It's just one operator, and he's experiencing some kind of unknown family emergency right now. Josh almost certainly hasn't thrown in the towel. Normally I'd link the page I got this information from, but now I'm not so sure. Interacting with the people being gossiped about is explicitly against the rules, it says so right above the posting box. They can't really prevent anyone from doing that, but neither could any other site.

Kiwi Farms is basically 4chan circa 2007. Make of that what you will.