How much is a user worth?

A member of social news site Digg has put their account up for sale on Ebay.

The user, going by the name Geekforlife, announced the auction on Digg.

The member profile is currently ranked 73, making it one of the top 100 users. Users in the top 100 are believed to have greater influence in promoting submitted items to the front page than normal users.

Announcing the sale, Geekforlife wrote: "I was reading the story about how the Digg user was worth $2.00. [I] said what the hell, I could use a couple bucks plus [would like to] see if that is true, so I have my profile up for auction on eBay."

Bidding on the profile has currently reached $350.

Geekforlife has been a member of Digg since August 2005 and submitted 750 stories to the site. Of those submitted, 41 have featured on the Digg front page.

Reaction to the auction has been mixed among the Digg community.

"When you introduce money into a site like Digg, the original intent of the site gets lost.

"I don't want to see users selling their profiles to the highest bidder, who may turn out to be a spammer," commented one user.

"Why shouldn't he profit from all the time he has invested in building up his profile? [Digg founder Kevin Rose] stands to gain millions on the back of Geekforlife's work (and the other top users).

"Fair play to him and good luck with the auction," wrote another.