We've reported there was a war on between Digg and the new Netscape.com. Now Jason Calacanis, Netscape.com's maverick boss, is using cash as a weapon by offering $1,000 a month to the top contributors on Digg, as well as several other popular "social news" sites.

What does it mean? Michael Arrington at TechCrunch notes that on Digg, "a relatively small group of users submit a large percentage of the stories that end up on the Digg home page." He points out that Netscape doesn't have those power users, and has therefore gained little traction with users. Thus, says Arrington, "Jason’s post is a sign of desperation more than anything." Richard MacManus at Read/WriteWeb, on the other hand, thinks Calacanis may be playing some "offensive defense," hoping that the news of his proposition will give the media (and bloggers) something to pay attention to other than the disgruntled users who miss the old Netscape.com Web portal.

For his part, Calacanis is characteristically blunt: "I don't have a complicated relationship with money or capitalism: I love them both and see them as simply as fuel and the process by which fuel is produced."