I still remember the comments on my welcome letter when I took over the site on a sunny day in early 2011. It was beautiful outside and here I was sweating bullets in a tiny NYC hotel room, watching the reaction in comments and elsewhere. Needless to say there was more than a little hate, but there was so much warmth and optimism and welcome it really powered me through what ultimately became a very long, very good day. That support carried me past more than two incredibly challenging, hugely rewarding years.

And so it's with heavy heart that I say that I'm stepping away. Those early days in 2011 were an incredible challenge, and if I'm frank it never really got any easier, with the dawn of new competition and an incredible evolution in the quality of tech journalism over the past few years. We've always had our work cut out for us at Engadget, and I'm hugely proud of how our team rose to the challenge, recently winning numerous awards for content, video and design and, most importantly, maintaining the respect of the Engadget brand.

It goes without saying that I had a great opportunity to shape Engadget and I always strove to turn it into a site that everyone, on both sides of the aisle, respected. Respect is the most important thing for me, and those who worked under me at Engadget have earned my eternal respect. I hope you'll give them the same. In the end, I look forward to reading all the comments that this post elicits. I won't be able to reply to them all, but do know that I am so incredibly thankful for your support over the years, even to the haters. Without your hard licks I, and the entire Engadget team, wouldn't have been as driven to exceed as we have always been.

As for me? Well, I don't have any specific plans for the moment, but let's just say I'm looking forward to taking a little break before dealing the next hand. The sky's the limit.

You can find me on Twitter as @Tim_Stevens.