downforeveryoneorjustme says freespace.virgin.net is down for everyone, not just me, so I'd say it's beyond regional.
From the perspective of a resurrected online business, I'm seeing something interesting: back when I started, this whole online thing was new. Amazon.com didn't exist yet. People were still moving from the "send off a check, expect a package in 6-8 weeks" model to the instant gratification we expect today -- a box of mailing envelopes for sending out TableMaster Kickstarter backer swag is due today; I ordered it Sunday night. Or a few months ago, I was in Florida and realized I'd left my camera battery charger at home. (I brought a second for one of my other cameras instead!) Go look for a camera store in the nearest big city? Just give up? No … pull out mobile device, order with overnight shipping and Saturday delivery to my hotel; I had it the next morning. We've gotten used to this. 20 years ago, the main thrust of my advertising was print, and Dungeon or Shadis magazines didn't just vanish from your desk unless you were particularly untidy. Now, so much of what we do is virtual; I just had people collectively fork over thousands of dollars for a product they had never even seen, and for many of them exists in the form of an electronic download.
Because of this, I think we need to maintain multiple routes of communication with our customers. For example, if something bad happens to the Wintertree Redux website, which also hosts my forums and blog (the latter of which should probably move to 3rd-party hosting) I still have Twitter and several websites, including this one, through which to communicate with customers. "Fire in the host's data center, they're restoring backups, should be up tomorrow."
A lot of us, especially those of us who grew up before the digital age, don't think that way. We don't think about how our customers are looking through our store's windows, as it were, at all sorts of random times -- like me with my order for those mailers -- and get worried if they find them boarded up. We need multiple channels to connect with customers, and too many of us don't have them.
Because Lycos can suddenly vanish and claim they'll be back "in a few hours" for days on end. Freespace.virgin.net can get randomly hosed. One channel isn't enough. Online, image is everything -- after all, that's all our prospective customers have to judge us on -- and we need to make sure that image isn't just an image of a blank page saying "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at freespace.virgin.net."
discovers a better way to fill in hollow plastic bases.
