For those of you unaware, Everything2 came into existence because the company Blockstackers Intergalactic was formed by nate and a few others, back in the dot com days. They secured funding and put significant money into developing the software that runs E2, getting it (and its sister sites) machines, bandwidth, and taking care of its day to day needs. As I understand it, the business intent of the company was to ultimately sell the software that runs Everything2 to companies who wished to use it to run their own sites. The dot com crash put an end to that dream, and with it, any reliable funding for running E2.

Since then, E2 has migrated to several different hosting locations, but remained the property of the mostly-defunct Blockstackers. However, as has been posted publicly, Blockstackers (largely meaning "nate") are looking to find someone more capable of being involved in the day-to-day operations of the site, and probably to recoup some of the losses in developing ecore in the first place.

I apologize the staff of E2 were unable to bring notice of this to you before the potential sale was brought to the public in general. Having the most interest in E2's future, clearly the folks on here should have been the first to know. Unfortunately, most of the staff of E2 were not a part of this decision.

However, as I understand it, the idea of the place being bought by an organized group of noders is a perfectly viable one, so the notice concerns you as much as anyone.

This does not mean that your writing is up for sale. You still retain your copyright to anything you've posted here. You can still use node backup to get a copy of all of your writeups and drafts. And you may still remove anything you posted here at any time.

This does not mean the site is changing hosting situation. Changing ownership of the code running E2 and its hostname does not mean the place will be required to move. The discussions about relocating the site to new hosting are separate from those of ownership of the site.

This does not mean the site is becoming a corporate entity looking to maximize profit. E2's survival relies upon the good will of all of us who write here and all of us who volunteer to keep the place going both technically and socially. Any buyer for the site would have to be fully aware of that. Beyond that, the site costs more to operate than it brings in right now, which is bad for it, and threatens its long-term survivability. A new owner who has the time to look into more effective advertising or other revenue generation can make the site healthier long term.

Keep in mind that it is the progenitors of the site who get to make the decision about what buyers they would be comfortable with. It is these folks who you have trusted to make good decisions about the site in the past, and it is reasonable to expect they will continue to make good decisions to ensure its healthy future.

2011 Dec 05 Edit: misterfuffie posted on the subject in an ed log. Also, some folks were concerned that this daylog was gaining reputation, so I made it unvotable. Cheers!