I think a lot of the problem with Slashdot was cultural change. When it was new, most of the readership was made up of IT professionals and programmers. Sure, t

I think a lot of the problem with Slashdot was cultural change. When it was new, most of the readership was made up of IT professionals and programmers. Sure, there were trolls but most of the comments were kind of like what you see on HN. Over time, the civility and intelligence in the comments dropped. It didn't feel like a community anymore - or at least a community the original readers wanted to be a part of, anyway. So more and more of the original readers left until the comment sections looked like 4chan. Slashdot had its scandals and drama, but I really believe it was the readership change that killed it.