As we approach the final countdown to New Year's Evil, I am feeling an increasing intense urgency to know what's going to happen in the days and weeks and months following the turn of the century. Like virtually everyone on this forum, I have made my personal assessment of the probable severity of Y2K and have made my preparations accordingly. The only problem is that since at this point we can only have a general idea of the possible economic, political and social conditions that may exist in the coming months, we can prepare only in a general way, and general preparation for specific events may leave us fatally vulnerable.

What if a specific and deadly event occurs, such as a chemical plant failure in your area, and although you've got plenty of food and water stored, you become exposed to poisonous chemicals before you are aware of the danger? What if a money center bank fails and the effects quickly spread to other banks and by the time you find out about it, there are 100 people lined up at the door to the bank when you get there? I don't know about anyone else, but I think we need an early warning alert that will notify us immediately upon the occurrence of any kind of significant Y2K event. I want to know IMMEDIATELY if my family and myself are in danger, and I'll bet you do too.

I realize that forums such as this and various Y2K websites will be useful in spreading the news about Y2K crisis events but it takes time to visit four or five websites and read all the new information there or to pour through all the postings here, and time could be a vital factor in assuring your own survival in 2000. Also, we have to go to a website for information; it doesn't come to us. What I want is something that will send me Y2K flash alerts as they occur so I can take action immediately.

As far as I can tell, no one has set up any kind of early warning system for Y2K alerts. Since no one else is doing this, I'm willing to do it myself. As many of you know, I have been involved in Y2K awareness for over two years. My website, Y2K Survive, is one of the oldest Y2K survival websites and one of only a couple that have a direct link from the Gary North site. I have also been an active participant in this forum for well over a year. Because of my Y2K activity I have contacts in many parts of the world in many different areas of economic and political life, a network of Y2K agents that can (and do) send me information by e-mail and telephone. I am rather uniquely positioned to be the Y2K Paul Revere.

My proposal is to set up a Y2K Alert e-mail newsletter that will be sent out to subscribers whenever something vital occurs that they need to know about. You won't have to search on ten different websites or scroll through a hundred forum postings to find out about something that threatens your life or income or health; the information will show up in your computer's mailbox as soon as humanly and digitally possible. All you have to do is check your mail several times a day.

Now I'm not looking for another job--I already spend over ten hours a day in internet activity--so here's what I've done. I have tentatively hired two trusted associates whom I can rely upon to take on the job of handling the logistics of this. I have been in touch with a number of my contacts and they are willing to act as agents. I am in the process of setting up the e-mail newsletter program. Everything is getting postioned to go forward; all I have to do is to make the decision to proceed.

Here's where I need your input. All this takes a lot of time and costs money. I can't do it for free because I have to pay people to help run it and I'll probably have to add another computer and perhaps a second ISP connection. Before I spend any more time and money on this, I need to know if there will be sufficient support from the Y2K preps community to pay the expense of providing this service.

My proposal is this: I will be on a constant alert for any Y2K event or failure or glitch or anything whatever that might be of possible significance to your wellbeing or survival during the entire year of 2000. As soon as something significant occurs I will send the information to you via e-mail. This may occur once a day, twice a day, once every three days, or once a week, depending upon what happens and when it happens.

The cost to you for this is $25 for the entire year. To subscribe, all you have to do is to send me an e-mail saying you'd like to be a subscriber and include a credit card number and expiration date. I know some of you may be leery of e-mailing credit card information but I don't have a lot of time to set up fancy cgi scripts on my website, and I have never heard of anyone having any kind of problem with e-mailed credit card information.

You should have a pretty good idea of the kind of person I am from my previous forum postings and the content of my website. I give you my personal guarantee, based on my two-year Y2K history, that I will not divulge your e-mail address to anyone else, nor will I misuse your credit card information in any way.

Before you sign up as a subscriber, before I set this operation in motion, I need to have some idea whether there is sufficient support out there for me to hire these folks and invest in any additional hardware or software, so I'm throwing this proposal out on the forum to see what you think. Please respond to this posting and give me an idea what you think. There is absolutely no commitment whatsoever until (1.) I notify everyone that I'm going to go ahead with this and (2.) until you send me the payment.

For those paranoid, suspicious pollys that can't stand the thought of someone making money from a Y2K project, all I can say is that I think this is a very important service that I would be happy to pay a lot more that $25 for (what's $25 measured against the survival and happiness of my children?), and that I can't afford to finance it myself. If I can break even, I'll be happy. If I make a few dollars, that's fine. If you don't like this that's too bad; don't support it.

I welcome the input and comments from everyone.

-- cody varian (cody@y2ksurvive.com), December 27, 1999

Answers

With so many free sites out there I think you'll have a hard time getting people to pay for existing info.........plus, selling other peoples info may get you into a bit of trouble. There are currently dozens of sites with up to date info on y2k on the net.

In the pervasive negative spirit of the extreme doomers, I'm just going to assume that you are all dead unless I hear differently......

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), December 27, 1999.

Twenty-five dollars is cool with me. If you go ahead, I am in. This is a valid e-mail address, so let me know when you are ready to go.

This of course assumes we all have dial tone to get in.... and of course power for the generators for the dial tone and yada yada yada.

Sigh....

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.

try the "ONELIST.COM"

-- ready as I (will everbe@prep.com), December 27, 1999.

Save your time and effort, as much as your "heart is in the right place", I personally can't think of a single reason for myself personally to subscribe.

IF the power is on, the telephone system working, and the net intact somehow, etc, etc. I have, and I believe anyone who frequents this site, has, a number of sites bookmarked/favorites we will be paying close attention to.

I appreciate your suggestion, I just don't think I can justify the expense, no matter how meager it might seem.

-- Michael (michaelteever@buffalo.com), December 27, 1999.

Cody,

I think it is a great idea, and with all that is going to be going on, I would welcome the "Flash Alerts". You know the saying, "Life gets in the Way." Be just my luck that the one day that I did not search the sites, it would be the one that I needed to the most!

Email addy is real, so drop me a line when you are ready. Also, if it comes down to whether folks would rather have a secure script for sending the CC numbers, I will volunteer one of my web developer/programmers to write the script for your site.

Good luck!

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), December 27, 1999.

Cody,

I don't have internet access at work, except for e-mail, so this set- up would be ideal for me. My account is down to noodles till the end of the month, so if it looks like a go then how 'bout posting a "last call" sorta update here so I can jump in after I confirm the dreaded direct deposit success of my 12/30 paycheck?

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 27, 1999.