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Critical Update : 22nd Feb 2010

To: all stijlnet.com users
Subject: An important open message to users of stijlnet.com sites or services

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In order to ensure its survival and future success, immediate and significant changes are necessary within our network. Our debts simply cannot be allowed to increase any further and, given present circumstances, we intend to rationalise the network instead of seeking lines of credit beyond the existing directors' loans. At its core, our company and network is most efficient through its Consultancy, Internet Research, Publishing and Marketing work and these are the areas on which it will concentrate. Bearing this in mind, we have identified upwards of 200 names, that we require from our network, in order to provide these services and operate in an effective and professional manner.

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Issues

Why are we encountering problems and having to make some big changes? At the present moment in time we are facing difficulties due to a number of factors...

Unpaid invoices - Authorised and unauthorised overdue accounts are always an issue affecting cashflow. In the present climate, the number of companies entering administration is also a consideration.

Overcapacity - We have not not received sufficient numbers of new customers, despite extensive advertising, cheap offers and some interest, since the start of our 2010 server rollout plan and the addition of greater capacity to our network two months ago. Having overcapacity sitting idle is a major financial drain.

A relative fall in ad revenues - Much of the network's sites and free services are made possible by ads. Some of our sites have seen significant shifts in the viability of certain merchants and ad types leading to a drop in revenue.

Some existing clients, experiencing the economy's ripple effects, are also having to restrict their online exependiture and expansion. They too are having to accommodate unpredictable turnover along with increased admin burden and bad debts.

Our undeveloped exact search phrase domain names are costly to hold in large numbers. Given the current climate, it may not be possible to develop these into revenue generating sites in the near future.

Disinformation - It would appear that scurrilous rumours have been spread by some unscrupulous individuals. These allegations include the suggestion that our free or very low-cost community centred services are actually very costly. We have produced numerous free pages on demand, websites, content and given away links to individuals and businesses over the years.

Maintenance and security issues - Age of hardware, software and security of third party provisioned servers are always considerations. We do not wish to have to deal with any major breach in addition to existing issues.

We have experienced significant time and monetary costs associated with breakdowns in third party services, external and official databases or increased admin burden required by authorities.

Communications intensive services and support - We waste a huge amount of time on what is effectively free consultancy / training or customers who have simply ignored a previous support message. We also have to deal with a lot of inappropriate requests and offers from other companies and sites, many in sectors that we do not work in.

Excessive diversity within the public network - Although we are able to offer an extensive range of digital services to our consultancy clients, many of our users take up only basic options. Ironically these users, through their inexperience, can often end up demanding more support time than larger clients with whom we have an open dialogue. Please remember that it is not our fault if you do not have the skills to use our systems or the necessary software or if you fail to take note of critical updates.

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Solutions

In consequence of the above mentioned issues and In order to lessen our overheads and admin we will soon begin to...

Consolidate, mothball, archive or close down a number of unprofitable and labour intensive web properties.

Dispose of 300+ developed/undeveloped names that are not essential to our network.

Suspend all our external ad campaigns for sites that do not deliver sufficient conversions or ad revenue.

Concentrate on Consultancy, Internet Research, Publishing and Marketing work and push forward with our existing sector specific publishing plans.

Concentrate on revenue channels where income is proven, invoicing has been effective and involved the least extra admin.

Require a level of network support or participation from users, customers, consultancy and training clients who wish to benefit from network resources.

Abandon our existing network hardware plans for 2010 and limit access, to our dedicated servers, to in-house, freelance or partner developers and testing of consultancy client sites. All existing clients will be expected to directly pay for their own dedicated server from a selection of UK hosts. Space can be re-sold or exchanged via informal reseller and client arrangements.

Suspend all overdue accounts where extension of payment terms is not agreed upon. All paid accounts that are overdue and free accounts that are believed to be abandoned may be deleted without notice.

Cease offering managed domain names and cut down on our range of hosting options available to new customers. Limit all new managed names and hosting accounts to clients, freelancers and site editors for the foreseeable future.

Review and consolidate all existing managed names, paid hosting, free accounts and sponsored sites / organisations.

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The Future

Our new network structure will allow us to focus more time, resources and energies into our established services and relationships as well as helping to eliminate unnecessary overheads. I assure our users that these steps are absolutely necessary and the decision to limit services has not been made lightly. We have an obligation to our existing clients and customers which we fully intend to honour and this is only going to be possible with the implementation of some radical changes. Moving forward, these actions will enable us to concentrate on the professional services that make up our core activities.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this message and, as always, we wish you well.

Mike Goodyear

Director

Digital Freedom Limited (operators of the stijlnet.com network)

All enquiries regarding this update should be addressed to our tech support mailbox quoting '22nd Feb 2010 Open message to users of stijlnet.com'