THANK YOU!
We started our autumn donation drive about 2 weeks ago and many of you have helped us with your gifts. We appreciate it so much. And we wanted to take time out to say Thank You to all of you who’ve helped.
Our autumn donation drive will continue until the end of this month, so if you like to help us with a gift, we’d really appreciate it. Just visit this page.
Not only have many of you helped us with a gift, but we have received so many encouraging and supportive emails over the last couple of weeks. Your gifts, encouragement, kind words and friendship are treasures that we both cherish.
We’d like to share one the emails we’ve received recently with you. This one is from “John in Oz” and his family. They’ve been with us since the very beginning. His email echoes many of the other emails we have received:
Hi TC & EB,
Congratulations on the ‘long time Cloudeight, InfoAve which I was presented with a life-time membership for winning a competition in the early days.
Tips and Tricks, Acpressions, Stationary, Repair Advice, Do’s & Dont’s, N.O.T.H., Start Page, Games, Tech Advice, Essays, Computer Repair for those people in trouble, all free today.
Thanks for the past comments on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 + 8.1, your study and learning the new Windows 10 O/S and very quickly passing the knowledge onto InfoAve Members (& other individuals)For me, going to the Cloudeight site since the beginning of the great concept has been a wonderful experience with a multitude of tips and tricks which I have learned fro you, I was even surprised many years ago when Darcy wanted to share a Fosters one day.
I have agreed, I have disagreed at times with early Windows 10 operation and the upsy-downsies of the ‘new O/S kid on the block’.
Some family members and friends have listened to my advice relating to them joining Cloudeight, many have, I see familiar names but I am no longer needed for being Mr Fixit With TC & EB advice for them.
Times passes, the memories of looking forward to Cloudeight and InfoAve on a weekly basis are as fresh as the first visit to your Web Site.
Thanks to both of you for carrying on carrying on to be two wonderful, dedicated people in the ever-changing, sometimes minefield of computer use.
Kind Regards,
Yours faithfully,
Our Team,
JonInOz
VickiInOz
JonboyInOz
SueInOz
There are no words we can write or say that can adequately express our thanks for emails such as this. We have no words to say to express our thankfulness for such kind words and friendship. We answered John’s email with a personal reply that we hope was worthy of his support and friendship.
And after all these years we still try to answer every email we receive. And while we’re sure some slip of them slip through the cracks, we strive to make sure everyone who writes gets an answer. We appreciate every one of you.
We’ve traveled a long and winding road since we first set up shop on the Internet in 1998 with “Thundercloud & Eightball’s Christmas Graphics” . In fact we started that site exactly 20 years ago this month — October 1998. It seems like yesterday; it seems like a thousand years ago.
Back in 2002 Cloudeight Stationery was listed as one of the top 100 web sites. And we were very busy people. We loved doing what we were doing and we added Acpressions, QuickNotes, Funletters, Screen Savers, and many other projects that the two of us created and brought to life to our growing family of sites.
But nothing is so sure as change. When Microsoft introduced Windows 7, it dropped Outlook Express / Windows Mail with it. Our mainstay, the demand for our free scrolling, musical email stationery we offered went into a death spiral. The stationery that people associated most with Cloudeight wouldn’t (couldn’t) work in newer email clients – and no one cared but the people who loved it… and us. Our stationery newsletter went from 300,000 subscribers to a few thousand.
It was a tough time for us as we contemplated whether to close everything down or try something new. It was time to completely reinvent Cloudeight or fade into obscurity as hundreds of thousands of other sites and small businesses did back then. In 2011 we started Cloudeight Direct Computer Care. And Cloudeight Direct, along with our newsletters and the support of our friends, helped us survive.
Next Friday (October 19, 2018) we begin our 16th year of Cloudeight InfoAve Premium newsletter with Cloudeight InfoAve Premium Issue #784. That’s seven hundred eighty four Friday newsletter in a row. We’ve tried make each one of them special and helpful.
Along with our other priorities, we make answering your emails a top priority. Every day each of spends 2 or more hours a day answering your emails and trying to help everyone who asks for help. It’s a priority and it’s how we begin every day.
And while many things have changed in twenty years, we can promise you one thing: As long as Cloudeight lives, we’ll never change. We’ll always tell you the truth as we see it, and we’ll never intentionally mislead you. Our history as been colorful with all of our adventures. But one thing we have always lived by is the creed “Do no harm”. Others have made it their motto, but when it comes to our business and you – we live by it.
We’ve always held you, our followers, readers, subscribers, members and visitors, in high regard. We’ve tried hard never to let you down. And we’ll change that philosophy.
Without your support, your gifts, your kind words and your encouragement, we would not be here today. And we know it.
While saying thank you often does not seem enough, we want you all to know that you are the source of our strength and you are the reason we are still here.
If you’re not a subscriber to our weekly free newsletter, “Cloudeight InfoAve Premium”, please subscribe right now – it only takes a second and we’d love to have you. Visit this page to sign up. Our newsletter is free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GIFTS, YOUR KIND WORDS, AND YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT – ALL ARE APPRECIATED MORE THAN YOU KNOW.
Darcy & TC
October 14, 2018
Help Us During our Fall 2018 Donation Drive
When you support us with small gift, you help us continue our mission to keep you informed, separate the truth from the hyperbole, and help you stay safer online. Plus, our computer tips make your computer easier to use.
Did you know that we provide support to thousands of people? Every week we help dozens of people via email at no charge. The questions and answers you see in our newsletters are from the email answers and help we provide to everyone free of charge.
Thanks to your gifts, we do a lot more than provide this free newsletter. We help you recognize online threats, fight for your online privacy, provide you with the knowledge you need to navigate the Web safely, provide you with suggestions for safe, free software and websites, and help you get more out of your PC.
Please Help us keep up the good fight with a small gift.
I just realized that I have been with you guys probably from early in 1999. I was one of the first to buy a premium so since it is offered for free now, you have an idea of how long I been with you.
My husband is not a member but still relies on you through me. He will say, What does your computer folks say about so so?” I tried to get him to join but he says his smart wife reads them. How do you budge a Missouri mule? lol
I sincerely wished you guys need not have to worry about money and business. I know enough to believe that your ideals and morals made your business stay small. You never compromised those and for that we, members love, trust and appreciate you two.
Judy Warden
Judy, thanks so much for your kind words and your support. You’ve been with us most of the way … thank you very much.
A slow and silent tear rolled down my wrinkled cheek this morning when I read your thank you letter. I agree wholeheartedly that thank you seems so inadequate when trying to express your gratitude and appreciation for what has gone before. At eighty-four years of age and being an avid follower of your pages for roughly the last twenty years, you have been the sole reason that I have persevered with the intricacies of the computer age. I feel that I am still learning but with you by my side I will continue this journey and hopefully one day will feel accomplished enough to pass on some of my still limited knowledge to my up and coming grandchildren although truth to tell even at their very young age I confess that I do pick their brains sometimes. From the other side of the World, I wish you both well and congratulate you on the stirling job that you have done over the years for myself and many, many more followers that you have deservedly acquired and helped over the years. On a lighter note, I do hope that you are still with me until it is time for me to pop my clogs or the old gnarled fingers give up the ghost. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking you both once again and please keep up the good work for people like me who with their limited knowledge do try to keep up with the computerized world and keep the old grey matter turning over. GOOD LUCK FOR THE FUTURE.
Regards,
Maggie. (N.Z.) xxxx (A little bit cheeky but sincerely meant.).
Wow Maggie… not cheeky at all. Very nice. Thanks so much for taking time to write such a nice comment and for your support & friendship.
Hi TC & EB,
I am passing on to you a something which is appropriate for you both and Cloudeight which is the foundation stone of everything that makes Cloudeight a great place of which to be a part.
I remembered a business card which I possessed at one time when I was in my early 40’s years.
“The Friendship Of Those We Serve Is The Foundation Of Our Success”
This is exactly what relates to the two of you.
Yours faithfully,
JonInOz
Thanks so much, John. Thanks for your support, your kindness and your friendship.
I’m not so good with words anymore, however I I would agree with the previous comments 100%+!
Thanks for being you!
Thanks very much for your support and your kind words, Fay.
Guys as i have said before if i was rich you two would not have to worry about working anymore unless you wanted to. Don’t know where your stand on God is but sometimes by you helping other people for the little financial reward that you get in return there is a good chance that you are being used by God to carry out his blessing for his own. Sometimes you get to a point with your computer that you want to throw in the towel but then you get a news letter from CloudEight and for a couple of bucks that you got from God to start with you send them an email and now you are good to go. Love you guys so much and as i have said before you stop and all us are coming to hunt you down so remember that.
Thank you you so much for this.. but more than your kind words and support, thank you for your friendship, Bill. Always…