Photo by cstein

A little over three years ago, when the fine folks at Gothamist were first considering shifting DCist away from its old committee-run volunteer model to employing a full-time editor, I sat down with some of the blog’s old-timers over beers to talk it over. It was going to be a big change for the site, which back then was averaging maybe 300,000 pageviews a month and publishing, if we were lucky, six or seven posts a day. It would also mean that the few core editors who used to get monthly stipends would see them disappear, which, however meager, they certainly deserved.

A lot of the faces gathered around the bar that day have moved on from DCist since then, but every single one of them stuck around and supported me during that first year while we worked to transform the site into something more robust, professional and consistent. And some of them, who are absolute saints, are still here. Working for free. Every single day.

I’m afraid if I start to name all the individual people who have helped me turn DCist into what it is today — a respected name and news gathering organization with 2.5 million pageviews every month and growing — the crying jag I’ve been trying to stave off all day will finally set in. So to those of you who were there in the bar that day, those of you who came on board since then, and those of you who will stick around to carry DCist into the future: You know who you are, and I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to spend the last three years involved in the most fulfilling professional experience I’ve ever had.

To the readers, and especially the commenters, I must also say a million thank yous. DCist would not be what it is without your contributions, excellent tips, biting humor, incessant whining, constant nitpicking, and seemingly bottomless supply of Star Wars and Simpsons references. I don’t think I’ll ever, for the rest of my days, be able to hear someone shout across a room to a friend who just happens to be named “Molly” without smiling quietly to myself. There is something almost magical, in a deeply funny and surely perverted way, about what unfolds every day in the DCist comments. I will miss you all, badly.

There’s a lot more I could say, but it’s getting late in the day, and I can already see the traffic starting to drop off as the evening commute begins. So I’m just going to hit publish, and send one last DCist post out into the wilderness. I’ll be seeing you.