Storm Warning

April 14, 2001

Early this week I recieved an E-mail from the editors of Themestream that said in part:

Dear Subscriber, Due to the current business climate, the Themestream web service will close its doors on April 13, 2001. It has always been our pleasure to serve you. And it hurts us to tell you that we are ceasing all business operations...

The E-Mail was mailed on the 13th, and the site shut down on the 13th. Themestream was a writing site that paid writers 3 cents for the entries that people read. Just exactly how the site was supposed to make money is beyond me, but most probably it was linked to ad revenue.

Which brings us to April, and the current state of many an ISP and online journaling sites. It's no secret that with the crash of the tech stock market, a great deal internet revenue has evaporated, and sites are closing down right and left.

Even Disney decided to bag it's site Go.com, and is pulling the plug after investing over 40 million in that web site.

Yahoo, reportedly "reeling from the slump in online advertising" is laying off nearly 12% of its workforce.

Yahoo and Disney are BIG names boys and girls.

With them in trouble with web sites, I think it beggs the question, what about us in our various habitats on the web? So far its been a great ride with my ISP, and I am happy that the site is still up and running.

I hope to continue to read and write here, and am still willing to fork over cash to make it so.

In the meantime, it never hurts to be prepared.

Save your work.

Download your diaries.

Someday you may be thankful.

Personally, I hope not, but you never know.

As a sailor and pilot, I often have my eye to the sky.

Over the years I have found that it pays to heed storm warnings.