Have had an email from Victorian Dawn and she has said I can put it on here,
<DIV>"To all my wonderful friends and loyal members of the “Victorian Lace ~ Victorian Lifestyles: The Victorian Era” Update List:
Good morning to you all. I hope that this note finds you all well, and currently relishing in some aspect of Victoriana.
It is most definitely with a heavy heart and deep emotion that I write this email to you today, as it is sent to inform you that I plan to permanently close down my website. The website should be closed sometime this month or in March. This has been a wonderful six-year project for me, and I have completely enjoyed researching, writing and creating my site. It’s been especially well-received, and for that, I am grateful to all of you. I have received much support and numerous complimentary emails—too many to count! The positive recognition that I have received has been extremely amazing and grand. I have had the honor of being contacted by and working with the Smithsonian Institute on several of their research projects; I’ve been contacted to collaborate with the BBC; and my site is used as part of several regular school curriculums. I have given authorization for many of my pages to be mirrored onto various educational websites for this purpose. I am deeply moved that my website has been so applauded and well-thought of. I am still humbled and greatly appreciative of the accolades and awards I have received for the site.
Unfortunately, with the site becoming increasingly popular over this six-year span, it has reached a point whclose down my website. The website should be closed sometime this month or in March. This has been a wonderful six-year project for me, and I have completely enjoyed researching, writing and creating my site. It’s been especially well-received, and for that, I am grateful to all of you. I have received much support and numerous complimentary emails—too many to count! The positive recognition that I have received has been extremely amazing and grand. I have had the honor of being contacted by and working with the Smithsonian Institute on several of their research projects; I’ve been contacted to collaborate with the BBC; and my site is used as part of several regular school curriculums. I have given authorization for many of my pages to be mirrored onto various educational websites for this purpose. I am deeply moved that my website has been so applauded and well-thought of. I am still humbled and greatly appreciative of the accolades and awards I have received for the site.
Unfortunately, with the site becoming increasingly popular over this six-year span, it has reached a point where it is nearly impossible to even access it anymore, due to limited hourly data transfer, allocated by Geocities. This was not the slightest issue for the first three years that the site was open, and then Geocities changed their policies, setting a certain hourly allowance of data transfer. This occurred just about the time that my site really becoming well-known and coincided with it being frequently visited. For three years now, this has been an increasing problem and a great source of frustration for visitors to the site, as well as for me. It has reached a point where the pages are literally “off” more than they are “on”. I have been recently printing out all of my webpages because (vain as it might seem), I’ve put literally years of work into my pages, and I do want to have something of them to keep, before I permanently close the site. However, I found that when I might be able to access one page, as soon as I would click on the next, I receive the notification that the site is temporarily unavailable because I have exceeded my allocated ere it is nearly impossible to even access it anymore, due to limited hourly data transfer, allocated by Geocities. This was not the slightest issue for the first three years that the site was open, and then Geocities changed their policies, setting a certain hourly allowance of data transfer. This occurred just about the time that my site really becoming well-known and coincided with it being frequently visited. For three years now, this has been an increasing problem and a great source of frustration for visitors to the site, as well as for me. It has reached a point where the pages are literally “off” more than they are “on”. I have been recently printing out all of my webpages because (vain as it might seem), I’ve put literally years of work into my pages, and I do want to have something of them to keep, before I permanently close the site. However, I found that when I might be able to access one page, as soon as I would click on the next, I receive the notification that the site is temporarily unavailable because I have exceeded my allocated data transfer, and that it will be available in another hour. I would wait the hour, and have the exact same thing happen again. I KNOW this must be EXTREMELY frustrating for visitors to my pages, especially for those who are not just browsing, but are actually using the site for research material.
In addition to this source of utter frustration, I find that I simply can NOT keep up with the quantity of email that I receive daily. Please believe me when I say that I am NOT complaining about receiving such a large volume of email! It’s simply that I feel it is unfair to the authors of those emails because they are in search of research information, which necessitates my writing involved and lengthy replies. I simply do not have the time to offer to this purpose any longer. I have become extremely busy over the years, and I can no longer keep up with the heaps of mail anymore. I will, however, continue to keep my email address and I welcome any email, of course—especiallydata transfer, and that it will be available in another hour. I would wait the hour, and have the exact same thing happen again. I KNOW this must be EXTREMELY frustrating for visitors to my pages, especially for those who are not just browsing, but are actually using the site for research material.
In addition to this source of utter frustration, I find that I simply can NOT keep up with the quantity of email that I receive daily. Please believe me when I say that I am NOT complaining about receiving such a large volume of email! It’s simply that I feel it is unfair to the authors of those emails because they are in search of research information, which necessitates my writing involved and lengthy replies. I simply do not have the time to offer to this purpose any longer. I have become extremely busy over the years, and I can no longer keep up with the heaps of mail anymore. I will, however, continue to keep my email address and I welcome any email, of course—especially from any of you. J
In the meantime, if there is anything in particular that you wish to obtain from any of my pages, I recommend that you attempt to access the pages soon and retrieve that information, etc. Within a couple of weeks I will be placing a notice similar to this email on the site.
In closing, I would once again like to express all my appreciation for your continued support of my website. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know each of you. I will retain my address book, and shal from any of you. J
In the meantime, if there is anything in particular that you wish to obtain from any of my pages, I recommend that you attempt to access the pages soon and retrieve that information, etc. Within a couple of weeks I will be placing a notice similar to this email on the site.
In closing, I would once again like to express all my appreciation for your continued support of my website. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know each of you. I will retain my address book, and shall inform you of any additional news, as well as if and when I move forward with another Victorian website, or any other Victorian project (including possibly a book).
Until we meet again….
With My Warmest Victorian Regards,
Dawn"