The site was sold and the new owners did a fine job of alienating everyone. I believe those owners ended up shutting the Dot down a few years ago because all the contributors that made the site great, and many of the readers that followed the site came to the Watch. Pissed off community = user exodus = dead site.
There's more to the story, but the folks directly involved prefer to leave it in the past. (for the record, I'm peripheral at most; those folks ain't me)