Has Digg’s nerd juggernaut outlived its usefulness? Kevin Rose, founder of the community-driven news website, apparently thinks so.

Rose is planning changes during the next few months to give individuals more control over how they view stories on the Digg site, shifting power away from the core of loyal and fanatical users—so-called Diggerati—that have built the community-based content-ranking website into one of the stars of Web 2.0.

The problem for Rose, however, is this: The same user devotion that made Digg a hit threatens to manifest itself as a backlash. Digg's user base is already known for protesting every change in the website's algorithm for ranking articles, videos, and graphics; the more radical transformation that Rose is proposing is bound to leave many in the Diggerati crying foul.

Digg is just fine with that.

As the playing field for user-driven newsgets more crowded, Digg’s new tools, which are scheduled to appear this summer, appear to be designed to bolster user traffic to the site. Individual visitors will be allowed to pick which stories they want to read by setting alerts and making suggestions—bypassing the will of the Digg core.

“So you can dictate, not just the community,” says Mike Maser, Digg’s chief revenue and strategy officer.

Sure Digg may gain new users who enjoy being able to see stories only about their particular interests—rock climbing, for example, or presidential contender Mike Huckabee. But it also stands to lose other users who like their playground rules just as they are.

The conceit of Digg is that it’s a democratic system in which a set of contributors—mostly male, mostly tech-savvy—“digg,” or recommend, an article, photo, video, or graphic they've found on the Web, then submit it so others can digg it as well.

The stories that are "dugg" the most are uploaded to the front page of the site each day, directing readers—and advertising dollars—along the way.

But the system for pushing content onto the front page is easily manipulated, requiring the site to constantly update and amend the algorithm that drives Digg. Accusations of ballot stuffing abound. Users can build several accounts or have their loyal armies of Digg soldiers click on stories they want pushed.

Those without a deep network of friends end up with less pull, and Digg’s geeky core tends to be obsessed with certain topics, notably Ron Paul, Steve Jobs—and, of course, any story that mentions Digg.

There are even some websites that offer to pay Digg users to vote for certain stories. Digg penalizes such behavior harshly—including permanently banning transgressors from the site—but the mere existence of these fly-by-night businesses damages Digg’s allure.