I think it's all about style. The user-run subreddits, the spartan UI, the information density packed into a seemingly-simple thread view. Love it.
they listen to their users
Also they had a hacker cofounder. AFAIK Digg was built in PHP on a contract from its TV personality founder.
I was a cofounder up until the point where money was being taken off the table. From then on I was characterized as a freelancer/someone who developed a prototype.
That latter part is indeed the story I'd heard. I hope you've found something awesome now.
I appreciate the good wishes. I'm on my 4th job post-digg - some of it has been awesome, some not so much. Currently at Gazehawk, which is awesome.
Is Reddit profitable yet?
reddit has a higher density of news items per page, so its upvote system is more efficient. Reddit has twice the items in the same screen real estate. Digg was also overrun by children who posted low quality one-liner posts. Neither sites are very innovative or difficult to develop.
To be fair, reddit also has its share of low quality one-liner posts.