Rob Malda founded Slashdot and wrote thousands of posts for the influential news site over the years.
Photo: redjar/Flickr

Rob Malda, known to nerds everywhere as CmdrTaco, has resigned as editor-in-chief of Slashdot, the influential website he founded 14 years ago.

Malda, who launched the site while still a college student, wrote a post Thursday morning stating that after 15,000 stories posted and billion and billions of pages served, it was time for him to step down.

“During my tenure I have done my best to keep Slashdot firmly grounded in its origins, but now it’s time for someone else to come aboard and find the future,” Malda wrote. “Thanks to every Slashdot reader for giving me your time all these years. I hope I’ve wasted it efficiently and enjoyably. Pants are optional.”

In the years Malda helmed Slashdot, it became nearly every geek’s go-to site for nerd news, long before the era of Digg and Reddit. The site formed an immense online community where the comments became just as important as the story they discussed.

Malda, who posted a triumphant photo of himself on Google+ just a few minutes after saving his last story on Slashdot, said he had no immediate plans following his departure from the site, adding, “Since I’m going to have to find a job in a few months, I’m on LinkedIn as well.”

During his tenure at the site, Malda became as much a part of the community as one of its founders. He even proposed to his girlfriend Kathleen Fent on the site on Valentine’s Day in 2002. (She accepted.)

Malda was working part-time as a programmer at an ad agency in 1997 when he launched the site as a way to circulate interesting news stories among friends. When he registered the domain name in October of that year, his friend (and ultimately Slashdot co-founder) Jeff Bates pitched in on the registration fee.

In a separate post on Slashdot Thursday, Bates said that although he stepped away from the site a year ago, “The work, creation and launching of Slashdot remains one of the best things that has ever happened to me.” He added that he started a new job with Google last week.

Slashdot was sold to Andover in 1999 and went through lots of hands during Malda’s tenure with the site.

“Since Slashdot was founded, my business card has read Blockstackers, Andover, Andover.net, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, OSDN, OSTG, SourceForge and finally Geeknet,” Malda wrote in his goodbye post.

Malda signed off by thanking his cohorts at the site.

“Thanks to everyone who helped build Slashdot over the years,” the founder wrote. “The list is far too long to fit in this textfield but you know who you are, and you all know that I’ve got your back in a knife fight.”

Photo: redjar/Flickr