"Magnificent coinage from @CodyBrown: 'digitalvegetarianism,'" Jeff Jarvis tweeted recently. If you Googled, you might have thought he was referring to the L.A.-based lifestyle blog and SEO experiment, but actually Mr. Jarvis just got it wrong. The "coinage" is digital veganism, a phrase start-up founder and recent NYU grad Cody Brown has been slinging around since even before his roommate quit Facebook and Twitter in a public huff.

We had heard Mr. Brown refer to the open source, decentralized anti-Facebook Diaspora as "digital veganism" before. But what does it mean? We asked him to explain.

"I see it as sort of a recurring decorum when I talk to people about the internet," he said. "And the decorum strikes me as similar to the kind of conversations I have when I talk to people who are vegan. In many ways veganism is about rejection of certain things. It’s saying I can’t do this, I can’t participate in this because it’s about giving someone power or communicating something you think is unethical. And all of those are totally valid arguments from people they can make in whatever way they want. But it became a kind of lifestyle when it’s dropped in the way of saying, 'I’m not on Facebook. I don't contribute to closed platforms like Facebook.'"

"I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being a vegan or being a digital vegan. But it’s just funny that it’s sort of reinventing itself in this," he said. No one has proved that open systems are philosophically better, he said.

The issue caused friction when his roommate Daniel Bachhuber, until then a prolific social media user, quit Facebook and Twitter on grounds that "open systems need more of my attention, and it’s time to vote with my feet."

"I would get into great fights with him about this," Mr. Brown said. "Him not being on Twitter was causing problems. Because I'd be like, 'Danny, did you see that shit that blew up on Twitter today' and he’s like, 'uh.' Eventually he came back."

Mr. Bachhuber returned to Twitter and Facebook at the end of March, when "pragmatism won out over idealism." "WELCOME BACK," Mr. Brown said.

News hackers Juan Muller and Joe Cullen. Photo: Daniel Bachhuber

The winner of this weekend's news games hackathon hosted by journalist/developer group Hacks/Hackers at CUNY's journalism school this weekend was created by a professional newsroom programmer, Associated Press developer Julian Burgess. In Whose Headline, players match headlines to their publications. It has the simple, sticky satisfaction of solitaire, but you gain a top-level sense of what's going on in the world at the same time. Is "DRUGGY DAUGHTER BOOMERANGS WHITNEY" from The National Enquirer, the New Yorker or The Onion? "Attorney generals slam 'binge-in-a-can' drink"--The New York Daily News, Forbes or The Guardian?

Unfortunately, not all the apps were really news games. Context, which also got a prize, allows readers to comment and annotate articles inline. Great, but where's the fun in that? "A newsgame is an application of journalism in videogame form," according to the Newsgames project at Georgia Tech.

The problem is, news games are difficult and rare; there are not many good examples of them. Maybe it's because using game mechanics as a gimmick to attract readers feels un-journalistic in some way. "I’m not comfortable journalistically with badges, rewards, basically tricks, to drive traffic," video game journalist Heather Chaplain said during a panel at the event.

Co-organizer Daniel Bachhuber said he wasn't disappointed in the lack of truly gamesy news games, but he wishes they'd used a word other than "hackathon" to describe the event. "I think it came together pretty well," he said. "Reinventing how news is consumed doesn't happen in a day. I also think that we need a better word... hackathons have a technology focus, and I think non-developers are turned off.

No fury like a start-up scorned. The Second Annual NYC Startup Job Fair burned about 80 start-ups today with an insensitive CC instead of BCC on the email notifying companies they'd been rejected. Rent The Runway, 10gen, Get Glue, Tenka, Pixable, Snap Interactive, Food52 and Boxee were just some of the start-ups shut out of the event. The scorned start-ups are starting their own counter-fair, and according to the Google Group, Fred Wilson wants to help. So who did get accepted? SecondMarket, Gawker, Meetup, Yipit, Popdust, Brainscape, NewsCred, Shapeways, Lot18 and others. Check Betabeat in the morning for more coverage of this developing story.

Returns: New York's Tutorspree (founded fall of 2010, Airbnb of tutoring, etc., etc.) has been getting some hot news off the presses in New York. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post recently gave the Y Combinator-funded company some love, and we hear the founders are missing New York and plan to move back after the program ends. Founder Aaron Harris was in the city for the weekend. "New York City. City of dreams...and snowy rain," he tweeted. We miss you too!
The long arm of social media has embraced our dear friend Daniel. Journalism developer, conference live-tweeter and new media whiz kid Daniel Bachhuber is back on Facebook and Twitter after a five-month hiatus that was supposed to be permanent. "Deleted my Twitter account. Made it to 8,234 tweets, 401 following, 2,056 followers, and 209 lists (for what that’s worth) over three years. I’ve deleted my Facebook account as well. Open systems need more of my attention, and it’s time to vote with my feet," he wrote in October, prompting bemusement from the peanut gallery. (The next day's post: "Witty things I would have said on Twitter today.") Being left out was too inconvenient, he told Betabeat. "Yes, you can call me a hypocrite. Yes, I’m still a firm believer in portable data and identity. Pragmatism won out over idealism," he blogged.

What's cool. Did 4chan founder Chris Poole really get dinner with enduring heartthrob and Sean Parker-poseur Justin Timberlake on April Fool's Day? Do those two people speak the same language?

Reddit #CanGetIt. Comedian Donald Glover conducted a lukewarm Ask Me Anything on Reddit today. "I'm not gonna be on here a ton. I gots work to do, homies. But I wanted to do a little," he wrote to fans. Still, the effort gave founder Alexis Ohanian the swoons.
21st century voyeurism. Foursquare's Tristan Walker had lunch at Color! How do we know? Technology. We're thinking a themed Tumblr, sourced entirely from Color: "Pictures of People Mid-Sandwich." Do you love it?