Me and a lot of smart developers before me have learned on our skins that you should never make a rewrite.

I think web design has the same problems as web development in regards to rewrite but the design community has yet to internalize that you should never remake something from scratch.

That's not to say that you should keep an old design forever - instead make changes incrementally and gradually. Putting 12 designers to work for a year with zero feedback and trying not to hurt whatever magic made reddit popular in the first place is bound to be a disastrous affair.