Digg 4.0 disaster: What We Can Learn From Them

The new release of Digg 4.0 seems to be a complete disaster. At least based on user riot.

Why?

Because they followed the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make: They decided to rewrite everything from scratch: Things You Should Never Do, Part I
Because users hate changes: Fresh vs. Familiar: How Aggressively to Redesign

What would have been a better plan?

Iterative improvements:
Evolve code, design and ideas gradually!
Some products that have improved gradually over time: