The resistance was the straw, but by then it was already descending from an interesting site frequented by people like Bruce Perens, John Carmack, Wil Wheaton etc, to just more of the same. Taco leaving was another point, I forget if that was before or after the redesign.

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.