The Web site's main purpose is to help you send yourself a letter that you'll receive at some point down the line. You can specify exactly when you'll receive the e-mail "time-capsule." When you queue up an e-mail, it is available for public view on the Web site, but your name is anonymous.

Heart-Rending

Matt Sly, cofounder of the site, is a graduate student in management studies at Yale University. His partner in the venture is Jay Patrikios of San Francisco, California.

"Some of the e-mails posted on the site are silly or trivial," Sly said. "They say things like, 'Does this work?'" But other e-mails are very moving and heart-rending, Sly said.

"We also get emails that tell the future person to sort out their life, get themselves organized."

In the best tradition of the Internet, FutureMe has been promoted mainly by its users. "People send e-mails to each other to tell them about FutureMe," Sly said. "People have also mentioned the site in blog postings. It is kind of viral marketing."

Sly said the Associated Press story, published on December 18, had a big effect on the service. "Within 24 hours of the AP story going across the wires, 20,000 people had posted e-mails on the site," he said.

Not Commercial

Sly said the purpose of FutureMe is not to make millions of dollars. "The site is about creating a community on the Web," he said. "It took us about a day and a half to build the site, so it didn't cost us much."

Users can make a donation, but Sly said that in three years only around $79 had been donated. "We certainly are not going to get rich from this project," he said. "But we will likely have to start taking ads on the site to help pay for the cost of the servers."

Sly said there have been some inappropriate e-mails posted on the Web site, but he is not keen on censoring material posted there. "I think that the positive aspects of the site outweigh the risk of people writing inappropriate content," he said.

"I think we are in keeping with the ethos of the Internet," Sly said. Users seem to agree. According to a news release on FutureMe, 100,000 e-mails have been posted on the site since fall 2002.