exactly what AGPL codebase do you suggest? while it will implement lots of things that LWN doesn't currently have, does it implement everything that LWN _does_ currently have? (including the subscriber pass-along links?)
how much work would it be to migrate all the content from the current system to the new system?
how big a problem is it that all the persistant links to the current content would no longer work with the new system? (remember that some of these links are in kernel commit messages, you can't change them, even if you could somehow track them all down)
frankly, I like the way LWN works a lot better than just about any other site I deal with.
it's simple, clean, and to the point.
all of the 'popular' systems that I have seen are written by people who would instead use terms like 'pathetic', 'obsolete', possibly 'boring' if they were being kind.
I would like to have the code for the LWN site available, but not at the cost of taking enough of Jon's time that LWN suffers as a result.