Like everyone else, I couldn't find the option to reply to the story itself, so first post it is. I even did a cursory look in the source code. And the site is supposed to go live this month? (Good to know that Preview still shows it wrong, too.)
In any case, at this point it seems pretty obvious that Slashdot doesn't give a shit about the concerns of the users. No acknowledgement that we all hate it, no /. poll, nothing. According to the alert on the main site, we'll still have the "Classic" option for a few months, but after that it's Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter.
So where else is there for a nerd to go? Slashdot has survived this long, IMHO, for two main reasons:
1) User base
2) Moderation
The user base is about more than quantity (which can be useful), it's about quality. Insightful individuals, some who have experience directly with the kind of stories we discuss, from a wide range of demographics that lead to very useful commentary (no one reads /. for the stories.) This isn't something you can whip up in a month or even a year, and certainly as people leave it won't be as a group. Is there already another site that has the kind of user base that /. does?
The Moderation is what allows that User Base to shine, though. Even if Digg or Reddit (or even 4chan) has the same ratio of informative/interesting/insightful posters they are completely drowned in crap and other users whoring for upvotes. Slashdot's moderation system, both in its explicit limitations (only so many mods at a time, and you can only give out so many points if you are one) and expansive options (being able to say why you're giving a vote, rather than just an up/down.) I'm not aware of any other website that uses anything nearly as comprehensive.
I'm sure there are plenty of ways to fork /., (the obvious is Slashcode, which doesn't seem to have any recent updates, but that may be a good thing), but even if you can rebuild the site it will be very hard to rebuild the community, so perhaps migration to another site is a better option, though I can't give a suggestion of what.