By now, most of you have heard that we have received $28.7-million in funding (Ya-HA-ay and thanks Richie), however, our work has only just begun.

As you also probably know, Richard de Silva has joined the Digg team and it is time we begin creating a stronger business model. As Kevin twittered recently: “our 12 month road map is the best it’s ever been.”

He’s right, but we still need your help. Here’s what we aim to do, why we want to do it, and how you can help. If you have any suggestions, let us know!

1. Push Digg into the $300-million reality

We are looking for the crème de la crème of Business Development Managers.

We must drive our base negotiation point back to $300-million; Google walked away during the due diligence stage of our deal, and we believe this is directly related to our Quantcast score, which shows that Digg has hit a plateau and has fewer new registrations.

2. Remove the top 100 Digg users

Over the past week, we’ve started killing off our top Diggers.

Let me explain: If we want to place our negotiation baseline at $300-million, we can not have the same 1 percent of users generating 32 percent of visits to our site.

To that end, we have started culling.

Zaibatsu has been hit first. Sorry Reg–let me explain: we pulled straws – there was no other way. I know, I know; you don’t use scripts, and I know that you’ve never accepted money, but I also need you to understand that this is a business decision – pure and simple. No hard feelings!

Speaking of our ban on Zaibatsu, we need to clear something up:

As a testament to our transparency, and our need to add to the conversation, from here on in, we will admit when we are wrong.

So, we apologize for not banning Jackie and her site at the same time that we banned Zaibatsu. It must have made you wonder whether Digg is undemocratic when we continued giving her and her site exposure – after banning Zaibatsu for linking to the very same site.

Unfortunately it was an error on our part. While we believe a simple program modification could automate the process of banning all members that link to a specific site, or banning one site permanently, it is difficult to do without a lead developer. But rest assured, we are actively looking to recruit a new Business Intelligence Engineer.

Mr Babyman, MSaleem, MakiMaki, supernova17, digitalgopher, mklopez, CLIFFosakaJAPAN, skored and AlbertPacino – what can I say, but so long and thanks for all the fish.

I am apologizing up front because you guys will be banned. But again, please understand that it is purely a business decision and reflects in no way how I feel about you guys – I love you all. If it weren’t for you, Digg may not have arrived at its $300-million tipping point. To show our appreciation for all that you have done for Digg, we will stay true to our 08/09 roadmap, and spread the bannings over a 12 month period.

By the same token, you have done all you can do at Digg, now we ask that you move on. I’d like us to part on amicable terms, so if you’re ever in San Fran, let me know and we’ll get together for a beer. Again, we have nothing against our top Diggers, this is purely part of our new business model.

3. Eradicate script makers

While we encourage people to create add-ons applications for Digg, part of our new 08/09 roadmap is dedicated to creating stronger, leaner and more creative add-ons. This means that you may create add-ons if they will benefit the core Digg business, but you may not create them for the Digg community; that will be our job from here on in.

We understand that many developers have put time and effort into creating add-ons for the community, and again, we must apologize, but it is no longer your job. It is ours, and if you choose to disrespect our new rules, we will ban you and anyone that uses your add-ons. Thank you again for your previous hard work, and DiggBoss, thank you especially, I know you’ve worked long and hard, and I’m very sorry about our new changes.