Today, we announced that we’re closing Metaplace.com as a UGC-platform on January 1st.
I’m sure you all can guess that this is a really sad day for me as the Community Manager. Metaplace has a tight-knit community that I am incredibly fond of, and was the first community I have grown professionally in my career. No CM enjoys having to see this happen…so this is difficult for me. I have been with Metaplace since before the first external tester ever set foot in our product, and have watched some unbelievable works of art and entertainment come to life, and have seen many friendships blossom. I feel honored that I was not just a leader of, but a member of such a creative and helpful community.
Metaplace, Inc. as a company (and as a tool) isn’t going away. We have whole new shift of focus ahead of us and a smaller team set out to accomplish some big goals. I’m actually really excited about this, and I’m glad to be along for the ride. I can’t wait to tell you all more about this when I’m allowed to. 
It’s a new step for me that will hopefully allow for some growth in my professional experience and some great stories to share with you all here.
For the meantime, join me for a goodbye celebration party in Metaplace Central on January 1st at 12:00noon Pacific. It would be great to spend some last moments with everyone sharing creations and memories we have made.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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oh this blows so hard. I’m devastated.
Thank you for helping me realize that I should have said “a” leader, not the leader.
Fixed.
If you hadn’t seen it, Jason Scott is really pissed off.
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/2444
Pressed post too quickly.
And he has a point. It’s not being handled as apocalyptically terribly as AOL Hometown’s death, but it’s not being handled well at all, and I agree with him when he says that companies who host user-created content should always have an easy way for users to get their content back, and should give people as much notice as possible about shutdowns. A few days over Christmas, of all times, to extract and save everything manually, is not acceptable.
For what its worth, its not a few days over Christmas. We gave 10 days and detailed instructions on how to save their work.
It’s not optimal, I know. But we’re doing what we can.