As many of you may know, over the weekend I heard that the Metblogs network was shutting down. I’m happy to say that now, as of this post, the team behind the Metblogs network who birthed, grew, and fostered its growth over the past six years, has been working dilligently and non-stop to make sure the lights in here stay on and the sites stay online.

I mulled over this post over the weekend, thinking about a potential migration – which may still be something we’ll have to do if the lights do have to go down – thinking that this may be a sad and somber affair, but as of today I’m a bit more hopeful that we’ll be able to stick around a bit longer. If you haven’t clicked the link above, please do to find out the current status of the situation and the future of Metblogs overall.

If you appreciate the coverage that Metblogs provides, not just for your city or not just for Azeroth specifically, please chip in, it’ll be more than appreciated, and I can personally vouch for the fact that every cent of every dollar goes to keeping the servers online – the authors for the entire Metblogs network are all volunteers, myself included, and we don’t see anything but the love from our readers – which for me is enough to keep me going.

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know the Azeroth Metblogs has its own special story in the Metblogs network. The Azeroth Metblogs started off to fanfare and praise from sites far and wide: even the esteemed BoingBoing wrote about us several years ago and Wil Wheaton mentioned us in an interview. Unfortunately, not soon after the spotlight faded from us did the site start to wane. Authors left because they – like many people – stopped playing World of Warcraft, and stopped wanting to write about it.

Eventually, the site was stagnant, and by the time I showed up in 2008 to help bolster the waning roster of authors we were down to few, if any, new posts on a regular basis. Since then, the Azeroth Metblogs has grown more popular than it has been in years, we have regular new posts and content at least weekly, and we’re carving out a niche for ourselves in the World of Warcraft blogging and Web community. Much like my namesake, I wanted desperately to restore the Azeroth Metblogs to its former glory, and with your help I think we’re more than on the way.

Now, with that aside, all I can do is put my hopes (and a donation of my own) into the hands of the founders of the Metblogs network and hope they’re able to make ends meet and keep us alive on the back end. I sincerely hope you will too, and that you’ll stick with us, no matter what happens.