The Other Big Tech Resignation: Slashdot’s Rob ‘CmdrTaco’ Malda

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Updated 11:31 a.m. ET, Aug. 26

A tech giant has stepped down from the helm of the underdog company he founded that ended up in greatness, and his name wasn’t Steve Jobs.

Coming as it does in the wake of Jobs’ announcement, though, Rob Malda’s sudden resignation from his role as editor-in-chief of Slashdot isn’t likely to receive anything close to the press coverage it warrants and deserves.

Slashdot, for the unacquainted, is an award-winning online tech news website that allows users to post links and short summaries to stories that originated on other websites. There is usually a robust commenting thread that follows the best posts.

If that sounds like a number of other websites these days – Reddit, Digg, Metafilter, Facebook, etc. – that’s because Slashdot preceded and influenced them all. And much like those popular websites, Slashdot spawned it’s own jargon and collection of memes that penetrated the popular culture, including the “In Soviet Russia…” jokes and the disgusting “Goatse” shock website.

The 35-year-old programmer explained his decision to it’s millions of readers in a final post under the infamous handle CmdrTaco, writing that he had “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*.”

He said he didn’t have any immediate plans aside from spending time with his family and reading books, but he did tease that he might “write a book of my own.” He did note he was giving up the ability to post, because if he didn’t he’d “never move on.”

In his final post, Malda recalled Slashdot’s origins in the summer of 1997 as a computer science major at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, when it was just a personal website.

Since then, it’s grown to be one of the most heavily-trafficked websites online, pulling in 5 million unique page-views a month, according to the website’s own records.

Malda – who unlike a few other notable tech entrepreneurs, actually finished college despite the lure of Slashdot’s success – eventually sold the website to Andover, starting it on a long chain of corporate repossession until it ended up under the helm of Geeknet. During that entire period, Malda retained his role as editor-in-chief of the website and it’s most visible and engaged leader.

But in his final post, he outlined rationale for leaving after 14 years at the helm, hinting at the various conflicts he had with the website’s many different corporate owners:

“The internet has changed dramatically since I started here, and that’s part of my reason for leaving. For me, the Slashdot of today is fused to the Slashdot of the past. This makes it really hard to objectively consider the future of the site. While my corporate overlords and I haven’t seen eye to eye on every decision in the last decade, I am certain that Jeff Drobick and the other executives at Geeknet will do their best. I am unquestionably confident in the abilities of the Slashdot editors and engineers- some of whom have been here just short of forever. They have proven themselves in the best and worst of conditions to be capable and dedicated.

Admittedly, even had Malda announced his departure during a different, less news-packed week, it wasn’t ever going to be front page news in any of the national dailies.

But especially to those of us who lap up science, technology and overall geeky news items like hot grits, it’s difficult to overstate Slashdot’s value, and Malda’s overall contribution, to the Web writ-large. Still, many of us will continue to follow him on Google Plus. Once a CmdrTaco, always a CmdrTaco.

Late Update: Malda emails us clarifying exactly what his limitations will be on the site going forward, writing: “My account won’t be deleted, I’m just not allowed to post stories any more,” and adding “the messages from readers have been very wonderful.”

Latest Idealab
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: