"But the incentives to monetize the site ever more aggressively is probably the most important factor." That itself was forced by the dot com fallout that kill

"But the incentives to monetize the site ever more aggressively is probably the most important factor." That itself was forced by the dot com fallout that killed the parent company hardware business and made SF a more critical leg for revenue. It all went downhill from there, especially when new leadership came in. Disclosure: I worked at VA Linux/SF for 4 years (1998-2002), was on the SFDN "launch" team, and am still friends with a few of the original SF core guys. We all view what happened to SF as a tragedy.