I spend a few hours each day online, checking e-mail, reading Usenet, maintaining my web site, etc. I go online expecting lots of things, mostly the information I want when I want it. Most of the time, I'm not disappointed. But I try to be more conscious now of how deceptively easy it is to take such things for granted. Think of the Internet as a series of gifts, freely given by the majority of its inhabitants.
Someone has an interest, they compile their knowledge and put it up for anyone to find.
That's a pretty nice thing to do for someone they've never met and possibly half a world away. Web sites rise and fall. So, if there's some resource you particularly appreciate or someone whose insight you've valued or even just some on-line business where you can finally get everything you've ever wanted, you might take the time out to tell the person involved. It's happened to me before, and I always felt a twinge of regret. You can, I've discovered, become a bit too attached to what is familiar.