[Hayashi]

Hi guys, just want to add my $0.02.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch", or so the saying goes. Same thing applies to web hosting. I used to visit GB regularly. It's a great site, better than IW (I dare say; oh the blasphemy!) when it comes to detailed information on spells, weapons, armour, items, walk-thrus etc. It covers most of the popular IE-based RPGs. It's convenient - instead of having to sift thru' several sites looking for that piece of information you seek, it's all in one place.

I was sad when it went pay-based. But I hold no grudge against the owner. He (or she) has to pay the bills associated with bandwidth, hosting, server upgrades and so on (sound familiar?).

While the community here responded magnificently to Zirox's call for financial help, the owner of GB was not so lucky. I don't know whether he did ask for help, but I like to think that in IW's case because of the strong virtual community that has been built up in the forums, (which I suggest to you is THE most valuable resource of IW), Z was able to pull thru'. Plus getting money by selling the IW name is also good.

So please don't be so quick to cuss at someone because he decides to charge for the information he puts up on his site. As much as he would like to, sometimes the alternative to charging would be to close down the site altogether. And in GB's case, I submit that that would be a real shame.

Now, back to you regularly scheduled programming...