I started coming for ZP back in 2008-2009 ish.
Made an account in 2010, started posting lightly in the forums, and watched most of the shows.
Russ Pitts left, and I didn't see much change. Steve kept it pretty stable, then he left.
I think Susan Arendt as Editor-in-chief was the best thing to happen to the site. She engaged often with the community, communicated clearly, got a bunch of good content on the site, and managed a site that could talk sensibly about any content in geekdom (except the comic offerings were light). It was a great year, and the most I've ever been engaged with the Escapist. When she left, it seemed a lot of the site did as well, and the positive attitude seemed to become just a little bit more cynical. Viewer engagement also seemed to be down in her absence - many shows had a drop in the comment section's size from a regular 200+ to barely 100.
Greg Tito did a decent job, and had huge shoes to fill - I do not envy his position. But, he continued to expand the Escapist. I think he made some weird decisions (I don't know too many people who visited the Science section), but he gave everything a space. I think it may have divided the community and staff into boxes, but it was a promising direction. Coincidentally, I also went had more of my time eaten up by a more rigorous school schedule, and became detached from the Escapist. But there wasn't anything to latch back on due to the site's nebulous nature. I went back to lurking.
The new editor in chief seems to be shrinking back the Escapist, which will look weird for any website. Restructuring could be good, but I'm worried it's moving back to quickly, and wonder what financial situation he's in that he's being forced to make these calls. The changes could also be due to the parent company demanding shifts, and using a new EIC to hide whose making the decisions, letting him get blamed before them. Hemorrhaging content creators will always lose some people - something the Escapists always had an issue with - but this is the first time I remember where there's nothing immediately new to keep people engaged in some other manner.
I have hopes that the site can shrink and then grow back again, with a more focused audience and community, but I worry that there's too little to last the transition.
Now I only come for ZP and the news.