My name is Greg Vinson. I am the founder and webmaster of GuideToBeadwork.com. I am also a programmer and wrote custom software to automate the functions of adding and updating stores in the list of bead suppliers. This has enabled me to keep the service free even given the huge volume of additions and updates that have been coming in over the last year.

I moved to a new residence in August 2001 and it was too much for my six year old Mac. The hard drive crashed. I am also an independent Mac troubleshooting consultant, traveling to Mac owners' homes to help them when they experience problems with their computers (which is a little like being the Maytag repairman for those who remember him) and I was able to "resurrect" the hard drive only to have it crash again a day or two later. This happened several times and I have finally had to accept that my old Mac is no longer up to the task. It is limping along at this point, enabling me to post these notices, but will no doubt fly south again at any unpredictable moment.

I have always practiced a strong back-up philosophy and, to the best of my knowledge, no submissions have been irretrievably lost. I am simply unable to implement them at this point.

GuideToBeadwork.com has been a labor of love (a hobby) since its inception. It has always been free to users and visitors and I remain committed to this philosophy. The "warm fuzzies" I've received from grateful users have always been more than enough to justify the time I spend maintaining it.

Recently, I began offering banner display space to attempt to offset some of the rising hosting costs associated with the increasing traffic that GTB has been receiving. Several sponsors have signed on and this has indeed helped offset those costs some. Because of several factors, I do believe that, given time, GTB could produce enough income from banners alone to make a small profit but this is definitely NOT the case at this point and, realistically, it may be years before it does.

I must give some fairly personal information here in order to explain things further. I am fairly uncomfortable with this as I am a quite private person, but feel that I've received so much positive support for what I have done thus far with GTB from its wonderful visitors, that they (you) deserve as clear an explanation as possible.

I have never been very materially oriented. My focus has always been on living life to the fullest, doing work I enjoy and believe in, and hopefully making enough to get by. This has always been more than satisfactory for me. I have had a wonderful and fulfilling life for which I am quite grateful and these beliefs have not changed.

I am the single parent of an emotionally disabled teenager and things have become quite difficult for me financially in recent years. I am not complaining. These things happen and I believe that they are placed in one's path as tests to keep life a continuing challenge. What this means though, is that a new computer is totally out of reach for me at this point.

What does this mean for GTB's future? I cannot clearly predict at this time.

I am seriously considering "biting the bullet" and sacrificing much of my well-being and positive self-image by putting on a suit, moving to a major metropolitan area, and going to work at some high-powered, high-tech company as a webmaster, programmer, systems tech, or somesuch in order to gain some of the financial security which I have happily done without until now.

I would probably also consider selling GTB. I will not set a price here but one might be quite surprised at the offer I would be willing to accept for the site "as is", especially if part of the deal included my retaining at least partial copyrights and / or working in some capacity for the new owner. This is all pretty vague in my own mind and I admit that I have no knowledge of how these things generally work.

I can't think of anything else constructive to say at this point. I welcome your ideas on what should be done or attempted and also any input on further information that should be addressed here.

Again, my profuse apologies for any inconvenience all this may cause for anyone even remotely concerned.