Slashdot and SourceForge sold to Dice Holdings

I remember that wonderful day in 2007 when I noticed that there was a little news aggregator bodged onto the back end of Paul Graham's essay blog and I thought to myself "wow, this is like /. only it doesn't suck so much".

In late 2008, I attended an "open-source CEO" dinner, at which I was coincidentally seated between the CEOs of SourceForge and CollabNet (principal developer and supporter of the Subversion VCS). I asked the CollabNet CEO what he thought about Git, and he was dismissive, indicating that Subversion had already won as the definitive open-source VCS. I then asked the SourceForge CEO if he knew about GitHub; he was vaguely familiar with them, but appeared utterly unconcerned that they might be a threat. I thought to myself, <i>All the battles have been fought and lost, and these guys don't even know there's a war.</i>

I've been posting on Slashdot since the early 2000s and have stayed on the site primarily for its community; the higher-modded comments tend to come from some pretty intelligent people. Unfortunately it seems like the current staff don't really understand why the community that is there remains and have been trying out a shotgun blast of different strategies recently: Slashdot TV, SlashBI, SlashCloud, SlashDataCenter... I just want to discuss IT with intelligent people. If they only got that the community is their power, they might be able to make the site more relevant again. It seems like when Rob Malda knew something was going on behind the scenes when he quit last year. (For more, read his AMA: <a href="http://www.topiama.com/r/137/iam-rob-cmdrtaco-malda-founder-of-slashdot-ama" rel="nofollow">http://www.topiama.com/r/137/iam-rob-cmdrtaco-malda-founder-...</a> )<p>At least there's HN if this latest sale makes /. go south completely.

I have very little perspective here, but this seems like a low price for /. and SourceForge ($20M). The article states that last year alone the two sites brought in that much revenue, but I'd assume they weren't bought if the purchaser didn't think there was growth potential.

They must be trying to set a record for how many corporate overlords they can have. Andover.Net, VA Research, VA Linux, VA Software, SourceForge, Inc, Geek.Net, Dice, ...

Does anybody here still use SourceForge to host their projects? Back in its days it was the place for open source software, but these days I shudder when software I want to use is hosted there. I think it failed to evolve and become what is now github. Or maybe they target an other market?

Ouch. I'd venture this is a fair indication of the directionality of the value of these aging 'name brands'. It seems not unlike a former arena-filling headliner reduced to doing van tours of Holiday Inn lounges.

I was on the SF.net "Ignition" team (and am still close friends with 2 of the original 4 project team) and what Sourceforge aspired to be versus what inevitably was done to it...to what it has been sold to...God, what a depressing fin de sicle.

Bye bye /. .. you will be missed.

This is surprising. I just spilled hot grits onto my lap. This (and Netcraft) confirms the rumors that Slashdot is dying.

Unique monthly users:<p><pre><code> * Slashdot: 3.7 million * SourceForge: 40 million * Freecode: 0.5 million</code></pre>

Does this include Ohloh as well? That's a pretty nice code analysis site, which was acquired by SF back in 2009:<p><a href="http://meta.ohloh.net/2009/05/sourceforge_acquires_ohloh/" rel="nofollow">http://meta.ohloh.net/2009/05/sourceforge_acquires_ohloh/</a>

Would have been interesting to see github acquire SorceForge, for nothing more than the projects. I guess a migration wouldn't be worth it, the projects with life and activity would have left SF sometime ago?

<a href="http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot,+digg,+reddit,+hacker+news&#38;ctab=0&#38;geo=all&#38;date=all&#38;sort=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/trends/?q=slashdot,+digg,+reddit,+hack...</a>

This would be like Monster.com purchasing Fark.com. Not really news because none of those things have mattered for years.

So basically geeknet = thinkgeek. Is this some kind of really delayed stealth IPO?

I, for one, welcome our new Dice Holdings overlords.<p>I used to love slashdot, coffee and a discussion about boot loaders for breakfast. It all went to rat shit of course, but that's just the natural order of the universe.

Wow. I remember when my older brother introduced me to /. when I was a teenage nerd just starting to run Linux in 1998. There weren't even user accounts.<p>Now I feel like reading a Jon Katz article for nostalgia.

I was so pleased when I acquired the username `bogomips` on sf. Never did use it for much though.<p>Sad how obvious it is how it slipped away long before github filled the vacuum.

Seems like GeekNet is going to focus on ThinkGeek.com. Good move I'd say. Well unless their next step is to sell it to Amazon (a la woot.com).

If they are generating $20m/yr in revenue doesn't a $20m purchase seem a bit low? How did they agree on $20m?

Well you can jump the shark and sometimes the shark eats you. Too bad.

Will it mean any changes for my project hosted on SourceForge?

That's like, half of the internet!

Oh man, look at the awful sites currently maintained by Dice Holdings...<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.dice.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dice.com/</a> (recruiting and career development)<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.efinancialcareers.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.efinancialcareers.com/</a> (finance recruiting and career development, UK)<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.clearancejobs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.clearancejobs.com/</a> (U.S. government security clearance career development)<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.rigzone.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rigzone.com/</a> (oil and gas industry content/advertising)<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.allhealthcarejobs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.allhealthcarejobs.com/</a> (healthcare career development)<p>&#62; <a href="http://www.targetedjobfairs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.targetedjobfairs.com/</a> (IT and security related career fairs and open houses)