Over years, I have looked long and hard at Bcentral, and to tell complete truth I found it to be a highly overpriced hodgepodge of hastily patched together offerings which was difficult to use and mostly of limited value. Even so, free version of Listbot was one of better list processing services available. Because of this (and because of Listbot's long history) it became very popular for small lists and very small businesses.

Of course, Microsoft is not really shutting down Listbot. No, what they are doing is attempting to get people to pay for service, at a rate of about $269 per year. This price allows for sending of 10,000 emails per month, and you can purchase more if you desire. You have option of paying for new service or moving your list elsewhere.

What's wrong with this? A good analogy is 710 freeway debate going on in Pasadena, California at this time.

For last 20 years powers that be have been trying to build a 2 mile extension to 710 freeway. The problem is freeway extension will go through a beautiful, well established neighborhood. It requires demolition of a substantial number of old houses and relocation of a number of people. On top of that, freeways tend to divide communities and isolate people from one another.

The people of Pasadena have made it clear over and over again that they do not want this freeway extension. However, government, in it's infinite wisdom, has, for whatever reason, been trying to get it built in spite of people's wishes.

The government has forgotten (or doesn't care) that houses that they want to tear down are inhabited by families, some of whom have been living there for generations. The freeway is "for greater good" and little folk, in other words normal people, don't count.

Large companies tend to have same attitude. It didn't matter to Yahoo that hundreds of thousands of webmasters depended upon their ring system - only thing that mattered was bottom line. And it does not matter to Microsoft that tens of thousands of list owners, serving millions of people, depend upon their service. The only thing that Microsoft recognizes is that they are not making required amount of money from their service.

The argument that "free services no longer work" does not hold water. Listbot was free before incredible expansion in internet advertising, and it's certain that, with able and intelligent management, service could have remained free and profitable after collapse of internet advertising.

Is it wrong for a big company to want to make money for it's shareholders? Of course not. Shareholders are people with emotions and feelings as well. What is wrong is destruction of a service which is used by so many people, which was profitable and could be made profitable again, simply to further corporate goals without a single thought or care for people effected by change.

Just as when Yahoo destroyed webring, tens of thousands of listmasters now have to scramble to find alternative list hosting services. Some will make difficult choice to use a paid service, some will find free services and others (probably majority) will simply abandon their lists forever. This is saddest part of this story - lists which have been lovingly maintained for years will simply be destroyed. These lists will be burned in name of corporate profits.

It's sad and pitiful at same time. Take note when you see these thoughtless and careless events occur - you are witnessing results of incompetence at best and malicious evil at worst.

3) The email gets sent to your SMTP server (this is system which accepts your email message and forwards along towards destination). At this point, message could, in theory, be read by someone tapping your phone (or cable) connection. It's not likely (unless you are a spy or something) but it's possible (and not all that hard).

If you are at work, well, email probably gets sent to your SMTP server through something called a proxy server (the computer which manages connections to internet). If so, a copy of email could be stored on proxy server. In theory, this could be examined by someone who had access to that server.

If you happen to send email from your companies own email system, it is highly likely (especially in larger companies) that email will be examined by context checking software. This is looking for curse words, sexual harassment, resumes and any other inappropriate content. Any emails found which violate company policy may be directly routed to personnel.

4) Okay, email gets delivered to SMTP server which it is stored, still as a simple plain text file, until it is sent to next SMTP server. You see, emails never go directly from your outbox to someone's inbox. They move from server to server until they find their way to their destination. Each server keeps a copy of email until it is forwarded to next one.

5) SMTP servers are computer programs and they can be programmed to do malicious or unusual things. For example, a law enforcement agency could, in theory, program an SMTP server to make a copy of any emails directed to a particular person, and send those copies to their office.

A hacker could, in theory, program an SMTP server (or examine messages coming across wire) to look for series of characters that looked like credit card numbers (they are pretty obvious). These email messages could be directed to hacker's own mailbox, thus giving him a steady supply of income.

6) At any of these SMTP servers, email could be examined by anyone who has access to email system. The internet "wire" could also be "tapped" and email message captured on fly (this is highly unlikely but it is possible).

7) Since software is simply a series of rules created by human beings, it is possible for an SMTP server to misunderstand how to route your email. Thus, a message could be sent to wrong recipient (this has happened to me a few times) or to wrong SMTP server.

8) There is no guarantee that person who receives a message is actually person who is intended recipient. Someone else could be using their email client, for example, or an SMTP server may have misdirected email to wrong inbox. In this case it works exactly like post office - mailperson puts mail in your mail slot, but he does not guarantee that you will be one who picks up mail.

And since most emails are just text, they can be read by whoever happens to receive them without any problems.

9) Naturally, once an email is receive it is stored on hard drive of recipient. They are usually stored in text files (for normal emails) or in Temporary Internet Folder (for web based emails).

10) Of course, once someone does receive an email he or she is free to forward that email onto just about anyone, starting whole process over again.

11) At any point in this entire scenario, email message can be backed up or archived. In this case, it can be recovered later and delivered to wrong person.

So please, next time you send those highly personal messages remember that they can be read by anyone. You have no way to know where these things wind up or how long they will last. The could pop up anywhere at anytime with a vengeance.