there's news, and the sorts of niche areas of interest publications have carved out for themselves. It's sort of like when you finally got a handle on the geography and families of Westeros. I don't know if that's a skill or just required knowledge to be a decent media professional, but it definitely helps when figuring out what should go on the front page as well as what stories we should be producing ourselves.

You spend all day on the Internet. What's the worst thing you've seen?

I can look at blood, guts, sonic porn, or any Rule 34 weirdness the Internet cooks up; but my only Kryptonite is watching people hurt their extremities. In terms of gross stuff on the Internet, I can most easily relate to it — I have either dislocated, jammed, or broken all 10 of my fingers — which is why I can never watch it. I know exactly how it feels. A cut just sort of hurts, but when something is broken or out of its socket it just feels and looks wrong. I'm not going to link to anything in particular because I really don't want to chance watching it. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

When people find out you work at Digg, what do they usually say?

It is almost always, "Oh, cool!" immediately followed-up with "I haven't been on there in awhile, what do you do there?" or "What's Digg again?" I usually try to make a joke like: "Oh, it's just a website on the Internet you can go on!" But most people just kind of give me a blank stare or expect me to elaborate. Anyway, I think it's a good sign that the stigma from V4 has largely faded from the public's collective memory.

What is the last movie you watched? Book you read?

The other night I watched Grizzly Man. I don't understand why Werner Herzog feels like it's cool to just fart in his thoughts near the end. I don't read too many books because I am almost always reading things on the Internet, or analysis of things on the Internet, or meta-analysis of analysis of things on the Internet. But usually when I have a long train ride or flight I re-read George Saunders's 10th of December. I really enjoy it.

You can only order three pizza toppings for the rest of your life, what are they?

The pizza topping trifecta is sausage, roasted red pepper, and pepperoni. If left to my own devices I would only order this combination.

What is one thing you can definitely cook without looking at the recipe?

I make really good lentil soup that's based off of this. Maybe wait until it gets colder out to cook it.

Do you want to hit this blunt?

No. Weed makes me really quiet and paranoid, like a manatee.

Besides Digg dot com, what is your favorite website?

I have to admit, there are three bicycling subreddits (r/bicycling, r/velo and r/cyclocross) which are very effective cycling content delivery methods.​

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