Geekadelphia goes on ‘indefinite hiatus’

After 10 years serving as Philly’s “premier geek blog,” Geekadelphia is calling it quits.

In a blog post Wednesday morning, Mikey Ilagan — the site’s editor in chief — said Geekadelphia will publish content until the end of the month, after which it will go into an indefinite hiatus.

“We’ve gone back and forth on the idea for a few years but deciding to shut down around our 10 year anniversary seemed like a good milestone to go out on,” Ilagan told Technical.ly in an email. “We’ve been mostly volunteer-based. Our revenue over the years has been through ads and a Patreon, but even avenues of revenue require some more overhead. It’s helped us pay our writers a little bit, afford server costs and general expenses but it was never sustainable.”

Three quick facts about the shutdown:

• The site, at least for the rest of the year, will stay live.
• Geekadelphia will stay active on social media, though “probably on a reduced basis,” according to Ilagan.
• The Philly Geek Awards, created by the site in 2011 and organized in partnership with Technical.ly and Generocity since 2016, will remain. This year, 14 impact orgs, scientists, activist groups, video game creators, educators and more were honored at the annual awards gala.

Founded in 2007 by Eric Smith and Tim Quirino, the site has had Ilagan in the editor chair since 2013. Quirino, who left the site that same year, moved to California to join Facebook in 2014. Cofounder Smith left the site and moved to Virginia last year to go into the publishing business. In a similarly nostalgic blog post, Smith said at the time Geekadelphia would likely be shutting down.

The site currently has two staffers besides Ilagan: associate editor Michelle Cryder, who also handles social medial; and Dan Tabor, long-time arts and entertainment editor. Per Ilagan, they’ll both be “pursuing other avenues to exercise their writing.”

“It’s been a labor of love for a long time,” Ilagan told Technical.ly. “At times, it’s required lots of effort and energy.”

This month we say goodbye. Geekadelphia is going on indefinite hiatus after November. https://t.co/anPivGKBGk

— Geekadelphia (@geekadelphia) November 1, 2017

Ilagan, an accessibility specialist at Think Company and proficient meme generator on his Twitter account by day, also acknowledged a shift in the audience as one of the reasons for the hiatus.

“For the past decade, our lives have all changed dramatically, both personally and professionally,” Ilagan, 33, said. “Moving on from Geekadelphia allows us to adapt to those personal and professional changes.”