Ever since I graduated and moved from Sweden to Switzerland and started my first full time job here in Zurich, working for Voat became increasingly difficult for me. A project of passion and learning turned into one of business administration, community management, and essentially a 2nd job. A nonpaying, yet rather stressful and demanding job.

I started Voat under the name “forbidme” (which later became Whoaverse, which later became Voat) because I wanted to learn more about .NET and web development in general, but as more and more people started to use it, it became clear to me that there was a need for a platform like Voat. I never imagined that Voat would grow this big or mature the way it has. I’ve been through so much with Voat during these past 3 years, and if I could go back in time and face the same challenges, the same victories, and the same defeats - I would do it all over again!

Today though, primarily thanks to PuttItOut, Voat is a stable and scalable platform which happily serves over a million monthly unique visitors. I was the guy who had the crazy idea to start this project but now, 3 years later, I feel that it is time for someone else to assume this role.

Effective as of this announcement, and with a heavy heart, I am resigning as CEO of Voat, Inc. and handing over my role to PuttItOut. PuttItOut has been with me side-by-side through all the ups and downs, all the long nights, all the difficult conversations, all the challenging decisions, and proven he is both committed and capable to moving Voat forward as a platform for Free Speech. I am confident and excited that Voat will do great things in the future.

I will still be at Voat, just in a different role, as a user and member of the community.

To every user I’ve gotten to know, for every funny comment I’ve come across, for every post that has opened my eyes or made me mad, it has all been worth it and I’ll never forget the fun times. Here’s to more in the future, but with a bit less stress for me. ;)

Atko

Edit: canary stuff: https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806