Matt pulled the plug on the 18th. His work/home life was taking up too much of his time to properly manage the modeling/website end and the site itself never recovered fully from the big fight a few years back. He just couldn't justify paying the cost of maintaining the site.
The only bright side was that this was a planned out shut-down. He has the full site backed up and can bring it back to life where it cut off if he chooses to do so.
I don't know the man nor have any personal insights, just summarizing his comments shortly before the shutdown.