It was a primarily a case of "if it ain't broke...don't take a hammer and start smashing". They had some nifty ideas (like Twitter-style following of a user's

It was a primarily a case of "if it ain't broke...don't take a hammer and start smashing". They had some nifty ideas (like Twitter-style following of a user's submitted links), which they probably could've implemented gradually and unobtrusively, taking the time to gather feedback and perfect each one. Instead, it seemed like they had a very brief beta, then parachuted in the entire broken, incomplete thing as a wholesale replacement. It's still plainly broken. The front page is absurd: 4000+ "votes" on the sponsored link, less than 100 on the real links. Fewer than 10 comments on most of them indicates a community that hasn't just declined, it's died out entirely.