Understanding that...<p>I&#x27;ve used and known of Dice (sice it was a dialup BBS), Slashdot (before there were user accounts), and Sourceforge (when VA Research were kicking ideas around for how to host free software development). Knew the principles of the latter two personally.<p>All three of these companies were at one time useful, valuable to their respective communities, and had exceptionally high goodwill. All three squandered it.<p>I&#x27;m not saying it&#x27;s impossible to return from a breach of trust such as that ... but it&#x27;s awfully unlikely. There are <i>reasons</i> you don&#x27;t cash in your reputation. It&#x27;s almost always a one-time deal. And high-toned protestations that firms or pricipals have changed their ways are almost always not borne out. Spamford Wallace and Microsoft come to mind -- twenty and thirty years of dirty tricks later, they&#x27;re still little trusted. IBM is a possible exception -- it&#x27;s difficult to overstate just how loathed the company was at the end of the 1980s, and how much it had recovered by 2000 (much thanks to its role with Linux, Apache, and Perl).<p>It&#x27;s looking as if rough weather is setting in to Silicon Valley, and among the mettle which will be tested are a slew of tech-heavy firms, many trusted with a great deal of personal information either intercepted from browsers and devices, or entrusted and offered directly by users. Temptation for existing or future business owners to cash in that trust will be high.<p>Slashdot and Sourceforge should stand as cautionary tales.