Metafilter is staying the same, with the same team of moderators

I’ll no longer be doing day-to-day moderating or operations or drawing a paycheck, but I’m still the site’s owner and will be available in a background capacity

cortex is taking on the primary managerial and operational duties for the site in addition to moderating

LobsterMitten is returning as a full-time moderator

Site finances are steady and have improved somewhat over the last few months

In the Fall of 1998, I had the first ideas and urge to build my own blogging system. I started reading programming books and attended an intense 3-day seminar and came out of it building basic web apps. By March of 1999, MetaFilter had a name and a community concept and I was building it in earnest. In June it was pretty much ready to go and after another month of testing it saw the light of day in July of that year.Since those beginnings the site has grown in every way, and all along the way grown a bit more complex with each passing year. We’ve added half a dozen specialized subsites and watched the membership swell by the tens of thousands while millions of general internet users visited each month. Together we've built an amazing community, both the pioneering pre-$5 members and the people who have continued to join through the years.But for the last few years, the site has had some extreme ups and downs, and that has resulted in a roller coaster of stress for me personally. A couple years ago my anxiety and stress bubbled up to the point where I wasn’t eating and sleeping regularly. To remedy this, I took the #1 advice of Ask MetaFilter and saw a therapist. This helped me process incoming stressors and realize much of my worries were unfounded and in my head, but over the course of a year of sessions I began to learn a lot about myself. One of the things that became apparent was I’m not cut out for the entrepreneur lifestyle--I don’t eat up risk & stress and shit out innovation--instead I tend to worry about every aspect of every little thing and get caught up on any setbacks.In the last year, stress has played a central role in my life as we had to downsize and restructure MetaFilter. In the aftermath, I returned to a full-time role of moderation duties in addition to the feature development, advertising, planning, feedback/support, and operations aspects of running a company. While it was good to curtail costs at MeFi in order to secure the future of the site, by putting myself into an additional role I eventually realized I was taking on more work than I was up to handling and after several months the cracks started to show. I began making mistakes and the mistakes were growing bigger. There are a few 1,000+ comment threads in MetaTalk over the last few months that launched as a direct result of some ham-fisted decision I made in the moment without properly thinking it through, and I’ve felt for months I have been doing a subpar job explaining moderator actions to members.Late last year, I started to acknowledge to myself that I was hitting some limits and after 16 years I was starting to really burn out. I tried taking a few days off here and there and avoiding the site on days I wasn’t doing moderation work, but every time I returned, the stress returned. Every morning I’d wake up and glance at my phone with some sense of dread worrying about what was waiting in my inbox.A couple months ago, while I was going through all the stages of grief in my head over the absolute burnout I was facing and wondering what to do about MetaFilter and whatever might be next in my life, a couple companies contacted me asking if I would ever consider joining their teams. I’ve fielded these kinds of requests in the past, and it’s always thrilling when someone contacts you out of the blue and wants you, but it’s tough to find a company you love that makes products you love that also wants you to join their team on terms that work for everybody. I talked to some folks and explored options and in the process I came away with lots to think about. I started to see light at the end of the tunnel, and thought this might be the best way forward for both me and the site.I talked to the team at MeFi, stating plainly my reasons, and we came up with a plan. cortex is taking on the bulk of my managerial and operations roles as an expansion of his responsibilities; LobsterMitten is returning immediately to full-time moderation to take over my mod hours; and everyone on the team will be pitching in a bit more to help shape the site, the moderation, and the community’s future. I will transition immediately into more of a background role (cue the “retired” tag in MetaTalk!) as I venture out into another gig.In this configuration, moderation improves immediately as LobsterMitten steps into the mix, and the whole team has been discussing areas of improvement they are working toward. cortex is looking forward to the added tasks of day-to-day monitoring, which will go a long way towards minimizing my stress and my role. For members, nothing will change, except the mod team and where the buck stops for most site matters. For me, I’ll shut off all the emails the server regularly sends me but stay on for podcasts and regular monthly “grand vision” type meetings to touch base on big picture things. I’m definitely looking forward to enjoying MeFi as a member and user for the first time, as all the mods continue doing the great job they have been of keeping my favorite community afloat and prospering in my absence. While I will still own MeFi, I am mostly removing myself financially from it, and no longer drawing a salary. Right now, between ad revenue and the help of members supporting the site, we’re operating at a small profit each month and building up savings; your support has been instrumental in keeping the site running and putting it on a good foundation for the future.It’s been a long, crazy road, and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, for everyone that has joined the site, participates via every post and comment, attends meetups, and helps make this place great. Thanks also to everyone that contributed funds last year (and still to this day!) when our future wasn’t so bright; you literally help keep the lights on. I have spent nearly half my life working on MetaFilter and I’m proud of my work here and glad I did it, and I’m thankful for the great and supportive staff that are taking the reins and letting me step down.