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About Us When About.com cut the number of its topical guidesites by more than a third in September 2001, they left those former guides and their readers in the lurch. The former guide's email address - sitename.guide@about.com - was deactivated immediately. Since most guides used their About address, readers were no longer able to contact the former guides. On top of that, guides were not permitted to post a final article to advise readers of what was happening, nor were they allowed to send out a final newsletter to their readers. And, of course, they were not allowed to have the newsletter mailing list either. It was administered by a list server and guides lost access to that list in 1999 when new security measures were put in place to stem list abuse. Which brings us to this site. I created the site within a week of my termination as an About guide because I believe there should be a clearing house for former guides and their readers to find each other again. I've managed to track down a number of former guides to participate through a closed forum that guides and former guides have privy to. But the number is woefully small compared to the 383 guides let go in 2001. Only a fraction of guides used this forum or were even aware of it. It's hoped that a media blitz to take place when a certain critical mass of guides listed has been reached will result in more former guides finding out about this site, contacting us and sending us their information. This service is free. So if you're a former guide, copy one of the guide pages here as a template, edit it, rename it and send it to us and you will added to our list. If you are a former reader and looking for your favorite former guidesites, check back here periodically to see if they show up. Please note that not all of the former guides listed here had their guidesites terminated. I've included former guides who left the company on their own to start independent ventures as well. Often these ventures are vastly superior to the presence they had at About.
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ut Guides 
Marco den Ouden