PZ Myers was famous for a blogger. He was starting to get fairly well known, like getting thrown out of theaters showing creationist films even though he was with Richard Dawkins who went unrecognized. But especially when the "new atheist" movement went mask off with the open racism, misogyny, etc, and Myers refused to go along with it and sided with the smaller contingent that were actually pro-feminism (the sjw's) it quickly killed his rising fame. Fame which would have petered out anyway as atheism stopped being the hot internet topic. And that's also the thing to keep in mind here. Conservapedia was made and its creators were trying to become famous around the same time, when new atheism vs creationism was all the rage. Myers being on the list is just because that site is like a snapshot of what the internet gave a shit about at that time. It's a time capsule from when Myers was somewhat relevant in the discourse, when conservapedia was also attempting to become relevant.
Unlike some others on the list, Myers is most definitely a liberal though. One of the few genuinely well-meaning ones from what I could tell, one who I would like to think would be a communist if he put half as much thought into it as he does biology and atheism. For example, he loudly came down on the correct side of trans rights in every circumstance I can think of, and given his clout as a professional biologist, that was always refreshing to see. It's been a long time since I've read or even thought about him though.
Yeah, it was always pharyngula, still is for all I know. It just moved from being hosted on scienceblogs to freethoughtblogs. Where all the queer and trans atheists migrated after the great sjw rift of "elevatorgate."