Slashdot, the site, still lives as a fossil from 10-15 years ago. It must be popular enough to pay its bills.
Not to forget Paul Graham’s tales of founder hero myths. Who wouldn't want to call themselves a “hacker”?
The /. redesign wasn't as brutal as that which Digg had, but it was certainly something that stopped me visiting so often.
I just looked and saw to my surprise I still have an account there, the last few comments were made in 2014, 2012, 2011. So maybe I did return later after all.
There’s was a significant amount of Randian right wing group think too, which tended to spiral away
Ultimately though it was tacos blog, and that type of site doesn’t scale and retain the quality.