What a ride...
As our regular readers know, we rarely have editorials--no need as we write anything here (with proper documentation). Once a year, the Senior Staff here voices our thoughts. Though not a true tradition yet, this is associated with our Anniversary Issue. This issue continues this practice.
If you search long through the archives, it's noticed that The News Letter was originally started for the Business Park at Fortune City. When the Business Park was disbanded (1999), we began searching for a new home. For nearly a year, this new home was at our very own freehost, The Portal. Due to an unforseen partnership instability, The Portal went offline three months ago. Feeling that our 1000's of readers deserved a continuing journal, The News Letter moved "lock, stock and barrel" to Pacoima Ranch (Pacoima Ranch had always owned The News Letter--we just published it on another server).
During this span of time, we watched the 'Net go from being not much more than a network of BBS (Bulletin Board Systems, aka Forums and Message Boards), CompuServe chat and file exchanges, and boldly visionary cybercities where everyone shared nearly everything for free. In these times (1996 and 1997), individual sites of merit were few and far between, and getting an entry in your guestbook was a real thrill--someone had found your site and left their mark.
A darker trend started in 1998, reaching fruition in 2000--overly commercialized sites, nearly all of which have now gone offline leaving millions in financial ruin and wasting billions of dollars in an electronic Gold Rush. Entire industries arose (then died) during this two-year period. Pacoima Ranch started on October 15, 1996 during the rise of the great cybercities. Most cybercities are now a mere ghost of their former selves--overly commercialized with indecent numbers of ads and little or no interest in their individual members. Customer service is now largely unavailable, with "help pages" being proclaimed as the only source for "free users". We watched with growing unrest as cyber commercialism debased much of what the 'Net could really be. The rise of E.Commerce had a direct impact on our hits, they dropped from several hundred a day (with a high water mark of 671 in a single day) to a scant few dozen a day. A distinct spirit of greed became obviously apparent. And then the bubble burst in the Spring of 2000 and the cybercommerce sites all began going bankrupt and offline.
Looking around long and carefully starting six months ago, we spotted something wonderful. The ridiculous "theme" sites, borderline illegal "scam" sites, who wants it or uses it "free worthless product and service" sites and "corporate vanity" sites were closing so fast that the old school sites began to rise again to prominence. Suddenly, a well crafted Google search found multiple private sites and .edu sites instead of 100's of scam sites. Once useful search engines that had gone "pay for clicks" started closing. The worthless product and service sites weren't there either, just great little online directories of free and helpful information (usually maintained by a University, sometimes as part of a private site). They'd been there all along, just got lost in the confusion, noise, and delusion of 1998-2000. Not that a lot of ghost sites aren't still out there--they exist because so many server companies made people pay one or two years in advance. Expect 1000's (possibly tens of thousands) of sites to disappear with little or no warning over the next twenty-four months. Always check to make sure a site you use is actually alive. Look for update notes, changes in personel, current dates in those parts of the site where you'd expect current dates, and similar. Visit their brick-and-mortar stores if they have them. Hunt for alternates if you're unsure how "alive" the site really is.
We're not bashing cybercommerce, being online can be expensive--though it's a lot cheaper than maintaining a brick-and-mortar presence. The odd thing is that not one single commercial site not directly connected to a brick-and-mortar company has earned a profit on the 'Net. Most experts believe Amazon.COM (one of the few pure E.Commerce sites left) will either go bust or be bought out--and it has yet to earn a profit. Perhaps we can now go back to sharing things for free, with the rare oddity being a site that charges money for exquisite content, service and products. This is what the 'Net is really about. Visit your favorite .edu or private site today, sign their guestbook so they know you stopped by and watch the 'Net become what it should be. Information just wants to be free...
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