For years Digg sat unused, then whoever bought it sat on it for months with a screen promising it was coming ... then switched to a screen saying there was (essentially) a closed beta for many months... and in that entire time there was nothing a Digg fan could do.
If the owner had any sense at all, they would have added the simplest thing possible to that page: a wait list signup. Then, when Digg was ready, they'd have a ton of people (early adopters, who were so into it they visited the site before it was ready) jumping to use the new site.
The fact that the new owners couldn't understand the value of something as simple as a wait list just shows how unprepared they are..