Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that there are fewer and fewer of those wonderful freebies on the Internet? It used to be that you could get just about anything you desired: clipart, scripts, web sites, software, coupons, games, music .... and it cost you nothing.

I started to really think about this the other day, when I made the daily inspection of my web site. Where once there was a small, almost undetectable, color-coordinated counter, I saw this big, blue .... hideous thing ... that had the name of the counter service in bigger letters than the counter itself. When I went to the counter source to check it out, I came to find that the gravy train had come to an end. All of the decent looking counters were now available ONLY to those who purchased the premium service. The premium service was a one-time charge of $15.00. For this amount you could get one of 50 styles of counters and a myriad of colors to match even the hardest to match web site color scheme. If you wanted to continue to use the FREE counter service, you'd have to settle for, well, one style ... the big, hideous billboard style, available in no choice of designer colors. But, what did I expect? After all ... it was FREE!

On checking another source that used to offer free guestbooks, free-for-all links pages and discussion forums, I found a couple for FREE. They were covered with pop-up ads or banners at the top, bottom and middle and a standard design that was kind of cheesy, not customizable. BUT, if you signed up for their 5-Star service, you got any number of special template designs, color schemes, total customization to your web site and, best of all, no advertising pop-ups or banners. And, all this for a mere $29.95 for one year.

It got me thinking about my first web host. It was FREE and it was wonderful. They provided you with 6MB of space to build your own web site and an upload wizard and free HTML guide absolutely FREE And, okay, they had a banner at the top of the page. But, I didn't care. It was a small price to pay for this wonderful FREE service. That was until I honed my craft as a webmaster and needed my site to fit a certain criteria of excellence for little things like selling my products and services or winning awards. So, now I purchase this same space on a paid host for $120.00 per year with no handy upload wizard (HTML guide not included).

I happened to stop by one of the original ... and last of a dying breed of free service providers ... the other day. They were in the process of moving their entire database of some 3 million FREE users to a new server. Because of this, there was a note on their site explaining that their services would be off-line for 2-3 days, while they tried to make the move, as expeditiously as they could and with as little inconvenience to their members as possible. I found myself in the support forum and happened to read the first post. It was from a young woman who couldn't believe that they were doing this to her. How dare they take down her guestbook for this long a period of time. She stated in no uncertain terms that they were not the only FREE service around and that she was strongly considering relinquishing her membership.

At first, I felt like answering her post and telling her to wait. I wanted to warn her that she might be making a big mistake. I wanted to explain to her that there weren't millions of other free services like this on the Internet .... that she should consider herself lucky to still be able to get, as fine a service as they provided, and for FREE!

Then, I wanted to shake her and ask her what her problem was. Did she not like that the service was FREE to her ... because it was costing someone else big bucks to keep it FREE? Did she not appreciate the FREE support being offered to move the FREE service to faster servers to make it more functional for her? Did she not appreciate the fact that even though she was rude, inconsiderate and downright nasty to people who were spending 2-3 days of their OWN time to get this FREE service up and running, they still politely answered her post? Did she NOT feel she was getting HER MONEY'S WORTH????

I didn't write any of that in answer to her post. I just shook my head. But, I left that forum with a better understanding of why there are fewer and fewer freebies on the Internet. We got what we paid for ... but, for some of us ... that just wasn't good enough.

John Oakley (JJ)
WebBits Editor