He moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 2000s, worked as an employee of Pyra Labs, and participated in the development of early versions of Blogger.

[2] In 1999, Haughey launched MetaFilter, a community weblog and internet forum, which he programmed his own using Macromedia ColdFusion and Microsoft SQL Server.

[3] Haughey credits the site's "strong sense of community" for its success, unlike websites that offer social incentives such as karma.

[9] Haughey has a personal weblog called A Whole Lotta Nothing and a photoblog titled Ten Years of My Life, in which he records daily photographs, many of himself.

[13] It was also recognized as an early adopter of Google AdSense text advertising, which according to Haughey allowed him to make enough income to cover his mortgage.

In April 2007, Haughey launched the blog Fortuito.us in order to share his thoughts about supporting himself and his family through online projects.

[citation needed] On November 12, 2009 Haughey[18] posted to Twitter, "I passed out at home had a seizure, went to ER, did a cat scan and they found a growth.