It's been awful ever since the narrative on there was almost entirely changed to "freedom and rights from the point of view of socially awkward software engineers". You cannot curate a community based on negativity, bile and cynicism and expect it flourish.
But enough about 1999.
Honestly, wasn't that always what /. was about?
"negativity, bile and cynicism"
Sounds like a niche to me. Niches are good.
It got a lot better since that crowd migrated over to Reddit.
Freedom and rights with absolutely no responsibilities.
I can give you many counterexamples, at least in computer gaming circles. You need to have something in addition to cynicism, though.