At first I thought about this like a nerd -->frontends are window dressing! Tacking things together would make things potentially less successful technically so it shouldn't happen! What we as a community actually need though is a viable long term alternative (rather than competing alternatives), and I do think Pipedot has the best frontend... while Soylent has the benefit of a now working moderation backend. Would really appreciate knowing how you feel about this and/or discussing this in IRC.

I've just been talking to people on the SoylentNews channel. (I'm hoping this will format correctly):
A lot of people have done work eg. on completely alternative sites (technocrat.org), re-invigorating the old code (soylent) and a complete redesign (pipedot). There has got to be a way of gracefully merging everyones efforts. I'm sure noone knows the slashdot innards like the soylent guys, and the pipedot guy is a web design guru. Perhaps technocrat.org should become the new groklaw....
[DarkMorph] I haven't heard of this pipedot until now. It seems like an excessive division of effort. The only sensible need for multiple independent sites like this would perhaps be to cover different niches/genres..?
[mrcoolbp] he's independent
[mrcoolbp] built it from scratch too (more or less from what I gather)
[mrcoolbp] and he's a friend of the site
"The only sensible need for multiple independent sites like this..." is to rattle the Dice
[Popeidol] the more the merrier, if we end up with two or three slashdot-alternatives out of this the ecosystem will be healthier.
The problem was noone knew ahead of time who would come up with the goods... so replication of effort was inevitable. (Like workers from a bee swarm searching for a new home).
That was necessary.
(for collective success)
[Popeidol] if anybody should join forces it's pipedot and technocrat.
[weilawei] pav5088: definitely, i know i was hedging my bets between trove suddenly working, technocrat.net, pipedot, and SN
[Popeidol] pipedot has a beautiful interface but no mod system, technocrat has a mod system but little else
[weilawei] I may have spent the slashcott week mostly at fark >_>just for lack of anywhere else to go.
Replication was necessary so people could prove they could walk the walk, but now collaboration is necessary (IMHO)
...well, not necessary, but desirable
We all want the same thing after all... a successful alternative.
[mrcoolbp] "may have" lol
[DarkMorph] No moderation and no javascript. Interesting. Very, very clean structure using the modern CSS design approach. Slick.
[DarkMorph] It almost perfectly blends into my system's XFCE theme too. XD
Nerds are much better at doing their own thing than collaborating... BUT I think collaboration is desirable at this point. Perhaps I can talk to the pipedot guy...
[weilawei] pav5088: thats it, you're nominated as Head Cat Herder.
* pav5088 experiences much fear

This certainly is excellent work