November, 2005

Dear Past, Present and Future FutureMe Users:

Unfortunately, Forbes.com has shamelessly copied FutureMe.

Here is the story:

FutureMe has been up and running since the fall of 2002. As of the fall of 2005, over 100,000 letters to the future have been written. Many of these have already been delivered. FutureMe has been featured by Yahoo!, WebMonkey, USA Today, the LA Times and in exhibit at Ars Electronica. We are very proud of how our little FutureMe has grown up.

This past September, a writer from Forbes contacted us via e-mail. He was inquiring about using FutureMe for an on-line feature project that Forbes was working on. We thought "hey that sounds kinda neat" and wrote this seemingly interesting fellow back, and also left a phone message. But sadly, we never heard back from him. So we figured that the project had fizzled.

But lo and behold, in November, Forbes.com published an "e-mail time-capsule" feature which is suspiciously similar, even downright reminiscent, of our very own FutureMe. The accompanying article includes a reference of "small web-sites like FutureMe.org" -- essentially implying that we are incapable of handling your so-very-precious letters to the Future. We beg to differ.

In sum, loyal FutureMe-ers, we do not feel that the people at Forbes have acted with very much integrity. And we here at FutureMe very much value integrity.

Sincerely,

Matt and Jay

p.s. We here at FutureMe also think that a flat tax is a very bad idea.

p.p.s Here is another blatant rip-off site:
Shame on you Hollywood! A promotion site for the movie "Lakehouse" (starring that masterful duo of drama, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock) -- they also talked to us initially and then decided it was easier to just copy us instead. "Public (but anonymous)" -- hmmm I've heard that before...