Heads up, Sphinn users: Our Submit News form will be on holiday this weekend in honor of New Year’s 2010. The site itself will be up and you’ll be able to read, vote, and comment on existing stories — but you won’t be able to submit new stories for a few days. We expect the “Submit News” form to be down from around 5:00 pm PT on December 31st through about 9:00 am PT on Monday, January 4th.

Why?, I hear you wondering. It’s pretty simple: Over the Christmas weekend, we found that just about the only things being submitted to Sphinn were spam. Since we’re expecting the New Year’s weekend to be similar, we’ve decided to just turn the submission form off for a few days.

While I have your attention, here are a couple other things I can share about what’s coming in the days, weeks, and months ahead:

• In response to some questions from users, we’re working on rewriting the Sphinn Guidelines to make them more clear. Look for that in the near future.
• We’re planning some new things that will promote popular stories on Sphinn even before they’ve reached the home page.
• We’re planning some minor changes to site navigation scheme, again with the goal of promoting the quality content you’ve submitted even before it goes hot on the home page.
• I plan to use the blog more in 2010 to communicate with Sphinn users, so feel free to bookmark the blog and/or add it to your RSS reader. I hope to write about some of the fun (and not-so-fun) aspects of managing a diverse online community like we have, maybe share some advice on how to get more out of Sphinn, and perhaps open up the floor for users to suggest great stories that deserve to be on the home page even though they didn’t get enough votes.

That’s all for now. On behalf of the Sphinn moderators and admin team, thanks for your participation in 2009 and we’re looking forward to seeing you around more in 2010. Happy New Year!

- Matt

It’s a real treat to write this. As Rob mentioned in his goodbye post, I’m now taking over for him as Sphinn Editor for at least the next few months. Rob, thank you for giving the Sphinn community so much of your time and energy over the past couple years. It’s been a pleasure being a mod under your leadership.

As Editor, my job is to keep an eye on the site, support the rest of the Sphinn crew, and help the community when needed. I’ll be working closely with the moderators to make sure we’re providing a valuable experience for all our users, new and old. I’ll be working with the admin and development team to continue growing the site. It was just a month ago that the new Sphinn came out of beta, but we’ll continue to discuss, debate, and implement new ideas to make the site better.

This is a treat for me because I’ve been active on Sphinn since the site launched, because I think it’s a needed community site for online marketers, and because I get to work even more closely with the excellent Sphinn moderators and the great folks at Third Door Media.

I’ve been managing forums, message boards, and other online communities for the better part of 15 years now, but I consider Sphinn unique in so many ways. Sites like this have come and gone over the past couple years, but Sphinn has survived. I’m excited about the challenges and opportunities to come as the site’s Editor, and I hope you’ll welcome me warmly while also wishing Rob the best with all of his other endeavors.

I’m sad to announce that I will be stepping down as Editor of Sphinn as of today, having joined the site back in 2007. It was a hard decision to make, although I do not feel that I’ll have enough time to dedicate to the site as we move into 2010.

A number of recent personal events made me realise the importance of leisure time, which is not a luxury that I currently possess. The SEO Consultancy that I co-founded, Ayima, is also expanding at a rate that I could not have imagined. The growth is fantastic, but it also restricts my ability to give Sphinn the time and attention that it deserves. Last but not least, a slowly developing network of Affiliate sites and web apps have also been keeping me busy.

I really appreciate Danny offering me the job of managing Sphinn after I left Search Engine Watch – it was a great opportunity to build a site with so much potential. Working with Michelle Robbins, the Geek Goddess, was also an absolute pleasure – along with the rest of the Third Door Media team and mighty Moderators.

You haven’t seen the last of me yet though – I will continue to take part in Sphinn as a Moderator, helping to police and guide the site as much as I can.

In my absence, I’m pleased to announce a new Editor for Sphinn – the much respected Matt McGee. Matt is already a Sphinn Moderator and involved in Sphinn’s sister site, Search Engine Land. I’m sure that Matt will do a fantastic job and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him in his follow-up post on the Sphinn blog.