The death of /.?
: No, of course, it’s not the death of Slashdot, but in a good exploration of the Slashdot v. BoingBoing v. blog effect on traffic (which is to say, news), the WSJ’s Jeremy Wagstaff says (in, regrettably, not a free link) that the /. effect is fizzling — or more accurately, I think, is being overtaken:
When Jeff Henning, who runs an online survey service, Perseus Development, did a survey in late 2003 he found more than four million blogs. Earlier this year he found nearly 20 million. And while the vast majority don’t survive, quite a few that do are becoming more and more popular. The daily traffic to just one blog hosting company, TypePad, overtook that of Slashdot last August. The point? Well, I believe the blogosphere — and the Internet as a whole — is maturing into a place where information finds its way from the fringes to the center. This is because the links between all these disparate sources of information are reaching critical mass.
: Find much more on this on Wagstaff’s blog.