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Jacqui Cheng: Editor at Large

Jacqui is partially evacuating the Ars Orbiting HQ and going rogue.

Jacqui Cheng: Editor at Large
Aurich Lawson

In approximately three weeks, it will be 12 years since I first joined the Ars forums and became part of the thriving and active community. At that time in 2001, I was studying computer information systems at Purdue University, but I became quick friends with other students who were also active on the Ars forums. That summer, Ars Editor-in-Chief Ken Fisher hosted a get-together in a Buffalo Wild Wings in Indianapolis. I drove the hour or so down from Purdue—I hit a Canadian goose on the highway and broke my car's grill in half—and met Ken for the first time.

To say it has been a wild ride since then would be an understatement. I could not have known what I was getting into when I, along with Jeff Smykil and Clint Ecker, launched Ars Technica's Infinite Loop from scratch in 2005, when it was still unpopular among the geek crowd to even be covering Apple at all. Back then, I was still overclocking my G4 processor and there was no such thing as the iPhone. On top of that, I didn't go to journalism school, and the last time I received any kind of advice on my writing was somewhere in the K-12 time frame. Today, Infinite Loop has several million unique readers and is consistently one of the most-read areas of Ars Technica. It has been a wild success, to say the least. I am so proud of what we have accomplished there.

But running the Apple section has hardly been my only duty at Ars over all these years. In addition to having the opportunity to write some of my favorite pieces—like one about a professor who wrote an A.I. algorithm that now sells its own music on iTunes and one about a social media savvy cab driver whose career, by his own account, has exploded since my story—I have also played the role of moderator, party planner, travel booker, swag model, dinner organizer, and podcast host, to name just a few. When they needed a place to stay, Science Editor John Timmer, Microsoft Editor Peter Bright, Creative Director Aurich Lawson, Social Editor Cesar Torres, and Associate Writer Casey Johnston (not to mention numerous Ars moderators and forum members) have all slept on my couch and drank my booze. My apartment, in addition to Managing Editor Eric Bangeman's famous basement, has acted as a temporary office for the staff more times than I can count. Ars Technica hasn't just been a job for me. It's in my bones.

Doing so much over the years has been both a blessing and a curse—more the former than the latter. But it's time for me to un-shackle myself from my desk at the Ars Orbiting HQ, strap on my helmet, and make the leap into space to do new things. As of today, I am stepping down from my role as the Senior Apple Editor at Ars Technica.

Editor at Large

Don't worry: my writing won't disappear from the Web, and you'll still see my byline pop up around Ars now and again. In the over-quoted words of an anonymous source speaking about Sarah Palin, I'm going rogue.

Ars has graciously made me an Editor at Large, meaning I still get to write interesting things for the site and show up uninvited to company dinner parties. I'll still be doing some Apple coverage and analysis (keep an eye out for me at WWDC!) among other pieces for the site.

In the bigger picture, being "at large" means I will be able to work on my own outside projects, so my name will soon be showing up in some new places. (If you want to follow along with what's going on, follow me at @ejacqui on Twitter.) In fact, I already have a few exciting projects in the works, including an upcoming partnership with the SmartChicago Collaborative to educate young people about data and the future of technology. Believe it or not, they have actually put me in charge of teenagers.

Since I joined the Ars family, I've had the opportunity to appear on CNN, BBC, NPR, American Public Media, WTTW, WNYC, WBEZ, This Week in Tech, This Week in Law, and numerous other media outlets. I have become personal friends with editors at well-respected magazines and publications—some of whom I never would have dreamed of meeting when I was a developer. None of that would have been possible if Ken hadn't persuaded me to hop on the Ars Space Elevator all those years ago to see where we could take this thing. Although I'll miss everything about the day-to-day Ars—yes, even you, trolls—I'm transitioning to my new title feeling confident that in 2013, Ars Technica is doing better than it ever has. The site's best days lie ahead, and I look forward to enjoying the coverage by my close friends and colleagues from the other side of the bubble.

TL;DR: Never eat an alcoholic gummi bear.

Channel Ars Technica