I agree with you.......
the short notice isn't very cool.
rant ?
when I use the word 'curious' that could be a tip off that I'm not ranting, but that I am ............uh.............actually curious.   
Now that you've explained it ..........I see what the big deal is. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BenT Syncro 
  To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans 
  Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com 
  Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 3:19 PM
  Subject: Re: FS: 1991 Westfalia $7500

  On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:15 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

    by 'what is the problem?' I sure didn't mean 'what's wrong with you' or anything..........I just meant what issue or concern are you facing, and I gather it's loss of what had been free so far.
    Oh this is a big deal all right.
    I think you mis-read me ..............I was not complaining at all that you posted about it............I was just trying to find out what it is you have to deal with.

  "Somebody tell me what the big deal is about Van Cafe and Frank loosing their servers ? .........." I don't know but this sure read like a rant to me. Anyway, the big deal is not the loss of free service but the lack of notice to parties involved. The notice went out on 10/01/08 saying Hometown AOL is closing it's doors in 30 days. Basically, get your stuff out or you're SOL by that time. Many have irreplaceable photos and/or files complied over the years. Like most typical amateur webpage designers few have back-ups of those files. Hell, some like myself, did not even know how to back-up HTML codes since AOL let us set-up the websites with services which did not require knowledge of HMTL. That's the big deal. 

  BenT

  ps: i don't eat wheaties.=)